Round #1 - Poll #3

Vote for up to eight videos!

Three of these will be eliminated, the rest will move on to round 2!

Entries:

1. Dystopia by Moizut and Flodu85
   
2. Archaeology by rabid squirrel
   
3. Black Sea by Aqua
   
4. POW by IGotGreasyBalls
   
5. Fatality by Wizzy
   
6. Transcendental by TechDawg
   
7. Fritz by SethComposerGuy
   
8. Supersonic Motion by Rafael
   
9. Empowered Unity by Power Riders
   
10. Majesty and Grace by chaomocha
    
11. Silhouette by Sheldon
    
12. ChooChoo by eachare
    

Rules:
- Watch all tracks before voting (if you've seen them before, a re-watch is recommended but not required)
- Please don't vote for yourself
- No begging/bribing/duping or otherwise cheating
- We will not change your vote after you cast it - make sure it's accurate

Embedded videos:

Spoiler:

I'll keep saying this: Get your old LR friends to vote! Contact them via Skype, e-mail, carrier pidgeon or whatever else you kids use nowadays. We need everyone's support to make this competition as valid as possible

this poll is classic track central

*WARNING I AM IN A BAD MOOD AND HAVE STRONG OPINIONS READ AT YOUR OWN RISK*

I was really happy to come across three tracks that I really, truly love in this poll - Fatality, Transcendental and Supersonic Motion.

Dystopia - just feels really random and haphazard to me. And not in an experimental way but in a draw-whatever way. X

Archaeology - pure shit. X

Black Sea - this was really cool way back then but nowadays the track scenery and other scenery feel very separate and disjointed. X

POW - unfinished and pretty standard manuquirk, which is pretty uninteresting for me. X

Fatality - Okay, I can't believe how much I still enjoy this. I still think this might be the best example of scenery preserving the track that I can think of - you don't need to see the color playback to know what happened in the track, which is not something I can say about 99% of scened tracks, and it adds some much-needed substance to the stark aesthetic of lines that quirk usually involves. And the smooth flow is good too. Anyway, I still love it, despite the unscened line and a few somewhat rushed spots. √

Transcendental - The first track in these polls that I really love. An incredibly rare gem where astounding artistry meshes (almost) seamlessly with the unscened track. Yes, a lot of it is mountain + rails, but the rails really look like they are in an environment - the track and scenery actually combine harmoniously. (I do wish he had paid more attention to camera/framing though) √

Fritz - I used to enjoy this track a lot. I still enjoy the omni-ness of it but the sections feel mostly unplanned and it's heavily overbalanced towards the fling quirk side, and the result is it feels thrown together to me. X

Supersonic Motion - I really enjoy this track too. For the most part it feels clear in intention and confident in execution, especially at the drop. Towards the end of the highspeed it feels like it loses that a bit but the fantastic ending makes up for it. √

Empowered Unity - I understand why this track won the second epic battle but I don't see an intention in the creation of the track besides winning the battle. The manuquirk all seems generic and blends into one for me, the opening and ending scenery don't have anything to say except look at this cool line art, etc. X

Majesty and Grace - I used to really enjoy this track. I think the music matches it really well (but not precisely) and there are some clever moments, but it's essentially a tribute to hedge and znf - which, while not a bad thing, is not terribly unique and so it doesn't hold my attention anymore. X

Silhouette - I really enjoy the concept of this track and I think it was executed really, really well. It still feels surprisingly fresh to me today. √

ChooChoo - I've always felt like I've strained to see what people like in this track. To me it feels awfully like... just a bunch of lines. X

I got into a conversation with Raf about how I've been voting and I thought I might put some of my thoughts into this post. Basically, when I've given out holy shoes, or curated the exceptional playlist, or made reviews, or had conversations with people who appreciate tracks differently than me, I've always... well... tempered my opinions to frame them in a way that might influence whoever the critique was directed at, which was usually the majority of the community, at least in part. Anyway, recently I've had a sort of creative crisis where I am starting to feel like I may have been doing more harm than good in the long term by not really being honest (even with myself) about my feelings about tracks that people have releasing, in an attempt to fit in and be at home in this community. This was probably triggered by a watershed recently where I hit a point where I realized I no longer felt at home here (basically, I realized that my efforts to fit in had totally failed)

Anyway, for ToL I've decided to start afresh and look within myself to try to figure out what I truly think about the tracks I've been critiquing, instead of basing my opinions on the reactions of others, influentiality in the community, and the goals of the creator. And then maybe I can figure out what I really like in line rider tracks. The long term goal is for me to actually understand my own tastes, and then I can make tracks for myself instead of making tracks for the community. It's a bit scary to me that my true feelings are so negative so often, but I think just getting them out in the light of day is the first step. So don't mistake these long, mostly-negative posts for crusades against certain parts of our community. Their main intention is to find my own artistic path for my future artistic endeavors in Line Rider.

rabid squirrel wrote:Archaeology - pure shit. X

lol

Archaeology, Transcendental, Supersonic Motion, Silhouette



If Supersonic Motion wins do I get a tiny bit of a trophy for making the first 3 seconds? (this question in no way needs to be answered and is mostly just for thinking. Please don't start an argument over this, was kind of a joke)

WARNING
"Rating" based solely on my opinion:
Im being very harsh when rating these tracks so please dont start an argument if i rated your track not as highly as you'd like.
I seperated my rating into 4 parts since i think they cover the most inportant aspects. Popularity/Viewcount or the amount of hours worked are aspects i can not rate.

Dystopia
Influentiality at it's time: 5/10
Creativity: 6/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 5/10
Personal preference: 5/10
Score: 21
Comment: Pretty disjointed. Some cool elements
Archaeology
Influentiality at it's time: 4/10
Creativity: 5/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 5/10
Personal preference: 6/10
Score: 20
Comment: Minimalistic scenery. Music doesn't fit very well. Track/Flow is ok
Black Sea
Influentiality at it's time: 6/10
Creativity: 6/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 4/10
Personal preference: 5/10
Score: 21
Comment: Scenery looks very basic to me. Also the music doesn't fit well
POW
Influentiality at it's time: 5/10
Creativity: 6/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 6/10
Personal preference: 6/10
Score: 23
Comment: Feels pretty ZNF-like to me. Some cool elements though. I don't like that it's unfinished
Fatality scened
Influentiality at it's time: 5/10
Creativity: 6/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 6/10
Personal preference: 7/10
Score: 24
Comment: Good flow for a scenery track. I kinda like the style too. I think it's a bit empty in some spots
Transcendental
Influentiality at it's time: 9/10
Creativity: 9/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 9/10
Personal preference: 8/10
Score: 35
Comment: One of the first line rider videos i saw. It's so good back then i thought it was made by a company. No but srsly. Killer scenery skills combined with good presentation. Doesn't get much better than this
Fritz
Influentiality at it's time: 6/10
Creativity: 6/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 7/10
Personal preference: 4/10
Score: 23
Comment: I like the music. Track is medicore. Tbh i don't like this style
Supersonic motion
Influentiality at it's time: 7/10
Creativity: 8/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 8/10
Personal preference: 8/10
Score: 31
Comment: Good track. Everything fits together well. I like the music/synch
Empowered unity
Influentiality at it's time: 7/10
Creativity: 7/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 8/10
Personal preference: 8/10
Score: 30
Comment: The nostalgia is strong with this one. I like it and i can not say why in particular
Majesty and Grace
Influentiality at it's time: 5/10
Creativity: 4/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 5/10
Personal preference: 4/10
Score: 18
Comment: Very generic track. Nothing special
Silhouette
Influentiality at it's time: 6/10
Creativity: 8/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 8/10
Personal preference: 7/10
Score: 29
Comment: I like the style. Pretty creative due to some unexpected moves
Choo Choo
Influentiality at it's time: 7/10
Creativity: 7/10
Presentation (Music/editing/vibe): 8/10
Personal preference: 7/10
Score: 29
Comment: I don't know why but i like the whole thing. Music fits well and the track is pretty entertaning for an alt quirk

I have this habit of voting for ALL THE SCENERY. But for real, Black Sea was my first favorite track, I can't not vote for it.

THE SAGA CONTINUES

DYSTOPIA
Doesn't really fit the title. I would have totally been down for a track that had a haunted, BHCS-esque wasteland. As it stands, the track is spotty, and MOIZUT was very into the idea of weird techy bits. Still a fun watch!

ARCHAEOLOGY
Uwa!! So Highspeed. This track has an idea and does it well-- simple, highspeed scenery. If anything, it'll get my vote for being one of the few of its kind in Line Rider ever!

BLACK SEA
Hasn't aged well at alllllll. Very basic, and cool for its time, but just doesn't really do a lot and is rather short, all things considered. Not that that's all bad, it just doesn't hold up super well to the test of time.

POW
Was neat, and also rather fast, but man, it really had a hard time holding my attention. Super technical, but it just felt like an excuse to chain together tricks, rather than a cohesive track like BC was. As technical as it was, I wasn't super enthused.

FATALITY
I don't like this track as much as rabid does. Looks kinda messy. While it feels like a cohesive place, it still doesn't feel like it was executed very well, if you dig what I'm saying. There's parts that just feel weird and half-done. Still fun to watch.

TRANSCENDENTAL
We all know this one's good. I shouldn't have to explain why.

FRITZ
I do agree that parts of this reeeeeally haven't aged well. The song is transcending space and time, but the track is firmly 2010-esque. Fun, no doubt, but it doesn't quite resonate like it did in 2010.

SUPERSONIC MOTION
OH BOY I LOVE THIS TRACK. It's just so well-planned, and the ending, and the drop, and the man oh wow. I get chills watching this track, start to finish. It's so tight and well-produced. This has the kind of vision a real ToL contender is going to need for the later rounds.

EMPOWERED UNITY
In a word: scattered. Lots of cool stuff from a lot of cool people, and easily the best Epic Battle track, but man, is it disjointed as hell. Devray's parts are nice and smooth, but too fast for the music, and the power level never kicks back up to FlagCapper's standards.

MAJESTY AND GRACE
I don't really like this one and I can't explain why.

SILHOUETTE
SUPER creative. I like the direction sheldon took this, and wait with bated breath for the sequel. Lots of cool stuff. I can even, somehow, find it in my heart to appreciate the white-boy rap from Mikey and his fam. Nice.

CHOOCHOO
I used to think this was objectively the best track. I have never been more happy to be wrong. This track hasn't aged well in the slightest. It's all right, but not ToL good, you know?

FINAL VOTES YA DINK
Archaeology
Transcendental
Supersonic Motion
Silhouette

Fatality, Black Sea and Choochoo are eliminated, the rest moves on to round three! Two holy shoe tracks, damn