YouTube Battle

"ACTION PACKED EXCITEMENT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY"

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YTB: #BYOBTwente Edition Recap

Badabing Badaboom! Aaaaaaaand we're back! 2014 baby! The first battles of 2014 have been fought and this time in Enschede. One of our foremost eastern cities in The Netherlands. 

It was a special night. Dongwei and I got a whole space of our own at the Twente version of Bring Your Own Beamer (not the BMW, but the projector kind). The space was called DigIt! in TETEM Kunstruimte. We packed our beamer, boombox and wifi connection and we were ready to host an evening of YouTube Battles. Two in total.

Because it was a Bring Your Own Beamer evening we did not know how many participants we could expect. We discussed the possibilities and took the passerby nature of the BYOB evening in consideration. Our plan was to present two short battles of one hour, each consisting of two rounds. Something akin to the YTB at Startup Weekend last year. 

The first round was a free for all round where everybody could show a video and the second was the grand finale where the two best participants battles eachother with both two videos in their arsenal. 

This format lent itself magnificently for the BYOB evening with people popping in and out of the action, and most staying for the whole battle. Below you can see the results of both battles as usual in a YouTube playlist put together by yours truly.

And the second battle's playlist:

Lessons learned:

- A good Wifi connection is the best thing ever. TETEM had one and it was a joy to use. No hassle when loading videos means more videos in the first round.

- Letting participants type their search query on the big screen is fun and brings and extra layer to the performance. When do you search for "cute kitten tripping other cute kitten"? 

- The one hour format works!

- People like YouTube Battles. In the first battle we had 7 participants and around 30-40 people in the audience. The second battle had 11 participants and the same amount of people in the audience as the first battle.

- Kind hosts are a blessing. 

- Sitting is fun, but standing is also good.

We hope to bring you a new YouTube Battle soon! This time a little closer to home for us. We will let you know as soon as possible when we secured a nice location.

~Our thanks goes out to Heinze who invited us in Enschede and also the participants and the people who came out to watch the battles. 

See you soon!

-Max

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YouTube Battle Enschede tijdens Bring Your Own Beamer Twente 3

Wij, Dongwei en Max, verwelkomen je bij de eerste YouTube Battle in Enschede! 'Wat is een YouTube Battle?' hoor ik je denken. Een YouTube Battle is eigenlijk het moment op zo’n feestje waarbij iemand een laptop tevoorschijn haalt en “Hey!!! Check dit filmpje wat ik laatst zag!” en het feestje ontaard in een YouTube Extravaganza. Een YouTube Battle is bijna hetzelfde. Je hebt lol, kijkt toffe video’s en lacht heel hard met een drankje in je hand.

Er is wel een klein verschil.

Dit keer is er een podium en kun je zelf laten zien hoe cool jouw gevonden video’s zijn. Wij begeleiden de avond en vragen de deelnemers (jij dus) wat vragen over je favoriete video’s en je YouTube kijkgedrag. Niks gevaarlijks verder hoor. Verder is er een publiek wat hard applaudiseert voor jouw oneindige internetkennis en prachtige filmpjes en uiteindelijk gaat degene met de meeste thumbs up door naar de finale. In de finale strijd je 1 op 1 tegen iemand anders voor een fantastische prijs en eeuwige Battle roem. Na een uurtje is het videogeweld voorbij en kun je verder genieten van al wat BYOBTwente te bieden heeft.

Als je mee wil doen moet je eigenlijk maar één ding doen. Of eigenlijk twee. Je moet aanwezig zijn om 20:30 of 22:30 voor een van de battles én je moet 1 video hebben. Meer niet. Dus kom langs met een drankje, neem je vrienden mee en kijk met ons mee.

Tot vrijdag!

Dongwei en Max

Ps. Voor de winnaar hebben we trouwens een buitengewoon aardig prijsje. Reden genoeg om mee te doen.

Pps. Katten

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Youtube Culture 101

YouTube is a crazy place. A place where everybody with a hobby can upload videos of that certain hobby. How weird, adoring or horrifying that hobby actually is, is not of the matter. 

I would like to show you this video. I found it a couple of days ago and I am still enstranged by it. I knew people collected Kinder Surprise surprises. I knew people kept them in display cases and that there is a whole trading culture around the artifacts found in the chocolate eggs. 

I never saw the unpacking though, and I must say it fascinates me. No excitement of the unpacking, just business. Destroy the egg, take out the surprise, show the surprise. And that goes on for twenty eggs. Just watch it. I still try to figure out what happened to all that chocolate. 

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YTB: Game Edition Recap

Hiya! It's 2014 and time to write the recap for the official first edition of our, already infamous, YouTube Battle. And no better way to start the series than with a gaming themed battle right outside the SETUP office in the Dutch Game Garden atrium.

We had a blast watching the keyboard warriors dealing out vicious keystrokes, wooing the crowd with their gaming-related YouTube vids. Or at least, some gaming-related YouTube vids. It proved a bit difficult to stick to the theme throughout the whole battle, so for the sake of entertainment we allowed the contestants to pull out any kind of video they had in their arsenal. Wow, much kind.

Check out the playlist below for all the videos shown by our fierce contestants. Starting off with a classic.

So, yeah. Lessons learned: it's still too early for relatively unfamiliar themes like gaming (cats might work, though. Yeah, let's do cats.). And also, we need to prepare a some proper muzak to play between rounds.

With a successful first edition in the bag, we can only say we're very excited to organize a lot more YouTube Battles in the future. Many thanks to the contestants and visitors of the first edition, we couldn't have done it without you. You stay classy, San Diego.

BONUS: a few gaming-related videos I personally hoped to see, but didn't, and wish to share with you:

And of course the lovely people from Street Troller:

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YTB: Game Edition

Friday 20th December is the next YTB! Yaaaaaay! Theme this time around is games and we are very excited to see what you guys take with you on this wonderful evening.

For your inspiration we gathered a couple of videos. Classics, but also some new ones. Stuff we are looking for is everything game related, from tutorials to fanfics and from reviews to walkthroughs. Don't forget the 3 minute mark though ;)

Leeroy Jenkins

Ones of our personal favourites and by now a golden oldie loved by many. Leeroy Jenkins, one of the biggest gaming trolls ever. Jenkins does not wait for anything. He returns to his computer and start to smash the shit out of those baddies. Unfortunately for his clan, this was not the plan. Every last one of his mates gets brutally slaughtered, because Leeroy didn't stick to the plan. Nice Leeroy, very nice.

FPS Doug

FPS Doug is obsessed with video games. He like Counterstrike so much, he carries a knife when he goes outside. Not to kill people, mind you, but 'he runs faster, with a knife'. 

Hot Pepper Reviews

We all know the game reviews from sites as IGN or Gamespot, but this is something different. Decent reviews of newly released games and to top it of every reviewer needs to eat one pepper before they commence. Hilarity ensues.

Hungry For More?

Then join us Friday 20th in the Dutch Game Garden! Show your own vids or kick back and enjoy the show. Don't forget to subscribe to our exclusive mailinglist and attend at our fancy Facebook event. 

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YTB Startup Weekend Recap

In the weekend of 22nd to 24th December SETUP and many partners organised a Startup Weekend. Young and somewhat older entrepreneurs gathered to start a new business. 

We were asked to entertain. And we entertained. The first of many pilot editions of the Youtube Battle was a succes. You can see all the videos that were shown below. 

We learned some things this day

- No more Miley Cyrus in Grand Finales

- 6 participants is plenty for one hour of Youtube fun

- 2 rounds is short

- People like youtubing!

Next edition of the Battle will be on the 20th December in the Dutch Game Garden in Utrecht. Join us! Mail us if you want to participate on [email protected]

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Youtube Battles are as old as the Internet itself (Not really, but it sounds cool though)

Youtube is a new medium. Youtube Battles are even newer. For the first time in history you could simply press a button and choose whichever video you wanted to see. 

Youtube Rewind

There were others, oh yeah there were others. Ebaumsworld, albinoblacksheep.com and many more who provided a space and platform for online videos (and of course porn), but never on the scale and as accessible as Youtube did back in 2005. 

The first years of the online video platform were a wild west environment. Everybody posted videos online, why? Nobody knew. It's maiden years gave us now omniscient hits as Sneezing Panda, Star Wars Kid and Dramatic Chipmunk and of course a lot of cats. These videos are by now stored in our collective memory. 

This was great! A new way of circumventing traditional media outlets and just post your stuff online for everyone to see. The new revolutions will not be televised, but youtubed. People from all over the world uploaded their stories to the world wide web, from cats and goats, to drugged kids and riots in Egypt.

Back to the future

Nowadays almost everybody has a favourite video. A special place to return to when your whole world is collapsing. A video on the Internet that moves you, makes you smile or can even make you cry. We want to share the stories we see. We are storytelling mammals. Many people carry smartphones on them, portable video players. And on a lot of occasions I see people interacting with eachother through these videos. "Hey, I like this a lot, you should see this!" There are even some crazy people who can show you ten good videos in a row. Now that's some skill. 

Youtube Battles

In a Youtube Battle this willingness to share awesome stuff is very important. We want you, the freaks who know ten awesome videos! We want to let you know that you are not alone in liking special videos and instead of posting them on your Facebook wall or your Twitter timeline, or your G+ account, you can show them in a physical place with a like minded audience. Here, you are not strange. You are a hero. A hero that went in the trenches of the Internet and got out a victor with video aces! 

Sometimes though, when you oonly have one ace video up your sleeve, we invite you too. Your video provides endless joy to our hearts. You put yourself out there, in the fray. And if you are afraid that we will laugh at you, show some balls! It takes courage to step up and share your story and courage gets rewarded!

Join us in this epic fight for more authentic, more real, more moving, more sad and more rememberable videos. Tell your story and get rewarded. In kudos, applause and a fantastic price every edition.

Play us out, North Koreans with accordeons