I hosted a $1000 Keyboard Tournament 

I've read a bunch of the comments and it seems like a lot of you don't like the way we eliminated people based off of the appearance (and not the sound) or the fact that we eliminated people who were using clone keycaps. I can understand where you're coming from, but we did this for two reasons: 1) There were a TON of applicants. We had over 200 submissions and we filtered it down to 64. We needed a way to sort through them and the clone keycap sets was an easy way to do it. The video is already 30 minutes long and the original video draft was over 45 minutes before we had cut it down more. Plus, Hipyo was nice enough to offer his time to help me judge and I didn't want to take too much of his time. The tournament livestream ran for roughly 3 hours and if we had to listen to every sound test, it could've easily been an 8 hour livestream, which obviously isn't fair to him. The biggest feedback from the last tournament was that you wanted MORE keyboards, but we're human after all and that comes with limitations like time, so each keyboard gets judged faster. 2) As creators ourselves, we try to advocate for the original keycap designer's work. A lot of companies will rip-off the keycap designs from the people who created them without offering any royalties or credit to the original design. This is a business practice that hurts the community and is not something I want to support. And it's not about how much you spend, or if it's GMK or not GMK (which frankly I don't support the business practices of either), we mainly eliminated people if these were specifically using clone sets. Plus, there are a lot of great cheaper in-stock options nowadays that aren't straight rip-offs, and I have no problem with that. It may not seem like it, but these tournaments take an insane amount of planning and time trying coordinate sponsors to give away free stuff to you guys, filtering through applications, and organizing the guest judges. This whole tournament is supposed to be about celebrating the community and trying to give away as much free stuff as possible to all of the people who participate, so let's just try to have fun and not get too worked up here. WOW this turned into an essay. TL:DR: Just have fun and don't be a jerk.

I think they should've done it the other way around, eliminating based on the sound first before taking a look at the board

3:06 I have that deskmat! It's the Linus Tech Tips northern lights deskmat and I love it!

Is sick how fast your channel have grown, I remember I subscribed too you when you had like 10k subs.

27:25 oooh my this keyboard sounds sooo good i hav a normal keyboard which sounds so good while i am typing but the last one sounded owesome

hey switch and click do you think you can make a keyboard with holy pandas? I'm 12 and I cant really do anything like that but I would love to see you make one so can you?

Will you do another keyboard tournament?, that looks awesome and I have a keyboard to submit!

Penguin army will live onnnnn!

Why so much hate for the clones? Not everyone can afford to spend $200+ on keycaps

Hey, love this type of video Btw I feel really "upset" to not listen all the keyboard sound, is it possible to find every sound test in a playlist or a "folder" ?

I could understand some of the distain for clones if GMK sets actually had QC and were available in stock. But as it is telling people they're bad and dismissing them for not paying $500 for bits of plastic they don't even know if they'll like is pretty elitist. Edit: I hear what people are saying about supporting artists, but buying a second hand set from mechmarket for $500 supports the artist just as much as buying clones. It would be great if more artists were able to license their designs for in stock caps so that there was an option which have continuing support.

Eliminating people based on whether they're using replicas or not is lame, especially when in stock options are only now coming into popularity

Why do they disregard keyboards that have clone or replica keycaps? I mean they look good and the original ones are overpriced.

honestly i felt like this competitoin was super subjective in favor of the judges, the chat vote feature from last tourney was better, that way keyboards didn't have to conform to what the judges felt was good ie: "thocky," no clones boards

I honestly didn’t like this tournament compared to the last one. I feel like the judge system creates some weird takes. Definitely liked the chat vote from last time better.

Don’t think they should have eliminated the boards based off of looks cos some of them could have been sleepers and having them look boring could have been the point

Say an all-black keyboard is "boring" Make an all-white keyboard their grand prize winner.

Great watch! Since there seem to be some debate, maybe just clarify that clones are a no go next time. (I would also support that decision for the reasons you named.) I’m in favor of you guys deciding and just using chat when in doubt. I’m watching you being the jury and not chat. Also, maybe theme the next one! Like, clean builds only or “creative” or “modded” and so on. Could help keeping down the amount of applicants.

First commenttttt

Sorry I missed throwing my hat into the ring here, but it’s fun seeing all the unique & interesting builds people entered into the competition!

LOL, that desk mat is from LTT.

How is Hipyo going to sit here and bag on people buying clones when he has holes in his shirt.

I wasn’t really a fan of this tournament, to be honest. I found some of the comments made by the judges to be a bit tasteless and performative in a way that kind of reminded me of high school mean girls, if that makes sense. The judging criteria also seemed to be a bit… inconsistent? I think that having the chat votes implemented in future tournaments will allow for a more balanced and fair round of judging. I will say that I loved the builds that everyone came up with though! I’m not a huge keyboard person but I watched along with my brother and we had a great time seeing everyone’s handiwork. A big congratulations to the participants, we were very impressed! 🤗💖

Not gonna lie, this is hard to watch. I watched the last tournament and I really liked it, so I clicked on this one with expectation but a little disappointed this time. I understand Betty’s points and how time consuming it can be to do a tournament. But if you want to do it, do it well, and don’t complain about the process. You can always find other ways to do good deeds to the community. This is just too subjective to be called a tournament, and unfair to those got eliminated just based on appearances. To me, this tournament is not well prepared at all; nothing but an endeavor for views, likes, and subscriptions.

I support everyone who buys clones. If these companies really cared about a small niche community they wouldn’t price basic keycaps at $120+ when there are better looking keycaps for wayyy cheaper. But hey every artists is free to charge whatever they want just like we are free to buy clones. Also, waiting a year to get keycaps I WANT NOW? No thanks.

That whole thing is scuffed, let the viewers decide

My only concern is that Hipyo talks about how much he hates group buys and promotes trying to find key caps in stock. Then in this video he’s like “oh its a clone uhhhhh” just seems a little backwards to me

I dont think it was fair to eliminate someone with clones. But in the end its out of pure taste. So its the judges decision. Love the vid!!

all of the builds in this video are 10x times better than every Hipyo Tech build

Bruh can't believe you guys were so rude and disrespectful towards your fans. Super disappointing. I'll do myself a favour and show myself out of your community 😅

You were right about being subjective and I have to subjectively dislike this video! If clones are a problem maybe say that before people submit entries just saying.

Not anyone can afford GMK. That's why it's called custom kb. They customized they kb based on their taste. So if u have High end kb with original keycaps thock auto win

Nice contest, but thought the winners weren't as good as many contenders... 🤔 Maybe you could make a colab with the guys so that each choses 10 keyboard on it's own and you guys decide toguether the best! Would be easier to get sponsors too!

vintage keyboard racism

you know the community is struggling when the immediate reaction to Beam Springs is "I hate it"

Is it just me that's so sick of this clone discussion? Like, why should we have to care if someone clones a set that a company made very limited amounts of and makes you wait 6-24 months for to arrive. No, I am done with this discussion. I'll be buying clones untill the companies that make the originals make them in larger volumes at a cheaper price. And don't give me that " they can't do that, they need to make money." Trust me they'd make enough even if they dropped the price a little and make larger volumes of everything. If they want the community to stop buying clones it's up to them to compete with the guys that make the clones!

Clones don't steal creators money, coz if someone can and want-they gonna pay for original, if he can't\won't-he won't. If someone can pay like only 30 bucks for a set, and there no clones-he just won't buy originals for 200$, he buy's something else for 30 bucks-no money for original creator, same, as if he pay'd for the clones. Also, there would be no clones if originals cost what they should-cost of clones, and was just as available. But no, this set of plastic should cost 100-300$, even tho there no logical reason for that, and 3rd parties can make it for 20-40$, with more or less same quaility. That part of keyboard community is just a big no no for me. Like all metal board, with brass parts-sure, 400-600-800$ is fine and fair. But for a set of plastic lil parts, more that 30-50$-hell no.

L video didn’t play everybody’s audio. Also the kicking the people out for clones when there’s a prize pool giving them an opportunity to buy some

perhaps future tournaments could rank each round by blind sound first and then make judgements based on the visuals and further decide based on the listed specs it may be more time consuming, but with that order, you can still make these judgements with your preferences and show fairness and equality to every entry. just my random viewer recommendation. thanks for another fun video!

Honestly, the off-hand dismissal of the Model F, practically a unicorn in that good a condition, is saddening. I get it, you guys like small, quiet, cute pieces of plastic, but damn, could you at least try to get out of that wheelhouse?

Why so pissed at the people who are using clones? Should I instead wait for 1.5 years to get some keycaps instead or getting them with similar sound for 70% of the price but in 2-3 weeks? That’s stupid

imagine losing to a 2 switch board

hey umm since u have done reviews on some redragon keyboards could u do a review on the redragon k617 fizz

Mine didn’t get even get heard at all cause y’all thought it was from the other round Sadge😭

I usually like these videos but I did not agree with many of their decisions😢

I feel that it was unfair to eliminate on looks alone

SWITCHANDCLICK I MET U AT THE PARK TDY I WAS THE ONE THE TOOK THE PHOTE WITH MY FRIEND

if you host another keyboard tournament bring squashy boy please

Seeing so many keyboards not even having the chance to show what they sound like is super upsetting. There were so many beautifully designed ones that you didn't want to listen to just because... reasons. Older version of this contest was much much better.

1:28 wow @Switch and Click , wow.

why so much hate? she's just deciding who will get 1k, it's almost a givaway but with a twist. No need for drama, let's enjoy the process. After watching it, i really liked it. The chat is also very biased, so not really a difference

damn.. religeous leaders are less biased

Poggies

I vote for a sound-only tournament where you don't get to see the components, usernames, or visuals until the end. Lotta good builds got thrown out for superficial stuff & a lotta expensive boards that sounded scuffed made it pretty far.

Justice for my shark artisan! Lol

Cringe video biased competition gg

What do you need to do to participate for the next keyboard tournament?

ayo i see that vainsz entered the competition and he makes insane custom keyboards (he defo has the budget for it loool)

10:22 that the best one for me

I liked the video. Sure, the criteria weren't too consistent, but I don't think that's a problem, because in the end it doesn't really matter who won since it is basically just entertainment. I also don't agree with some of your decision, purely out of personal taste, but that's totally okay. I was entertained and that is all that matters :)

the thumbnail is so nice

Any of the contestants could have edited the audio recording to make the key strokes sound just right. There's no point discussing the fairness of judgements in such contests, the point of them is just for entertainment, and showcasing nice builds.

I think u guys should have made it a little more cleaner because most of the times I couldn’t tell which keyboard won , so yeah just a little opinion of mine

Watched the first one Watched it twice so good and this one was good too ty

I didn't realise until I started watching these videos that a lot of people type without using their little fingers.

Enjoyed most of the video except for the first round of elimination. While I agree with her sentiment of how it isn’t ethical, i don’t agree that it warrants for an auto elim. If that was the case, it should have been specified in the guidelines/ rules of entry, or not even picked to be a part of the 64 from the start. Like stated in the pinned comment, there were 200+ boards submitted. Surely there were other original caps in the other sea of 128+ boards. If it weren’t then those boards felt like they were picked as filler boards/ for the sake of more participants. With all the fodder fake caps eliminated that easily, this competition felt more of a 16+ board competition instead of a 64 head to head. While some of you may argue that the elim. Of cloned caps is justified due to the unethical business practice of profiting off others, first, you’re right, that it’s wrong but that’s kinda elitist and 2nd, defeats the whole purpose of a fair competition. Yea it’s subjective based judgement and subjective opinions aren’t 100% fair. But eliminating boards cuz fake caps isn’t subjective. It’s like eliminating a great artist because the paint used on the canvas isn’t manufactured from the original paint manufacturer. Sounds dumb innit. Yeah 200 boards to pick from is a lot let alone further reviewing 64 of them is a lot to unpack and breakdown live on stream so maybe breaking the competition into different parts would be better. As long as the review process for each and every submitted board is fair and square, judged on fairly on the same accounts. If that requirement can’t be met, then smaller competition should be held instead. cough cough artesian builds controversy kinda vibe All that said, I think some lessons could be learnt and improvements can be made. Like having a set of standard rules/guidelines depicting how a board submitted would be judged accordingly so a problem like this wouldn’t arise again in the future.

You should try to improve the magic refiner mk14

I don't get how anyone would listen to IBM Beam Spring switches and think it sounds bad, although I do prefer them with the solenoid off. But I mean, even Taeha paid a pretty sizeable premium for the privilege to own one of those. People in the custom hobby seriously need more exposure to keyboards that sound different from just slightly differently pitched clacking plastic in tight-spaced rectangles.

Having different key switches for keys is NOT cursed, it’s all of YOU that are weird. Let me explain, I have had multiple keyboards and frankly ended up just using one because switching is too much of a hassle, I’m lazy ok. I program so I want switches that feel nice to type on, so tactile or clicky it is , don’t care about the sound, just the feel. I’m also a gamer and so use specific keys extremely frequently. For keys that I spam and use for attacks/movement they’re linear and quiet for obvious reasons (my gamer friends don’t want to listen to keys the entire time). Also, depending on how frequently I spam them/how important it is not to fat finger a press, I will use different weights. Functional gaming keys though that are used less often (like flashlight or map for example) have quiet tactile switches. Function keys in general use heavier switches because it makes sense. Like I have a single box navy as an esc key because that’s how an esc key should feel. See, you guys are the weird ones using all the same switches as if every key is exactly the same.

Hi 4d IM 550TH AND LOLL

Yay again!

Imagine eliminating someone for buying clones instead of dropping easily over $100 on bits of plastic that are nearly identical. I get supporting the designers but none of the good ones are in stock anyway so you're probably buying them off a marketplace. Same diff. Especially from Hipyo "I don't care about plastic" Tech. Edit: and eliminating the IBM beam spring... what has keyboard culture come to. That's sad.

I see the theme here....next tourney will be a $2000 tourney right? wahooo!!!!

i am surprised someone entered the mc65 into the tournament. it's not really a fair fight between that and ikki68s and tofus. was that actually darian or did someone impersonate him?

the rich get richer

Hi betty :D

that shark keycap was the single best keycap I saw in this video. Justice for Shark!

This is just an overall unfair bad way to judge this, test all the keyboards sound and then looks and then finally eliminate one but just eliminating off of looks and bias is not even entertaining. Great video 👍😐

It went from “200 dollars” To “100 dollars” To “1000 dollars”??

I wish you can do a "GIVING AWAY A KEYBOARD TO SOMEONE" video cause I really need a new keyboard I only got a laptop keyboard that is very very bad shape

What do you need to do to participate for the next keyboard tournament? Bc I want to

Hi from turkey... Unfortunately, I do not have the opportunity to make these keyboards because it is a very expensive hobby in my country :(

If you can’t buy the original gmk, buy something else with original with a lower price point instead of clones. How hard is it to do that ?

Poo poo?

It feels so criminal to not pay $500 for a few warped plastics and not waiting for more than a year for them

Ik this comment is late but imagine flurples participating in a keyboard tournament lol

Hey Bella, I love your content do you think you could make me a custom razor huntsman mini thank you lots of love

$1k keyboard ? Thats a bit much. Damn hobbyists be crazyyyy. Its a months rent

Bruh how yall not gonna listen to every board at 10:03 I wanted to hear the bottom left that one looked the best by far

I love Carbon and using one on my keyboard right now but I must say, that setup looks really bad

AVENGE GAMBOL!!!

مانا مش هعرف التزم بموضوع الفيديو مش بفهم انجليزى انا 😢😢😢😢😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Btw Vainsz (which is a VERY popular keyboard RU-vidr) was in the competition

It’s funny that two ppl from the last keeb competition (gambol and dr pingu) 😂😂

I just want a clicky keyboard to win once :(

Love the vid! I know its purely based on personal opinion but it would’ve been nice to have some of the clacky builds to be push through the next round. That’s just me tho

Who thought the blue Alice keyboard would be the winner cuz it was on the thumbnail

lost respect for you when u asked why it was navy and white snow is white and the tree was covered in snow

You should review tfues keyboard that's collabed with novel keys when it comes out

I’ve watched your count go from 630, then 631 then 632