The Armour Archive

Here in the East it is generally run a standard double elimination tournament. In the semi finals the two people in the losers list have to beat their opponent in the winners list twice to advance to the finals. The finals are usually the best 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 5. If it is best 3 out of 5 it is generally multiple weapons forms. S&S, Two weapon, Great Weapon, Glaive/polearm and best form.

I know that many other Kingdoms have much different tournament styles and I would like to here how they are run.

Edit: I forgot that many times the first round is a challenge up. Although I did fight in one Crown where there was a challenge down.

Caid runs double-elim, but we don't use a tree; the draw is random each round, so any fight may be 2 winners, 2 losers, or 1 of each. Generally, the final is fought 2 out of 3 regardless of whether either or both combatants had a loss earlier.

Our most recent Crown was a little different, because the final 3 all had one loss (to eachother). Often this would be handled by giving one fighter a bye to the final and having the other 2 fight a semi-final, but in this case they also all had had byes earlier, so there was no fair way to determine who would get the bye to the final; they ended up doing a 3-way round robin final instead.

In Meridies (at least the 6 I've seen here) have been double elimination, open weapons style (probably 98%+ sword and shield).

Most of the time it's a single win per round, I think two of the six have been best two out of three for a win for the round.

Winners and Losers bracket through to the end. Finals are best two out of three (with one exception in Spring of '06 when the guy in the winners' had to win once, guy in the losers' bracket would have had to have won twice) between winner of losers' bracket and the undefeated person.

The Midrealm is required by Kingdom Law to have Crown as a double elimination tourney. The format is usually a normal double elim or each round may be best 2 out of 3 fights. When it gets to the semi finals the combatants from the losers' bracket have to beat the person from the winners' bracket twice to advance. The finals are usually best 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 5 with matched weapons for all but the last bout.

The weapons and shield size are determined by the Crown.

In Atlantia it is largely the Crown's whim, so long as it's a double-elimination single person on single person combat (and I'm pretty sure even the double-elimination part is fungible, if for example the Crown wanted pools, I just believe single-elim is out, as of course is anything that smacks of melee).

Anyone (who qualifies per Corpora) can send in a letter of intent to fight. The Crown can (and has) deny entry for any reason, and does not need to disclose that reason publically (I presume they tell the refused party why, but never having been there, I can't swear to this).

Of late the tournament itself has generally been a tree structure, with crossover in the semi-finals (loser must beat winner 2 successive to advance). Fighters outside the perfect tree challenge in, with that fight being destructive. Bye fights are all but nonexistent (I suppose if someone dropped out between rounds due to injury it's possible, but even then I'm not sure I've seen that happen)

Tree draw has been done by strict OP, by random draw, by challenge, and by height (I'm kidding on the last one...I think...), depending upon royal whim, which is generally announced before the event.

Finals has generally been best of either 3 or 5, with previous losses discarded. Matched weapon forms more often than not (Junior fighter chooses first in round one, then senior, then back and forth, 5th fight if necessary being "bring your best"), although occasionally it's been "bring your best" all the way through.

Our list size ranges from 12 to 40 fighters, generally settling in the 18-24 range.

In Gleann Abhann we generally run a standard double elim. Finals is best 2 of 3. Occasionally we get a fun King who makes each round best 2 of 3.

We have not had a specific weapon requirement as a Principality or Kingdom.

Uric

Standard for Antir is a double elim with a 2 out of 3 finals (with your preferred equipment)

Occasionally we will have a "Sweet 16" style where there are 8 fields. Each field has 1/8th of the fighters who showed up. A round robin style tourney is fought on each field. Top 2 from each field then go into a double elim tourney. This enables the lower level fighters the chance to get to fight 7-12 fights in crown.

The numbers of fighters in crown tend to run in the 80-90 range. Although we have had as low as 60, and as high as... 114 or so?

Most standard double elim crowns go 8-10 rounds before finals.

In Northshield, it's pretty much up to the Crown. That said, it's generally double-elim of some sort (with or without semi-final folding in place), and often each bout is best 2 of 3 of some sort. It's also becoming sylish to have the draw done in public when the couples are introduced to the Crown. And on a few occasions the tree has been seeded by challenge, each fighter getting a random token as to whether they issue or accept challenge. Bit of interesting strategy, that. I always tried to choose someone I hadn't fought before (wasn't always possible).

Weapons matching has happened in several forms. I think this time around the choices are long or short, rather than something more specific. Weapons are often limited to 6 feet total, but I seem to recall a recent Crown in which 9 foot spears played a prominent part.

banzaimf wrote:The numbers of fighters in crown tend to run in the 80-90 range. Although we have had as low as 60, and as high as... 114 or so?

I definitely remember crowns with > 110 fighters.

Also, in An Tir there's no "letter of intent" required. There is usually a restriction on shield size, however.

-Derian.

Oh, yeah, missed a point on Caid:

For the first round draw, chivalry line up on one side and unbelts on the other, and the unbelts each challenge a member of the chivalry. Since the unbelts usually outnumber the chivalry, a few are selected by the Crown to cross over to the chivalry side to even it up, a totally informal honour that many of us value as highly or more highly than some of our actual awards.

Typically in Artemisia we use a 4-pool list, and we require a letter of intent to particapte. The four pools are seeded according to precidence which usually gives a range of abilities in each pool. The pools are fought round robin to determine the top 2 fighters from each pool.

The top 2 individuals from each pool are then moved into the quarterfinals where each bout is then fought best 2 out of 3 to move on.

Quarters-> Semis-> Finals.

In Lochac, it is pretty much all up to the crown. As far as I'm aware, anyway.

Outlands typically runs double elim, best 2 out of 3, weapon of choice.

Up to the crown of course.

Kotek wrote:In Lochac, it is pretty much all up to the crown. As far as I'm aware, anyway.

Thats right, however often it is single kill double elim.

Ansteorra ... Single elim ... each bout best 2 out of 3. Weapon of choice. 95% of the bouts are sword and shield.

Entirely up to the whim of the Crown, but usually shakes up as a double elim, best 2 of 3, with the weapon formats changing. The first round being an unbelt challenge round happens sometimes -- it was a kick this past coronation to have a peer challenge round where they had to pick a non-peer.

Large, for us, is usually in the range of this last Crown -- 24 entrants. It's more usually 15ish, with a low of 10-12.

Anyone who meets the criteria in Law and Corpora can put in a letter. The Crown can deny them, by dint of not finding them acceptable for whatever reason, but will 'splain it to them in some fashion or another.

We've had various weapon formats over the years, but "bring your best" is usually what happens.

The West uses a somewhat different version of double elimination.

The first round starts with unbelts challenging the belted fighters.

Before the challenges, some of the better unbelts are moved to the belted side to even the numbers.

Also before the challenges, the names of the belted fighters are entered on the odd numbers of a list of numbers equal to the total number of fighters. The fighting talent is "seeded" to deliberately spread the talent evenly thoughout the list. This is done to ensure that nobody gets an easy ride to the top

When an unbelt challenges a belted fighter, the name of the unbelt is written on the list in the even number under the number of the belted fighter.

The matches for each round are made by matching the first unassigned fighter to the next unassigned fighter on the list that he/she has not already fought.

So, in round one, 1 fights 2, 3 fights 4, 5 fights 6, and so on.

In round two, 1 fights 3, 2 fights 4, 5 fights 7, and so on.

When a fighter has lost two fights, his/her name is removed from the list used to assign future fights. This method can be used to run tournaments allowing a varying number of losses - even round robins.

There are two options for handling byes.

In the first option, if a fighter gets a bye, his/her name is moved to the top of the list for the next round. In this way, he/she fights one fewer fights, but the interval between fights is about the same as if a bye was not received.

In the second option, the bye is fought (non-destructive), and the fighter retains his/her position in the list.

Usually, this method of assigning matches continues until two fighters are left. The finals are fought as the best 2 of 3 fights, with no weapons restrictions.

Regards,

Paul

Two men enter, one man leaves!!!

All things in Atenveldt being at the will of the Crown, it can change, but I have never seen it done any other way than double elimination, single fight, weapon of choice.

First fight matching is always done by lining up belts on one side and non-belts on the other, non belts picking which belt will be their first fight. If there are more non belts than belts, generally non belts are moved to the belts side to even it up, which is considered a great honor.

In AEthelmearc, it's required by kingdom law that if there are at least 16 combattants, the tourney must be double-elim; we have had a couple of Crowns with less than 16 combattants (a 14 and a 15, IIRC), and those were run as round-robin pools (2 of 7 or 3 of 5).

Usually, when double-elim, the list is split in half based on precedence of the combattants, and starting from the bottom challenging a combattant from the top half of the list.

Recently (past 5 years?) we had each pairing be best 2 of 3, regardless of the rest of the format of the tourney, and has become generally well-liked for various reasons.

Like the East, the semi's are always best 2 of 3, with the person from the winner's list being given one win to start, and the finals are best 3 of 5, almost always with matched rotating forms for the first 4 bouts (chosen by the loser of the preceding bout) and the fifth bout, if necessary, being up to each fighter individually.

Also, we require letters of intent - with various pieces of information like name, contact information, proof of membership and age - which must be received by the Crown or postmarked 30 days before the tournament.

There's also a "activity level" law: it used to be a certain minimum number of events attended, by both the combattant and consort, in the previous 12 months, but that got removed this past spring and changed to "be able to demonstrate a reasonable level of participation in Æthelmearc during that period.". We also have a residency requirement of 1 year before the tournament. Both of these can be waived by the Crown, "if the entrants are subjects of the Kingdom and able to demonstrate to the Crown's satisfaction by their own words or by recommendation of peers of the Kingdom that they have sufficient familiarity with Kingdom." And both combattant and consort must be 18 years of age at the time of the Tournament.

We also had one recent crown tourney that was 1 round robin pool of 14. Anything under 16 gets...interesting.

Havoc

Yep, last falls Crown was one of the funnest crowns I have been in, in awhile. Instead of breaking it up into two lists for the round robin, since we only had 14 folks. We fought everyone. So had 13 fights that day, not including the semis and the finals.

I agree that it was most certainly a howl.

Blaine de Navarre wrote:Oh, yeah, missed a point on Caid:

For the first round draw, chivalry line up on one side and unbelts on the other, and the unbelts each challenge a member of the chivalry. Since the unbelts usually outnumber the chivalry, a few are selected by the Crown to cross over to the chivalry side to even it up, a totally informal honour that many of us value as highly or more highly than some of our actual awards.

Two of the last three Crowns however, we oddly had more knights than Unbelts. And in both of those Crowns, Sir Patrick and Sir Jamal faced off in the first round.