The Armour Archive

So is it inappropriate to cheer at an SCA event?

Backstory:

During a recent tournament, before a friend of mine was about to fight his first bout as an authorized fighter, I cheer from the sidelines "Go (his name here.)" After I did that I got ugly looks from about 3 directions.

Just because I support my friend does not mean I don't support his opponent, so why were people getting all judgy with their eyeballs?

You know what, screw it. I'm going to cheer for my friends no matter what! GO TEAM!

Never saw a problem with it. I don't care for booing or jeering the 'other guy' except those times, like some demos, where a fighter takes on the theatrical mantle of 'the bad guy', but cheering? It's considered bad form if it might distract the fighters. Otherwise, go for it. It's a game.

RAH RAH REEE!!

Kick him in the knee!

RAH RAH RASS!!!

Kick him in the other knee!




RICK 'EM!! WRECK 'EM!! WRACK 'EM!! RUCK 'EM!!

Take Your Sword and REALLY FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFIGHT!

Fuck their eyeballs.

Raulin Arbor wrote:So is it inappropriate to cheer at an SCA event?

Backstory:

During a recent tournament, before a friend of mine was about to fight his first bout as an authorized fighter, I cheer from the sidelines "Go (his name here.)" After I did that I got ugly looks from about 3 directions.

Just because I support my friend does not mean I don't support his opponent, so why were people getting all judgy with their eyeballs?

You know what, screw it. I'm going to cheer for my friends no matter what! GO TEAM!

Because people like to be all judgy. For some, it's their job in life. Like the person in bright white reeboks, pink terminator shades, and a ball cap with a heraldic neck flap sewn on the back complaining that my fabric is "all wrong".

Depends on how and when you do it.

If it ADDS to every one's experience? Go for it!

If it doesn't? Not so much.

A "Fight well, Robert!" followed by "Well done!" at the end? Sure!

A "Kick his ass Bob!" followed by "YEAH! Dropped him like a bad habit!" isn't appropriate, IMO.

Support your frineds, but cheer BOTH warriors' efforts.

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Raulin Arbor wrote:So is it inappropriate to cheer at an SCA event?

Backstory:

During a recent tournament, before a friend of mine was about to fight his first bout as an authorized fighter, I cheer from the sidelines "Go (his name here.)" After I did that I got ugly looks from about 3 directions.

Just because I support my friend does not mean I don't support his opponent, so why were people getting all judgy with their eyeballs?

You know what, screw it. I'm going to cheer for my friends no matter what! GO TEAM!

You know what? The first time my (very much not medievalist) sister and her boyfriend watched me fight, they cheered like they were at a pro wrestling match. It was awesome. Keep it positive and make some damned noise. This ain't golf.

Diglach mac Cein wrote:Depends on how and when you do it.


A "Fight well, Robert!" followed by "Well done!" at the end? Sure!


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This is what I did. I guess some people need to unwind.

I cheer on my squires, and my friends at the start of a bout. I cheer for BOTH fighters at the end.

Nobody says boo to me about it. And I'm in the stuffy Midrealm.

Heck, My 8 year old daughter cheers for every fighter in my household. When she was a bit younger, she cheered for anyone wearing green....


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It could also be possible that they thought you were cheering AGAINST the other guy, not for both at the end. I've seen that, which is why I try to say something like "WELL DONE BOTH OF YOU!" or "Hurrah Robert and Thomas! Well fought both of you!".

Raulin Arbor wrote:

Diglach mac Cein wrote:Depends on how and when you do it.


A "Fight well, Robert!" followed by "Well done!" at the end? Sure!


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This is what I did. I guess some people need to unwind.

My cheer was literally "Go Bob!"

One of the best "cheering" I have seen was a squire who's knight was fighting in the later rounds. Said squire was on the sidelines quietly cheering while holding one of those big foam No 1 fingers you get at sporting events. He had the finger in his knights colors and had altered it to look like an hourglass gauntlet. It was fantastically funny.

I cheer my friends, but even more fun is heckling them.

Whenever I have a friend fighting a person with a French persona, I like to yell, "Kick his French Ass, Front de Boeuf!"

I don't recall which version of Ivanhoe had that line, but I think it's hysterical.

As long as you don't scream into someones ear I don't see a problem. heh.

They were just upset because no one ever cheered for them. And because of this, no one should ever cheer for anyone else. Ever.

Raulin Arbor wrote:

Diglach mac Cein wrote:Depends on how and when you do it.


A "Fight well, Robert!" followed by "Well done!" at the end? Sure!


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This is what I did. I guess some people need to unwind.

Maybe they were rootin' for the other guy.

If they were rooting for the other guy they should have let him know it by... I dunno... cheering maybe?

Cheer all you want. Praise fighters for doing well with public displays of approval. It's cool. Try not to heckle though. It does upset folks.

Leo Medii wrote:They were just upset because no one ever cheered for them. And because of this, no one should ever cheer for anyone else. Ever.

Were we cheering for our kids when they fought against each other? Heck yeah! Where either of us upset? No way.

I remember a 7 man barrier battle at Val Day many moons ago. Our team held the barrier for 7 fights in a row.

It was really cool (especially after the third one) to hear the crowd cheer when one of ours went down, and groan when we took out an opponent.

Truely motivational

I'm not sure if this counts as a cheer, per se, but in the our canton when a new fighter authorizes for the first time the "full-armor dogpile" is something of a tradition.

Personally I love seeing Kari with her heraldic pom-poms cheering on Sinclair and thier fellow Atlantians.

Crimthann of Fid-Nemed wrote:Personally I love seeing Kari with her heraldic pom-poms cheering on Sinclair and thier fellow Atlantians.

Kari has heraldic pom poms? Now THIS I've got to see!

I'm her champion at Golden Rose, I sure hope the pom poms make it to that event!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usarmymutt/3478633344/" title="Atlantian Cheerleader Kari by Crimthann Fid-Nemed, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3571/347 ... 38e34b.jpg" width="388" height="500" alt="Atlantian Cheerleader Kari"></a>

So what I'm hearing is I should cheer my guts out for my guys during the fight and congratulate both fighters after the fight.

I can live with that.

At Sapphire joust in the St. Adens melee tourney you get extra points for having a cheering section. It is alot of fun to have the spectators getting to be a part of the fighting

I have heard both of these at events:


"Punch 'em in the slad bowl, knock 'em in the jaw. Send 'em to the cemetary, Rah! Rah! Rah!!"


"He is the one God! He is the Sun God! Rah! Rah!!"


F

Long time ago, I had my three boys at an event with me. They hadn't seen me fight in "real" tournaments much before and this was the principality champions. They cheered like mad until someone from the sidelines went all "shuuussssssssssshhhhhhhhh" on them.


Once, only, have I fought harder than I did at that event.

Ewan wrote:Long time ago, I had my three boys at an event with me. They hadn't seen me fight in "real" tournaments much before and this was the principality champions. They cheered like mad until someone from the sidelines went all "shuuussssssssssshhhhhhhhh" on them.


Once, only, have I fought harder than I did at that event.

Who shushes a kid cheering for their dad? What a prude.

I was in a list and got faked out of my shorts and got killed. The crowd cheered and I as kind of upset until someone told me the guy I fought was terrified of me and everyone expected him to get smoked. So they weren't cheering against me, they were cheering FOR him. I had no complaints about his cheers.

I was once an opponent to someone with a loud, organized cheering section. It distracted the hell out of me as a relatively new fighter and clearly gave her a psychological advantage. I suppose I could have responded by organizing my own loud cheering section to follow me around to fights, but somehow that seems like taking performance-enhancers because "everybody else is doing it".

Raulin Arbor wrote:

Ewan wrote:Long time ago, I had my three boys at an event with me. They hadn't seen me fight in "real" tournaments much before and this was the principality champions. They cheered like mad until someone from the sidelines went all "shuuussssssssssshhhhhhhhh" on them.


Once, only, have I fought harder than I did at that event.

Who shushes a kid cheering for their dad? What a prude.

Prude is not the word I would have chosen!

Tailoress wrote:I was once an opponent to someone with a loud, organized cheering section. It distracted the hell out of me as a relatively new fighter and clearly gave her a psychological advantage. I suppose I could have responded by organizing my own loud cheering section to follow me around to fights, but somehow that seems like taking performance-enhancers because "everybody else is doing it".

I think it effects everyone differently. I HATE fighting when I know there are a lot of people rooting for me. I get a lot of anxiety regarding not living up to their expectations and while it isn't crippling, I do better when it's not there. I think cheering is fun, as long as they're not cheering me. Conversely, if my opponent has a loud fan section, it makes me want to dismantle them utterly to shut up their people. But then, I'm driven by spite.

Ewan wrote:They cheered like mad until someone from the sidelines went all "shuuussssssssssshhhhhhhhh" on them.

It must take a lot of effort, to suck that much.

I HATE fighting when I know there are a lot of people rooting for me. I get a lot of anxiety regarding not living up to their expectations and while it isn't crippling, I do better when it's not there.

This.

It was really hard when I was winding up in the Finals of every Crown. Everyone just KNEW I was going to win the next one. Well....everyone but me. After being in the finals some 13 times and having 10 years between winning the first and second one, I got kind of tired of the expectations. And when I lost time after time I felt that I'd let down a lot of people who had been rooting for me.

I was reasonably newish myself at the time, fighting for a couple years. I was a squire. So we were in this long bear-pit tourney. There was this really nice kid, and everyone was cheering for him every fight. He kept losing and kept losing, and we kept cheering for him... myself and the other fighters in the list included. It was fun. Like I said, he was a good kid.

At any rate, and I did NOT throw the fight, in about his 27th fight of the day, he beat me. I was the first person he ever beat in a tourney. I thought that was kinda cool. Another fighter came up to me and was giving me a bit of a hard time about it...after all the kid had lost 26 times in a row... I just said, "Let me ask you this... 5 years from now, do you think he'll remember YOUR name on this day?"

Morgan wrote:I was reasonably newish myself at the time, fighting for a couple years. I was a squire. So we were in this long bear-pit tourney. There was this really nice kid, and everyone was cheering for him every fight. He kept losing and kept losing, and we kept cheering for him... myself and the other fighters in the list included. It was fun. Like I said, he was a good kid.

At any rate, and I did NOT throw the fight, in about his 27th fight of the day, he beat me. I was the first person he ever beat in a tourney. I thought that was kinda cool. Another fighter came up to me and was giving me a bit of a hard time about it...after all the kid had lost 26 times in a row... I just said, "Let me ask you this... 5 years from now, do you think he'll remember YOUR name on this day?"

Awesome question ...

Also i still remember the first time i beat a member of the chiv ... Master Araklee ... i will always remember that fight. And he is a hero of mine to this day.