ANST - Crown topics

[Tim Lozos]

Greetings!

First off, Ducal preogative, according to the Law of Ansteorra is: "Any Duke
or Duchess entered in the Crown Lists shall have the right to withdraw from
the Crown Lists at any time". It originally (ie:back before dirt) meant they
didnt have to enter.

So, that's been raising the questions "Why do Dukes get to drop out?" and
"Why enter Crown if you dont want to win?"

(note that the following is my opinion only and not ment as flamebait. All
rights reserved, post no bills, use only as directed)

First, why enter Crown if you don't want to win? There are alot of reasons,
not all which I agree with. Some fighters (usually squires) often enter to
to show what they can do to the Chiv and the poplace at large. Most of the
time they only have a snowball's chance in hell. I've spoken with some of my
friends who have done this, and they say "well, I know I'm not gonna win, so
I dont have to worry about it". To me, thats not a good thing, because you
never know how that last sword shot is going to land, and you need to be
prepared, mentally, fiscally, and emotionally to be Crown. 

A lot of knights enter Crown to give it the caliber and respect that Crown
deserves. They might not wish to win, but most know the responsibility the
comes with the Crown and can stick it out if need be.

The "contenders" enter to win and have the ability to win. Honestly, there
are usually about 3 or 4 contenders in Crown. You know who they are. You
know whos been training for it and has pushed themselves to that level. But
things happen and sometimes one might get knocked in the first round. It
happens.

The Dukes enter for different reasons, too. Sometimes they want to win,
sometimes they want to patrol the list and make sure it's fought well and
hard. Sometimes they want to take out someone who they feel would not do the
office well. Why do they get that privledge? Because they have been there,
done that. I have seen some entrants who I felt would have done a terrible
job as Crown for whatever reason. The Crown could have prevented their
entering, but that could do more harm than good, by causing ill will at the
least. Of course, I speak for no Crown past or present, but I feel it's
often easier to let that person enter and get beat fair and square.

I had not entered any Crown until this last one because I felt it was not a
place to "show off" (there are lots of other tourneys) and I thought that if
I *did* win, it would'nt have been in the best interests of the Kingdom,
because my lady and I might not have been able to perform the duties to the
best of our abilities, in accordence with the customs of our land. This last
Crown, I did feel that we could do the job, so we entered.

As to Mahee's bracket and the "best man " winning, well, it dosnt always
work that way. If we had everybody fight everybody else (round robin) and
Crowned the one with the most wins, that would probably come a little
closer. Look at a big tourny like Steppes Warlord, with about 87 entrants.
You dont meet everybody, and the person who could have beat you might have
gotten beat in another fight.  I won that tourney and I went 8-1. IMHO, the
best fighter on the field that day was Sir Drake, and he was fighting the byes!

Even in modern sport, the "Best" person dosent always win. At Wimbledon,
where they seed the brackets, so the "best" meets the "worst", the number 1
woman's seed was beaten in the first round by a lady ranked about 150! At
the NCAA basketball tourney, there are four #1 seeds in regional brackets.
If the "best" always won, the Final four would always be the four #1 seeds.
But it doesnt happen! That's why you play the game, and thats why we fight
the Crowns.

So bring on the best. If you really want to win Crown, all you gotta do is
win 5 or 6 bouts in a row....against the best. 


Timo 








============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.