[Ansteorra-rapier] A question about how we "Weight" fighters

[Candice Blaschke]

Corvin,
 
Dante used this at Defending the Gate this year for dividing up teams for the day.  Anyway it turned out to be an good weighting system for melees. Part of what makes it work is taking in physically conditioning as well as prowess. Otherwsie you can find a local spreadsheet junkie to track fighters progress across a series of tournaments.
 
Candice / Caitlin
 
FWD:
 
I had a few people ask me to post this, so here it is.

You line everyone up and call out down the list; for each section that
applies/applied to them, everyone takes one step forward. Then, you
look at the 4-8 forwardmost people and seed out the teams (1 and 4 go
to one team, 2 and 3 go to the other in case of 4; 1, 3, 6, and 8 in
the case of 8, etc.), then alternate down the rest of the people. It
seemed to me that this really balanced the teams out, which in turn
made for more competitive fighting. We've all been in blow-outs, and I
don't think anyone finds them especially fun. It's not perfect, but it
seems to work well enough.

Baronial Fighting Award
Baronial Rapier Champion (per year)
Kingdom Rapier Champion (per reign)
AoA Level Fighting Award
Free Scholar/Closed Order of l'Academie d'Espee
Shark's Tooth (per)
Vexillium Atlantiae (per)
GoA Level Fighting Award
PoA Level Fighting Award
5+ years of SCA rapier experience
10+ years of SCA rapier experience
Won a tournament
Won 10+ tournaments
Won 50+ tournaments
Run a mile in 10 minutes
Run 5K in 30 minutes
5+ years of a mainstream sport that involves field awareness (soccer, field
hockey, not cross country)




________________________________
From: Kevin Wilson <kevwilson at swbell.net>
To: 'Ansteorra RapierNet' <ansteorra-rapier at lists.ansteorra.org>; 'Ansteorra RapierNet' <ansteorra-rapier at ansteorra.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-rapier] A question about how we "Weight" fighters


Interesting viewpoint, and I can’t say I disagree.  It would be interesting to see how that would change things, where people would get ranked differently. Maybe try it at a big practice or for a fun tourney?
 
Another possible way of weighting that could be considered is based purely on skill and experience. It is more subjective, however, so naturally there would be some that would not be happy with it. But then, awards can be viewed subjectively as well.
 
Green:  new fighters, those just starting rapier, or those who do not have an understanding of swordplay. Generally are not much of a threat to those in the other categories. 
Yellow: fighters with some experience and skill, and will sometimes be a threat to those in ‘higher’ categories.
Red: fighters with enough experience and skill that they are a threat to pretty much anyone most of the time. 
Black: the elite. Those who can win pretty much any fight or tourney they put their decide to.
 
Note that no awards or titles are used. I find that the reality is, some have more or less skill than the awards or titles they hold show. Not all White Scarves are Elite. Some cadets and non-scarves have come up the ranks and been in the ‘red’ category, or even Elite before they were made part of the order.  Being a cadet, or getting a Sable Talon, or QR, doesn’t bump you up a category. Improving does.  
 
Also – I started using “White” for the Elite, but changed my mind. First, some will automatically assume that it means all White Scarves are part of it, which is not the case, and second, I find black seems to have more of a sense of….finality….to it. J
 
Don Corvin Fenarro
 
 
 
 
From:ansteorra-rapier-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org [mailto:ansteorra-rapier-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Jhan Knebel
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 5:01 PM
To: Ansteorra RapierNet
Subject: [Ansteorra-rapier] A question about how we "Weight" fighters
 
Historically in Rapier, I have regularly seen weighted tournaments weighted in the same or similar ways that they are being weighted at Bryn Gwlad this weekend. 
 
For Reference:
 
5 – Royal family or current/former Queen’s champions
4 – White scarf or equiv or Chivalry
3 – Cadets or Centurions
2 – Anyone with a combat award
1 – All others 
 
My question is this:
 
I am curious as to what people think of continuing to use Cadet as a determining factor, when it has no definition associated with skill level. 
We do have awards based on skill and merit that allow us to reflect 5 levels of fighters. Granted, it does not mirror a 1 to 1 ratio for heavy fighters, but does it have to? 
5 – Current/former Queen’s champions
4 – White scarf or equiv 
3 – Sable Talon for Rapier
2 – Queen's Rapier 
1 – All others 
 
I can see valid points for and against it, and just wanted to see what other people think.
 
PLEASE NOTE: I have NO problems with the format of the tournament for this Bryn Gwlad Baronial. Many events use this or a similar formula, it was just this publication that brought these thought back to the front of my mind. I've been kicking them around since the creating of the Optio, which became the Talon.
 
In Service,
 
Rixende
-- 
Baroness Rixende de Rouen, CIM, CSM
Quidam audit valde, facit valde
rixende at gmail.com
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