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

[Jay Rudin]

Tivar wrote:

>I actively dislike such weighting. Here's why:
>
>Typically the points are given based on SCA 
>rank--Joe Newbie might be worth one point, Cadet 
>Buttonbutcher might be worth three, Lord Soandso 
>might be worth two, etc. A White Scarf would get 
>a pretty high number, so would a peer or a noble. 
>I'm all of those, which makes me target #1 for 
>all the up-and-coming hotshots. If I kill them, I 
>get a couple of points. If they kill me, they get five or ten points.
>
>Unless I defeat four or five times as many 
>low-level opponents as most other people face, or 
>make a point of challenging high-ranking 
>opponents *and* beat all of them, there's no way I can win such a tourney.

Agreed. But so what? 

I've always known that I have a disadvantage in such tourneys, just as I have an advantage in any tourney in which talking and role-play are involved, like Bjornsborg Academy of Defense.

Dirk had an advantage in the Rose tourney he won, since it was single rapier (his best) after the qualifying round.

Some of us are at an advantage in tourneys which require all five styles, and some are at a disadvantage.

If the tourney styles keep changing, then who gets the advantage keeps changing, so we (ideally) all get a turn with the advantage, and we all get a turn with the disadvantage.

This kind of tourney gives the disadvantage to those of us who earned our current point level decades ago. It gives the advantage to fencers who have developed well, but don't live where the White Scarves are, and therefore get red scarves later than people in Bryn Gwlad or Stargate.

OK, this is their turn with the advantage. Why not?

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin