[Elfsea] 1. Re: Bear pit vs. melee vs. regular tourney

[Jay Rudin]

Bear pit:  Maximizes number of fights and time spent standing in line at the expense of all interaction between the fighters and the rest of the populace.  It minimizes pomp, ceremony, flirtation, persona, etc.  It's very hard to tell whose winning unless you ask the list mistrsss ior watch *every* single fight.  It also minimizes the value of any specific fight, because the is no elimination and no limit to the number of fights involves.  A favorite of high-stamina fighters with no other immediate responsibilities.  An difficult situation for fighters who have immediate responsibilties elsewhere.  (I usually can't stay in line for the entire tourney, which makes it impossible to keep up.)  This style will have imbalanced fights up to the end, because the lesser fighters are still in.  The victory is based more on how you moved down lesser fighters than on encounters between top fighters, which can be pretty rare.

Single elimination: reduces the number of fights, since each encounter eliminates one fighter.  (If there are N fighters, there will be N-1 encounters.)  The encounters can be single or 2 out of 3.  Half the fighters are eliminated in the first round.  Used in Crown for various reasons.  *Very* clear how somebody's doing.  (He's undefeated, or he's out.)  This style of tournament maximizes the effects of the pairings.  *Somebody* fought Miguel in the first round.  Excellent for pomp and ceremony; not so good for lesser fighters.  

Double elimination: Each fighter continues until beaten twice.  For N fighters, there will be 2N-2 or 2N-1 fights.  This allows every fighter at least two fights, with more opportunity to see top fighters against each other.  Not immedeiately clear how well somebody is doing.  The most common question around the list field is "How you doing?"  The answer is either "undefeated" or "one loss".  This is a compromise between lots of fights and ability to interact with the ladies and other onlookers.

Progressive melee: First round is one-on-one.  Then the victor and loser in each fight are a team, facing two person teams in the second round.  Third round is four person teams, etc.  Everyone fights all the way through, and the draw is incredibly important.  Individual skills do not win this tourney.  It works great if there are 8, 16, 32 or 64 fighters.  It works OK with 24, 48, or 96 fighters, but will end with a round robin of 3 teams.  With any other number, some compromise solution must be found.

Melting snowball: Progressive melee in reverse.  Split the field into two teams, which fight.  Split the winning team into two teams, which fight.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  The biggest problem is that half the fighters only get one round, and only two fighters get any individual fighting.

Pas de arms:  This is not a tourney style; it's an approach to the non-fighting aspects of the tourney -- panoply, heraldry, flirting with the ladies, etc.  It's usually run with a set of different fighting challenges with no elimination.

But all of these are intended for individuals.  If you want a way for branches or teams to compete, you need something different.  For comparing different groups, you will have the additional problem of trying to find a way to even things up, so Emerald Keep's team, say, is not grossly outmanned by Elfsea's or Steppes's team.

Ideas for group competition also available, if you want them.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
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