SR - Judged Vs. Challenge Tourneys: Why not both?

[Martin, Brian]

	Pendaran here,


	Okay, so I'm getting the feeling that most people would prefer
something other than the modern tournament style of elimination. That's
great with me, but personally, I'd rather stay away from a purely judged
tourney. As much as I love Lyonesse and other judged tourneys in which I
have participated, such tourneys often suffer from the stigma of favoritism,
the most skilled fighters not being chosen, and so on.  Sorry, but a
tournament is a competition and in many (most?) of the combatant's minds, it
is to determine the most skilled fighter that day.

	Now, I don't think that choosing the best fighter that day should be
the only goal of the tournament. I think that there should be other goals
that include ceremony, showmanship, courtesy, chivalry, and others. I think
that we can achieve many of those goals with a challenge tourney much like
the ones suggested by Lyonel, Conner and Kief. Such a tourney would require
skill and stamina from the victor. If we want, we can have different
segments of the tourney that would require various weapons styles be used
for variety, segments that require crests for appearance and so forth. 

	But what about combining the two types of tourneys? The fighting
would be done on a challenge basis and fighters would accumulate points
through defeating opponents. Furthermore, points could be added to a
fighter's total by secret judges for honor, chivalry and pomp. You might
still have the stigma of favoritism, but that would be greatly lessened by
the majority of points being garnered through combat. How's that for a
thought?

	Pendaran
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