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

Brent & Susan Rachel hbrache at texas.net
Fri Feb 26 09:28:27 PST 1999


"Martin, Brian" wrote:

>         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.

I really do have to agree.., as much as I might wish things were different.
However I must state that reinforcement of desired behavior is necessary to see
it spread.  We already have winner takes all tourneys.  The highest office in
the land may only be had through such.  The same his Champion and his Queen's.

But more than anything else, I'd like to see as many folks out fighting and
participating as possible.  To that end, I must agree that we must acquiesce to
some degree to the idea that the winner of the day should be recognized. To that
end, I suggest we pick 4(+/-) "Defenders of the South" (or what-have-you).  Let
the "winner of the fights" be among them automatically, then pick 3 others based
on cumulative points NOT NECESSARILY weighted toward fighting, but such that you
must fight to be considered.  I really agree with Pendaran's suggestion that we
combine and take the best aspects of both types of tournaments.

Kazimir Petrovich

>         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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