Yup, I still suck!

So there was a tournament last weekend. It was a fairly big one. Actually, to be fair, there were two tournies last weekend. One of them was a double elimination tournament (there's a winners bracket and a losers bracket, once you lose in the losers bracket you are out). The other was a "bear-pit" style tournie (basically several rings are setup and you play king of the hill. Winner stays and fights again, the loser goes to the end of the line and tries again). Once again, I was nervous going into the tournies because I've been sick since the last tournament. We think it's either bronchitis or pneumonia. So, I wasn't exactly 100% going into this one. It's also one of our Kingdoms bigger events, so the fighter turn-out was much larger than the last tournament I fought in (and won!). If you'll recall from my last post, I thought that maybe I won the last tourney because it was a "light-list" (meaning that no big name fighters were there). That had to be the reason that I won. If I faced any real talent, I would obviously fold and fall like a house of cards. Remember, I still think I suck.

So we start with the double elimination tourney. In my first round, I draw a knight.

"Oh Great! I guess it's going to be a quick day for me!"

Imagine my surprise when I leg him and then take several shots at his head! He compliments me on a good fight, and tells me that I've won. Obviously, I got lucky.

I go into the second round. It turns out that I now have to face a Duke (someone who has won the Crown Tournament at least twice, in short, he doesn't suck). Once again, I convince myself that this is going to be a quick day. I wish I could say that I somehow won this one. I didn't. I tried to take a shot at his leg (which he left open). I hit him, but not hard enough. After I hit his leg, he literally rang my bell (hit me in the helm to the point that I heard a ringing sound). After the fight though, this Duke took the time to compliment me on going for his open leg. He told me that my targeting was perfect and he wasn't sure if anyone would notice the opening. He was impressed that I made the attempt.

In the third round, I am to face a squire from another Kingdom. He happens to be a squire to that Kingdom's current King. Judging by his kit (what we call someone's armour and fighting equipment), he is not a new fighter. Once again, I tell myself that this will be my second loss and at least then I can look forward to fighting in the bear-pit. The fight starts and I throw two very fast combinations at this guys head. After the second combination lands on this guys head, I hear four or five people shout from the sideline "WOW! Great shot! That was beautiful, man!". Turns out they were talking about me. Man, I really need to learn to take compliments.

The forth round was relatively uneventful. I was facing another squire from our Kingdom. I know him well. He was fighting with a pole arm instead of the fairly standard sword and shield. The advantage of a pole arm is that it gives you range. You can strike your opponent from a further distance meaning that you can kill your opponent before he can reach you. The disadvantage is that if I get inside the range of your weapon, you are fairly screwed. Well, the fight started, I closed the gap quickly, he swung and I blocked. By the time he could try to reset for a second shot, I was standing on top of him and hitting him in the head. So now I'm three up and one down. I'm starting to think it's very odd that I'm not out of this thing yet. I guess I'll have to think about that later.

In the fifth round, I draw another knight. Not just any knight, but a knight who has twice previously served as the field commander for our Kingdom's Pennsic army. He is a great guy, and a very fun fight. He normally cleans my clock inside of 30 seconds flat. So once again, I'm pretty sure that this tourney is over for me. We square off and begin the fight. After several flurries, we both hit each other in the head at the same time! This is known as a double kill. The rules for this tourney state that doubles are to be fought again. I'm thrilled to have landed anything on him, and I can now die happy knowing that I at least held my own once. The fight starts over, and once again, before I know it, this knight is telling me that I've landed a good blow and it was a very good fight. I'm still not sure what hit him, but apparently, I've won again. Something is wrong here! This is not a light list. There's lots of talent here. I shouldn't be 4 up and one down going into the sixth round of this tourney. There is simply no way it's possible.

Now I need to explain some vocabulary. In the fighting circles, you come across fighters that always beat you. No matter what happens, you always seem to lose. It's not that they are necessarily better than you, but for some reason they just have your number. These other fighters are sometimes called your phantoms or your ghosts or if they are very similar to you, they can be your "dark mirror" (very poetic, right?). I have a few that fight in my Kingdom that are my ghosts. Guess who I draw in the sixth round? You guessed it! One of my A number One ghosts. I wish I could tell you that this was a fairy tale and that I had somehow figured out how to beat him that day. I can't. I stood there and let him stab me. I died and this tournament run was over. On this day, making it to the sixth round meant that you were one round short of the semi finals (last four fighters). That means that I was in the final 8. That's nothing to sneeze at. I'm really proud of how I did. But that last fighter didn't beat me. I beat myself. As I stepped from the fighting list, the Duke that beat me in round two came up to me and asked:

"What the Hell happened?"

"What do you mean? I lost.", I replied.

"I know that, but in the last three fights you attacked. You controlled the fight. You took it to your opponent. In this fight, you seemed tentative."

"Yeah, for whatever reason, I'm scared of that guy."

"Well, it was obvious! You don't have any reason to be scared. If you controlled the fight, you would've been much better off. You waited for him to kill you! Don't do that!", and with that, the Duke slapped me on the back and told me I fought well.

I won't continue to bore you with descriptions of the bear-pit. It was relatively uneventful for me. I had one 5 fight run (4 victories and a loss at the end) but other than that there were some victories and some losses, but by that time my breathing was failing me (remember, I was sick). I have no idea how I made it six rounds deep into the double elimination. I can't say it was a light list. I can't really say that anyone I fought was having an off day. We were fighting indoors, so the Sun wasn't in their eyes. I'm very confused. I'm happy with my fighting overall that day, but I still can't convince myself that I don't suck. Maybe everyone will have more luck beating me next weekend. After all...

...I still suck.