It's like a coin toss...With three sides
Okay...It's been awhile (tm).
There's plenty to talk about. About a week and a half ago, the Kingdom that I live in held its Crown Tournament. For those of you not familiar with the SCA, this is the big time. It is the most important tournament of the year (although it happens twice a year, one each 6 months). It is what a lot of people train for, and it is where you will see the best individual fighting in the Kingdom. The purpose of the tournament is to select the next Prince and Princess of the Kingdom (they then go on to be the next King and Queen). I fought in it. In some fairy tale world, I would be able to tell you that I won, but this isn't that place. I didn't win. I went three rounds.
I want all of you to guess who I had to fight in the first round. Go ahead and guess! If you will look a few posts down the page you will see me refer to someone who is my ghost. Guess what? That's who I got in the first round. Now, I can say that each round was a best two out of three. I had to face this guy that always beats me. I'm happy to say that I didn't freeze up. I gave him a good fight, and I took the fight to him. He won two straight fights and defeated me in the round, but I didn't just wait to die. That's important to me. I tried to control the fight, and I did my best. I can't feel too badly about the first round. My ghost went on to win the tournament and is now the next Crown Prince of our Kingdom.
In the second round, I drew a knight I respect and admire. He has a flawless presentation both on the field and off. I actually won the first of our fights. He won the second. And then, I won the third. That means that I beat him in the round. In his defense, he had a really long drawn out fight in the first round and was really tired coming into the second round, but I still beat him. My goal for the day was to win one of the rounds, and I had successfully won this round, so I was happy.
In the third round, I drew another knight. He considers himself a very technical fighter. I have fought him several times. I have beaten him in the past, but not in a Crown Tournament. We took the field and the fight began. I managed to "One-Shot" him. I through what is commonly called a "Scorpion Wrap" or a "Sky Wrap" where you basically throw an overhand shot above the opponents shield and sword and wind up bringing your blade down into the back of their head. He had under estimated my height and range and he didn't see the shot coming. He then proceeded to beat me in the next two fights and he took the round. However, both of the remaining fights were long and well fought. I was certainly not a push over for him, and I believe he will remember the fights (I'm pretty sure I got one of his legs in both fights, of course, he got my leg in one of the fights and killed me in both of them).
I was happy with how I did in the Tournament. I went three rounds deep and had good fights in all three rounds. I fought the eventual winner and two knights of the Kingdom. That's nothing to sneeze at. At the end of the day, several Ladies in the gallery selected me as the most Chivalrous of the day. It was an honor that I don't believe I've earned, but that I am thrilled to have.
Now we move on to "What's Next?". This is where I'm running into problems. This weekend there's a major "War Practice". We will go and fight melee bouts all day long and it will be good. The problem comes from the events that are available after that. On June 2nd there are three events that I want to go to. Each one of the events has a different draw for me.
One of them is another out of Kingdom war practice. It's about 2.5 hours away and it would be good to work with some of my friends on our Melee Unit (a group of guys who consistently fight together so that they are more effective in war).
A second event that's about 1.5 Hours away is a demo for a local museum. That doesn't sound all that exciting, however, there are going to be equestrian activities at this demo and my friend is basically running the equestrian activities and he could use my help (plus I would probably get to ride which is something I haven't had enough of recently).
Finally, there's an event that's about 5.5 hours away. Normally I wouldn't even consider it, however, some of the knights have decided to make this event important. They are hosting a tourney to evaluate "Who wants to be a knight?". The existing Chivalry want to evaluate the up and comers to see how they are doing. Being that I would like to be a knight someday, this would be a good event to be at. I could work with the knights and try to better my fighting, and also maybe show them a thing or two about what I've learned in the past year.
So there you have it. I have one weekend and three potential events. I have no idea which one to go to. Any input would be appreciated, although I'm not positive if I've summarized the events appropriately. I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to let you know what I finally decide.
There's plenty to talk about. About a week and a half ago, the Kingdom that I live in held its Crown Tournament. For those of you not familiar with the SCA, this is the big time. It is the most important tournament of the year (although it happens twice a year, one each 6 months). It is what a lot of people train for, and it is where you will see the best individual fighting in the Kingdom. The purpose of the tournament is to select the next Prince and Princess of the Kingdom (they then go on to be the next King and Queen). I fought in it. In some fairy tale world, I would be able to tell you that I won, but this isn't that place. I didn't win. I went three rounds.
I want all of you to guess who I had to fight in the first round. Go ahead and guess! If you will look a few posts down the page you will see me refer to someone who is my ghost. Guess what? That's who I got in the first round. Now, I can say that each round was a best two out of three. I had to face this guy that always beats me. I'm happy to say that I didn't freeze up. I gave him a good fight, and I took the fight to him. He won two straight fights and defeated me in the round, but I didn't just wait to die. That's important to me. I tried to control the fight, and I did my best. I can't feel too badly about the first round. My ghost went on to win the tournament and is now the next Crown Prince of our Kingdom.
In the second round, I drew a knight I respect and admire. He has a flawless presentation both on the field and off. I actually won the first of our fights. He won the second. And then, I won the third. That means that I beat him in the round. In his defense, he had a really long drawn out fight in the first round and was really tired coming into the second round, but I still beat him. My goal for the day was to win one of the rounds, and I had successfully won this round, so I was happy.
In the third round, I drew another knight. He considers himself a very technical fighter. I have fought him several times. I have beaten him in the past, but not in a Crown Tournament. We took the field and the fight began. I managed to "One-Shot" him. I through what is commonly called a "Scorpion Wrap" or a "Sky Wrap" where you basically throw an overhand shot above the opponents shield and sword and wind up bringing your blade down into the back of their head. He had under estimated my height and range and he didn't see the shot coming. He then proceeded to beat me in the next two fights and he took the round. However, both of the remaining fights were long and well fought. I was certainly not a push over for him, and I believe he will remember the fights (I'm pretty sure I got one of his legs in both fights, of course, he got my leg in one of the fights and killed me in both of them).
I was happy with how I did in the Tournament. I went three rounds deep and had good fights in all three rounds. I fought the eventual winner and two knights of the Kingdom. That's nothing to sneeze at. At the end of the day, several Ladies in the gallery selected me as the most Chivalrous of the day. It was an honor that I don't believe I've earned, but that I am thrilled to have.
Now we move on to "What's Next?". This is where I'm running into problems. This weekend there's a major "War Practice". We will go and fight melee bouts all day long and it will be good. The problem comes from the events that are available after that. On June 2nd there are three events that I want to go to. Each one of the events has a different draw for me.
One of them is another out of Kingdom war practice. It's about 2.5 hours away and it would be good to work with some of my friends on our Melee Unit (a group of guys who consistently fight together so that they are more effective in war).
A second event that's about 1.5 Hours away is a demo for a local museum. That doesn't sound all that exciting, however, there are going to be equestrian activities at this demo and my friend is basically running the equestrian activities and he could use my help (plus I would probably get to ride which is something I haven't had enough of recently).
Finally, there's an event that's about 5.5 hours away. Normally I wouldn't even consider it, however, some of the knights have decided to make this event important. They are hosting a tourney to evaluate "Who wants to be a knight?". The existing Chivalry want to evaluate the up and comers to see how they are doing. Being that I would like to be a knight someday, this would be a good event to be at. I could work with the knights and try to better my fighting, and also maybe show them a thing or two about what I've learned in the past year.
So there you have it. I have one weekend and three potential events. I have no idea which one to go to. Any input would be appreciated, although I'm not positive if I've summarized the events appropriately. I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to let you know what I finally decide.
Labels: fighting
posted by TechSquire @ 8:42 AM
2 comments
