Boredom War; Heralding; Curious Tournament Format

[jducoeur]

This Saturday rates a diary entry, despite my current laziness about the diary.

Boredom War can mainly be characterized by two words: "Wet" and "Bugs". The new site is quite decent, and I suspect is downright nice in good weather. After six weeks of nearly continuous rain, though, pretty much everything squidged underfoot. (The only exceptions being the enormous puddles that one had to navigate around while walking.) Even that wasn't so bad -- it drizzled most of the day, but largely held off from real rain -- but the mosquitos were murder. I eventually got some relief thanks to a megadose of Deep Woods Off; some folks weren't even helped much by that. I believe I have received my yearly supply of bug bites, thanks.

Despite that, though, it was a fun day. I had been expecting to have a pretty dull time of it; to give myself a little something to do, I resolved to assist by heralding one of the lists for the King's and Queen's Armored Combat Champs. More fool I -- it turns out that I was the only person who showed up with any intention of doing anything of the sort, so I wound up in charge by default. Having eight lists to deal with by myself wasn't exactly what I'd intended. Fortunately, the massed forces of Carolingia (mainly Casa Moomba) were around, and many were able to help with the project, with each of us taking a two-list corner of the field. Thanks to msmemory and oakleaf_mirror for heralding essentially all day, and umbran, new_man and Eowyn for doing much of it, as well as tpau and Greg for list-running for us. It was a bit hectic at times, but between us we managed quite decently, I think. (And it's the first time I've ever heralded the finals of a major tournament. I think I've added List Heraldry to my collection of "SCA Arts I am at least Adequate in".)

The tourney format was unusual, and while it probably wasn't even slightly period it was pretty interesting. Gregor ran it as four successive single-elimination tournaments, each requiring a different specific weapons form. (First two-weapon, then great weapon, then poles, then sword-and-board.) For each fight you won, you got one point. The top four point scorers went on to the semi-finals, which were three bouts, with the combatants agreeing on a different form each time. The top two there went into the finals: three *different* forms than what they had used in the semis.

Overall, it seemed like a worthwhile experiment. It focused on weapons depth more than any other tourney I've ever seen, and gave everyone at least four bouts. It didn't go as quickly as one might wish (at least in part because the listmistress didn't find out about the format until she got on-site), but we still managed to get through a lot of fights in about four hours.

Finished off the day by buying a couple of armor legs from Klaus, who doesn't want to haul them to California. They're heavier than what I'd been intending, but I think I'll be happier for having really good leg protection, especially if I do try out a bit of tourney fighting. (Which I'm thinking about for next year.) Now I need to start seriously thinking about the arming shirt that they'll want to hang from...

Comments

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I thought you did a more than "adequate" job of heralding. You were clear, loud, and didn't butcher the names.

The legs you bought probably don't want to be hung from your shoulders -- you want a good belt and good straps at the backs of your legs. I can help you out with that.

[jducoeur]

I thought you did a more than "adequate" job of heralding.

Thanks. My standards are high, though -- a really *good* list herald needs more variety than I have yet, and does a better job of honoring the fighters, especially in the finals. I'm a reasonably decent MC, but would need more polish to be good at the finer nuances of the job. I may or may not get around to developing that polish. For now, I'm pleased that I got through a full and fairly busy day without blowing out my voice -- I seem to be getting back the knack of yelling from the diaphragm.

The legs you bought probably don't want to be hung from your shoulders -- you want a good belt and good straps at the backs of your legs. I can help you out with that.

Cool; thanks. I will probably take you up on that, although probably not until after Pennsic. This is mainly a project for next summer -- first, I need to get my cardio condition is up to the point where I can do this for more than a few minutes. *That* project starts tomorrow, when the elliptical machine arrives...

[new-man.livejournal.com]

... and does a better job of honoring the fighters

That one was something of a puzzlement to me. Sometimes the marshall in my list (who the marshall was varied) would cry "Victory to So-and-so" or something similar, other times he'd just sort of look at me. Field heraldry is pretty easy and a good things for new people to get involved in. Think it'd be worth it for me to run a class?

[Cardio improvement] starts tomorrow...

Best of luck with that. I'm in week 2 of the "fit by 40" plan. To be followed by "Fabulous by 41" ;-)

[jducoeur]

Think it'd be worth it for me to run a class?

Probably, yes. (Although my initial instinct -- recommending that you offer it at EKU in the fall -- is probably incorrect. This one really needs to be taught at an outdoor event to do it right, I suspect.)

Best of luck with that.

Thanks. My experience to date has been that I rather like the elliptical machine, as a good way to hit a target heartrate without wrecking my knees; I just despise the gym. And history says that I can do this more or less every day, if I incorporate it into my daily discipline. So getting a good home elliptical will hopefully be the right first step to get into decent shape...

[tpau]

Greg = etherial

[jducoeur]

Ahhh -- okay, fine. I hadn't connected the login to the person. This also explains why I was unable to winkle out etherial previously, since I only really got to know him a few weeks ago...

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

That was fun. I hadn't done tourney heraldry since...well, I think it must have been pre-Stonemarche. Even better, I still had my voice at the end of the day, so I must not have forgotten everything.

[jducoeur]

Glad you enjoyed it, and thank you particularly for volunteering so promptly at the beginning -- that was instrumental in giving me enough confidence to try and round up a team. Knowing that I had one person gave me some hope that I could find a couple of others...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I remain surprised at the poor turnout from the Southern Region. I know Sir Gabriel was ill, but I was taken aback to see only one Blutwache chap, and no particular representation from Wilmot*, Arindale, ICOD, Von Halstern, et al. Either the weather kept them home, or they weren't interested in being this year's royal champion. It was a Central-centric list.

*not counting Sir Mitchell, who was present in his capacity as Earl Marshal

[new-man.livejournal.com]

Well, despite the fact that it didn't really rain, and there was certainly no lightning, they had been saying 'doom, gloom, thunder, and lightning' on Friday (and Saturday morning) when most of the southern region would have been making their final travel plans.

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

It *poured* Friday night and it rained much of Saturday.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I got to the site around noon on Saturday. Certainly, it was raining hard on the drive in, and it looked ominous as we were packing up to go around 7 p.m., but it rained very little while I was at the site. Didn't stop the roads from being sodden and the bugs from being fierce, but it was a far cry from what had been predicted.

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

If the forecast for Northern Region or GNEW was as bad as this weekend's was, I certainly would not have made the trip.

I know a lot of Carolingians who didn't go.

[jducoeur]

True, although a large fraction of the fighting contingent was there...

[hyperbard.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we were actually expecting a lot more people than showed up and from lots of local groups more than were there... I think I'll count us lucky with the amount we got. I almost got rain in my tent (thankfully not). Thanks to the list heralds!

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

I remain surprised at the poor turnout from the Southern Region.

Does Boredom War typically draw from the Southern Region? (I've never been, myself, because most years the site doesn't allow dogs, so I have no personal experience from which to draw.) If an event isn't in someone's traditional travel pattern, it can be hard to change (even for shiny stuff like Royal Championships).

[hyperbard.livejournal.com]

not so far as I've seen... though last year we had people from Georgia. BBM and Dragonship Haven both came, I know, just not in huge numbers.