LSFA Challenge Tourney
All fighters must be students or instructors of LSFA or PIAMAC in good standing, or a specific invitee of Joe, Dave, or Wic. There will be a fee ($5-$10) to cover the trophies.
The Adults and Juniors will be separate tourneys (held on the same day) with the exact same rules and trophies.
Demonstration fighting and pick up fighting will be held after the main tournament. Any junior vs adult fighting will be done on a pick-up basis, and will not count towards the competition.
All fights are challenge based. Two fighters will agree on format, and ask approval of a judge. Judge will review, offer changes if needed, and all three will agree. This forms the fight “ticket” and must be submitted in advance. All tickets must be approved by Joe, unless Joe is a combatant, then it will need Dave or Wic’s approval.
The Judge has discretion to throw out challenges that are just too hard to judge, long in duration, wacky, or dangerous. Joe, Dave, and Wic have discretion to throw out tickets for any reason they see fit, but will do so with plenty of time for a ticket to be resubmitted.
At the day of the tournament Judge will select line judges, explain the rules to the other judges, and oversee the fight. Fighters and judges will sign the ticket, and initial any rules changes. If the main judge cannot oversee (because he’s still winded from the previous fight or some other reason), he may appoint another main judge in his place.
There will be a minimum and a maximum number of fights to be had. If the fighter does not do the minimum, they are not eligible for the finals or for the fighter’s choice. If we have a similar group as the 2007 tourney, we would have a minimum of 5 and a max of 10 for the adults. This number will be determined as the tickets start coming in.
After the regular challenges are complete, the fighters who did the minimum number of fights will vote for the Fighter’s Choice. Fighter’s Choice is completely up to the fighter, and is not always whomever won the most fights. It can be most improved, best sportsmanship, greatest amount of balls, whatever. Of course “he whupped everyone’s ass” is a good way of choosing Fighter’s Choice as well.
After the regular challenges are complete, the crowd will vote on Crowd’s Favorite. This will be a general acclaim vote (ie: cheering), with a show of hands if it is too close to tell. Crowd’s Favorite winners do not need to have completed the minimum number of fights.
After the regular challenges are complete, and the Crowd and Fighter’s winners are awarded, all fighters and judges will vote for 2 fighters to be in the final. Top 4 (2 if we don’t have enough fighters) will be selected, to fight bracketed for the championship.
Champion fights will be best of 3 rounds each. Each round will be a different challenge, selected from the “normal” challenges that occurred during the tourney. Non final judges will determine the challenges any way they choose. Drawing out of a hat, matching strengths, letting the fighters pick are all acceptable. Intentionally matching major strength to major weakness is not, although it should be assumed that anyone in the finals has few major weaknesses.
Challenge tips & Misc
Judges say is final, both in the fight and in determining what fights are allowed.
Decide what weapons and what targeting will be used. In general, headshots will be disallowed for juniors except for very light weapons.
Proper gear is required for all fights. If you want to do an inch of blood, do that in your backyard, not here.
No sharps. Not even taped folders.
Decide what scoring you are looking at. Touch tournaments are legal, but in general “technique” will go a lot longer in getting you noticed for the finals.
No steel for juniors, unless it’s a cutting competition. No junior participation in cutting competition without written parental consent. Joe needs to be in the loop for this.
No fights should take too long. If it’s something where getting a point is difficult, think about 1 point wins the round for three rounds as opposed to 3 points.
For things that points happen often, 5 points to a round or 5 rounds is cool.
Mixed weapons are encouraged.
All grappling/submission/boxing fights will have time limits. 3 5 minute rounds is just too long for this tourney. 3 1 minute rounds or 1 5 minute round is more fitting here. If time limit is reached it will either be a draw or judges decision, decide before the fight.
Turning down a fair challenge without a good reason is a pussy thing to do and should count against you with the crowd and other judges. Having too many fights to fight everyone is a fair reason and not to be counted against you.
Issuing challenges matching your known strengths to your opponents known weaknesses is a pussy thing to do and should count against you with the crowd and other judges.
Issuing challenges matching your known weaknesses to your opponents known strengths is ballsy and should count in your favor with the crowd and other judges.
Examples of challenges:
- Timed “continuous” fights, with judges discretion about awarding wins
- Exactly what we saw in the 2007 tourney
- Exactly what we saw in the 2007 tourney with different weapons (ie polearms, steel broadswords, etc)
- Exactly what we saw in the 2007 tourney with mixed weapons (ie: staff vs sword&shield)
- Exactly what we saw in the tourney, but with headshots allowed (judges choice)
- Cutting: ie how many slices can you get from a milk jug, neatness of cut on a jug or bamboo mat, etc.
- Armored fighting
- Boffer/shinai fighting
- Specific target fighting (ie: singlestick, handhunting with cudgel)
- For juniors especially:
- Physical challenges; ie: I can do more jumping jacks than you
- Drill challenges; ie: I can hit the target more often in “behind you step foreward”
- Group challenges are ok, ie: I can do more jumping jacks than all of you. These count as a fight to everyone involved
