Of Pomp and Circumstances

November 1, 2014:  The East Kingdom Crown Tournament.  Having fought for only nine months, and having no precedence nor technically passed arms or name, I bit the bullet and petitioned the crown to fight.

Thoughts before Crown:

I have no idea what to expect.  It’s a tournament… I know what those are.  But there are a lot of questions in my head about how it will work, how intense will the environment be, how will it all work, what will the weather be, etc.  In other words, nothing that anyone can tell me in a way that will give me any real clarity, nor anything that is in my control.  That realizing is nice; I have learned to stop freaking out about things that are out of my control, normally.

I have personal goals, like I do every time I fight.  Generally, it remains “Fight well” and I judge how successful a tournament or practice is on that scale.  So it is with Crown, but how do I codify that?  I am entering with every intent that ruling comes with victory, but in reality my odds are slight.  With practice, I can learn something, or improve something.  So for Crown, I gave myself a number:  It’s a double elimination tournament, and I want to fight three matches.

Throughout this week, as Crown approaches, I find that I alternate between very excited and very nervous about the unknowns.  I am really looking forward to supporting and getting support from friends at this event.

I have consciously not practiced much this week, just letting things settle with my body.  After a series of good pell sessions on Tuesday, I overextended my sword-hand wrist.  Very painful at the moment, but it calmed down over the week which was nice; when it first happened, I feared that after all that has happened, I wouldn’t wind up fighting.  Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

I am coming with two swords, one about six inches longer than the other.  I have never fought with it before, so it’s a reserve, but I think that I want to start fighting with it a little more, the weight and reach I think might be good for me.

The Tournament Itself:

The Procession before Their Royal Majesties was really cool.  Having the heralds announce my consort and me before them, being welcomed into the tournament… it was the epitome of why we do this.  Such a simple gesture, but so very powerful.

The tournament itself was a “Challenge up” format, and where I was low on the order of precedence (third from the end), I would be a challenger.  I had thought about my choice a lot, trying to ensure that I could fulfill my “Fight Well” goal.  Right up until the start, I thought I knew who I wanted to pick.  The two combatants ahead of me challenged the top two combatants from the OP, to much ovation from the assembled masses, and it was at that moment I changed my mind.  Duke Omega was the highest ranked duke, but I passed him over and selected Duke Konrad von Ulm.  There was something about him that made it seem like a good match, and I was not disappointed.  I really feel like I had a good fight, despite losing both bouts.  He commended me on my defense, encouraged me to just keep fighting because I am doing the right things for someone at my level.  The environment was a challenge, including one time where I nearly wiped out totally.  But I recovered, and His Grace was kind enough not to take the easy shot while I did.  Afterwards, he gave some great feedback, and everyone said that I seemed to look good against him.

My second bout was against someone who I seem to see everywhere, and have fought several times now, Corwyn Blackthorn from Stonemarche.  Really, a great dude all around who always makes a good fight for me.  In a surprise, he was fighting with a pole-axe that I had not seen him fight with, so that was doubly exciting.  The first bout, he was able to get me with a great thrust to the face, but I wasn’t going to let him do that again.  I set my defense a little further forward, and set my body a little to the left, since his thrust came in from my right, and that strategy seemed to work because I was able to tie him up, and scored on offside to the head.  Third bout, I took the same defense and his offense shifted forward, making me think that he was going to go right to the thrust instead of starting with the swing out that he had used before.  I was able to control his shot, it lodged behind my arm and scored technically with a thrust under the arm (but a solid onside to the head really sealed it while he considered the thrust!)

The weather and conditions at this point prompted the marshallate to move the combat to a gravelled area.  The fight that I drew was Culann Mac Cianain from House VDK and it was frankly pretty quick and I don’t think that I did much of note.  He is a top ten talent, and needed to get through me, which he did with alacrity.  I never had to chance to thank him for the fight and get feedback from him, so I will have to take that opportunity next time that I square up against him.   But at this point, I was soaked to the bone, I had lost my two fights, so I took the chance to get out of my armor and into cleaner, drier clothes.  Of course, then my number came up again and I missed the chance to fight against Duke Randall, which is really the shame here.  Again – this is a chance that I am not going to pass up again, I think that really could have been a nice fight.

Afterthoughts

Hoo boy, where to start.  The rest of the tournament was amazing, it was great to watch fighting at just a high level, and trying to absorb it all.  I received one of the coolest presents ever, a link from the knight’s chain of Baron Kyppyn, the seneschal of my home riding.  Seriously cool.  It was also great to see good friends, make some new friends, and… get it.  All my questions early on about what it was like?  I get it now, and it is amazing.

I am sure there will be further decompression and thoughts and discussions… but for now?  Totally satisfied with this experience and so happy that I did it.  On to Hundred Minutes War!