2nd Burning Wheel Fight! Championships!

[Yagathai]

On the 05/05/05, there was an official Burning Wheel Fight! championship held at BWHQ. We didn't do one last year, but I'd like to do one this year -- online, so even people that can't make it to NYC can participate.

You've got until Monday, 4 June to post your contestant to the Hall of Champions thread, at which point I'll make up brackets and assign combatants. Standard Arena character creation rules apply -- see the Welcome to the Arena thread. Short version: 4LPs, any race excepting Spiders and Trolls. No cheating (and before you ask, I'll decide what does and doesn't constitute cheating).

Y'all may want to have some "warm-up" matches in the meantime. Normally a death in the Arena permanently retires a character, but if both contestants specify that they're going to be having a warm-up match ahead of time, we'll ignore that rule.

Any questions about the rules, post them in the Welcome to the Arena thread. Any questions about the tournament, post them here.

[Tobias]

Edit:

Which out-of-book elements are allowed? I see dark elves mentioned - any other races?

Mounts are, presumably, not allowed? (Or, at least, you opponent could request their non-presence).

Only the basic combat maneuvers from the books?

Tx, Tobias, thinking already...

[Yagathai]

From the Welcome to the Arena thread (http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/showthread.php?t=825):

2) Champions may be Human, Dwarf, Elf, Orc, Great Wolf, Roden, or Dark Elf. NO TROLLS OR SPIDERS!

...

5) Champions may purchase mounts, but both combatants must agree to their use before the fight begins.

And yes, only the basic combat maneouvers from the books.

[Tobias]

Tx.

[Yagathai]

Amendment: We're going to treat Sorcery like mounts: You can buy it, but you can't use it without your opponent's consent.

[Yagathai]

Couple of rules rulings*:

1) I am not going to outlaw the use of Song of Burning Bright, but due to its breakability (G6 Song with a B9 Grief means a tandem, extremely difficult Steel check every two actions) I'm going to limit its use to once a combat.

2) You cannot use the standard Mourner trait in conjunction with a Grey Grief to gain a G9 Grief. While this may be within the letter of the rules (and I'm not sure that it is), it's totally against the spirit. What I will let you do:

a) Calculate your Grief normally. Use Mourner to raise it to whatever you want. THEN spend 5 points to Grey it (leaving you with a respectable G4 Grief, assuming you went to a B9 Grief with Mourner).

b) Burn up a custom trait with the Trait Burner, identical to Mourner except with whatever the extra cost is for Greying something. Then feel free to apply Mourner to your already-Grey Grief.

*You're welcome to start a separate thread about these topics in one of the other forums if you want to argue about them, but keep your whining out of The Arena.

[Yagathai]

OK folks. Brackets coming tomorrow! Stay tuned!

[Yagathai]

Our competitors are:

Eldrissa Looks-West (Tobias)
Marcus (Salar)
The Black Knight (Kublai)
Acinonyx (GreedyAlgorithm)
Thol the Lost (IvanHo)
Arben Argonsson (Yagathai)
He Who Puts the Heads of Men on Pikes and Wears Their Ears Around His Neck (Drekk)

Since we only have seven contestants, we're going to do this in a classic double elimination style tournament. That means everyone is guaranteed at least two fights. By total random selection, these are our first round matchups:

Marcus: Bye

Thol the Lost
vs
Acinonyx

The Black Knight
vs
Eldrissa Looks-West

Arben Argonsson
vs
He Who Puts the Heads of Men on Pikes and Wears Their Ears Around His Neck

Contestants, let the tournament begin!

(ETA Drekk's character)

[TimP]

Back in the day there used to be all sorts of color about the characters, the crowds, and the arenas, themselves. That was way cool! So basically what I'm saying is 'What the fuck?' Let's have some color for the faithful readers!

[Yagathai]

Hear hear!

[Drekk]

Hey, since two players have first-round byes, can I enter an orc to challenge one of them?

[Yagathai]

I don't have a problem with it, but since it's technically a breach of the stated protocol, I'm curious what the other entrants think?

[GreedyAlgorithm]

Go for it.

[Tobias]

The more, the merrier!

[Yagathai]

Yeah, OK. Post him up, Drekk!

[Drekk]

Thanks for letting me join late! He Who Puts the Heads of Men on Pikes and Wears Their Ears Around His Neck has just entered the Hall of Champions.

[Yagathai]

OK Drekk. Coin flip says that it's you and me!

[Yagathai]

Loser's Bracket, Round 1:

Thol the Lost
Bye

Eldrissa Looks-West
vs
Lord Arben Argonsson

Winner's Bracket, Round 2

Marcus
vs
Acinonyx

The Black Knight
vs
The Orc With The Really Long Name

[Drekk]

Are the normal "looting" rules in effect? On the one hand, since the losers of the tourney matches will go on to compete in the losers' bracket, they kinda need their stuff. On the other hand, losers forfeiting their possessions to their conquerors is a time-honored tradition in single combat.

I suggest that victors may take one piece of gear from their defeated opponents.

What does everyone else think?

[Yagathai]

Nah. Since characters are essentially "reset" before each combat, it doesn't make sense.

[Drekk]

OK. So I assume that my SQ dwarf-made armor gets its "free 1" back?

In other words, we treat each match as though the characters were freshly burned?

[Kublai]

That's correct!

[Yagathai]

Salar, GreedyAlgorithm what are your respective statuses? One of was forfeiting, right?

Otherwise, the next matchups are:

Loser's Bracket, Round 2
The Black Knight
vs
Thol the Lost

Lord Arben Argonsson
Bye

Winner's Bracket, Round 3
Acinonyx
vs
The Orc With The Really Long Cognomen

[GreedyAlgorithm]

I believe Salar wanted to post a forfeit due to lack of time.

[Yagathai]

Yipes! I screwed up the brackets! Thol should actually be fighting The Black Knight.

Well, actually, strictly speaking Lord Arben should be fighting The Black Knight, but to ensure that Thol doesn't get two byes in a row (as a result of Marcus quitting the tournament), it's Thol and TBK.

[Drekk]

I think you had it right the first time. According to the Loser's Bracket, Round 1, Thol should fight the winner of Arben and Eldressa, and the Black Knight should have a bye. TBK should be seeded higher in the loser's pool anyway, because he got the farthest in the winner's bracket.

Plus, I am certain I am not the only one here who wants to see the dwarfs slug it out! Dwarfs dwarfing dwarfs is just too great to pass up.

[Yagathai]

I think you had it right the first time. According to the Loser's Bracket, Round 1, Thol should fight the winner of Arben and Eldressa, and the Black Knight should have a bye. TBK should be seeded higher in the loser's pool anyway, because he got the farthest in the winner's bracket.

Plus, I am certain I am not the only one here who wants to see the dwarfs slug it out! Dwarfs dwarfing dwarfs is just too great to pass up.

Here are the current brackets in pictoral form, to make things more clear:

http://pics.livejournal.com/yagathai/pic/0006pp0k

[Drekk]

Thanks for clarifying. I had the format all wrong. Didn't realize it was double-elimination.

Looks like there will be at least one re-match along the way.

[Yagathai]

Anyone heard from Drekk or Ivanho?

[Yagathai]

Drekk's returned, but in the meantime everyone else seems to have fled. After talking it over with some of the interested parties, I think we're going to name these 2nd Annual BW Fight! Championships a failure, and call the whole thing off.

What do y'all think went wrong, besides the obvious (player abandonment)?

[Drekk]

What do y'all think went wrong, besides the obvious (player abandonment)?

My two cents: Everyone seemed to fall off right after the seeding snafu, which also happened to be right after you clarified the format of the whole tournament. Maybe that's coincidence? Maybe not?

For me it was bad luck that my internet at home went out around then. But maybe others saw that it was double-elimination and lost enthusiasm? Double-elim in this format would probably take a loooong time. I know I was surprised by that; I was expecting my current bout with GreedyAlgorithm to be the championship bout.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I'm glad I got to experiment with this orc. I definitely learned a few things! Thanks for running this, Yag. :cool:

[Tobias]

Well, I didn't fall away, but the tournament structure (double elim) did come as a strange surprise. Wouldn't have mattered to my interest, I think.

With the length of time certain bouts should normally take (i.e.: the ultra-defensive stance my elf should have been taking all the time), I can imagine disinterest setting in.