Crown

[learnedax]

That was a weird tournament. The ground was treacherously muddy from the overnight downpour, but the weather was otherwise perfect. Since the winner will be reigning during Pennsic, in an East-hosted year, for a nice round number, there were naturally a lot of entrants. All summer Lucan had been telling us about his insane training regimen, and we heard rumors that Brion really wanted to win, which he would neither confirm nor deny. There was also the usual gang of heavy hitters, but no one else seemed to be putting in the massive effort Lucan was. From these data, most of the tournament unfolded roughly as you would expect. Throughout the day Brion fought a lot of bouts involving staring at each other for a while, throwing a shot, staring some more, and eventually the guy who wasn't Brion falling down. Lucan, on the other hand, almost invariably took his opponent's legs, after which the other fighter stood no real chance of killing him, but was frequently able to keep him at bay for an extremely long time, eventually sucumbing to the inevitable.

The semi-finals were a small surprise in that while the expected Brion, Lucan, and Thorson were in them (the first two undefeated, the third with one loss), Conrad beat Kenrick out for the fourth slot. Conrad was doing well, but he was too eager; he faced Brion, who waited for him to reveal all his tricks, then killed him. Lucan faced Thorson, legged him relatively quickly, and then spent a very long time unable to kill him. Eventually Thorson gave it up as a lost cause, and just sat there saying "come on, just kill me already."

Which brings us to the entirely expected Brion vs. Lucan finals. The format was best of three, fighter's choice, with all of the usual problems one gets from that. These were two patient men, who were not prone to making mistakes, and who wanted to win quite a lot. They were very friendly and courteous, just extremely cautious. The first two rounds ran twenty-five minutes each, the third a total of fifty minutes, not counting a ten-minute break while Balfar's head was tended to (a stray shot caught him across the eyebrow, but he appears to be fine). Lucan's usual pattern of legging and eventual victory played out in the first round, but in the latter two they just kept throwing single shots, an exchange about once a minute, until Brion snuck in a flat snap and killed Lucan.

So Brion's the new prince, after about 100 minutes of single combat with Lucan. It was as close to a perfect stalemate as any of us had ever seen.

Comments

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Let me point out, as a proud fathewr and perhaps the only person here who can say "My daughter fought in Crown," that Niki made it to the third round and lost to Don Antonio Patriquin.

I do believe that at some point, Kenrick and Konrad will break through and win Crown.

Would have been interesting, though, to have Bloodguard on the thrones of the East and Northshield.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Niki messed with you. While she did make it "to the third round", she had a bye. She fought well, and bravely - and at least 3 people said to me during the evening "One of the things that made me smile was that 18 year old in the lists. Did you see that?"

Yeah, I did. :-)

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

No, she did not mess with me.

She told me exactly what happened.

[cat9.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I'm with Anastasia on this one - I like it when they alternate weapons styles in the finals. I'm not sure I would have watched the 100 minute finals...well, at least not without a chair.

I wonder - has there ever been a crown in the past where Lucan announced that he wanted it, and he didn't get it? It seems unlikely.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, the classic best-of-five sampler of weapons forms is definitely what I would prefer to watch, and I think it is also better for demanding versatility. This was impressive, and to some extent instructive from a technical standpoint, but not really entertaining.

I believe Lucan really wanted it and lost to Hanse once before.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in the middle of the second round I sighed, and said I was getting a chair, and did anyone else want one?