What a Crown!

Well, one way to look at Crown is that the guy with the biggest shield won again. I mean, Edward’s shield is really huge. He’s about six-six and his shield literally covers from his eyes to the middle (maybe bottom) of his knee cop. When we got to the semi finals, we had Edward and Griffith with long kites, Lucan with a medium length kite, and Gregor with a relatively small heater (I thought Gregor was actually fighting the best of the four of them, but he didn’t make it past Lucan). In the final Lucan couldn’t come close to landing a stick on him.

Another way to look at it was that these four guys were in a league way above the rest of us mortals, and Edward was amazing. His fight with Griffith was one of the most savage things I’ve seen in a long time. It ranks up there with Uther and Brand, and was maybe even more impressive. They were both so fast and hitting so hard and putting together such great shots that it was awe-inspiring. In the finals, he seemed to be set up perfectly for Lucan. He was relying on a downward shot to the outside shoulder, which should have been meat for Lucan’s passing shot. But Edward threw it, Lucan countered, and Edward blocked it. It didn’t even look that desperate. He was just too fast, too on.

Actually I blame Alethea. On the way to site we were talking about the seven dukes and two counts in the list and I said that the way the draws normally work, somebody surprising would sneak into the upper rounds and possibly make it to finals. But as we were crossing the parking lot she went over to Edward and said “I’m looking forward to seeing you as king.” Before the finals I looked at her and said “if he wins, it’s your fault.” Then Edward came over and kissed her hand and said he’d try to make her prediction some true. And he did. I looked at her and said “you did this.”

It was an interesting list. With six Dukes and two counts it looked like fireworks. Gregor took out Darius. Randal got taken out by Griffith. I don’t know why, but once he got into the losers’ bracket Brian started being weird. He fought Barack, and beat him, using a great sword upside down instead of a shield. Barack thought he was out of range and wasn’t. Against Kenrick Brian did the same and lost. He wasn’t sand-bagging. He was using the greatsword thrusting tip well. But he certainly handicapped himself. There was also a round robin in the losers’ bracket to determine the two semi finalists, between Kenrick, Gregor and Griffith. Oh yeah, if you are paying attention. Edward didn’t lose a fight all day and as far as I know never even lost his leg.

Me, I lost my leg in both the fights I lost. I accomplished my primary and secondary goals. I had five great fights, meaning I won more than I lost, and I killed a knight, Sir Yoseph. I had two great fights with Wilhelm and Kenrick and I almost won both of them, but both of them matrixed on me. I threw the hook thrust on Wilhelm, got his shield, hit him with stiffly with the thrust, but as I did he arched over backward and the thrust died. Then he took my leg (still don’t know how) and then my shield arm. He kept his shield and killed me. My fight with Kenrick was epic. We both dug in hard and were fighting really well. He stepped out from behind my shield to take my leg, but exposed his arm as he did and I took it. Legged with my shield against him with his sword in his off (right) hand, it was tough. I tried everything to get him—even the Russian crawl step to try to thrust him in the face. Then I finally took his leg. I threw a shot at him and he ducked underneath it, crowded me, and back handed me across the head. It was an awesome fight to be part of. Though I do wish I’d have won it.

I’m enjoying the kite. I was fighting well. Getting over a cold, sinus headache, stuffed up, and my back and hips totally shredded, I still fought hard and well. Svava gave me a Lady of the Rose token from my conduct on the field and giving my opponents good fun fights. I had a good day.

But I’ve got to say Edward was in a class by himself. Literally.