Beau Geste

Yes, I won the Beau Geste tournament on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. Oscad ran it as he has before, with one fighter starting on his knees in the first fight, the other kneeling in the second fight, and then both standing in the third if necessary.

My first set of fights were with William. I don’t recall how I won the first fight, but in the second, when I was standing, I killed him by setting him up with two molinee body shots, which he blocked, followed by a third molinee that turned into an onside headshot (Radnor’s “rule of three”). He blocked that but it put me in position to wrap him to the back of the head.

My second fights were with Avran. In the first I charged him on my knees, yelled like a samurai, and hit him on the top of the helm after three cuts that he blocked. In the second I got to use the technique that had been used against me in the greatsword tourney at Estrella four years ago. I cut to his left side, wound my blade so it was behind his and pulled back, pulling him off balance. Then, instead of hitting him on the back as had been done to me I simple stepped in and short chopped him to the face.

My third set of fights was with Timur, my man at arms. He scored a win against me, so we ended up standing. I don’t recall how I won those fights (I need to go back to writing this stuff down right away).

My fourth set of fights was against Alexander. This was the round that I lost. My first fight against him when he was standing I lost pretty quickly. The second fight I won with a short cut to the head. The third fight we went back and forth till he started fencing me at the same time I got fancy. I did a wavy fake and stepped off line and he drove his tip right through my chest.

The last set of fights was against Visillis. That was a blast I won the round with a beautiful hook/thrust.

One cool thing was how I felt during the tourney. I had gone into it expecting to play around, use the buckler, fight two sword, etc., not really caring. But I wanted to fight William with my sword and shield because he’d come all the way from Jersey to train with me. Thing was, once I got into those fights, my brain clicked over into tourney mode and suddenly I wanted to win. I fought the two greatsword fights because I wanted a bit of practice with that form (I maybe should have fought Alexander Florentine). But I was totally on. My fights with Vasillis were, from my perspective, pretty awesome. I was in the zone and fighting with purpose and I wasn’t even having to think about it. My mind went right to where it needed to be.

But I still need dukes!

None of that, however, was the coolest thing about the day. The coolest thing about the day was Timur’s last fight against William, when they were both standing. He hadn’t been in armor for about a year. He was using his round shield against William’s classic heater style. He stepped in and punched William’s heater low and at the outside, right where I’d told him to punch over a year ago when I was teaching him the “magic button” technique I’d learned from Gemini. He did it perfectly and killed William with an excellent onside headshot. That was cool to watch.

Next stop: Mudthaw.