Crown #100

In the end, I was knocked out by the same two people who knocked me out of Mudthaw.

This was my 100th Crown Tournament. I have been victorious in 1% of the crowns I have fought in. 

In truth, I am extremely frustrated with myself over this crown. I should have been tighter against Luis. I should have closed the deal with Jan after I took his leg. They were both awesome fights, but I could have and should have done better.

I knew going into this crown that Luis would be my toughest fight, that Jan, Randall and Arne were really tough to crack, that Sterling would be a dark horse, and that Ryo can mess up anybody's day. There were no push overs in this particular crown. I had trained specifically to fight Luis, Jan, and Arne. I never got matched up with Arne, but I failed in my prep for Jan and Luis. 

It was actually a very small list. Although I made it to the final eight, That was only five rounds, and seven fights. 

Randal and I were both a bit surprised when the shields went up for the first round, and we found out that we were paired against each other. Turns out it was a bye, and they'd just drawn our names out of a hat. I took a polearm, on the theory that win or lose (I lost) it would be over quickly and neither of us would get tired. 

Next I fought Joseph von Ulm. I fight Joseph a lot at Iron Bog practice. He fought better this weekend than I have ever seen him fight. He was a tough out for me. Very strong offense and a solid defense. 

Next I fought Luis. It was a hard fought bout, and I lost. He toasts me with a head shot and a body thrust in fairly quick succession. They were both good. This video comes from SCATally on Youtube, who has great videos of the finals and semi finals. 

My fourth pairing was against Tomasso. I haven't fought him much, but he is one of Wulfsan's squires, and in the household, so I knew he was going to be rough, and he was. 

Then they decided to change the format to best two out of three each round, and I got three truly savage fights with Jan. He won the first, I won the second, then we took each others legs before he got me with the slot shot which is his bread and butter. At about 10:19 below you can see most of our third fight. It was a fun one. Unfortunately, the sound is out of sync. Tanaka is in the way, so you can't see the shot that kills me. I know what it did, but I'm still trying to figure out why my shield was so far out of position.  Thanks to Alexie Cruz for this one. 

So I lost to the eventual winner and one of the semi-finalists. I was a contender. I was fighting really well. I love my footwork in both these fights. Now on to #101. 

It is 79 days till Pennsic. My next time in armor will (hopefully) be Thursday Night at Rusted Woodlands.