Just thought I'd share some pictures from this past weekend. I took my cross-gaming unit to the February WotS Campout. WotS is an organization that has spread like wildfire in the state. The gear and garb is subpar by national standards, but the culture is pretty much spot-on. The rules are similar to Bel/Dag with a lot more breathing room in weapon construction, leading to quite a bit of unsafe weapons. They're cleaning up the organization as of late and encouraging garb by not permitting people to enter tournaments or wear armor without it.

400+ fielded this weekend...





They require morning warmups before the fighting starts for the day... most groups participate. Pictured below is Satsu, Atlantis' friendly in-state rival.



Mokie (left) fights Jessy James (right) in the Women of WotS Tournament, Mokie is probably the coolest / most intense female fighter I've ever seen.



One of the cooler weapons I've seen, I would have loved a chance to fight her... but she only brought it out for controlled tournament environments. She was a pretty badass kunoichi if you ask me... even got slightly in-character with a menacing cat hiss when she closed in on one of her opponents. Lady Jade (Dagorhir's Rome) beat her.



Burke facing another guy in a "champion" round after the other team tried to take it bare knuckles 3 matches in a row ::eyeroll::



Team fishsticks, 5v5 tournament winners.



And for OUR main event, and a long-anticipated battle... 20 Atlanteans vs. ~50 to 60 Satsu.















We did the battle in two formats. The first was a Jap bonzai charge. Atlantis took them down to 8 before the last of us went down. The second battle was a 3-life battle that Atlantis won by utilizing the terrain and situation as best as possible.

All in all, it was a great weekend. WotS is growing as an organization and offers some nasty numbers to fight.

Looks sweet. I'm glad to see friendly cohabitation. Also, asserting nerd sword fighting dominance.

On a side note: What does that sign behind you say?

Whoa. I had no idea there was such a huge event in this state. I hope we can get my Dag group involved in this soon.

Would you be interested in working together on a Bel and/or Dag event in central FL some time in the next year with the intent of drawing comparable numbers out?

The FL Foam Fighter Association is already planning a few events; I'm sure they'd appreciate any assistance and constructive feedback. Check out the FFA home page (http://floridafoamfighters.com/) for a schedule. You may also want to join the FFA facebook group.

YIS,
Rufus of Dragon Coast (Ft Lauderdale)

Hm, I am already in the group, but having a hard time finding a list of events. I'll have to follow the threads in the Fb group more from now on, I suppose.

Seriously, though, it looks like it was an awesome time and I really want to bring my group out for something soon.

Here ya go... the FFA has an event AT LEAST monthly. I haven't been to a practice in over a month cause we've had an event nearly every weekend recently. FL is pumping out some serious numbers. The 105-man bridge battle the weekend before last was a killer (the reason I'm on crutches in the unit picture).

http://floridafoamfighters.com/events

Oh, and Peanut, no clue. Probably something about Disney or Universal considering our location. (You can see the fireworks from universal CLEAR at night over the lake)

Summer Slaughter will probably be in the triple digits, WOTS fighters are liking you guys as well! Thanks for posting pics Teej. And for the kind words about my girlfriend (Mokie).

I want to go to there...

When you say 'Bare Knuckles' in regards to the champions tourney, what rules are you talking? Just grappling, or MMA/Boxing style?

The other team was getting hot headed and literally tried to assault Atlantis. This also happened to me in our giant battle the same day, Vikings vs. Japanese/Myrmidons. Sluffing accusations were thrown about and then fists were almost thrown. Luckily Atlantis is cool people and things were sorted out. The troublemakers are being taken care of and all is well for now.

Its unfortunate when that happens. I find that many backyard organizations who dont have the history and therefore the depth of fighting levels start getting upset that theyre not as good as they think they are. It might not have been the case. Some groups dont get upset, however.


Oh, and have you ever considered sieging the Disney Castle?

Yep... I think the other team in the 5v5 was still pretty angry about their entire unit being thrown off the field mid-fight for sluffing. So... they sluff in the 5v5, the heralds were adjusting to rule changes and didn't catch much. They end up restarting the match 3 times, and the other team just keeps getting wrecked despite sluffing - from there, they just resort to poor sportsmanship and one of my guys (dead and walking off the field) gets tackled from behind it almost got nasty pretty quick - after everything settles down, the heralds just pull one guy from each team to determine the match 1v1.

Just a few bad apples, in an otherwise GREAT event.

And *, Disney is way too corporate for that. However, the curator of St. Augustine's Castillo de San Marcos has contacted me about fighting in the fort's courtyard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castillo_de_San_Marcos

...Darn.

I've dreamed of fighting at Disney! WOTS is based on cultures so we could each get our own country at Epcot!!! And the thing is, the people who started the trouble have been doing this for like 5 years, so there's no excuse for thtat kind of behavior.

* Teej, y'all make this **** look good.
Too bad bout the punk-ass *. They start **** and get called out for it; it's their own * fault.
Good thing you got such a tight crew to get your back.

I'll vouch for Atlantis, they are the best friends I've made outside of WOTS. Such cool people, always helpful. And as you can see, their gear looks **** awesome.

I didnt even think of asking permission.

UPDATE: Here's a video from the same event, they just finished going through footage/editing/etc..

Again, keep in OPEN mind, this is a different sport with different rules. Head shots are legal, garb (as acceptable by Bel/Dag standards) is few and far between - though I can vouch, it has vastly improved since we got them cross-gaming with us.



And you can find more pics of WotS and FL Bel/Dag on Atlantis' FB group.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/ImperialAtlantis

Please elaborate on the headshots. Like, with glaives? Weight restrictions on weapons for headshots? I am having a hard time imagining going out there with my glaive and not hospitalizing people, it would not be safe.... Thanks for the info, I love learning about other ways to do this stuff!

Thrush
berserk

Head-shots are only to the top of the head, and only with single blue. No cranking peeps in the face with a red. I do not believe there are weight-restrictions. They fight hard and scrap hard, with what seems to me to be amtgard-style weapons (4-6oz range) with Belegarth rules but everyone has been hard-lining bath salts.

looks like a whole lot of lawsuits waiting to happen with those insanely long flails and balls and chains. Looks kinda fun but i bet a lot of the crazy styles will die down when they get some high level of talent out there.

You mean, like, Atlantis?
Don't git yer hopes up
<.<
>.>
nuffin'.

FSU has a very active Dag group (about 30 peeps out per week, at least during the school year) in which I am involved, and a smaller WotS group (maybe a dozen fighters?) whose practice I attended once. They are--and I say this with the kindest of intentions--terrible at fighting, but they have fun.

My plan for next year is a) become friends with the Amtgard Triads in Tampa/St. Pete, and b) bring them to a WotS campout, resulting in c) kicking everyone's butts.

Also I hope Slagar shows up, since he's moving to Florida.

A number of Albion fighters down in August. I hold my unit in high esteem, but we have work to do - just coming up on our year mark; but ****... WotS is about to meet a bigger fish.

I used to be in a WOTS unit and just recently joined a Bel/Dag unit. Since WOTS has seriously started crossgaming and made friends with Atlantis and other local Beledag units, lots of people are learning. Their biggest issue, in my eyes, is the adherence to single edged blades, the majority don't use wrapshots or even know what they are.

dang would be a fun vacation to go to Florida to swordfight. thanks for the info on a different sport

*drools* Sounds like heaven. lol

Thrush
berserk

Seasoned Beledag fighters have compared fighting in WOTS to playing Dynasty Warriors.

They're getting better though... Well, the ones that cross-game. The xenophobes brain-washed by their isolationist former leader... not so much.

I consider myself an average fighter, but fighting in the woods - being blocked at a bottleneck by 5 fighters... busting through my own line in a "get the **** out of my way" manner and lighting them all up without taking a scratch felt pretty * boss. Then I acted like it was nothing till my team mates moved on, thinking to myself "did that really just happen??!?!" Good memories. And... then I tear my ACL in a 105-man bridge battle a month or two later. I'm gonna have so much rust to knock off when I can fight again in Oct.

I'm in Miami as of August 1st. I'm actually typing this from Sarasota on vacation, and hitting up the Tampa-area Amt practice tomorrow. I'm pretty game-agnostic, and would love to go swing sticks at these kids. We'll see how well I can make it work out.

Showing up to random third-world groups and seeing which ones are willing to try new things is an old favorite pastime, right Sand Plains? ;-)

Slagar,

When you are in Miami, Dragon Coast (Ft Lauderdale Dagorhir group) would love it if you drove a bit north and visited our practice. If you are interested, pm me and I will send you the details.

YIS,

Rufus of Dragon Coast

I'd love to. My apartment is actually gonna be way up in Hallandale, so it won't even be too far a trip. PM me details, please.