Join us for our quarterly in house fencing tournament!
Join Hilt and Helm for our quarterly in-house tournament, holiday party, and 4th year anniversary: “Pillowfecht 11: Krampus Nacht!” In this un-ranked in house tournament, fencers will compete together to defeat Krampus for privilege of rooting through his sack of unsold merchandise that we don’t feel like stocking into the new year. Once the tournament is done, there will be cake and food from Cheng Du Gormet.
Pools will be sorted based on HEMA rating, level of experience, which hard to kill sticker you’ve earned, or just our gut feeling about you to make sure each pool is balanced. During matches, everyone starts off with 10 hit points and loses one every time they get hit. Head and torso are worth 2 points, and arms and legs are worth 1. The match ends when one (or both) fighters hit 0 hit points, or the 3 minute non-stopping clock runs out. Winning your match gets you 10 points plus however many hit points you had left at the end of the match. Losing just gets you any remaining hit points, so there is an incentive to ride out the clock.
At the end of pools, all fighters will be sorted from least to most points. This will form the battle tower that Krampus will ascend in order to defeat everyone in the club! Krampus gets 3 lives plus 1 for every 3 consecutive victories. If the village manages to keep him from getting to the top of the tower, everyone on in the club gets to pull from our bag of unsold merch. Those who defeat him get to pick first in the order in which they defeated him.
The Krampus Nacht Battle Tower
Admission is the usual registration fee of $20 (+$10 for equipment rental). This is to help us recover some of the money we’re about to lose letting all of this merchandise go; however, we aren’t putting in patches and stickers. This sack is full of t-shirts and one off merchandise we tried to sell and will be discontinued. So if you’d like to acquire a piece of Hilt and Helm history, this is the perfect opportunity.
Pillowfecht 11 will be limited to the following weapons: longsword, rapier, rapier + dagger, rapier + cape, saber, side sword, arming sword, and sword + buckler.
See “Da Rules” section of this page for details on the rules of the tournament.
Spectators can attend for free, competitors must pay a $20 registration fee + $10 if they need to borrow equipment .
Light refreshments will be served.
Please Register!
If you intend to compete, please reserve your spot on PushPress under “Pillowfecht 11: Checkmate!”. This will allow us to figure out how many people to expect ahead of time. If you’d like to simply spectate, please check in under “Pillowfecht 11: Spectator”. Again, if you intend to fight in the tournament, please reserve your spot on PushPress.
How to Register!
EXAMPLE: Click on “Calendar” on our Website.
Navigate the Calendar to “December 13th” and select the left one if you are competing or the right one if you are just spectating.
Equipment
This section explains the equipment required for each weapon set. All fighters will be examined prior to start of the pools to ensure they are in compliance. We have spare equipment people may borrow for an additional $10.00. Borrowing weapons is no additional charge.
Heavy Weapons
Fencing Helmet with back of the head protection
Gorget
Padded Fencing Jacket
Heavy Fencing Gloves
Forearm/Elbow Protection
Groin Protection (we won’t look but for your sake it better be there)
Knee/Shin Protection
Light Weapons
Fencing Helmet with back of the head protection
Gorget
Padded Fencing Jacket
Light Fencing Gloves
Forearm/Elbow Protection
Groin Protection (we won’t look but for your sake it better be there)
Knee/Shin Protection
Structure of a Match
At the start of each match, one fighter must stay behind the blue line in area of the alley until the director calls “Fight!”
The match will continue except if
The director pauses the clock to discuss a score.
A safety halt is called.
When a judge sees a quality hit land, they will call “Point!”
When the director sees a quality hit land, they will call “Halt!”
Judges will lower their heads.
Fighters will stop fighting and return to their sides.
The director will say “Judges!” and the judges will show their scores.
If a judge sees a strike to the arm/leg, they will raise the hand of the team who scored the point to the side.
If a judge sees a strike to the head/torso, they will raise the hand of the team who scored the point above their head.
The director will adjudicate points as they and the judges can agree.
If all judges and the director agree, points are allotted as the collective sees it.
If the director and at least 1 judge agree, points are allotted as they see it.
If neither the director nor any of the judges can agree, the match is reinitiated.
Scoring
Matches end when 3 minutes have elapsed or one/both fighters have reached 0 hit points. Hits are scored as follows:
Head/Torso = 2 Points
Arms/Legs = 1 Point
Who ever has the most points at the end of 3 minutes or whose hit points haven’t been reduced to 0 wins. In the event of a tie during pools, both fighters lose. Once we get to eliminations if both fighters tie, sudden death will occur. The winner will be the first to perform the next highest scoring action.
During the Fighting
Only a “Quality Hit” (defined further in “Da Rules”) will be considered viable means of pausing a match. While paused the time will continue but we’ll try to keep the adjudication as brief as possible.
During the match, fighters may not pass the outside of the blue line closest to the edge of the ring or past the blue lines on either side of the alley.
Doing so once will be counted as a “ring out “and will reset the match.
Doing so twice will be counted as a yellow card and a warning.
Doing so three times will result in the offending fighter losing the match.
Excessive use of force will result in a yellow card. Points can not be scored in the same action that yields a yellow card.
Hitting the back of the head will result in a red card and lose the match for whomever made the blow.
2 yellow cards for the same offense will result in a red card which will cause the fighter to lose that match.
2 red cards for the same offense will cause the offending fighter to be barred from the rest of the tournament.
Quality Hits
A quality hit is performed with the weak of the blade to a valid target by either
a thrust with sufficient force that it would penetrate an unprotected body part if the blade were sharp
or a cut that rotates at least 30 degrees with intention to inflict bodily harm
or a slice that travels at least 1/3rd of the blade’s length
Pommel Strikes are also considered quality hits if and only if they meet the following criteria
The fighter presents the clear capability to perform a pommel strike by raising their pommel in the air above the opponent’s mask.
Does not actually make hard contact with the opponent’s mask. If the director feels the strike was done too hard, the point will be thrown out and the offender given a red card for excessive force. Is this subjective? Yes. So err on the side of caution if you don’t want to be yelled at.
Shouts one of following words to demonstrate their intention:
Bonk!
Pow!
Bam!
Boop!
Other equally humorous words will be considered on a case by case basis.
In-Tempo Hits and Doubles
Instead of using tempo to determine who hit first, once hit a competitor has one step and one swing of their sword to land their blow for it to count as a double. This means that if you go in for an attack, you better guard as you retreat or else your point will turn into a double. If the hit lands, this counts as a double and both scores will be deducted from the appropriate health bar. So if blue fighter thrusts the chest and gets hit on the hands, blue fighter loses one health point but orange loses two.
Valid Targets
Any quality thrust or cut to a target above the knee will be considered valid. Shins will not count as valid targets only because if people target the shin and accidentally hit the ankle, it could result in serious damage. Targeting the knee but accidentally hitting the shin is unfortunate, but at least everyone will walk away unscathed. No strikes to the back of the head will be considered valid and any such strikes will result in a yellow card.
Grappling
Grappling will be allowed; however, both fighters have approximately 5 seconds to resolve the grapple in a quality hit.
Take Downs
Take downs (neither their set up nor their execution) are not permitted. We have hard floors and they are not conducive to having people get thrown on them.
Pocket Sand
Expressly forbidden.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding “Da Rules” please feel free to message us at hiltandhelmfencing@gmail.com.