To be held on the week beginning 3rd of May it will be a month long duelling tournament held to commemorate and honour those men, women and children who gave their lives fighting against “You Know Who.”  What better way to celebrate their memories than to have a most gentlemanly duelling tournament in their honour?

It will be held on a one vs. one basis so no inter-house loyalties, if the draw so dictates you may end up fighting against a fellow Gryfindor/Slytherin/Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff.

Early rounds too be held from 3rd-8th May

Latter stages to be held from Mon 11th – 13th May

Final to be held 22nd May

There will be no categories to differentiate between students skill levels, all students are welcome to join but younger students are warned that they may well be drawn against students who are much older and by rights much more skilled than they are.  Such students are under no requirements to show any leniency when the match begins.  There will be injuries and if you are not prepared for a violent exchange you should not sign up.

There will be a number of prizes that are as of yet undecided, firstly for the tournament champion of course and secondly for the runner up.  In addition to these awards there will be individual awards based on these categories:

Best young duellist – Awarded to the most exciting up and coming duellist of the tournament.  Must come from 1st-4th year.

Most exciting duel – An award given to the two duellists who fought out the most exciting duel.

Golden wand - Given to the best duellist over the course of the tournament.  The best duellist does not necessarily mean the duellist who won the tournament and will be awarded to whomever the judges believed showed the best use of offensive and defensive spells, flair, competiveness, spirit etc.]


Rules

• To win a duel you either have to knock your opponent unconscious, force him to surrender or win by judge’s decision if no victor prevails after 4 bouts.
• All legal spells are accepted forms of attack and defence.  Use of any illegal spells will result in disqualification and if it warrants further investigation.
• Those who wish to compete must present themselves for a preliminary evaluation to make sure they are not putting themselves in danger by competing.
• Duelling club president reserves the right to deny students he deems incapable of fighting the right to sign their names to the roster. 
• The judges will be composed of a number of Hogwarts staff teachers, who have kindly given up their time to help with the running of the tournament.
• A Duellist who is late for his match by more than fifteen minutes is deemed to have forfeited.

OOC Rules

• Obviously the thing about duelling is nobody wants to lose but alas there can only be one winner.  I am going to keep most of the current duelling rules already in effect.  Primarily that means two spells per post as a maximum, one post per character = 1 bout.  There will be 4 bouts per duel meaning 8 posts in total.  We don't want massively long threads than never end and besides our students would likely not have the stamina to duel for any extended period of time!
• How will we choose a winner?  Well, before the match why don’t you have a discussion with your opponent and see if you can work something out by yourselves?  If you can decide who should win amongst yourselves then just RP it out in the most exciting way possible.  If you cannot decide then a vote can be cast from a pool of outsiders to see who should win.  With the extra categories hopefully the desire to win out and out will be lessened as students aim for the other awards.  Sure, realistically speaking it should be nigh on impossible for a 2nd year to win but there’s no reason why that 2nd year can’t win the young duellist category.
  
  
• I’m going to have my character pester some of the head teachers to provide some IC money so that the winners can have some IC prizes.  I know IC prizes won’t mean much considering you can just RP your character having whatever they want anyways but I think it’s a nice touch.
• How to join? Send me a PM and we can have a short RP where I meet your character, ask him to perform a few spells then add his name to the roster!
  
  
• When everyone who wants to join has done so, I can draw the names at random to see who fights who.

Suggestions?

This is no where near official, its just an idea.  Does it appeal to you, if so great, if not are there any changes that could make it more exciting?  I want to hold regular tournaments just like quidditch matches as an alternative sport for our characters. I am trying to move the duelling society away from the "Dumbledores Army" look and more to a serious competitive sport.


And your judges for this event; Ignan Storm, Minerva McGonigle, Lucrezia Di Luca, Spot 4 [Open]

I'll offer my help via Ignan amongst the staff.

As for students, Ariadne (Gryf 6) would probably compete and I don't mind her getting knocked out in early stages.

Ambrose (Gryf 4) has been either too dangerous to attend duelling club or been kept practising with the younger years, but given he's trying to overcome his incidents through the slow process of learning how to cast non-verbally (and I mean slow) he might appeal to Paolo etc. to have a go.

I kept Ignan at the forefront of my thoughts when writing this, I think Paolo might try and ask him to ask McGonigle if they can find some prizes for the winners.  Its his job to pester the higher ups to further his club!  Ignan would probably also be the ideal person to officiate and judge, if that is something your interested in Kit.

Anyone is welcome to join as long as it interests you, I'm just trying to lay the foundations for a new type of on site duelling club.  Something that isn't Dumbledores Army.  Any suggestions or changes are welcome too.

Wonderful idea! This should be tons of fun.  I love when we get to duel.  I'd like Figaro to play.  He's been in dueling club this year and is passable. 

Hi there! This does look like great fun! I have about 7.8 billion characters to throw your way. Use the ones you want, toss the ones you don't.

Minerva McGonagall
Headmistress :: I'd be happy to throw Minerva in as a judge. I'm also always down to RP her with students, so if you'd like to throw Paolo at her to pester about funds, I'm game!

Henry MacLeod
Arithmancy Professor :: Also available as a judge, though dueling isn't his forte. If there's more interest, I'd rather leave him out. He could always assist with score keeping or healing or something.

Elysia Hughes
Hufflepuff 6th :: She's decent with a wand and extremely competitive. She might not win, but she'll put up a good fight.

Elijah Grimlish
Ravenclaw 6th:: More of a lover than a fighter, but a skilled student nonetheless. Also probably won't win...

I would love to get in a thread with Professor McGonigle precisely from the reason mentioned!  If you want to RP her as a judge we would also be honoured, she is after all a hero of the Battle of Hogwarts!  I'll add your other characters to the roster.  It really doesn't matter if you don't win out right there are other categories that I want to have prizes also!

Wonderful idea! This should be tons of fun.  I love when we get to duel.  I'd like Figaro to play.  He's been in dueling club this year and is passable.

Figaro I will add you to the roster, welcome aboard.  If anyone has any suggestions or improvements hit me up with a PM and we can discuss them together!

I'd like both Josh and Charles Harcroft to be part of this.

-waves- Heya! Please add in Deborah (Clarencieux) into the mix. Eerily calm, may win a battle depending on the kind of opponent. Most people wouldn't expect that she's a fighter, but then again, what are surprises for if they don't exist?

Vice President reporting for duty!


That said, add Theo Whitman (Slyth 6th) and Esther Morrell (Slyth 4th) to the roster, please 'n thanks! Both have been a part of the club for a while, though I haven't yet had a chance to rp them as such. Gracie's proven herself to be an able duelist, Theo would be a vicious one (he was grouped Advanced), and Esther's also advanced, for her group, though obviously against a more experienced/older student she could easily lose. :>

Alright so far we have 13 duellists!  I am going to make the draw for the first rounds on Sunday so 18th of May will be the deadline for participants!

Assuming we have less than twenty people I intend to assign each character a number and roll a D20 to pair the numbers up.  Seems a very simple and fair way to make the draw, happy with this, yes or no?

I'm also thinking that if two characters played by the same person are teamed up I'll allow mixing and matching so that you get to RP with someone and not all on your own!

Late to the party, as usual... Sigh. Anyway, as Lucrezia is the only character I can devote time to at the moment, I can throw her in if you have any need of her, tho she would be rather reluctant to actually help. I suppose if pestered enough, she could put up some more complex beneficial Potions for the lesser prizes.

She would be thoroughly amused by the actual duels, however, so on the judge front, if you still need one, she's certainly up for it. She did a fair bit of dueling in her school years, so she does know the etiquette and rules, but she has since preferred to politely leave the... >.> mindless wand-waving to those more adequate at it.

With dueling club under new management, Nicholas Bevans would be quick to return and he would never say no to a tournament.

Nicholas Bevans,enters at Round 2.

Duels to be fought from the 3rd May to 8th May.  Consult with your opponent how you are going to RP your fight, whether you want to decide on a winner before hand or you want to let the judges decide for you.  The quicker the duels are fought the quicker we can proceed to the latter rounds.  Have lots of fun kicking each others proverbial asses!  When your duel is over/ready to be judged post the link here so I can link it to the draw.  There is no set location for first round matches to be fought but perhaps somewhere open that allows plenty of room for duellists and spectators to gather!  Latter rounds may be able to be held in the quidditch stadium perhaps, I'll ask McGonigle!

Any problems PM me.

YAY!

Maybe we can tag the threads with Dueling Tournament 2010?

Yes, tag the threads and when they are being written we can make the fixture list above, hyperlinked, that way you can click on the fixture and be taken straight to the thread.  You know?!  Remember the early rounds are fought from the 3rd until - 8th May, six fixtures - six days.  Each match should take place on a different day.