Competing for a Champion position!

Competing for a Champion position:

Her Excellency and I would like to try something different this year when it comes to selecting our Champions. Normally the outgoing champions run a tournament to determine a single winner. The winner is often (but not always) selected to be the new Champion. This year we want to move away from an “all or nothing tournament” format. Instead Miriel and I will be looking at the perspective new champions in the sense of “the big picture”.  Do they attend practices, meetings, and events, are they improving in their discipline(s) of choice, and are they well rounded members of the SCA?Please note this will only apply to the arts and science, heavy fighting, thrown weapons, fencing, bardic, and archery Champions. The Iron Man, Baronial Key Stone, Queen Anne memorial trophy, most improved fencer, most improved fighter, and chivalry positions are determined without a tournament.

So what is involved?

1) Declare your intent: People interested in competing for a position as one of our new champions must first declare themselves to us. A person can declare at any time up to and including the day of Champs, however waiting too long limits our ability to assess your progress and may impact our final choice. Declaring yourself as a candidate can be as simple as sending us an e-mail or more elaborate. The creativity of your declaration will be taken into consideration! Do not give gifts! This is not about that. We are looking for moving speeches, letters, etc. Please get creative and have fun. We will list the candidates as they declare so people know who is competing.

2) Participate: Once you have declared yourself as a candidate make sure to get out and demonstrate your talents. Her Excellency and I will be watching how people progress as well as consulting people (such as marshals) on their opinions of the candidates. Feel free to post about your experiences on Facebook, blogs, etc. Self-promotion is not a bad thing. Just because your specialty does not have a public practice (such as bardic) please feel free to show off when you can. Shoot a you- tube video and share it, perform casually at events, and so on.

What do we need?

We need eyes and ears! Her Excellency and I attend as much as we can but we can’t be everywhere. We encourage people to speak up about how the candidates are doing. Just like award recommendations we want to hear the opinions of the populace. These future champions represent us all! This can be done privately or publically. However we are not interested in negative public opinions. Please keep it friendly.

What do we need from the out-going Champions?

Normally it is the responsibility of the out-going to champion to run (or help run) the tournament to determine the new champions. We would like this to happen again this year but is not required to have a contest that has a single winner (or a contest at all). We are looking for people to have fun and take one last chance to show their skill (so Her Excellency and I can make our final choices). This does not have to be a contest or even a tournament. For example, if they heavy fighters want to run a day of melee battles that is fine. Fight, have fun, we will be looking. As we get closer Her Excellency and I will reach out to the out-going champions to clarify our wishes and discuss our plans.

So let the games begin!

If there are any questions or concerns please contact us.

Magnus and Miriel.