The format shall be as follows:
The first three rounds of the tourney shall be a random draw; one Crown fighter pitted against a member of the Honourable Opposition. Both fighters will choose weapons forms to suit themselves. Matches will be best two of three fights. Double kills will be refought. Wins and losses for each fighter will be recorded. If there are more Honorable Opposition than Crown fighters, they will be pitted against each other, so that everyone will fight at least three rounds. If there are more Crown fighters than Opposition, an Opposition fighter will be randomly selected to fight an additional time in that round. No one will be eliminated in this stage and any losses in these first three rounds will not be carried forward into the remainder of the tournament.
The next stage of the tourney will be a seeded double elimination tree. The seed for each Crown fighter will be based upon their performance in the first three rounds. First, every Crown fighter with three wins and no losses will be randomly placed into the top seeds of the tree. Next, everyone with two wins and one loss will be randomly placed into the next seeds of the tree. And so on, until all Crown Fighters are placed upon the tree. Any remaining spaces will be BYE fights. Any BYE fights will be selected by random draw from the Honourable Opposition.
In the elimination stage, both fighters will choose weapons forms to suit themselves. Matches will be best two of three fights. Double kills will be refought. This will continue until we have two fighters on the undefeated side and two fighters with one loss each. At this point each undefeated fighter will cross to face a fighter with one loss. Every effort will be made to pair one undefeated fighter with a fighter with one loss in such a way as to avoid a match up that has already occurred. If this is unavoidable, a random draw will match one undefeated fighter with a fighter with one loss. The fighter with one loss must win twice, each two out of three in order to advance to the finals. The undefeated fighter need only win a single match, best two of three to advance.
The finals shall follow the following format. Best three out of five matches with matching weapon categories, each best two of three fights. The lowest ranking fighter makes the first selection of the weapon category from the following list: Weapon and shield, Polearm, Two weapon, Great Sword, 6” Spear, and Sword and Buckler. The other finalist will then choose from the weapon forms remaining. Then the lowest ranking fighter may pick from the remaining three forms. This trend will continue, if necessary, until a victor is declared. For this tournament a “buckler” will be defined as a shield with a maximum dimension no more than 15” in any direction. Great weapons will be limited to 6 feet.