Fighter Auction Tournament

Overview

The Fighter Auction Tournament (FAT) is a heavy combat tournament in which fighters are auctioned off (usually the night before the tournament).

At the end of the tournament the fighters will be ranked from first place to last place.

The patron who purchased the first place fighter will get first pick of the prize table, then the patron of the fighter who came second will get the second pick, then the patron of the fighter who came third will get the third pick, and so on until the prizes run out.

Recommendations

Based on feedback from the populace and those involved with the tournaments the following is recommended by the CF subcommittee:

The auction is performed anonymously.
A person is restricted to buying a maximum of 1 fighter (in some years the maximum has been 2 or 3)
Fighters are allowed to bid and buy other fighters but may not bid on or buy themselves.
The tournament format is either the Rowany Festival format or the modified Rowany Festival format.

Auction Format

Anonymous or open

One of the biggest decisions to make about the auction is whether the bidders will know the identity of those being bid on or not.

The anonymous system has been used for Canterbury Faire for many years (see below for previous formats). It means that lower ranked or unknown fighters do not go for tiny sums of money while high ranked fighters go for stupidly high sums.

The open system is used at Rowany Festival and this allows the populace to know who they are bidding on and to bid accordingly. This system generates a much wider variety of prices, which has its pros and cons.

Restrictions

In the past the following restrictions have been put in place.

A person is restricted to buying a maximum of 1 fighter (in some years the maximum has been 2 or 3)
Fighters are allowed to bid and buy other fighters but may not bid on or buy themselves.

Sign ups

Fighters who are entering the tournament must sign up before the auction.

In recent years we have asked fighters to sign up before the event (and in some years this has even been on the booking form).

The following information should be obtained; Name, title, location they usually fight, highest heavy fighting award, motto or other identifier if doing an anonymous auction.

Late entrants

Some fighters may not have been able to sign up for the lists before the auction but still want to fight. This is less common in recent years with sign ups being accepted electronically before the event, however it is still possible.

Whether a late entrant is allowed to enter the tournament is up to the tournament organiser and the list keeper.

One way to deal with this is to hold a quick auction before the tournament.

Another option is to use the fighter to replace someone who has had to withdraw (see below).

Withdrawals before the tournament

Despite usually only holding the tournament the night before, it is still possible that someone might have to pull out of the tournament between the auction and the start of the tournament.

This could be due to injury (like tripping over a tent peg in the night), illness (Covid), or equipment malfunction (failing an inspection, especially if they haven’t fought at the event yet).

If there is a late entrant that has yet to be auctioned then they could be swapped in for the person who has had to withdraw. The buyer of the withdrawing fighter should be consulted first to make sure they are happy with this situation.

Otherwise the buyer of the withdrawing fighter should receive a full refund.

Withdrawals during the tournament

If a fighter needs to withdraw during the tournament (usually due to injury or significant armour failure) then consideration must have been given to how this will be handled.

In some cases it will be possible to remove their previous wins/losses from the other fighters records. Even when this is possible it is a significant amount of work for the list keepers.

The other option is for each future opponent to count the match up as a win. This introduces a bias because some of the future opponents may have lost to the withdrawing fighters.

Previous Auction Formats

As mentioned above Canterbury Faire has used an anonymous auction system for many years.

Upon signing up to the tournament each fighter has chosen (or been assigned) an identifier that the populace bids on. Examples of these include:

Mottos. Generally a latin motto with an english translation.
Famous historical figures.
Heraldic devices. Where fighters are auctioned off using the main charge of their heraldry as the only identifier.

Prizes

Getting prizes

Prizes for the tournament are donated by the populace.

It is important to make the call for prize donations early and often.

It is ideal if there are more prizes than there are fighters in the tournament so that everyone gets something.

Prizes should be gathered by the tournament organiser as early as possible during Canterbury Faire, and the prizes should be on view before/at the auction so the populace knows what is on the line.

If there are less prizes than fighters

If there are less prizes than there are fighters then additional calls for prizes should be made at the event.

If there are still less prizes than there are fighters, then the patrons of the lowest ranked fighters may not get a prize.

If there are more prizes than fighters

If there are more prizes than fighters then the tournament organiser may group some of the smaller prizes into bundles to make them more attractive/valuable.

Alternatively, once the patron of the lowest rank fighter has picked their prize you go back through the list again until the prizes are all claimed (so the patrons of the highest ranked fighters will get 2 picks by the end).

Picking prizes

The fighters will be ranked based on their performance in the tournament.

Depending on the tournament format this may give a full list from winner to loser, in this case it is a simple matter of having them choose their prizes in that order.

In some tournament formats there may be several people who have the same rank (for example 3 people who were eliminated in the same round may be given the rank of 10th equal). In this case those people should come up together and choose their prizes at the same time. If more than one of these people want the same prize then a fair way of deciding who gets it should be determined, this could be a coin toss or rock/paper/scissors.

Absent patrons

There are some cases where the patron of a fighter is not able to make it to the prize selection.

If the patron has not nominated a person to act on their behalf and they cannot be found then someone else must act on their behalf.

If someone must act on their behalf they should know the person well (a partner or parent/child is ideal).

If no one suitable can be found to act on their behalf then the fighter they purchased can act on their behalf.

If the fighter is unwilling or unable to choose on their behalf then the tournament organiser will make the selection on their behalf.

Tournament Format

Important Points

At the end of the tournament there must be a ranked list from first place to last place to allow for prize selection.

Despite the rankings and the prizes, the format and the running of the tournament must be fun for the fighters and must keep the audience engaged.

The ideal tournament format is one in which the fighters get a lot of fighting, the audience is easily able to tell what is going on, the field is constantly in use, and the list keepers can easily generate the final ranked list.

List Keeper Information

Whilst these things are important for any tournament, they are even more important for the FAT because people are putting money on the line.

It is vital that results are accurately recorded as a win or loss being incorrectly recorded to move someone up or down the final list by several places, which will result in their patron getting or losing out on a prize.

Selection Bias

Selection bias for the pairings has a significant effect on the final results of the tournament.

If the tournament is a double elimination tournament and all the knights face each other in the first 3 rounds then by the end of round 3 at least half the knights will have been eliminated very early on. If instead the knights all face new fighters for the first 3 rounds then it is unlikely that any new fighters will still be in the tournament by the end of round 3.

Regardless of the tournament format, there will be a selection bias. It is important that everyone be made aware of how the tournament will be run in advance. No system will make everyone happy, but if it is advertised in advance then people can decide not to enter if they are really unhappy with it.

If an elimination type tournament is being prepared then it is recommended that

The first round be determined by dividing the fighters into 2 even groups based on where they come from (this could be NZ vs Australia, or Southron Gaard vs everyone else), then randomising both lists and pairing the first person from list 1 with the first person from list 2, then the second from list 1 with the second from list 2, and so on.
The second round can be either another randomisation and pairing of the lists (making sure to avoid double ups), or could be winners from list 1 vs winners from list 2 and losers from list 1 vs losers from list 2, or any other way of pairing list 1 fighters with list 2 fighters.
The third and subsequent rounds should no longer be seeded by location.

Previous Formats

The following formats have been used in the past. Where possible the selection bias and feedback for those tournaments have been provided.

Rowany Festival Format

Fighters are divided up into pools. The fighters fight a round robin within their pool. Bouts are usually best of 3 but can be best of 1 if time is limited.

The fighters with the most wins in the round robin pool stage then move into a single elimination tournament. Bouts are usually best of 3 but can be best of 1 if time is limited, the final is always a best of 3.

The number of pools and number of fighters per pool varies depending on the number of fighters in the tournament and the amount of field space available.

The number of pools is usually divisible by 4 and the number of fighters in each pool is usually between 6 and 10.

Fighters from the same location are spread as evenly as possible throughout the pools to reduce the amount of times people have to fight people they fight all the time. Locations with high numbers of fighters will usually have more than 1 person from that location within each pool.

Fighters from each of the following ranks are spread as evenly as possible throughout the pools; Royal Peers, Knights, Red Wyvern, Golden Sword, Unawarded. (ie. No pool should have a second royal peer until all of the pools have a royal peer).

How many progress to the elimination portion is always a power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16….) and is dependent on the

The pros of this format are

All fighters get to fight at least a round robin so no one is eliminated early,
By spreading people from the same location throughout the pools a person is likely to fight lots of people they don’t fight often, even if their location is well represented in the tournament.
By spreading out the higher fighting ranks throughout the pools a fighter is unlikely to be eliminated from the tournament just because of bad matchups.
The elimination section of the tournament gives an obvious ordered list, and the round robin section usually has enough fights that people with the same number of wins are low (usually 2-3 people with the same rank).

The cons of this format are:

It requires lots of marshals, heralds, and list keepers. At least 1 of each per field is needed for the round robin stages.
The selection bias of spreading out the higher ranked fighters evenly means that in most cases the people who progress from the round robin stage is a high ranked fighter.
Highest heavy fighting rank is not always representative of how a person is fighting on the day and can lead to some pools being easier or harder than others.
The selection bias of spreading out people from the same location can effect who progresses, though this bias is likely lower than other selection biases.
The list of fighters who did not get through to the elimination stages usually has lots of double/triple ups. If the fighters who progressed got 6 wins and 5 wins in their pools, then there will usually be a person per pool who got 3 wins, a person per pool who got 2 wins etc.

Modified Rowany Festival Format (CF2024)

Similar to the Rowany Festival tournament format, but before the elimination stage is played out the ties in the round robin section are resolved by having those on the same number of wins fight each other to determine their final order.

The pros of this are:

All fighters get to fight at least a round robin so no one is eliminated early,
By spreading people from the same location throughout the pools a person is likely to fight lots of people they don’t fight often, even if their location is well represented in the tournament.
By spreading out the higher fighting ranks throughout the pools a fighter is unlikely to be eliminated from the tournament just because of bad matchups.
The entire tournament is ranked with no ties.

The cons of this are:

It requires lots of marshals, heralds, and list keepers. At least 1 of each per field is needed for the round robin stages.
The selection bias of spreading out the higher ranked fighters evenly means that in most cases the people who progress from the round robin stage is a high ranked fighter.
Highest heavy fighting rank is not always representative of how a person is fighting on the day and can lead to some pools being easier or harder than others.
The selection bias of spreading out people from the same location can effect who progresses, though this bias is likely lower than other selection biases.
Resolving the ties from the round robin section takes extra time compared to the Rowany Festival version, and must be completed before the elimination section so that fighters who are not progressing don’t have to sit around for another hour in their armour.
Slightly more involved from a list keeping point of view, in particular with a bigger crunch time at the end of the round robin section.

Double or Triple Elimination

Each fighter has 2 (double elimination) or 3 (triple elimination) lives. When they run out of lives they are out of the tournament.

Bouts are usually best of 1 or best of 3 (in a best of 3 you only lose a life if you lose the whole best of 3).

It is possible to show how many lives a fighter has left by using a list tree with their names/arms/motto on it, all fighters who are eliminated go on one section, all who are on 1 life in a different section, all who are on 2 lives in a different section, etc.