AER IKV Melota Tournament, 2008

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AER: IKV Melota Tournament and Festival, 2008

The KAG vessel, IKV Melota, hosted its annual Batleth Tournament on November 8th. This is an inter"club", interstate event. Ripar, Amy, and Barry arrived from the IKV Bayou Serpent. There were representatives from other Star Trek and non-ST clubs. (Hence the quotes around "club" where I would normally have used "ship".)

This event had a suprisingly large number of non-combatant, non-club guests, first timers all. Kartoq had his usual guest. This was a pretty Penny. Dragen brought three generations of lovable ladies with whom we all had a great time. ("Ray", Lori and Mini-Mack, an adorable little lass.) Amoreth's Mother attended for the first time. And, I had a college Dutzfreundin (Charla) participate as a guest. Ripar brought Rhiana as a uniformed non-combatant guest. It was interestingly different to have so many female non-combatant guests.

As for combatants, the numbers were up this year. Charlie was a newcomer who braved the Mekleth and Daqtag fighting. Avalona (my real daughter) and Jason (my her parmachi) all entered the Ring for the first time. Amoreth Dragon (my "borrowed" daughter), returned with much more combat experience courtesy of Sir Gavvin and the Wolfpack.

The weather suprised us all, again. This time, there was no rain. (Kahless be praised!!!) However, the temperature was certainly not the forecasted mid-forties as stuff was coated with ice (frozen dew) in the morning. Many of us were not prepared with clothing or sleeping gear for that 10 degree error. Otherwise, the Tournament Day itself had perfect weather for a brand new day.

"It's a brand new day and the sun is high,
all the birds are singing that you're gonna die..."

Facilities were upgraded as we had a shielded scoring area for the Binars as well as a separate shielded area for the hecklers, er, uh, spectators. It was helpful that our respective Real World lives allowed most of us to arrive Friday for set up. Flags, banners, the sun/rain shielded areas were all set up Friday. We only had to get organized and started in the morning.

The klingon troop transporter, Qonos Heavy One, took over the heavy lifting as a new trailer was put into use to make up for the lack of pickups in the club. Most everybody now has cars.

"A man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do,"

Combat?
Combat.
Combat!

First Blood did occur. There were no broken weapons. Sounds boring? You should have been there. With the new Warriors starting with piss and vinegar, and the experienced Warriors returning with, well, experience, the combat was very good. Batleth was up first, as usual. Mekleth followed. Daqtag was last. Given that we are still using paint for Daqtag, most of the Warriors came out of the Ring appearing to be abstract art.

"The Evil League of Evil is watching so beware,
the next grade that you receive will be your last
we swear.."

Batleth:
1st Place Kartoq
2nd Place Sir Gavvin (non-ST guest)
3rd Place Amoreth Dragon!!! Her second time at Tournament. First time fighting Batleth at Tournament.

Mekleth:
1st Place Sir Gavvin (dude!)
2nd Place Kartoq
3rd Place Ripar (IKV Bayou Serpent)

Daqtag:
1st Place Ripar
2nd Place Kmok
3rd Place Gizmo

First Blood:
Kartoq drew First Blood against Ripar

First Broken Weapon:
none broken, whew!!!

Tournament:
Win Kartoq (for the third time in a row)
Place Ripar (for the glory of the Serpent)
Show Sir Gavvin (for the glory of the Wolf Pack) (duuuude!!!)

It is obvious that the IKV Melota's Force Projection concept is working. Winning Warriors are coming from without and within the IKV Melota. The IKV Bayou Serpent has certainly gotten into the game.

"You people all have to learn,
this world is going to burn..."

Singing:
There was much a capella singing. Sir Gavvin, alone, and assisted by Amoreth and Avalona sang for much of the nights. Each night there was also some music that was horribly familiar as we performed the planned singing of the music from "Dr. Horrible".

Thanks to those who brought and ran non-combatant games. Some games were brought, but not performed due to timing issues.
Thanks to sQweeze who cooked the communal lunch that allowed a somewhat faster turnaround at lunch time. Thanks also to Charla who assisted sQweeze with the cooking.
Thanks IKV Bayou Serpent, all of you, who assisted with setup and teardown for the Ceremonies.
Thanks again to Charla, who as a first time non-combatant guest, assisted with setup and teardown during various phases of T-day.
Thanks to whomever earned it that I have missed.

Strength and Honor,
Commander Salek, Sutai
Ship's Brewer, IKV Melota




November 8,2008 was the date. Purtis Creek state park was the location. KAG ships in attendance were the IKV Melota, IKV Bayou Serpent, and IKV Qin Vagh with at least 2 non-klingon clubs also represented. The IKV Bayou Serpent made it's 5th appearance at what I consider the best yearly event that I have attended. I personally have attended every fall tournament since 2004. This year I was accompanied by Bayou Serpent officers B'ehrmaq and Rhiana, both first timers to the tournament. B'ehrmaq was the first ship member on Friday to arrive which surprised me since he drove 7 hours to get there. Myself and Rhiana arrived in plenty of time to set up camp, help with tournament setup, and tell tales of previous tournaments around the campfire. The weather was far better this year with no rain though it did get very cold Friday night. My vehicle just isn't big enough to pack for every possibility so I was cold but not miserable.

Saturday morning got started with bat'leth up first as always. I got knocked out first round by the formidable Kartoq who later went on to take first place in both bat'leth and points. He also drew first blood of the tournament on me in this round which left me with a bloody thumb but nothing that would hinder further combat. There was some great fighting, a disarm, and we even had one of our Binar scorekeepers enter bat'leth for the first time. She wound up in 3rd place which is no small feat considering the bat'leth is almost as tall as she is. Great job Amoreth!

Mekleth came up next and while this is usually my worst weapon class, I eventually came in 3rd. The second half of the Binars entered the ring by this point, her first time in combat. More furious fighting and another disarm with Sir Gavvin, a non-klingon but trained combatant winning mekleth for the second year in a row.

D'k-tahg was up last and is my best and favorite weapon class. There were no extremely lengthy matches this year which usually happens with d'k-tahg, but the fights were very colorful. As always,the blades are painted with finger paint to mark hits since it's very difficult to see. With several colors to chose from we all wound up looking more like body art than conquering warriors. I took first place in d'k- tahg.

By this point is was getting close to dark so the ceremonies were set up with help from many and one or two non-combat games were played. Rhiana got in on one of these but B'ehrmaq and myself were assisting with ceremony setup. This year we had use of the covered and lighted pavilion for the awards ceremony. Bloodwine was opened and trophies were handed out for the following:

1st place bat'leth: Kartoq of the Melota
1st place mekleth: Gavvin
1st place d'k-tahg: Ri'Par(myself) IKV Bayou Serpent

1st place points: KartoQ
2nd place points: Ri'Par
3rd place points: Gavvin

B'ehrmaq was recognized as "fartherest traveled" and will be given his award at a later date. Kartoq was awarded a "first blood" trophy for his drawing of blood from me. The rest of the night was filled with song, fellowship, and drink.

Once again,thanks to the Melota for putting on and inviting us to their glorious event and allowing me to judge once again. Thanks to my officers Rhiana and B'ehrmaq for their support and documenting the tournament both in video and still photos. Thanks to B'ehrmaq for his extremely long journey to stand with his shipmates.

Transmission ended......

Cmdr Ri'Par sutai-bortaS
IKV Bayou Serpent CO and ship's brewer
Cold Terror Fleet XO




Click to see "The Face of Fail".

2008 Melota Tournament AER

On Friday the 8th of November I embarked on my annual trek to the Melota's annual tournament. I had preloaded the Battlestar Galactica (The red and white truck seen in the background of one of K'moks photos) and headed at ludicrous speed to Purtis Creek State park. I arrived there around 1130 hours, and was the first there so took my usual spot and reserved a space in it for me and my 3 friends from church ("Ray", her daughter Lori and Lori's daughter Mackenzie). 2nd to arrive was Squeeze of the IKV Melota, who quickly delegated the majority of the unloading of House Salek's gear to the younglings attending with her. Various others of the Melota, Ren/Pirate ship SeaWolf, IKV Bayou Serpent, and USS Trinity River trickled in over the course of Friday evening and as all got unloaded we shared fellwoship and stories. MY friends arrived around 1500 or 1530 hours and were assisted by myself and Sir Gavin of the Seawolf. Major Kuddo's to Ber'mag (sp?) of the IKV Bayou Serpent for travelling over 400 miles to attend. He deserved the most distant warrior award.

Saturday was NOT (THANK GOD!) the Noah's Ark of a tournament we had last year. Weather was a bit chilly at first but warmed up quickly. I won't reiterate most of what has already been posted about the rounds, how they are conducted or who won what (Why repeat info already detailed?), but I will say that I once again survived into the 2nd round of daqtagh, where I was promptly eliminated by Ri'Par of the Bayou Serpent (Considering this is his best/favorite even I will gladly take the 1.5 points I got in fighting him). It was a great time of fighting and fellowship, and supposedly Lori got some rather incriminating pics of me (She kept rubbing in the fact that I lost in Batleth to a girl more than half my age younger. Gotta destroy that pic somehow). Lest I forget, the annual Order of Kamin award (To honour the memory of one of the Melota's greatest warriors who passed on to Stovokor in the Fall of 2005) was awarded to Ann Rodriduez (I suck at spelling).

All in all it was a most glorious time, and a welcome chance to get away. MANY, many thanks to Lord K'mok of the Melota for honouring up Krahl's son on the Klingon Forum "The Empire" for the death howl. I know the fleet was quaking and scared at the announcement of such a powerful warrior. I am already looking forward to the next one and to the IKV Bayou Serpent's Venom Wars in april of 2009.

Lt. Dragen


Salek,
My apologies for my hasty departure this morning. I woke up at 5:00 and couldn't get back to sleep because I was cold. When the Boy Scouts came I knew the gate was open so I took the opportunity to leave. (Charla had Real World obligations to which to attend. This exit was required.) I would have dropped off at camp to say good-bye but I figured you guys would still be asleep.
The tournment was interesting. I liked the Baleth best, not sure why. There was sure a lot of talking back and forth about who got hit where, and how one of the judges didn't see it, even though the combatents were saying what happened, (and they should know because they got hit) and trying to decide who got how many points. I was glad to see a real concern for the fellow person when they got hit pretty hard. I also heard from Donna there have been a few broken bones over the years.
I also thought the ceremony was interesting and was surprised at how loud the death howl was, especially Ann. Her comment was she had a good set of lungs.
As for helping out, I didn't mind one bit and you are welcome. I would rather be doing something if I can than just standing around. Thanks for inviting me, I felt honored.

Charla
(mundane friend and guest)



                 


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