ECL Season Two, starting Monday 9th August

[Aurelius]

Assuming you folks keep Europa safe by clearing away the nasty demons that seem to be popping up lately, we plan to start season 2 of the ECL on Monday, 9 August, start 8PM UK time!

A slight shift of venue, literally a few steps away from the old arena, as shown here (thanks to Mapper's new artwork):

Hopefully we'll have a few more fully trained competitors appearing in the new season, although I'm keeping a stable of slightly less veteran fighters, so anybody who brings along a potential champion can find an opponent give them a fair - and hopefully exciting - fight.

As before, we're taking bets on winners - max amount of 50k, in increments of 10k, if you bet on the winner you get your stake back plus a matching amount from our funds, so you can end up rich (well, in the UO economy maybe 'slightly better off' is more accurate) as well as having an fun hour or so!

Since we're in Trammel, we still need to join owners and their potential fighters to the ECL Guild so the birds can actually fight - remember to let your guildmates know if you plan to 'defect' temporarily for an evening, and maybe even get a few of them to come along and bet on your pet as well, or even set up a 'guild stable for them to support You're completely free to leave ECL as soon as your matches are over and rejoin your real guild, it's just something we need to do to get around the current restrictions on fighting in Trammel. Fiddly, but given the potential problems in moving the events to Fel, it's the best solution we can offer for now.

See you on the 9th!

 

[Aurelius]

Bumped as a reminder this one's tonight, a nice relaxing evening after all the chaos and bloodshed last night...

 

[Aurelius]

First match of the new season, new venue (albeit it not a huge distance from the old!), same old gibberish typing from me....

A fair crowd in attendance including some new faces, and some new competitors for the fights too. And as for the action, things went like this....

PeckyBalboa vs Noir

A very closely matched pair of fighters, Pecky seemed keener and jumped in to the attack, but Noir held on well and fought back hard. Pecky kept on attacking relentlessly though, and Noir gradually was worn down by the assault, Pecky getting hard fought and well deserved victory.

Trinsic Steel vs Bernie

Again a closely matched pair for stats and skills, Steel ended up claiming third place last season, and was looking to build on that already strong record. Bernie had a couple of arena matches in season one, and knew her way around, but wasn't quite ready for Steel's onslaught - a brave defence, but Steel powered on and soon won the bout.

Sango vs Lightning

Two veterans, both well above the average strength for battle chickens and fully trained. This shaped up to be a bruising fight, Lightning rushed in and took an early lead but Sango fought back hard and drew level. A slugging match ensued, and in a close finish Lightning managed to land the winning hit when both birds looked to be on their last legs.

Old Blue Eyes vs Sapphie

Two newcomers who looked pretty fairly matched, we suspected this might be a close one - but not quite how close! Sapphie was first off the mark, but they traded hits equally and both were showing nothing but red on their health bard when Old Blue Eyes managed that last, vital peck and got one of the closest victories we've seen in the arena.

Trinsic Rose vs Quicksilver

Second bird in the Trinsic stables, Rose had a quietly successful first season, Quicksilver had fewer appearances but still looked promising. Before starting, Rose was staring intently at Quicksilver, who in response seemed to be meditating and staring off into the distance. When the fight began though, Quicksilver lived up to her name and dashed in to the attack, building a fast early lead that despite effort, Rose could not quite overturn. Again though, it went right to the wire and the final hit went to Quicksilver, although Rose could just have easily got the win with one more peck.

Sky vs Nari

Two more veterans, Nari won the second place in Season one whilst Sky was less successful, although a very strong contender she never seemed to have quite the luck she needed in the ring. Quick start from Sky was impressive, but Nari stood her ground and fought back hard. Yet again, the fight went right to the wire, and it came down to the final hit to decide - and this time Sky's luck was in, and she landed the winning hit just in time.



And for the final oddity - Slowcoach, a fairly well trained boura, was to take on Rover, my unimaginatively named almost untrained Cu Sidhe. These two had been sparring earlier, and it seemed if Slowcoach got in the first hit or two, Rover got overwhelmed, whereas if Rover fought off the first attacks the fight gradually swung his way, so anything was possible. The audience bet heavily on Rover though, so in the usual way of losses for the house, it was foreordained that Slowcoach was in for a defeat - and sure enough he could not land enough of his heavy hits to get a sustainable lead, and was thoroughly chewed up by Rover. Back to the training ring for Slowcoach...


So we have the following birds with one point to their names for this season :

PeckyBalboa, Trinsic Steel, Lightning, Old Blue Eyes, Quicksilver and Sky

Nice mix of 'known' birds and newcomers!


Next meeting will be on Monday 23 August, 8PM UK time, as always in the O*T arena in Zento - hope to see you there!