The Kingdom of the Emerald Hills

I've been getting knocked out in the first round of tournaments for over a decade, now, and I still haven't figured out what people expect of a tournament reeve.

In my opinion, the first resource in any fight should be what the player who got hit felt. If a dude felt something hit him in the arm, then he should take the arm. If a dude felt something hit him in the shoulder, he should take the shoulder. If a dude knows he got hit before he started his shot, then he should let the other player know it was not in motion.

Sometimes, a dude will ignore a shot that everyone else saw land. When that happens, a reeve should step in. I'm not questioning that. It's an open question in my mind whether people expect the reeve to give the person time to acknowledge the shot, or if they should just immediately announce the shot - but that's not so important.

What concerns me is the attitude some people seem to have that if a reeve doesn't call a shot, then (1) the reeve wasn't doing their job and (2) the shot didn't land. Not everyone who believes (1) believes (2). I don't think that a reeve can hope to accurately see every single shot that lands. We still have whippy weapons; it can be very difficult to tell if a block was entirely successful. If we want to agree that the only shots that land are shots the reeves see, then that's cool - I just want to feel like everyone's on the same page.

I know there have been times when I've been reeving, and myself and the other reeve have both seen a shot land, but both fighters have assured me that the shot didn't land. I know this is an admission of weakness, and it gives everyone free rein to tell me I'm not allowed to reeve because one day, I thought I saw a shot land and it didn't, and I have no spine and I'm blind besides. Whatever. I care more about understanding what it is people expect of reeves than about being able to fulfil that job myself - if my vision (or my chutzpah) isn't good enough to be a useful reeve, then I'm not a useful reeve, and I'd like to know that.

Heh, Reeves missing both valid shots and calling ones that didnt exist are a fact of the game. im just thankful that this isnt the norm and doesnt happen in all that regularly.

What do I think reeves have been missing?

"Good after noon gentlemen, are you ready to fight?"
<waits for response from both entries>
"Please bow to your monarch"
<waits for both entires to bow or acknowledge the monarch appropriately>
"Please bow to each other"
<gives the entries a few seconds to shake hand and/or bow>
"Lay on"

_________________
[align=center]Sirrakhis Larethian of the Emerald Hills
G R E E N D R A G O N S
House Larethian-Got Newbs?[/align]

I think the reeves job is to make sure the fight is fair. As a reeve it is impossible to always make the right call. I usually do one of two things as a reeve:

1.) I will stop play and ask a player to consider whether or not a shot landed. If I think a shot landed, but am not sure this approach gives the player a chance to make a call that they may have not realized hit. If they say it didn't then I have them lay on again.

2.) I will stop play to call a shot I know landed. If i see a shot land and the player continues fighting, I will usually wait a sec to see if they are going to acknowledge the shot. If they do not, i will stop play and call where I saw the shot land. In some cases, I will note that the shot landed, but the location was too close to call (i.e. leg/hip, upper arm/shoulder) and will ask the player where the shot landed.

If at any time both players say a shot did not land that I said did, i will revoke my call and allow them to fight on. Some may argue this point, but I feel that if both players feel the same way about a call, then over ruling them will only cause bad feelings. The object is for the players to have a fair fight.