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When LARPing meets cold steel
24
Jun
Jun
With the world’s eyes on Russia awaiting their next move on the Ukraine-Crimea situation, a local SUNY Buffalo State student plans to take Russia down in a full-contact historical medieval battle known as the Battle of Nations in June.
The first of its kind to gain international fame for the idea where the full contact battles would be the main feature surfaced in 2009. The Association of Historical Reenactors of the Middle Ages spearheaded the campaign. The first championship was held in 2010 with only four countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. These countries provided enough fighters to make a minimum amount for a national team. Since then, those countries have won the most amount of championships and tournament duels.
Held this year in Trogir, Croatia, this is the fifth installment of the historical Medieval battle that started back in December 2009 and Dwayne Remolado wants his turn back at it again. The Air Force veteran competed in the tournament last year, held in Nimes, France. Contesting in the 1 vs 1, or dueling, category and team dueling category, he aimed to join the American Legion. As a four-year student of the sport, Remodalo wasn’t thrilled with his performance. When asked, if he could do something different would he, a simple head shake, smile, and utterance of “nope” told me it’s all about the experience.
You can definitely see the disparity of a well-trained fighter against someone who has never dueled before,” said Remolado “The equipment plays a large part in your performance, you kinda want to balance out your power and your versatility.
Considering it was his first time competing in an international event like this at this caliber, he knew it wasn’t going to be his last tournament. “It’s all about the experience, the more you get the better you become. The greatest warrior didn’t have electronic distractions, they trained everyday of their life, and I have to cram it all two to three months.
Since then Remolado has invested copious amounts of time searching the web for training facilities in the Upstate New York area and researching blacksmiths to forge armor. The Battle of Nations only accepts arms and armor, which have analogues of a certain historical period, confirmed by scientific research. This makes it very interesting because some duels may have traditional samurai warriors against traditional German knights.
Pointing to a temper steel helmet that looks like it belonged to a member of the famous 300 Spartan army, Remolado shared a piece of his favorite time in history. “This right here brother, is a Corinthian helmet I personally made myself in Luxembourg, Germany. It’s one of the easiest models to make, especially for someone just becoming an armor smith.” Although it’s his favorite time period of warriors, it’s not allowed in the Battle of Nations.
Below you can find a video of the warrior’s first duel with a Poland representative. Climbing the chain of command is essential to fight the big dogs of the event. Americans have always fought visitsono hard from the bottom to get to the top of everything we do and we never needed Drake to make a song to tell the world that, just Americans like Dwayne Remolado.
