I’m in.

I’ve had some feedback, from multiple managers, regarding clinching in the tourney. The concern people have is the issue of being able to ‘game’ the system by creating clinch lords, and turning the tourney into a clinch fest.  My first thoughts were that I want the tourney to be true to what KT is in game, and clinching is a part of it and should be allowed, but after some thought I agree that in a creation tourney, where we have limited training time, the most effective strategy to win would be to just build a clinch warrior - which wouldn’t really be true to KT (although clinching is definitely used, the best KT guys have a well rounded game).   So, to maximise our chance of getting some ‘normal/traditional’ KT builds (ones that could be utilised post tournament too)  I think the best thing to do is to ban the clinch during the group/round robin stage (likely 7-9 fights) and then allow/introduce clinch in the knockout/finals stage. The thought process here is by outlawing clinch initially, we get people creating well rounded builds - not just clinch dawgs - but having it re-introduced at the later stage also incentivised managers to still include clinch skills in their builds.   How will it work?  We will all set our clinch sliders a certain way (go through that later) to prevent clinches. If someone does accidentally or on purpose set clinch sliders incorrectly and the fight goes there, they will get a loss on the tournament points table - and the opponent will get an automatic win - regardless of the fight result. This will prevent anyone ‘accidentally’ forgetting to set sliders to gain an advantage. Very easy to implement and manage during the group phase. And once we enter knockout stage, clinch will be allowed.   I know it probably feels a bit mish mash but I’m confident we’ll get the results we want going down this route and also confident it will be quite easy to implement and manage.   If anyone who has signed up and doesn’t like the new format and want out of the tournament, no hard feelings - but hopefully it doesn’t get to that.    We’re still looking for more spots to be filled. Ideally we want 16 or 20 fighters - makes two groups of even number of fighters. If we don’t fill up the 16 (or 20) by the end of Monday 5th Aug, managers who are already signed up will be able to get an extra slot if they like. If still not filled we’ll just go with whatever even number we have - and then we can start creating !

Congratulations to Cody Shelton for his KO of the Night victory at HFA 11 to claim the Lightweight Belt ! Champ is building an impressive resume and had a great intro song. 😎   Shelton circles away before darting back in with a big straight right hand. It connects beautifully and sends Sherman tumbling to the canvas! He's out cold! Shelton wins by KO! Ladies and gentlemen, after 0:21 of round 1, we have a winner by way of KO (Punch). Cody Shelton! Cody Shelton is the new lightweight champion! Cody Shelton seemed lost for words in his post fight interview but he remembered to thank his fans and directed everyone to his website. Leonel Sherman spoke after the fight, saying 'I wasn't myself today, I could feel the win escaping my grasp. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow and maybe not the next month, but I will be champion one day, I promise.'.

thanks, i appreciate it!!