Rules

From The Great Outdoor Fight

The primary cornerstone of The Great Outdoor Fight is gentlemanly conflict, and thus The Rules of the fight are firmly rooted in tradition.

[edit] Contestants

From the first fight in 1851 until its move to The Acres in 1857, there was no limit to the number of fighters. Since the second year on The Acres, however, the number of competitors has been strictly limited to exactly 3,000. For years, Kenneth's Gate would simply be shut after the three-thousandth man entered. After The Great Revival in 1937, however, the number of applicants has far exceeded this limit, sometimes by a factor of 20 or more. Following the rioting outside The Acres in 1939, a better system was put into place. A series of Qualifying Rounds are now held throughout the country in the month preceding the fight to winnow the field of prospective fighters down.

There are, however, a few exceptions to the Qualifying Rounds. Previous Champions and applicants who can prove that they have Blood of Champion are allowed to proceed to the fight unimpeded. In cases where Blood of Champion isn't assured, a single one on one fight with a former champion or high ranking official is used as a test to verify the B.O.C.'s claim "at least in spirit." (See Blood of Champion.)

It is a generally accepted tradition of the Fight that fighters may register under a Soubriquet Rouge.

Though the vast majority of fighters are men (as reflected in the phrase "3 Days, 3 Acres, 3,000 Men"), there is no restriction by sex, and women have (rarely) won the Great Outdoor Fight. Since the 1960s, there has also been no restriction by race (it is worth noting Hispanics, Indians and Mulattos all participated in the Great Outdoor Fight in the 1800s. There was a period where they were restricted in the 20th Century, but it has long since passed.)

[edit] Fight Start

The Fight starts at dawn, after the traditional Last Supper at Wheeler's Patch and Harness. One hour before the opening of Kenneth's Gate, the fighters are instructed to form a queue. No particular ordering is enforced, so strategic fighters often sacrifice their rest in order to get ahead in the queue and into the Acres first.

Once the three thousandth man has entered, the gate is closed and the signal is given for the fight to start. In Ken Crandall's farm the signal was the deep sound of a bull's horn, which was replaced by a pistol shot until the megaphone system was installed in 1976.

Starting a fight in the queue or in the acres before the signal is grounds for immediate disqualification.

[edit] Time limit

The Great Outdoor Fight lasts no more than seventy-two hours, broken into three days. Only one man can win the Great Outdoor Fight. If the fight is ended in an unsportsmanlike manner (defined as pusillanimous conduct including but not limited to a surrender on the part of the second man standing, defeating the second man standing through inappropriate means such as bribery, coercion or extortion, or taking credit for a clear act of God in resolving the final battle), or if there is more than one contestant standing at the end of the three days, the Jeeps are used to end the Fight.

Please note that while the Fight lasts no more than seventy-two hours, should the field be reduced to Two Men Standing with more than one hour remaining, Tower One will begin a one hour countdown. At the end of that hour, the Jeeps are brought to bear, unless the fighters have shown a good faith effort to defeat one another. So long as the fighters are locked in combat, the countdown will be suspended up to (but not including) the 72 hour mark.

[edit] Elimination

Elimination takes place when a man is brought down and cannot continue fighting. Generally, a fighter is only considered eliminated when he is knocked unconscious, killed, or is incapacitated to the point where he either calls for the medics or is incapable of calling for the medics.

Upon being judged by Tower One to be eliminated, the officiants will direct the Crane to retrieve the fallen fighter. It is against the rules and an automatic disqualification to interfere with the Crane's duties in any way.

Once the Crane's scoop has closed around a fighter, that fighter is considered officially eliminated.

[edit] Standings

Only one man can win the Great Outdoor Fight. However, the other 2999 men are ranked after each Fight according to how well they performed. In a fight of this nature, there are no points to score or rounds to win -- instead, there is just the question of who is left standing, when. As a result, each contestant is ranked according to when he was defeated. Rather than rating who was first beaten, the official standings record in what order each man was Left Standing. Therefore, the first man taken down in a given Fight is officially the 3,000th man standing. The last person taken down by that year's Champion is the Second Man Standing. The Champion is officially recorded as "The Last Man Standing."

Record books record day of elimination as well as ranking. So, for example, Fresh Freddy Fiero's record in 1960 is officially "eliminated Day 3, 4th left standing."

For purposes of recordskeeping, the point of elimination is when the Crane closes its shovel around the fallen fighter. All efforts will be made to retrieve fighters in the order they were taken down, but in the event of confusion or simultaneous falls, the order the Crane makes retrieval is considered binding.

Higher standings in previous Fights gives veterans 'byes' in the qualifying rounds. Often, highly ranked fighters only need to fight two or three men to qualify.

[edit] The Acres

See also Ken Crandall's farm and The Acres

[edit] Weapons

The initial fight allowed no weapons whatsoever, only the fighters' own bodies: arms, fists, legs, etc. This was altered, first in 1891, to allow the use of natural materials in the acres themselves, i.e. rocks, sod, opponents limbs; and again in 1932 to allow for any items existing on the Acres to be used. This followed the disqualification of Herbert "Ruggsy" Simons, after it was determined that the blow that caused Roger Manders's death was dealt by the fence into which Manders was thrown, and not by Simons.

Perhaps the most infamous violator of the weapons rule was Marion Gordon, who in 1881 managed to smuggle a Colt Single Action Army revolver onto the Fight. Gordon's punishment was infamously harsh. From 1882 until 1941, sharpshooters were positioned at select areas of the Fence, with orders to shoot to kill should any Fighter attempt to "pull a Gordon". As a cost-cutting measure, the Ruling Body elected to issue sidearms to the men in the Jeeps in 1959, rather than maintain two seperate bodies of enforcers.

In 1975, Ishihiro Yagi famously armed himself with a table leg from the Snack Shack.

Although the Powers that Be do attempt to keep the Acres free of foreign objects and detritus that could be used as weapons, there have been lapses in groundkeeping which have been exploited in the past. The most notable recent lapse is the discarded beer bottle used by Rodney Leonard Stubbs in 1973.