Report from Battle of the Nations

[painbank]

I believe they are paid to train and fight.

By who?

The one Russian I spoke with was a construction worker and 4 other members of his BoN team also worked on the same construction crew. Perhaps some on the Russian team are paid or perhaps the leaders of the different clubs, just as a dojo master works full time running his dojo, but other than that, I doubt it. Perhaps some of their military members are allotted time to train for BoN, but they also are part of the military and therefore it is within the purview of their normal job.

[painbank]

Looks like LARPing on 'roids!




But in all seriousness, I've always felt that's where the evolution of warfare should've stopped right there.. Those big brawls looked epicly fun, thanks for sharing. 
Now if only the getup wasn't so expensive.

Perhaps, if you quantify LARPing as what the SCA is. However, last time I checked LARP stood for Live Action Role Play. Meh, I suppose it is a Live Action Role Play with the possibility of death, dismemberment and serious injury.

When you say the evolution of warfare should've stopped, what do you mean? no gunpowder, no death or what?

Also, you can do this cheaper than the stated price, perhaps as low as $1k-1.5k, however, the more you lower your cost investment, the larger the potential injury, but you can do it for sure. I barely hit the $2k mark, although I did have a few items to begin with, but they were not the expensive ones.

[painbank]

the only Role Play aspect is that you are required to play dress up in armour and out of armour as well, but no 'assuming' of some role, who you are not.

[painbank]

I do not know how to answer this exactly. Are there other groups doing historical style martial arts? Yes, such as SCA, various HEMA groups, others doing things such as fighting with knives, tomahawks, Bowie knives, etc...

lacrosse originated as a native sport to facilitate practice for war.

Does that help?

[Vieux Normand]

When you say the evolution of warfare should've stopped, what do you mean? no gunpowder, no death or what?

There was once a stage in history when warfare featured "no death"...????

[captain zorikh]

There was once a stage in history when warfare featured "no death"...????

I don't know about "no death," but I seem to recall that there have been forms of warfare in history that were more tribal and ceremonial in nature, that more involved ritual and one-upmanship than total destruction. Also, on would hope that before the concept of "total war" was embraced in the 19th century, that there was a time in which the casualties of war were limited to the combatants and not the civilians. Of course what periods like the Middle Ages lacked in technology they made up for in social-status attitude as expressed through pillaging.