The role of the Lists Officer

At a tournament, the acting officer of the lists will need to do the following:
  • get the SCA names of all who would enter the tourney. All combatants must show the lists officer a current authorisation card or equivalent documentation for the specific combat being contested.
  • Each fighter must inform the lists office whether or not their armour and weapons have been inspected and approved by the relevant marshal. If the marshal has not approved the fighter's equipment for use in the tourney, then the lists office should not include the fighter in the tourney until the marshal's approval has been granted.
  • collaborate with the event steward and the royalty to determine the format of the tourney. You may find a different format is required for the finals or double kills. Tell all of this to the heralds so that they may inform the populace and the fighters.
  • determine who will be competing against who in each round of the tourney.
  • supply the heralds with the names of who is competing against who in each round.
  • record who wins each bout and whether there were any interesting events. Note down any double kills.
  • inform the heralds if any fighter has been eliminated from the tourney in this round.
  • determine who the victor is if the tourney is to be decided on the number of victories.
  • report the final results to the steward of the event and any royalty present on request.

    Tips for a list officer

    Work out as much of the draw ahead of time as possible. An entire round robin draw can be written up before the tourney starts. Only the first two rounds of a single-kill, double-elimination tourney can be determined beforehand, as the eliminations will occur in the second round.

    Write the notes for the heralds clearly as they will have to be able to read it. As some names are awkward to pronounce, it is often better to write down the name 'phonetically' so any novice heralds can just say what they read. For example, 'Cian' may be best written 'Key-an' so that the herald's don't mispronounce it.

    When arrange the fights for each round, make sure that none of the fighters from the last bout in the previous round are then in the first fight of the next round. Fighters have to be given a rest. If this happens, you have probably rotated one list of fighters down the page instead of up the page.

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