We hereby announce the return of the Arms & Armor Pumpkin Destruction Contest! Arm yourself. Form up your militia. This is the season when the gourdian menace threatens front steps and stylishly-rustic, harvest-themed decor in neighborhoods across the country. In response we have devised a strategy to counter these satisfyingly choppable intruders.
As we are able gather again with our friends and comrades it is advisable to organize gatherings to protect your own from the vicious orange vegetation.
Nathan practices his krump to the pumpkin attack.
Your Challenge
Grab an Arms and Armor sword or weapon, lawfully get yourself a pumpkin, and then take a short video of its destruction. (We mean like 15- 20 seconds or so, remember while the judges enjoy mayhem they do have short attention spans.) Send us your video on our facebook page or through email at aa@arms-n-armor.com (with "Pumpkin Slaughter 2022" in the subject line).
The enemy!
We will choose the three best videos submitted by midnight on All-Hallows-Eve-Eve. That's right, the night before Halloween, i.e. Oct 30th. Those three will be shared on our facebook page and the winners will receive an awesome prizes (rumored to be worth tens of dollars, more on this in the following days). Judging will be completely subjective and possibly influenced by the following criteria
Excellence of Technique
Use of Humor
Costumed Participants
Gourd Guts
Historical (in)Accuracy
Devastation of Vegetation
Whiskey
As always, Safety Third! Just kidding, no really be careful. Pumpkins are slippery little buggers that can deflect a sword blow dangerously, so maintain good weapon discipline. Remember the most dangerous words in the english language are "Hey guys watch this!" You would think no one would need to be told this, but hey look at us.
Any size weapon will work, just remember pumpkins are known as vicious hand to hand combatants.
Check out winners from our last Pumpkin Battle.
Official rules and legal crap.
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985