slow to fit in with the overall scheme of things on the board, like most new
people, and didn't stand out all that much. His fighting skills were
somewhat above average, although very raw and unpolished, and he didn't have
the connections to the oldbies of the board. Needless to say, Wiergraf
wanted to fit in with everyone else, and developed an idea. He would do
something to draw attention to himself and let everyone else know that he
was there. Creating a faction crossed his mind, so he did that, but that
wasn't quite what he was looking for. He wanted something that had a larger
impact on the board. Thus, he came across the idea of a tournament.
The idea was quite absurd. A tournament hosted by an unknown, unproven
fighter? Surely most of LTU thought that it wouldn't succeed. Wiergraf
didn't think it would either, but he was willing to try, so in mid-July,
2001 he announced the opening of the Annual Wiergraf Invitational
Tournament, or AWIT.
The original format was very basic: 16 fighters paired off in
single-elimination matches until only one was left standing. Nothing fancy:
just a simple, straightforward plan. With the format down, Wiergraf opened
sign-ups to the entire board. At first, Wiegraf intended to invite people to
join, hence the invitational part in the name. But after thinking it over he
decided that for a first-time tournament, it had to be open or people
wouldn't participate. And it would seem arrogant of him, a low-class
fighter, to hold an invite-only event. His purpose was to create an event in
which all fighters, regardless of skill, could participate, and the winner
would be regarded as the Champion of LTU.
The sign-ups were slow at first: a week after they opened, only nine
fighters had registered. Wiergraf kept at it, though, until all 16 spots
were filled. He then selected a board of judges and began the first round of
matches. The first round proceeded smoothly. Under his format the matches
went by quickly, and most were close ones. It was a week after the
tournament started that the first round ended and the second began, this
time with the field down to 8. But soon after the second round of matches
got underway, a crisis erupted.
Wiergraf's little brother, lil Sephy, succeeded in getting not only himself
banned but Wiergraf as well, through repeated ROMZ begging. Thus, Wiergraf
found himself shut off from LTU, and more importantly, his tournament. He
hadn't placed anyone in charge in the event of his disappearance, so it was
with a small degree of panic that he tried to find some way onto LTU. He
just couldn't leave his tournament hanging, after putting so much work into
it. Fortunately DarkPaladin126 and Amano lent him their accounts (one of
which is still used today), and the host was allowed to once again run his
tournament.
The second round proceeded smoothly, with only a few absences from
participants. The end of these series of battles initiated the semifinals,
where Amano faced off against DP, and Viper squared off against Mupod. The
early stages of both battles were intense. Viper and Mupod slugged it out
blow for blow, matching each other evently over the course of four days, and
Amano and DP's battle was heated from the beginning. But unfortunately,
Amano became inactive, and with a degree of disappointment, Wiergraf
disqualified him, allowing DP to advance to the championship round. All
attention was then turned to the Viper/Mupod match.
Viper and Mupod fought each other left and right, with an admirable degree
of skill. This was before the official rules of the AWIT, commonly known as
Wiergraf's Laws, so attacks were often brutal and gruesome. For four days
they clashed, and in the end Viper managed to beat Mupod by a slim margin.
The stage was then set for the first ever AWIT Championship Match. But...
It didn't happen. At least not right away. A series of minor circumstances
prevented the two from holding the match, which was certainly disappointing
to Wiergraf. But his tournament, for all purposes, had been a success.
AWIT II
January-March 2002
In January of 2002, Wiergraf, upon being prodded repeatedly by both DP and
Viper, agreed to belatedly hold the first championship match. Thus the two
finally squared off, and all of LTU looked forward to a good match. It
wasn't to be. DarkPaladin became unable to participate, and after waiting
for a while, he was disqualified, giving Viper the title of First AWIT
Champion. With the first tourney successfully wrapped up, Wiergraf could now
begin the second.
Originally, the AWIT was supposed to be only once a year. However, LTU had
been lacking in tournaments and was going through a dry spell, so Wiergraf
decided to hold another one. AWIT II's format was developed in the second
week of January, and was quite different than the one used before. Each
faction was to select three of its best fighters, and they would be paired
off in a single-elimination process. Sign-ups were going well, but Wiergraf
felt that too many people were being left out: something directly against
the spirit of AWIT. So he reverted the tourney back to its original format,
and increased the number of spots.
Sign-ups began again in late January, and the tournament began on February
3rd. This one had substantially more fighters than the first, and in all
aspects, was superior. A lot of new faces showed up, along with a number of
oldbies who didn't participate in the first. With the brackets drawn up, the
tournament began.
Like the original, the "Curse" of the First Round struck again. During the
first round of AWIT II, a massive war between the new faction of Sin and the
Resistance broke out and consumed the board, diverting most of the attention
away from the tournament. Battles became neglected, judges and fighters
became busy, and the tournament slowed. Wiergraf was annoyed. The tournament
had been slowed during the first round of AWIT I by his banning, and he
didn't want the same thing to happen twice. By a miracle the pace picked up
eventually.
Two weeks later, the month of March, the tournament neared its conclusion.
The championship match was between Viper and Vegetaman, two powerhouses of
Role-Play fighting, and the buzz was that this match would be a classic.
That soon proved to be true. From the onset, the two began throwing
everything they had at each other. Their essay-like attacks, chock full of
paragraphs filled with description and detail, slammed into each other with
a savagery seldom seen on LTU. This match in the early stages had already
eclipsed the Viper/Mupod match from AWIT I, and it showed no signs of
slowing. Finally, after a week of brutality, the panel of judges awarded the
match to Vegetaman, winning by the slimmest of margins. Viper was thus
denied his opportunity to repeat, and Vegetaman was awarded his first ever
AWIT championship. The match was coincidentally voted the Best Duel in the
Bark Media Network LTU Choice Awards. AWIT II had been a resounding success,
and the AWIT became established as a premiere fighting tournament on LTU.