Poking the Tiger: Chicago Pacific Island Gathering and Tournament

Got back late Sunday from John Bednarski's Gathering and Tournament in Chicago and it was a great time.
I first got involved with it and John back in '06 by fighting and immediately pledged my support in any way I could. We've been involved in constant organizing support of each other every year to make it better and bigger each time and we succeeded again. John works tirelessly all year to make it work and we do everything we can to support him and help make it better.

The tournament started far earlier than last year, the rules vids we put on youtube meant that everyone had a much clearer idea on the scoring and the rules meeting went very quick, everyone had a fantastic attitude and the skill of the fighters displayed was phenomenal. Just outstanding skill and sportsmanship.

We arrived midday on Saturday while the seminars were going on. Currently I'm narrowly focusing my training specifically on Combat KravMaga TacRope and Knife as well as Navadisha. So I choose to respectfully sit out the seminars going on but I know they were some great ones. We did get to meet up with some other Moro Stylists, compare blades and as usual when there's a Bangsamoro gathering, stuff ends up getting cut.
After a great family Style dinner in Chicago's Chinatown, we returned to the dojo to stay up late and try to prepare for the bedlam of the pre-tourney registration.

For awards this year (in keeping with the blade theme) we gave out Balisongs from Batangas, exotic Hardwood flatsticks and a pair of rattan sticks for third place.
i had planned and prepared for fighting in the tournament this year, the first time in 3 years. But there really wasn't anyone in a division for me (I'm not fighting the young guys). So it was best for the tournament that I focused solely on officiating and such. I was feeling fairly ready too which was the real point of the training. Not competing but getting myself in shape and developing my skill set.

One of the kewl things we added this year was Combat Knife division. We used marking knives and lipstick along with plain white T's and let them have at each other for 30 secs only counting the torso hit. Every single competitor after their first fight stated simply that they absolutely LOVED it. So a big hit.
Next year we're hoping to add knife, tomahawk and Special Forces Shovel throwing as a division to further push the blade combat concept of the tournament.
The whole Team Navadisha family was involved with helping run the tournament so I only got a few pictures. Mushtaq judged at least 3/4 of the time. I refereed all the matches but one, Cole was pointkeeper for the point fights (along with competing. He won 1st in adult forms, 1st in youth sword, 1st in lightweight adult point knife and second in combat knife as well as voted 2nd place Grand Champion winner of a custom sansibar) and Chris did all the timekeeping and sponsored/refereed the Combat Knife.