Yesterday I had the privilege to be a judge for Ryerson University’s attempt to break the world record for the biggest swordfight ever (or rather, as the Guinness World Records would have it, the most simultaneously-participated role playing game).
I arrived at the scene with three other judges, including local Firefighter Jeff Balentino, Sam Babe, a partner in a local law firm, , and an emergency physician, Sheila David. The organizers utilized turnstiles to keep track the number of people present, which made our job as judges a lot easier.
The old record we were trying to break was 489 participants. Yesterday we officially had 909 participants! We technically broke the record before we even started.
As the organizers announced the start of the swordfight, Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” blasted from the speakers. Participants broke into a frenzy of swordfighting each other. Participants chased one another, ganged up on each other, and just had fun.
Many of the faculty members also joined the fight. I must admit that it was rather unusual to see high-powered academics sword-fighting each other. It was so much fun that I was very much tempted to jump into the scene!
After the event was wrapped up, we judges were invited to watch the recorded video. The event lasted 7 minutes and 45 seconds, more or less. The old record was for 10 minutes. Hence we were not sure whether we’d actually met the GWR requirement.
At the end, it was a fantastic experience, and I thank Joyce Lee and Marc Herscovitch, two of the organizers for inviting me. Ryerson University can have me back any time!
EDIT:
On Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008, I received the following message from Marc Herscovitch:
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Congratulations! Ryerson University has officially qualified for the Guinness World Record! We could not have done it without our judges. Once again thank you for helping judge our Guinness record!
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Good job, Ryerson!
