SMBC Comics Forum

The Battlesketch Games of SMB City were regular and highly celebrated festivals in the lands of the forum, where teams of opposing factions would compete against each other in a friendly battle of wits, talent, and offensive slander. The Olympiads were held every two years, and would last approximately two weeks or until the <<Festival Master>> and/or competitors got bored and stopped attending.

In each Game, the most talented champions were chosen to represent factions named after the legendary forefathers of the game, and in a given timeframe compete with other factions to produce a lineup of entertaining performance sketches, which to the mind of the public, are considered more entertaining than the performances of their rivals. These performances highlighted the contestant's need for talent as entertainers in a variety of forms, as well as a political tactfullness to win a majority of supporters and to deter the public from supporting rival factions.

The inaugural Battlesketch Games began in 2031, started by the wealthy nobleman and historian Duke Hawhaw MCCLXXI, after studying the culture of Ancient SMBC and taking interest in the ancient practice known as the Forumbattle. These grand and elaborate festivities were known to have taken place early in the history of Ancient SMBC, but were later abandoned for reasonns as of yet unknown. Historical documenting after painstaking research had enabled Duke Hawhaw MCCLXXI to conclude that the ForumBattles consisted of champions of wit and humour illustrating artworks to be judged by peers against competitive works. The names of these legendary athletes were recorded, however much of their original work has been lost in the sands of time.

The BattleSketch Games would have the competing factions named after these legendary athletes of the first Ancient Forumbattle: Jesster, Steffles, TwoBuy, GreenCrayon, Lethal Interjection, ruotwocone, wolf and even a lower-class ancestor of Duke HawHaw MCCLXXI himself, hawhaw1267.

The Games ran continually many years, with the duration of the Games marked as a Public Holiday throughout the lands of the forum. The Games were cancelled once in 2051 in the height of the SMB Civil War, and after an unsuccessful attempt by the Ad Captandum Vulgus movement to take the stadium spectators hostage in the previous Games (see <<Hostage Crisis of 2049>>), but would continue for every year after that until shortly after the 3rd Age, in 2065 after being deemed "unprofitable" by the Battlesketch Games Commitee (BGC).

Author's Comments: Whilst scholars give a variety of reasons for the eventual annexation of the BattleSketch Games, it is safe to assume that the decision to stop making the Games a public holiday had a moderate to very significant impact. After the law was passed as part of an economic reform in 2060, attendance at the Games dwindled to very low numbers, and no doubt contributed to the dramatic drop in revenue. Some schools argue however, that these low turnouts were not because of the abolishment of the holiday period, but a direct consequence of the political volatility and instability during this period.

Every time I read about the origins of the Battlesketch Games, I am astounded that people with such varied talents and temperaments could come together and found such a wonderful competition. For instance, the calm deliberation with which Lethal Interjection felled his targets during the Blogosphere Offensive seems diametrically at odds with such a lighthearted and carefree holiday.

Is there more information regarding the styles adopted by the opposing factions? As in, did the various teams adopt the approaches of their namesakes in the competition?

It isn't that difficult to believe. Many a time warring factions have declared peace on momentous occasions. There have even been stories of sports played between sides, when other days there would be bullets exchanged. Though those may have just been elaborate fictions. And countries at war often still attend the same major sporting events, such as the Olympics.
Plus, the Battlesketch Games weren't exactly what one would call "civil". It was just that during the Games the conflict was focussed in an artistic direction.