Oh! That hurt.
He is in pain.
This winter, we stumbled upon a multi-purpose gym in New Jersey
where people were dressing in medieval armor
and smashing each other with blunt weapons.
We were lured in by the spectacle,
but the scene beyond it was also really interesting.
When we found out these knights were training for a world championship
in Portugal, where they would compete against other nations,
we immediately booked our tickets to join them.
[American Knights in Europe]
We are at the International Medieval Combat Federation
World Championships.
Yes, that is a thing.
It’s essentially a Renaissance fair,
but at the center there is actual medieval combat with real weapons
and real armor.
Men and women fighting,
not to the death, just until they fall over.
Check out the medieval broadcast booth.
The International Medieval Combat Federation
consists of hundreds of fighters
from 26 countries around the world.
Each year, teams gather at a castle somewhere in Europe
to engage in melees and one-on-one competition.
The event is steeped in medieval history,
which makes the US team stick out from the crowd a bit,
despite their best efforts.
So right now, in the cage behind us, one of the American longswordsmen
is actually a captain in the US military.
He's about to fight right now.
My mom was an English teacher when I grew up, right?
She’d bring home books, we’d read books together
and it was always medieval knights and stuff.
So I was running around playing with swords since I was a kid.
The first time I did melees too, you’ll see later.
Everything I ever experienced in high school football and fencing,
it was that next level,
it was that next adrenaline phase you can get to.
I don’t know, you leave feeling so refreshed
and just so, “I can’t believe I did this.”
It's amazing.
I’m an officer in the army,
and my job isn’t to be the trigger puller.
My job is to think and plan and lead, really.
So to be here and not have to do any of that,
it’s not stressful.
My release from training for actual war
is to come do fake war.
-Cheers. -Cheers, bro. Cheers.
So what are you waiting for right now?
-The 16 on 16. -16 on 16.
It’s my favorite event
because it’s the one that feels the most like a real battle.
Because the more bodies on the field,
the more the actual strategy for numbers tends to factor in,
the more chaos you get.
-It’s just great. -Yeah.
What do you do in real life?
Real life, I’m a high school history teacher.
-Oh, really? -Yeah.
Do your students know you’re here?
Yeah.
I would imagine that would be amazing.
There’s a few of them that are going to be watching the video of me.
That’s amazing.
Pride of America.
So what are you guys going to fight in today?
What’s your schedule?
Today will be the five on fives.
So we face Germany.
What is the five on five like?
A five versus five, I call it a dogfight
because it’s not as chaotic or as crowded as a 16 versus 16
or ten versus ten.
It’s more violent, I think.
I like it because there’s just more violence in the fives.
What’s your fighting style?
Nerd rage.
-Nerd rage? -Yeah.
One of the things that happens in a helmet is
you’re breathing in your own CO2.
So a little sensor in your brain will go off,
saying, “I got low oxygen levels.”
And so your body and your brain will start going,
“Hey, you’re going to die.
Whatever it is you’re doing, you need to stop it.”
And so you’ll see guys sometimes lose their ****
and they’ll run around clawing at their face,
trying to get their helmet off.
And they’re running around in circles and they’re so irrational,
they’re not even thinking to even pull their own helmet off.
But what will awaken you the most
is when you get a spark that flies into your helmet
and you get the smell of ozone
that just completely fills your helmet.
It’s exciting because something real
just happened to flash before your eyes.
I get a little excited, actually, when that happens.
How is your nose not broken after that?
You can never really have enough of that,
a lifelong of nerd rage to deal with, you know?
You can never have enough therapy.
See, look at my smile.
It’s a real one.
No, you’re glowing right now.
You have this glow emanating from you.
Right behind me, with the battle axe, is Janeal,
she’s the gold medalist in the polearm.
She’s on her honeymoon
and they just changed their last name to Ironside.
So you compete with your husband?
Yes.
And this is your honeymoon, I’m told.
This is our honeymoon, yes.
How long has this been planned?
We got married in February and then this has been our honeymoon.
How does it feel watching her fight?
Oh, it’s annoying.
So want to go out there and like,
“Do this, do this.” And I can’t, I can’t.
The reason why we chose it is
we met by fighting each other in a tournament.
He had been fighting for three months,
I had been fighting for three years.
And it was with my favorite style, which is actually longsword.
He made a big mistake, big swing and a miss,
I did a little dodge and I hit him right in the face.
Yeah, just nerve-racking.
That’s the best way to put it, nerve-racking.
Janeal’s been standing there...
it’s been two on one for five minutes.
How you doing champ?
So tiring.
I’m like, “Just go down already!”
Excuse me, back it up.
Marshals have to walk on this line.
[USA vs France 16 vs 16 semifinal]
If we beat France, we fight one fight.
Another one around, one fight.
And the winner of that fight takes it all.
So that means you give your best effort.
Blow it out, blow it off, get it over with quickly,
and let’s go to the finals.
The United States about to fight their 16 on 16 melee,
the second round robin.
Actually, this guy had his foot possibly broken yesterday,
so Stephen Cumby is stepping in.
His first-ever melee.
Stop the fight.
[USA wins and advances to gold medal round.]
I mean, that was a street fight.
It was **** crazy.
It’s always good when you nail somebody so hard
they smash their face into the rail with their whole body weight.
Oh my God.
It’s just that pinky I can’t do much with.
They say it’s probably a microfracture.
You have to believe it.
Do you believe it?
Yes, sir.
-Do you believe it? -Yes, sir!
Believe it, OK?
So this is the finals of the five on five,
England versus USA.
USA, USA, USA!
Stay on the rail, Andre!
The thing about five on fives is that
if you make one mistake,
that’s 20 percent of your workforce gone.
Stop the fight!
And the winner is England!
It’s always a drag to be the first loser.
-Second place. -Yeah.
But still satisfying.
You can see the sportsmanship out here,
and that’s what makes us special.
[USA vs France 16 vs 16 melee gold medal match]
So the USA is getting ready for their 16 versus 16 gold medal match.
It is by far the most exciting event that you have here.
It is just an all-out street fight.
It’s insane.
See, the United States’ style, they have a formation
where they pinch at the flanks,
trying to entice the team to come into the middle.
And if anyone’s actually dumb enough to venture into the middle,
they quickly envelope them to isolate them,
so they can knock them down.
So the US won the gold, they absolutely dominated.
-How are you feeling? -Good.
-Congrats. Thanks.
I told you, the 16s, it’s chaos.
All the official events are over,
and they end with a 30 on 30 melee.
I think that the Renaissance fair around the event,
all the period garb, it makes you think that this is an activity
but when you watch this, it is absolutely a sport.
People are leaving with serious injuries.
And when you watch these matches,
there’s more drama packed in a round of these than
you’d be lucky to see in a basketball game or a baseball game.
I think that that's the most exciting part of this event.
In a minute, you might have
more drama than you can get in any other sport.