DoF Staff Update and Team Shuffling

[Hope]

Hello everyone!

This may be one of the hardest letters we’ll ever write because it’s almost impossible to put down words to convey to you how much we love this sport and want to honor it as new Co-Head Coordinators. You’ve read now that Matt is retiring as head coordinator after almost 22 years. The Duel of Fists team has agreed that Jaycy and I will take the team forward and build on the incredible foundation that Matt - and Kheldar - have provided for the last two decades.

First, we would like to say thank you to Matt. Matt has been synonymous with Duel of Fists and it’s impossible to really imagine the sport without him. Matt started as Duel of Fists Coordinator on May 5, 2000, after HOST DFC Rask entrusted him with the sport both IC and OOC. His stewardship and care of the sport and the people who worked with him was unparalleled; he guided Duel of Fists through staff and mechanics changes with deft grace and a steady hand, moving Duel of Fists from AOL to ringsofhonor.org and now to rhydin.org and from one system of feints to others. His depth of knowledge and ability to tell stories involving Duel of Fists and the Opals is incredible. If you look at the list of Opal stories through the years, first and foremost you will find the (continuing) tales of the Simons and the Opals. One particular storyline to note was during his time as Governor, Sanyumato. He and Koy bridged the gap between duelers and non-duelers with an amazing story. (Recommended additional reading is the Elements Askew folder.) Matt, IC and OOC, is Duel of Fists and Jaycy and I will be forever grateful for the foundation he has laid and built so much upon in his years as its heart and soul.

We’re thrilled to report that Matt won’t be leaving the Duel of Fists team altogether; he’ll transition to (fittingly) Duel of Fists Historian. Kheldar will remain our tournament master and Assistant Coordinator while Mart will move to Duel of Fists Standings Keeper. Some of us may even (re)introduce new characters to discover histories for!

We love Duel of Fists, a lot, and it’s very important to us that we make our intentions clear as we take the reins of the sport. Our goal with Duel of Fists is to expand the playable universe and allow every player to find something in it that they enjoy and can come back to whenever they want to. We want everyone who participates to feel like there’s a place for them whether it’s the titles, the day-to-day role play or the stories and events.

We also know that there are players who like things as they are and don’t want to change things up. We value that a lot and we want to reassure you that no matter what we add to the game, we appreciate you and we promise that participating in new content will be optional. You can play Duel of Fists as you always have. We want to offer players new and exciting ideas and stories but we also want to respect and honor the traditions that have lasted decades and we will not be taking that away from anyone in the process.

We are already working on the first addition we plan for Duel of Fists and intend to submit it to the community for discussion and refinement before we introduce it officially. Following this announcement we will be addressing the Player Survey we issued a little while ago and will outline what we took from it and generally the plan moving forward to address the feedback we got. We are very excited to share with you what we’re working on.

Before we wrap this up we just wanted to express our core beliefs as far as coordinating philosophy: honesty, transparency, fairness, accountability and being present. These are what we strive for and will do our best to deliver to you as Head Coordinators. Putting it simply we really want to leave Duel of Fists in the best spot we can when the time comes for us to move on. All of us make up this community together and we have already taken the first steps towards positive growth with our recent Player Survey we put out. We will be addressing our takeaways from that very soon as well as a general outline of things to come. We’re excited for what’s to come and we hope that you all will share in our enthusiasm too.

Sincerely,

Tom & Jaycy

[PC]

From your humble beginnings of giving me an IHOP gift card because you asked if I could call a challenge for you last minute, to becoming co-Duel of Fists head coordinator. I brought you into RoH/RoD and I can take you out of it (insert gun emoji here).

Joking aside. I look forward to seeing what Jaycy and you bring to the table!

Also first reply btw.

[Mallory]

Congratulations to you and Jaycy both! It's been wonderful getting to work with y'all, and I can't wait to see what's in store. <3

[Gren Blockman]

Good luck to you and Jaycy, I'm sure you'll both do great.

[PrlUnicorn]

Good luck to you both! You have big shoes to fill.

C.