On February 5-6 HMB USA held its national tournament which led to the roster for Battle of the Nations. 

This year the 5 vs 5 category was highly contested. After a round robin pool was completed, the four top teams fought to represent the HMB USA team for buhurts in Romania.

Long time contender Ordo Draconis and newcomers to HMB, the Warpigs faced off. Ordo Draconis took the win to earn their place as USA 3. 

Cerberus entered the finals with a record of 4-1 and fought the only team to beat them in the round robin pool, KnyazUSA (5-0) to decide USA 1 and 2.

After an extremely long first round that lasted more than 9 minutes, KnyazUSA took the win. This team went on to win the second round as well leaving them to finish the day undefeated (6-0) and claim the honors of being USA 1 while Cerberus holds the USA 2 spot. 

The tournament also featured duels and Outtrance combat fights in both women’s and men’s divisions. So, the winners of the duel categories are:
Men’s Polearm – Matthew Creedican;
Women’s Polearm – Kelsey Gentry;

Men’s Sword and Buckler – Bo Ring;
Women’s Sword and Buckler – Shoshana Shellans;

Men’s Sword and Shield – Landon Morris;
Woman’s Sword and Shield – Shoshana Shellans;

Men’s Longsword – Spencer Waddell;
Women’s Longsword – Julee Slovacek-Peterson;

Men’s super heavyweight pro fights – Wes Fenton;
Men’s heavyweight pro fights – Matthew Creedican;
Men’s lightweight pro fights – Nicholas Homa. 

The event was hosted in beautiful Southern California by Joseph Cadieux, HMB USA head marshal and knight marshal of the event. Also there were guest marshals Hector Cortez from Mexico and Vitally Makarian, Knight marshal from Ukraine. 

“We had a fantastic tournament. Great to have KnyazUSA win first place Saturday. They are a strong team and making great strides in this sport. The final match for first place was an epic fight that went long and came down to a showdown between Cerberus and KnyazUSA. Great work by all teams”, said Joseph Cadieux. 

HMB USA team captain Jeff Galli along with his vice captains will fill out the remaining roster spots for the 75 fighter team USA will take to the Battle of the Nations this year. That roster will include men and women fighters in nearly all categories including 5s, 12s, 30s, duels and pro fights. Vice Captain and women’s representative Katherine Herzog has announced that the Dallas Mythics team will be representing USA in the women’s buhurts. 

New HMB USA team tabards will be provided by a donation secured by long time veteran Brad Schaive. Additional fundraising plans are in the works to help offset the large expenses American fighters face traveling all the way to Romania. 

“Maybe we will have to explore the possibility of hosting a future Battle of the Nations in the USA! Who do I talk to about that?” said Andy Tunstall, HMB USA President.

As we can see, the HMB USA team is determined and plans to take home the cups of the HMB World Championship Battle of the Nations 2022.

And we can only wait for a meeting with these fighters and expect to see bright and interesting fights.