People of HMB movement 

Brand Lancaster, 

captain of National team of USA   

…concerning his Team and HMB sport 

We are new people for HMB movement. Most of the guys of our team have never fought. Sounds funny, but it’s true. I mean a lot of them have attended some festivals, but they have never practiced full contact. Only 2 guys have been practicing full contact battles, and one of them, is me. I have 24 years of armor fighting experience. But most of the team are green:). It’s crazy, but I’m happy that they are going with me. And my duty is to keep them safe.

The USA participated in “Battle of the Nations”-2013. But this year, the Team, representing America, is brand new, and needs

experience and support. We will fight for the honor of the USA worthy for sure.

Each fighter of our team understands the seriousness of the coming event. That’s why we had very hot trainings. I’ve been working with the guys for the last three months. And I will do my best to get some victories for them. We are participating in “1 vs 1” category, which will be representing by 2 fighters, and “5 vs 5”. We don’t have any woman in our National Team this year.

Unfortunately, some leaders of reenactment movement in USA forbade some fighters to participate in “Battle of the Nations”-2014. We consider it as undemocratic actions which kill the principle of fair competition. We are a team of associates, and we don’t agree with such actions. I know that I can be looked as a person who is moving against the wish of others. But I’m just the kind of crazy guy, and I do what I thing is right, no matter what’s happening.

We could have in our Team at least 8 fighters more this year. We have guys from the old Team in HMB, who really wanted to go to Trogir with us. They came under the pressure of some people. Nevertheless the guys still want to be the part of our team. And next year our National team will have much bigger number of fighters, and much stronger. For now our Team is still not ready for 100%. The reasons are lack of preparation time, and battle experience of some fighters. But we have accepted the challenge and not afraid to show ourselves. After all, only hard battle can bring you experience and make you stronger.

We do really understand the small possibility of our victory at “Battle of the Nations”-2014. But we couldn’t lose the opportunity to represent our country on this Championship. The honor matters only. America is a great country. We will show that the real American fighters are brave, desperate warriors who will never stop. We are going to be stronger.

We have guys, who learned a lot, and will improve their technique in the future.

And these are 6 fighters of National Team of USA:

- Brand Lancaster

- Jason Wilson

- Adam Larios

- William Hoffman

- William Becking

- Jason Daniel Wilson

I was not able to go to “Battle of the Nations” last year, due of some financial problems. But now I have an opportunity to participate in this international event. Moreover, I’m a captain. HMB Championship is a prestigious event. It includes about 30 experienced and strong National Teams from all over the world.

This is a huge movement, where every self-respecting medieval reenactment fighter should try himself. This organization has made medieval reenactment a worldwide movement, new kind of sport.

It’s an honor for me to be a captain of National team, representing your own country. A lot of things depend upon a captain: people trust

him. Today I have an honor to a captain. But I understand that everything can be changed in the near future, as the captain is an elective person. The election is annual event. And fighters only can decide who is going to be their leader. And it’s correct, I suppose. I won’t be upset, even more I would be happy if we have a better captain.

We want to be a champions in the future, and you can’t be one unless you fight against champions.There will be such strong Teams as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus at the event. We are going to fight with best of the best…

Interview by

Elisabeth Irha
HMBIA NEWS