Battle Studies: Merrill Men at Arms take foam fighting seriously
The warriors of Merrill Hall take up foam arms when they walk into battle.
They call themselves the Merrill Men at Arms and the campus of Central Michigan University is their battlefield to clash across.
Grand Haven sophomore Nick DeWitt started the assembly of homemade swords, spears and arrows his freshman year.
“I started doing stuff like this in high school and when I got here other people were interested in it too, and it just grew from there,” DeWitt said.
The group was created to provide anyone with an opportunity to battle to the death, only temporarily of course.
Kevin Meyer’s weapon of choice is the bow and arrow.
“I played with swords last year and didn’t do so great,” the Holland sophomore said. “I had these arrows at home that I made when I was in cub scouts, so I decided to switch to archery.”
Girls game
This year, Merrill Men at Arms integrated females when the hall went co-ed, said Chesaning junior Jesse Lorencz.
Macomb freshman Katie Freeman is their newest female member.
“I’ve been doing this for eight years,” Freeman said. “At home though, we really get into it. We dress up and go to renaissance festivals.”
Freeman says she classifies herself as a live action role player, or LARPer. Although Freeman is one of a few girls out on the battlefield, she has no problem keeping up with the guys.
“Yeah, Katie kills me all the time,” said Alto sophomore Kevin Wilder.
Their epic battles aren’t just free-for-alls; there are rules to the game, Lorencz said. If you lose two limbs, you’re dead, while a hit in the torso or back is a called a “one-hit death.” The person who makes the kill cannot make the call, he said.
“The person being hit decides if they were hit or not,” Lorencz said, “This works out pretty good because knowing this rule often stops arguments mid-game.”
Freeman said people don’t worry about the rules too much.
She said even after people die, they can play ghost by, “following people around poking them saying ‘ghost.’”
There are a few variations of the game, Freeman said.
Most often, they have two captains and pick teams, but sometimes they play a game called “general.” In general, the game starts out as a free-for-all, where the players collect team members by killing people.
“If you kill someone, then they’re on your team. If you have really skilled players, it can last forever,” Freeman said.
Roscommon junior David Bradley doesn’t worry about winning.
“I’m notorious for my kamikaze moves,” Bradley said. “Sometimes I just go in for a cool move even though I know I’m going to die.”
Bradley said he loves participating in battle for the stress relief and the workout.
“We’re just out here to have fun,” he said.
