Myths and Common Misconceptions surrounding LAW Championships
People tend to build up their own conceptions or ideas over official LAW Title Belts and how they work. The following are assumptions I've seen people make over the years that are largely untrue. I feel it's important to go over these and any others that I may come across, as many of these misconceptions go against my wishes for the LAW Title Scene
- There's a special process or people you have to go through to set up title matches.
No, there isn't. There never was. Setting up title matches is the same as setting up any other match or general RP on LAW. You simply engage the user with a champion character on their roster and consult them on whether or not they're willing to do an RP with you that involves the character's championship. The only rule that needs to be adhered to for this is that if you want a title match, your character must be eligible to compete for the title you're interested in incorporating into your desired story. You don't need mod approval or admin approval or paperwork or anything like that to ask for an RP. Always speak with your RP partner or potential RP partner. Even when you want a title match.
- I can only have one championship reign during my time at LAW.
A few people have fallen under this impression due to some particular LAW title reigns being overly long and spanning years. With the changes to the rules, I plan to ensure that Championships circulate more often in the years to come. But the idea that you're limited to one reign in your time here is false. Of course, no one owes anyone a championship win or a championship reign. But if you're following the rules and if the circumstances align such that you can have a second third, etc championship run on your roster, that is not against the rules nor is it out of the realm of possibility in this community. It's already happened on LAW and it can happen again without jeopardizing anything.
- The World Openweight Championship is a finish line/there is nothing for a character to do after winning the World Title
This is not true. The World Openweight Championship (or any title or plot device) can absolutely serve as an end game or a finish line in a given character's story if the writer/user chooses to make that the end goal for their character. But the World Title at LAW or any wrestling promotion is not inherently the end of any wrestler's career.
In IRL sports/wrestling/etc athletes typically do not choose to stop competing after winning a world championship. And winning any given at LAW does not leave a character with nothing left to do or accomplish after their reign. In IRL pro wrestling, wrestlers continue to compete after being at the top of the card or after conducting an important title reign all the time and LAW is no different. Titles at LAW are meant to serve as plot devices you can use to add more story possibilities for your characters. You should only use them to end stories (retirement, title vs career, etc.) if you as a writer have made the choice to do that
- Titles tend to have planned successors already, so I shouldn't bother trying to ask around for a championship win
As the person that takes on the task of supporting champions and contenders with title stories, I usually strongly encourage champions to plan out their title reigns early if they can. But things happen all the time. Plans change. Backup plans change. Not everyone plans things out to the same degree. It's happened multiple times where a user wanted to drop a title and didn't know what options would make sense or who they can approach. Like you'll see across all the guides and like I've already said, always talk to your RP partners and potential RP partners even when it comes to title stories and contention. Again, nobody owes anybody a title win or a title reign. And if you're a newer user or relatively inactive or if your reputation precedes you, you may turn some heads by asking a user with a champion to drop a belt to you. But it's better to ask and to inquire and to potentially become involved in said plans than it is to isolate your chance and assume you'll never get a chance for a title match or a title win. The title scene at LAW is meant to be accessible, fun, and healthy, and I intend to continue making strides to improve it. Encouraging people to be more open with each other like I'm doing now in this bullet point, is a part of that.
- I don't know what the LAWLESS Title is
Well, you came to the right place to learn. I'm putting this here because I've seen this subject specifically asked about publicly and privately a ton over the years. The LAWLESS Championship serves as LAW's Hardcore and 24/7 Championship. It is meant to be defended anytime/anywhere, typically in hardcore or No DQ matches. Due to the 24/7 nature of the belt, it's meant to be passed around more quickly than the others, though that doesn't always have to be the case. This belt can be defended anywhere on the forum where the champion can RP.
Mission Statement
Championship Titles and Events at LAW are meant to be plot devices that loosely connect our shared continuity and our characters in the LAW wrestling promotion.
Having regularly occurring events where characters all participate in matches on the same big show helps serve as narrative tools to begin, progress, or end stories between characters. You can even have stories branch off of other people's matches and threads. Doing this is encouraged, as it helps create the feeling of a shared universe.
Official LAW Champions are meant to serve as milestones, accolades, and goals for characters to chase as you develop them and tell stories with them. Title matches and title reigns work in much the same way. Whether your character wants to prove themselves, earn fame, money, or pride as a champion, it's usually easy to give a given character motivations and goals when it comes to championship pursuits in both IRL pro wrestling and in RP, and that's why we have championships here on LAW.
Championships and Tourneys/Supercards/PPV/other Events are narrative tools that are meant to serve the community as a whole. No one character, story, match-up, etc needs a title. The championship scene at LAW is meant to be accessible to everyone that's active in the community and interested in them. The rules and the way championships are handled are meant to support the notion that anyone who's active enough while following the rules and engaging in the community in a positive way can get a title match or even a title win by trying for long enough. The rules are also meant to discourage title reigns that are overly long, oppressive, or otherwise stifling to our user base.
Involving championships in your RP is by no means a necessity at LAW. A given character's current story arc or overall character arc can be focused on or influenced by any number of things: a particular rivalry, a team-up, a big event, a decision made by management, or other life circumstance (in-universe). By having your characters interact with or acknowledge others, you're helping enrich other people's experiences at LAW. But if you do choose to try to involve your characters in events and title stories, you must abide by the rules and communicate with the admin and mods so that we can ensure a fun and healthy experience for everyone.
Contendership and Eligibility for Official LAW Titles and Events
A given character becomes eligible for a title contention at LAW and for PPVs by completing three matches. The results of the matches do not matter. What matters is that the matches are seen through to completion.
A tag team becomes eligible for tag title contention by wrestling a single tag match together. Once again, the results of the match do not matter as long as the match is complete.
If you have an incomplete official event/PPV thread from a year or more ago, and it is determined that the thread is incomplete due to your inactivity, you may be asked to complete the event thread before you can participate in future events run by the admin and staff/mods.
Rules for Title Reigns
I make it my business to support characters with champions and contenders to help them tell the stories that they'd like to tell. I stay in touch with these users to try and see what I can do to see to it that their title reigns and title challenges play out the way they'd like them to. I offer tools like private threads to allow users to play out multiple title defenses in parallel so that they don't have to do defenses one after another sequentially, waiting on one match to finish before they can start the next. I assist with finding challengers and successors if users with champions are struggling to find those.
While I do offer my support wherever and whenever I can, per the mission statement, there are rules that must be followed for the sake of keeping LAW's title scene healthy and accessible to active players in the community. I'll explain those rules below. Please note that exceptions can be made to the rules under the right circumstances.
- Reign length - After 1.5 years of IRL time of your character being a champion, I will ask you to disclose to me your plans for who you intend to have your character drop their title to and how. After 2 years of IRL time, if you have not begun the thread in which your character will pass their championship on to someone else, your title may be vacated. This rule can be negotiated with communication with the mods and admin. We all understand that stuff happens and life can get in the way. But going forward, these timeboxes will be largely enforced.
Additionally, LAW Title reigns are judged, in-universe, by the quality and quantity of title defenses, and not by the number of days. Number of days gets screwy as a metric since each person controls their own character's timeline and doesn't necessarily use IRL time. Number of PPV cycles might be a better metric but I stand by number of defenses and quality of contenders as the best metric to use for storytelling/RP purposes
- Inactivity - If a user with a champion on their roster must go inactive for a time, we can negotiate what happens if they can stay in touch. However, 2 Months of radio silence (no activity on LAW + no one being able to get ahold of you through any means of communication) will prompt me to begin working on plans for how the title will be passed on, 3 months of radio silence will see to it that I vacate the title and begin implementing those plans.
- One Per Roster - At any given time, a user can only have one official LAW Championship on their roster. You can challenge for other belts while having one on your roster. You can have multiple title matches going on at once whether it's in publicly available threads or in private ones. But please do not book yourself to win another championship when you already have one on your roster.
- Location of Title Defenses -Except for the LAWLESS Title and Loser Title, LAW Title defenses are to take place in the Special Events and PPV section only. LAW is a large, international company. Therefore LAW title defenses, as well as matches and events in general can occur in any major city of your choosing.
- After a Title Loss - Barring exceptions, once a user has had their character lose an official LAW title to another character, that user should not book themselves to win another official LAW title for at least a year. They can contend for other titles to help others with their title reigns, but this rule prohibits them from winning another title within a year after losing one.
Contendership and other Accolades
The distinction of number one contender for a title goes to the character currently challenging for that title. They are to be designated on the front page of the site. Please message me to keep up updated on number one contenders. This distinction is an accolade in and of itself since competing for a title is a big deal.
LAW borrows a lot of accolades from IRL wrestling examples, current champion, former champion, number one contender, former number one contender, tourney winner, tourney finalist/semifinalist, and so on. Feel free to make up any to add to your character's profile that you feel adds to their character development or story.
Custom/Unofficial Championships: Championships from outside promotions or championships created by wrestlers, fans, etc are not recognized as official championships at LAW. But if you create them for your characters, you can use them and defend them largely in whatever capacities that you see fit. Please bear in mind that users tend to underestimate the work that goes into creating their own championship as a plot device and regularly using it/defending it/implementing it in stories. If you choose to make your own belt for your own stories, my suggestion is to have a plan to retire the belt in the long run.
Links to stuff I wish more people would read
Peace, Love, and Sexy Wrestling Roleplay Stories