Davy Back Fight

The Davy Back Fight is a traditional pirate game held in homage to the mythical Davy Jones, meant to challenge—and conscript—members of opposing crews.

Canonically, only the Foxy Pirates have been known to initiate these games. However, Usopp, Sanji, and Nico Robin have all independently confirmed its status as a genuine pirate tradition.

History
Little is known about the history of the game, except that it was supposedly created on Pirate Island, by pirates fighting over the best possible sailors for their crew.

As captain of the Foxy Pirates, Foxy regularly used Davy Back Fights to claim new crewmen. At the time of his encounter with the Straw Hat Pirates, his crew numbered five hundred, with the newest claims being fourteen members of the Fanged Toad Pirates (including the captain, navigator, doctor, and shipwright) in addition to their Jolly Roger.

Overview
Your comrades and your pride are at stake. If you win, you get stronger, but if you lose, you lose big... it's a vicious game!

A Davy Back Fight must be initiated by mutual agreement between the captains of the participating crews (which overrules any objections from subordinates). Once the agreement has been made, there is no going back. This agreement is sealed by each captain firing a gun skyward.

Before the games begin, they are traditionally inaugurated by throwing a number of coins off the nearest coastline. The number of coins corresponds to the number of games that will be held during the Davy Back Fight. The standard format is the three-coin game (スリーコインゲーム), calling on seven members from each crew to participate in three consecutive events. The coins are also a tribute that not only honors Davy Jones, but symbolically promises him the soul of any pirate who betrays the game's spirit.

Each participant is limited to one event only, and the overall team arrangements must be determined before the first event; mid-game changes or substitutions are not allowed.

When a crew wins an event, its captain is entitled to choose to any one member of the losers' crew to switch sides and join their own crew, even the opposing crews captain is eligible to be claimed. If the captain of the winning crew is not interested in any members of the losing crew, then they have the option of adding insult to injury by taking the losers' Jolly Roger. This process is governed by the Three Articles of Defeat (敗戦における3か条):


 * 1) Any crew members (or symbols) taken during the Davy Back Fight may only be retrieved through another Davy Back Fight.
 * 2) Taken crew members must immediately swear loyalty to the victorious captain.
 * 3) Taken symbols must never again be raised by the losing crew.

Claiming crew-members who are meant to participate in subsequent games is wholly legal, and may be done to weaken the opposing crew in upcoming events. As previously mentioned, the team line-up cannot be changed after it has been set, so the crew that lost a member would have to play with one less teammate. However, doing this to completely empty an opposing team and win an event by default is typically decried as peanut tactics (ピーナッツ戦法). Doing so is frowned upon, but perfectly legal.

Due to the pride and honor inherent to the game, pirates are expected to follow these conditions to the heart, and gladly defect from their original crews. Additionally, crew members taken in the last event of a game cannot be re-taken in subsequent games.

Being a competition between pirates, there will naturally be foul play involved. Some pirates play fair because they have faith in or want to test the strength of their crew, others will use every dirty trick in the book to make sure they win.

Events
The Davy Back Fight is known to feature a variety of different events, each with specialized rules and victory conditions.

(Note that these events—unlike the overall concept of the Davy Back Fight—were explained and organized wholly by the Foxy Pirates. It is unknown how widely-accepted their parameters are, or what other events are considered valid for the game.)

Donut Race


The Donut Race (ドーナツレース) is a race where three team members from each crew are given construction materials (mostly barrels) and must use them build their own boat. Each team then uses their boat to go one lap around the island (or part of the island they are on, if there is a smaller island right next to it, or part of the main one) and the first to reach the finish line wins. Both teams are allowed to use weapons, and can do anything, including pushing the other boat backwards, do damage to the other boat and even kill all the members of the opposing team. The other members of the crew who are not in the race can also support their team.

Groggy Ring


The Groggy Ring (グロッキーリング) is normally played with three players per team. One player is the "ball" on each team, and it is the goal of the opposing team to knock the opposing teams "ball" into the goal on the opposing team's side of the field. The goal is a large, circular tube, used in a way similar to a basketball hoop. No weapons are allowed (though if the referee does not notice the weapons, they can be used).

Combat


This Combat (コンバット) is the Captain's Fight, a one-on-one duel between the two captains. It is the main event of the competition. A cannon is spun around and fired, a 50 meter radius of wherever, or whatever the cannonball lands on becomes the fighting ring. While inside the ring, the two combatants are allowed to use any objects or weapons in the arena. Devil Fruits are also allowed. The first person out of the ring loses. This includes being blown to bits and a shred of the person lands outside the arena, or the opponent throwing a piece out. If the Peanut Tactic is used from winning the previous event and one of the captains cannot participate, then the other will win by default.

Anime and Manga Differences
The anime greatly expanded the Long Ring Long Land Arc - most notably by having the Foxy Pirates wage two Davy Back Fights against the Straw Hats, and win both Tony Tony Chopper and Nico Robin during the second - and in doing so made the following changes and expansions to the game's terms:


 * One- and two-coin games are explicitly established (though not played).
 * Format-setting rights default to the challenging captain, but may be passed to the challenged captain.
 * The "orthodox" seven-participant setup is dropped.
 * Each participant is allowed in two events, rather than one.
 * Crews are - through mutual agreement - allowed to stake multiple members on a single event.
 * If the agreed-upon number exceeds the losing crew's total membership, all of their descendants may be claimed by the winning crew until the difference is made up.

Additionally, the anime created four original events - three for the Long Ring Long Land Arc proper, and one for the later Adventure of Nebulandia special. These are detailed below.

Run Roller Around


The Run Roller Around (ラン・ローラー・アラウンド) is the first non-canon game of the Davy Back Fight. This game is played by five team members, one member is designated as the Point Getter. The goal in this game is for the Point Getter to skate as many laps as they can around the track before the five minute time limit runs out. Whichever point getter is in the lead once time is up is the winner.

After the first twenty seconds pass, there will be a signal to call the rest of the team to skate. These other skaters can either help their own point getter, or sabotage the opposing teams point getter.

The game has five rounds. If one team gets three wins, the game is automatically over. Additionally, each of the five members of each team may only play as Point Getter once. The order is to be chosen before the game begins.

Players are not allowed to skate backwards or out of the ring or they will immediately be disqualified from the round, although the air is safe as long as they do not touch the ground. If the Point Getter gets disqualified, the round automatically goes to the other team.

Hit and Dead Ball


Hit and Dead Ball (ヒット・アンド・デッドボール) is the second non-canon game of the Davy Back Fight. This game is very similar to regular dodgeball. Once all members of the opposing team are off the field, then your own team wins. There has been no limit for participants, even if one team drastically outnumbers the other. The two groups choose which members get to be the outsiders and which get to be the insiders.

Hit and Dead Ball has been played for many years and at least 999 rules have been established (this game appears to be prepared for all contingencies). In this game, it does not count if a ball hits another person's face (though the top of the head is still fair game), players are not allowed to step out of the playing field and not allowed to break or eat the ball. No weapons are allowed except for a contraption called Dead Hit-Kun (a giant ball launcher). Players are also allowed to use as many fake balls as they want. Cheating in this game is against the rules and cheaters are decapitated, this includes referees who make calls out of favoritism.

Dodge Touch Mr. Daruma


Dodge Touch Mr. Daruma (ドッジ・タッチ・だるまさん) is the third non-canon game of the Davy Back Fight. It is just like the real Japanese variation of Red Light Green Light but in this one, weapons and attacking are allowed. It is called Dash, Touch, Domination in the Funimation dub.

Eating Contest


The Big Eater Showdown (大食い王決定戦) is the fourth non-canon game of the Davy Back Fight, and was the only one played during the rematch on Kinoko Island in the Adventure of Nebulandia special. Two teams of three are tasked to eat a large pile of food, with the first team to finish it winning. The rules are that the competitors must have a stomach and that if anyone other than the competitors sets foot on the stage, their team is automatically disqualified.

However, this game was created by Marine Vice Admiral Komei as part of his plan to drug the Straw Hats with Drowsy Mushrooms and capture them. The rule about having to have a stomach was made so all the competitors would be affected by the mushrooms, and the rule about no one else going onstage was made so no one could free the competitors from the stage, which was actually a trap.

Since Komei created it himself, the game is not an official Davy Back Fight game. However, since Foxy easily accepted the idea, it is hinted that pirates can create their own games each time.

Inspirations and Influences


The game's namesake legend is adapted from real-life nautical folklore, which has used "Davy Jones' Locker" as a euphemism for sailors (and other goods) lost at sea since at least the eighteenth century; the Davy Jones in question is said to have been a captain so greedy in life that the Devil personally condemned him to spending eternity on the seafloor, collecting riches he could never use.

(Notwithstanding a quick sketch Eiichiro Oda provided in Volume 38's SBS, it remains unknown if any "real" Davy Jones exists—or once existed—in the world of One Piece, as so many other mythical beings do.)

Trivia

 * For rule #3, the exception may be if one wins it back, as in rule #1. This was never stated, but the wording implies it to not be true. However, the rules also state that won members are immediately part of the crew and cannot quit and return.
 * The sixth movie features a similar competition called the Trial of Hell (地獄の試練).

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