The L.O.F. Guildford Cognoscenti Rules

These rules have been created by the co-founders of the League Of Fire. 

The co-founders have created this rule set on 04th July 2019. This rule set has been created especially for L.O.F. Champions Title Belt Matches.

The first ever League Of Fire Champions Title Match shall take place at Guildford Cheese and Chilli Festival, Shalford Park, Guildford, UK. 

The writers of this rule set have spectated upon a combined 1000 + Chilli-Eating Contests either by way of video or at live events. 

The writers of this rule set have witnessed Chilli-Eating Contests in multiple countries, hosted by different hosts with their idiosyncratic styles, rules and methods. 

These rules have been engendered with the intention of offering the fairest method to determine a true champion, with consideration taken regarding many aspects, such as time constraints, crowd excitement factors, general fairness towards the competitors, ease of execution for the hosts, etc. 

The inaugural League Of Fire Championship Title Match should be the only time 3 people compete in a Title Match. This Title Match shall be a three-way Contest between Johnny Scoville (a pioneer in the Chilli community), the UK Chilli Queen Shahina Waseem (currently the person who holds the most victories in regular Chilli-Eating Contests Worldwide) and Matt Tangent (a previous contest winner and co-founder of the League Of Fire).

Any Title Match thereafter should be between two people, the Champion Title Belt Holder and a challenger who has previously won or joint-won a single or multiple Chilli-Eating Contest(s). The rules for a Title Match should be followed as closely as possible to the rules set out below: 

1. There should be 10 rounds of consumption. Each individual round may consist of a maximum 5 of that specific item. For example, round 1 could be a Habanero pepper. The host can decide if s/he would like to offer 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 of that chilli species to the contestants in that one round.
2. 2 of the rounds should be ‘large’ chillies. Examples for size comparisons are: Paprika, Cayenne, Joe’s Long, Anaheim, Poblano etc.
   
3. 1 of the rounds can be, if possible, a small glass or shot-sized glass of hot sauce to be offered as a drink. The sauce may or may not contain extract. If it contains extract then the extract should be an ingredient and not a pure extract. The contents of the glass should be entirely consumed. A large tablespoon would also suffice, and should be entirely cleaned by the contestant with no spillages, deliberate or accidental.
   
4. As a guideline, the contest should expire within an hour from the first round if possible.
5. If after 10 rounds both the contestants are still active, the contest should be decided by a speed-eating round. To ensure the time of this 11th round is neither too long nor too short, the race may contain up to 10 chillies and should consist of at least x1 large pepper (for example: Paprika), at least x1 medium size pepper (for example: Jalapeno) and either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 of the same sized small super-hots or combination of hot chillies (for example: Carolina Reaper). The chillies should be approximately the same size as the relative opponents chilli and scales may be used to weigh the chillies if possible. It is the host’s responsibility to make the size and measures as fair as possible.
6. The contestants must have won a regular Chilli-Eating Contest, of which there is sufficient evidence, to be applicable as a challenger for a Title Match. 
7. The contestants may not consume any liquids that may relieve the burn, during the entire contest, from start to declaration by the host of a Winner. The only liquid permitted is the hot sauce product selected for a hot sauce round (see rule 3 above).
8. If any chilli-liquids or bodily fluids depart from a contestant’s mouth during the contest, s/he is disqualified and the opponent will be declared the Winner. In a race, small amounts of liquid may involuntarily dribble down cheeks, lips and chins. This should not result in a disqualification. If a person deliberately spits saliva out, regurgitates, or chokes out any liquid or chilli remnants then s/he is disqualified.
9. If a contestant eats a chilli before the host has instructed her/him to do so, s/he will receive a warning.
10. Each contestant should be encouraged to chew. A host can give a warning for any contestant who swallows small chillies without any attempt to chew. 
11. Any attempt to hide or pretend to eat a chilli, to deceive or attempt to lie to the host should result in an instant disqualification.
12. Each chilli should be eaten entirely to the stalk. There should be an effort by the contestant to leave no flesh or placenta of that chilli.
13. To win a race finale tie-breaker, the contestant must eat every chilli in the round, completely to the stalk and swallow each chilli. The contestant may have multiple chillies in her/his mouth at one time, s/he does not have to finish one chilli before advancing to the next. No chilli must fall or spew from the mouth at any time. The contestant should always remain seated. The first person to show the host or host’s designated judge(s) an empty mouth, with no large quantities of chillies remaining inside the mouth, cheeks or under the tongue, is the Winner.
14. If the host has to give 3 strikes for various reasons (two examples are aforementioned) which can include bad language, threatening behaviour or unsporting behaviour, then the contestant is disqualified from the contest.
15. The League Of Fire requires a Title defence by a Belt holder within 3 months of her/his last Title Match. Under certain circumstances this time threshold could be extended or reduced at the discretion of the League Of Fire committee or representative of the committee.

Amendments: 

1. 18.11.2019 

To prevent a contestant submitting in a speed round, and the opponent unfairly still having to eat all the pods to win, there can be a time limit for the race tie-breaker of 5 mins, or the host can declare the person who has stopped eating within the tie breaker as defeated. It must be palpable that one or the other contestant has ceased to ‘speed-eat’ the peppers, showing no desire to win the race.

It must be interpreted as UNFAIR for the active person to still eat the remaining peppers and suffer. If a competitor is judged to have submitted in the speed round the host can declare the other person as the winner as long as that person has clearly eaten more weight in chillies and still has a desire to race to victory. If both contestants show a lack of desire to finish all the tie-breaker chillies, but neither offers to submit, the host can end the competition and judge who has eaten more weight in peppers, consequently declaring a winner or a draw. 

1. 05.01.2020

To combat the problem of an early or late start by a competitor during a race finale after a count-down by the host, the two competitors should touch chillies whilst the count-down is taking place. If one person moves their touching chilli away to begin eating then it is permitted for the other person to also move their chilli towards their mouth and begin the race. This will eliminate any false starts in a race scenario.