This is a very very cool looking pen. The stands are raised so that the nobility can sit at the top and jeer the contestants (hee hee hee).

Avalon's fight nights are very well attended. There was even a seer. The room beneath the stands is used as a staging area. The contestants enter that room and prepare to enter the ring. Possibly they leave valuables with someone there.

When they enter the ring, the contestants all attack the ref, then duke it out. I heard someone say that due to the ring size, heavy crossbows currently win the all around competitions since you cannot get out of heavy crossbow range. Perhaps the weapons rebalance patch will correct some of that though.

When someone falls, they are ressurected immediatly, and they pick up their own belongings.

There were many more people attending than my photo would indicate, for many such as I, were sharing seats (and hidden), or were around the other end of the pen. The balcony seating is not bad, but be sure to bring teleport regs because getting to the far end can take a while. Actually, the view from the top end is not really that good, so everyone just stacks up in the middle. They should probably add a locked door to the balcony, and only allow royalty, seers, (and visiting reporters *grins evilly*) to use the the balcony).

A Link to Avalon's Web Page: http://avaloncity.cjb.net/