The Games - Solaris VII

The average citizen of the Successor States believes that all Mechwarriors are powerful figures with lands, titles and great personal wealth. In reality, that is the exception rather than the rule. For every renowned mercenary regiment like Wolf’s Dragoons or Hansen’s Roughriders, there are a score of struggling units, battalion-sized or smaller, who fight day after day and year after year, half the time not knowing where their next meal or load of spare parts will come from. Sooner or later, many of these warriors get desperate enough for cash to travel to Solaris VII to try their luck at the Games.

Solaris is a rowdy frontier world on the border between Marik and Steiner space that has frequently changed hands over the past 200 years. Regardless of which side controls the planet, however, the planetary government sponsors games of gladiatorial combat every three months, very like those of the Roman era some 3,000 years ago on Terra.

The Games are big business on Solaris, bringing in a substantial amount of revenue to the planetary and House governments who operate them. Thus, whichever House is in control of the Solaris system has a strong vested interest in maintaining the integrity and reputation of the competition, and in closely monitoring the activities of Taurus Enterprises, the private combine that actually runs the Games. Non-the-less, rumors abound of bribes, purse money being skimmed off, betting scandals, fixed draws, ‘ringers’, and even covert team-up agreements made to eliminate certain ‘undesirable’ contestants from the competition.

In addition to the quarterly tournaments, once each year Solaris hosts a competition colloquially referred to as “The Big Game”. The winner of each Ladder and Mech weight class of the quarterly games is eligible to participate, and possibly win “The Big Game”, becoming the undisputed Champion of his weight class.

Of course, every Mechwarrior worth his salt in the Inner Sphere dreams of one day becoming THE champion of the Solaris Open Championship. “The Open” as it is called is eligible to all Quarterfinalist of “The Big Game”, former Open Champions, and a number of House and Corporate sponsored Mechwarriors. The Solaris Open Championship consists of several multi-mech matches, held in one of the largest Arenas in Solaris City. Any Mech class is allowed in a no-holds barred battle royale. These matches have been known to take as long as 2 days to complete. Hiding from battle, however, is discouraged not only by loss of reputation, but also by an ingenious system of remote overrides. If the judges feel a contestant is holding back they can penalize him in several ways, ranging from temporary shut-down of his Mech up to, and including, forced ejection and disqualification. Of course, the use of this system is widely criticized by Mechwarriors and fans alike as arbitrary and prone to corruption. Oh well, welcome to Solaris VII!