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. This was the main recruiting method used by Foxy and Rocks D. Xebec. Though other pirates use it too.

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.

Rocks D. Xebec used Davy Back Fights to claim new crewmates—such as Shiki The Golden Lion, Buckingham Stussy, Marlon, Edward Newgate, Ochoku, and Ganzui—even before officially establishing the Rocks Pirates.

As captain of the Foxy Pirates, Foxy regularly used Davy Back Fights to claim new crewmen, reputedly waging 920 challenges without a single loss. 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.

For his 921st challenge, Foxy targeted the Straw Hats, and—after temporarily winning Tony Tony Chopper—met his first defeat at the hands of Monkey D. Luffy, who claimed the Foxy Pirates' Jolly Roger in lieu of any crewmen.

Rules A Davy Back Fight must be initiated by mutual agreement between the captains of the participating crews (which overrules any objections from subordinates). This agreement is sealed by each captain firing a gun skyward, and cannot be retracted.

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, 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 set 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, including the opposing captain. If the captain of the winning crew is not interested in any of the crewmen, they may instead take the losers' Jolly Roger. This process is governed by the Three Articles of Defeat:

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 opponents in upcoming events (since line-ups cannot be changed after the fact). This may even be used to completely empty an opposing team and win an event by default, though doing so is traditionally decried as peanut tactics.

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. While 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.

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.