All Valley Karate Tournament

All Valley Under18 Karate Tournament
1984 tournament
Event information
Location	San Fernando Valley, CA
Date(s)	Yearly Event
Participants	Miyagi-Do Karate Eagle Fang Karate Cobra Kai Dojo Locust Valley Karate Club Topanga Karate Xtreme Martial Arts All Star Karate Krunch Karate Cutting Edge Karate Yoshukai Karate

"Karate is about discipline. It's about inner strength. It's about confidence. Okay, lessons that you can use for the rest of your life. Look, I don't know where I would be today, or who I would be today, if it wasn't for my sensei. We don't need this tournament to do cool kicks or sell tickets, we need it to show the bullies of the world that we're not afraid. It's called the "All Valley" because it's for everyone, to give everyone the chance to show what they can do, to fight, to become a champion. And we deserve that chance."

―Miguel Diaz

The All Valley Under 18 Karate Tournament is a karate tournament held in the San Fernando Valley in California. It is a yearly event that brings all the dojos in the valleys together, with their best students competing to become champion. The tournament is overseen by a committee of karate experts.

History

The tournament first debuted in 1968. The seventh annual tournament was held on Saturday, December 20th, 1975. The Cobra Kai Dojo entered in 1975, then won four times between then and 1983. Although in 1981, Darryl Vidal of Locust Valley Karate Club won the tournament that year. Cobra Kai's most notable champion was their star fighter Johnny Lawrence. The young karate protégé won in both 1982 and 1983.

In the aftermath of the 1985 All Valley Karate Tournament, The All-Valley Committee permanently bans Cobra Kai from competing in the tournament going forward, due to the unethical actions of Barnes, Silver and Kreese in the 1985 tournament. In the 32 years between the third film and Cobra Kai, the only known champion is Xander Stone of Topanga Karate who won the tournament in 2017. No champions or runners-up between 1986-2016 are known.

In 2017, there was issue with a corn dog vendor. At an earlier tournament, the tournament committee attempted to use the actor Malcolm Jamal Warner in some capacity, an event that was considered a debacle for the tournament.

Notable Tournaments

1984

See also: 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament

In 1984, Daniel LaRusso competed in the All Valley Karate Tournament, with his main adversaries being Johnny and the Cobra Kai Dojo students. He is trained by Mr. Miyagi and enters the tournament as a newcomer, while Johnny enters as the two time defending champion. Daniel defeats Johnny in the finals with a crane kick to the face, becoming the new champion.

After the tournament, sensei John Kreese attacks Johnny and attempts to choke him for losing to Daniel. Mr. Miyagi intervenes and saves the student. Disgusted by Kreese's actions, Johnny and his students resign from Cobra Kai. Kreese's actions also lead to nobody enrolling in Cobra Kai for the next nine months, leaving him broke.

1985

The 1985 tournament has a new rule that grants the defending champion an automatic spot in the finales. Following his legendary victory against Johnny Lawrence, Daniel LaRusso desires to enroll in the fight but his sensei Mr. Miyagi does not support this. While he later agrees with his sensei, a vicious fighter Mike Barnes forces him to enroll in the tournament. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, Daniel's fight against Mike Barnes was orchestrated by Terry Silver. Silver was one of the owners of Cobra Kai along with Kreese. Terry Silver decided to help Kreese get revenge on Daniel and his sensei Mr. Miyagi for the events of the 1984 tournament, with Barnes hired by Silver to defeat and harass Daniel. The co-senseis goal is to win the tournament and earn infamy as the best dojo in the valley, while also making Daniel suffer. Mike, under Silver's order, repeatedly wins a point, but then commits an illegal move to lose a point, so that he can cause Daniel the utmost pain. Mike severely injures and terrifies Daniel. In the sudden death round, Daniel uses the kata technique he learned from Mr. Miyagi to flip Mike and win the tournament for the second year in a row, making Daniel a two-time champion.. In the aftermath of the 1985 Tournament, a lifetime ban was placed against Cobra Kai Dojo's for the actions of John Kreese, Terry Silver, and Mike Barnes.

2018

See also: 2018 All Valley Karate Tournament

The 2018 All Valley Karate Tournament Committee worried over dwindling attendance issues, and made a push for colored mats to be used.

Johnny Lawrence reopens Cobra Kai dojo and files an inquiry on how to enter the dojo into the upcoming 2018 All Valley Karate Tournament. He is informed that a lifetime ban was in place for the dojo. Johnny attended the next All Valley Karate Tournament Executive meeting to appeal this decision. During the meeting, Daniel LaRusso arrived and took his seat as a member of the council. Johnny made a strong pitch for why his dojo should be allowed to compete and have the ban rescinded. Similarly, Daniel made a strong case for the ban to remain in place. The Committee asked for a closed door vote, and the the ban was ultimately lifted. Cobra Kai re-entered the tournament. Through the challenge of Miguel Diaz and Robby Keene, Cobra Kai won the tournament, and have a new found popularity. Despite their victory, Miguel and a few others used dirty tactics and cheap shots to win.

Following a karate fight between John Kreese, Johnny Lawrence, and Daniel LaRusso, the trio make a deal to settle their long-standing grievances at the upcoming All Valley tournament. The dojo that loses must close forever.

2019

See also: 51st Annual Karate Championships

Due to the crippling injuries that were sustained throughout the valley, including the recent karate brawl at West Valley High School, the Northridge city council cancels the 2019 tournament. The decision is overturned following an appeal heralded by Miguel Diaz and Samantha LaRusso. The All Valley implements new changes to the tournament, including introducing a skills competition and gender divisions. The tournament commences on May 18, 2019.

The skills competition is won by Cobra Kai. In the individual matchups, former Cobra Kai and now Miyagi-Do Karate student Eli Moskowitz, wins the championship title for boys division, while Tory Nichols of Cobra Kai Dojo wins the female division title. The Grand Champion trophy is award to Cobra Kai Dojo for earning the most totaled points in the tournament. However, Terry Silver, unbeknownst to anyone on the committee, breached ethical conduct when he bribed the referee to call wins in his favor. These calls were notably made in the Quarterfinals and finals of the girls division. Shortly after her win, Tory witnessed Terry exchange money with the referee while discussing their deal.

Tory later exposes Terry's cheating in the tournament to Miyagi-Do. Hacking into Cobra Kai's servers, Demetri Alexopoulos and Eli Moskowitz upload security footage of Terry confessing to Tory to the Internet, exposing his actions and ruining his reputation. In disgust, Terry's students quit and he is arrested for his crimes, although Terry's lawyer is able to get his charges dropped.

2020

Following the Sekai Taikai tournament, Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence mention that the next All Valley tournament is coming soon, and their students are excited for it. The two decide to have Anthony LaRusso fight for Cobra Kai while Devon Lee will fight for Miyagi-Do instead.

Rules

Skills Competition

Before the qualifying matches, all dojos have to compete in a skills competition. It involves a variety of weapons including board-breaking and kata. The skills competition was introduced in 2019 and wasn't implemented at the previous tournaments during the 70s and 80s, including 2018.

Match Rules

For every match, there is a three-minute time limit. Three points is required to win the match. Hitting the head, the sternum, the kidneys, and the ribs are allowed. If there is no winner by the end of the three minutes, the match will continue in sudden death overtime. The person to score one point during sudden death is the winner of the match. However, this is a rare occurrence. It only happened two known times; once in 1985 and once in 2019.

Punishments

You can get a warning for illegal contact to the body, such as elbowing or punching someone in the face, or kicking someone in the groin. Point deductions can be used if you run out of the ring a certain amount of times. Purposely injuring your opponent can lead to the disqualification of a participant.

Overall Winner

The dojo with the highest overall points becomes winner of the All Valley Karate Tournament. Originally, the fighter representing the dojo becomes the champion along with the dojo itself, even if the dojos students fought against each other. During 1985, the winner will only compete in the finale and skip the quarterfinals and semifinals. Starting in 2019, the committee has introduced a skills competition, a boys division, and a girls division. In the skills competition, the dojo becomes the winner when their students skills are impressive and given a rating, which also gives the dojo a chance to win the grand trophy. During the finals divisions, if students from the same dojo wins both the boys and girls competitions, the dojo becomes the official champion. However, if different dojos win the boys and girls division, then the dojo with a higher overall score becomes the grand champion. An example for this is that Eli wins the boys division for Miyagi-Do Karate after beating Robby Keene, while Tory Nichols of Cobra Kai Dojo wins the girls division after beating Samantha LaRusso, in which Cobra Kai becomes the dojo grand champion since they had the higher overall score. Regardless if the dojo wins or loses, the champion of either the girls or boys division is still given a trophy.

In an alternate ending, Sam counters Tory's last kick and punches her, to make Miyagi Do the Grand champion.

Competition Placements

Round of 16

The Round of 16 is a commendable placement for fighters who enter the All Valley tournament.

Cobra Kai student Tommy was defeated by Daniel LaRusso in 1984. Miyagi-Do student, Chris found himself just missing out on a chance in the Quater-Finals when losing 3-2 to Kyler in 2019.

Quater-Finals

The quarterfinals is the stage of the tournament when there are rarely any easy opponents. Johnny Lawrence (1981 tournament) , Dutch (1984 tournament) and Aisha (2018 tournament) are three fighters to reach this stage of the competition and miss out on a trip to the Semi's.

Semi-Finals

With four fighters left in the competition and only one being able to win the tournament, the pressure is on once you reach this stage of the game. Being able to reach this stage you would have to be a highly skilled competitor, fighters such as Demetri and Xander have made it the Semi's, both of them missed out the chance to fight in the finals due to being taken out with ease by Robby and Miguel. Vidal made it to the semifinals in 1984 but lost to Johnny, while Bobby Brown and Hawk were disqualified by illegally kicking Daniel and Robby during the semifinals in 1984 and 2018 respectively.

Grand-Finals

The two best fighters in the tournament face off to clinch victory in the Grand-Finals. Fighters such as Miguel, Samantha, Eli and Robby have all reached this stage of the tournament at some point in time. Miguel, Eli and Tory were crowned winners overall.

Known Champions

Year	Winning Dojo	Champion	Runner-Up	Score
1981	Locust Valley Karate Club	Darryl Vidal	Unknown	Unknown
1982	Cobra Kai Dojo	Johnny Lawrence	Unknown	Unknown
1983	Cobra Kai Dojo	Johnny Lawrence	Tommy	3-0
1984	Miyagi-Do Karate	Daniel LaRusso	Johnny Lawrence (Cobra Kai Dojo)	3-2
1985	Miyagi-Do Karate	Daniel LaRusso	Mike Barnes (Cobra Kai Dojo)	1-0 (Sudden Death)
2017	Topanga Karate	Xander Stone	Unknown	Unknown
2018	Cobra Kai Dojo	Miguel Diaz	Robby Keene (Miyagi-Do Karate)	3-2
2019	Cobra Kai Dojo (Grand Champion & Female Division Winner)	Tory Nichols	Samantha LaRusso (Miyagi-Do Karate)	3-2
	Miyagi-Do Karate (Boys Division)	Eli Moskowitz	Robby Keene (Cobra Kai Dojo)	2-1 (Sudden Death)

All-Valley Committee

• Daniel LaRusso (Former; Current Sensei)
• Ron
• Sue
• George
• Daryl

Trivia

• Darryl Vidal is the earliest known champion of the tournament.
• In an article about the 1983 All Valley, Kreese led Cobra Kai to their fourth win. Because of this and Cobra Kai winning the 2018 and the 2019 All Valley Karate Tournament, they now have six titles overall.
• The announcer of the 1983 edition says that Daniel LaRusso is the first two-time-in-a-row winner of the tournament, although Johnny Lawrence has also been a two-time-in-a-row champion.
• Cobra Kai Dojo held a lifetime ban from 1985 to 2018, until it was lifted when Johnny pled his case to the committee.
• During the duration of his coma, Miguel dreamt about fighting an unidentified opponent to defend his title as champion in the All Valley Tournament.
• Because Daniel was a sensei for Miyagi-Do for the 2019 tournament, he could not serve on the committee that year.
• Its counterpart in the 2010 remake is called the Open Kung Fu Tournament.
• In 2019, ESPN produced a 30 For 30 segment on the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament in a manner that was part of the Karate Kid Universe. [1]
• An alternate ending featured in the Cobra Kai: Live & Badass event at Microsoft Theater showed Samantha LaRusso being the winner of the girls final of the 51st Annual Karate Championships instead of Tory Nichols.
• Robby Keene, Miguel Diaz, Eli Moskowitz, Bert, Abe, Edwin, Frank and Dieter are the only named characters who competed in both the 50th and 51st All Valley. From those, only Edwin and Dieter were part of the same dojo (Cobra Kai) both times. Miguel and Bert switched to Eagle Fang, Eli, Frank and Abe switched to Miyagi-Do, and Robby switched to Cobra Kai.
• For the final match of the 2020 Sekai Taikai tournament, the All Valley's rules are used.