Week Ending 5 March 2023 - Written By
- Burnin Bites Down Under has announced that Adam ‘Chilli King’ Connell will attempt to eat 50 Carolina Reapers in under 6 minutes and 49 seconds at the Griffith Chilli & Chocolate Festival on 11 March 2023, in NSW, Australia. The current official Guinness World Record for 50 Carolina Reapers in 6 minutes and 49 seconds is held by Mike ‘The Molten Moose’ Jack.
- League of Fire held a live draw to determine the line-up of contestants for the 4th Americas Belt Match taking place at the West Coast Hot Sauce Experience on 18 June 2023, in San Diego, California. The final list of contestants is as follows:
- Bob ‘The Voice’ Gilbert
- Roger ‘Hot Dang Show’ Trier
- Kris ‘The Scoville Unit’ Fragale
- Robert ‘The Real Bulldog’ Davis
- Stephen ‘Hot Sauce Guy’ Edwards
- Corky ‘3,2,1’ Fernando
- Katie ‘Saucy’ Bannister
- Miguel ‘Time to Burn’ Torres
- Jayson ‘Bat Pants’ Hairrell – Former Champion
- Mike ‘The Molten Moose’ Jack – Reigning Champion
- League of Fire has announced a brand new ‘undercard’ chilli-eating contest – the Road to the Americas Belt Match, to be held at the West Coast Hot Sauce Experience on 18 June 2023, in San Diego, California. This will be a level up from regular chilli-eating contests but not as brutal as the Americas Belt Match. Mitch ‘Mitchy D’ Donnelly as the WCHSE Chilli-Eating Champion of 2022, has a guaranteed seat at the table. The remaining 9 contestants were drawn live from the list of 11 willing invitees who did not win the earlier draw for the 4th Americas Belt Match. LOF later made an exception to their 10-person contest rule to include all 11 players who went into the draw. The 12 contestants are:
- Mitch ‘Mitchy D’ Donnelly
- Matt ‘Casually Roasting’ Johnston
- Alexandria ‘Never Better Club’ Morgan
- Michael ‘Never Better Club’ Morgan
- Eric ‘Midge’ Welbaum
- Zachary ‘The Texas Hot Spot’ Goot
- Leella ‘Today’s Adventure’ Baumgartner
- Ryan ‘Today’s Adventure’ Baumgartner
- Ruthie ‘Reaper’ Booth
- Rhett ‘Grizzly Heat’ Griffin
- Brandon ‘Honey Boy’ Collins
- Chris ‘Pepper Bae’ Fisher
- League of Fire has revealed that there will be a LOF Qualifier Belt for the winner of the Road to the Americas Belt Match. This will be a trophy which will be specially designed to commemorate the event and will be awarded to the winner as a keepsake. The winner will also earn a guaranteed seat at the next Americas Belt Match.
- Berlin Chili Fest has announced an official LOF-sanctioned Berlin Amateur Chili Eating Competition as well as a LOF professional Road to the European Belt Match, to be held on 3 September 2023, in Berlin, Germany. These will be organised and hosted by PanDemonic. The winner of the latter will be awarded a LOF Qualifier Belt specially designed to commemorate this event and will also be guaranteed a seat at the next European Belt Match.
- Roger ‘Hot Dang Show’ Trier has started a gofundme fundraiser to help him in his career as a competitive chilli-eater.
- Chris ‘Uncle Bullcow’ Pantalone has become the first person in the world (outside of LOF Testing Group) to attempt and successfully complete the Maddy’s Spicy Cocoa Toffee Nuts Challenge by Harvest912. He ate 1 bar and earned 3 points.
- Mike ‘The Molten Moose’ Jack aka Mike Jack Eats Heat has released a new hot sauce called Taco Tuesday in collaboration with Dawson’s Hot Sauce.
- League of Fire~Fierce Fiery Queens Facebook Group held their first official group event LIVE, where Annee ‘The Reaper Teacher’ Boyer, Heather ’The Scots Queen’ Wright, Ruthie ‘Reaper’ Booth, and Beth ‘Mrs. Scoville Unit’ Fragale tackled the Nougat To Be Kidding Me! Challenge by League of Fire from their Beat the Sweet range.
- Zachary ‘The Texas Hot Spot’ Goot and Mr. Brad Worden are the first in the world (outside of LOF Testing Group) to attempt and successfully complete the Peppermint Maddy’s Dark Chocolate Reaper Bark Challenge by Harvest912. They each ate 1 bar and earned 3 points.
- Old Agness Store in collaboration with ASCEND are running a Hot Sauce Challenge Family Night on 8 March 2023, at the Curry Public Library in Gold Beach, Oregon, USA.
- Kris ‘The Scoville Unit’ Fragale has set a new League of Fire World Record for The CRUNCHY Challenge by Old Agness Store. He successfully finished 8, taking the previous WR of 7 from Jason ‘The Degenerate’ Wamhoff. Kris now holds 5 LOF World Records.
- League of Fire is now stocking The Chilli Project range in The LOF Shop.
- Alan ‘Spicelander’ Graham has set a new League of Fire World Record for The Duel Pepper X Chips Challenge by Feast & Fury. He successfully finished 62 Chips, taking the previous WR of 50 from Kris ‘The Scoville Unit’ Fragale. Alan has become the first Scottish player to hold a LOF World Record.
- I have launched a new regular blog series – Queen’s Question Time on my website.
- Giancarlo ‘Jack Pepper’ Gasparotto has announced on his Facebook Page that there are still spaces available for 2023 for Italian cities to host The Super Hot Italian Championship that he created, which are chilli-eating competitions for 10 Cups held in 10 Cities in Italy.
- Jayson ‘Bat Pants’ Hairrell has started a new Facebook Page: Pepper Schism – Batpants.
- Kris ‘The Scoville Unit’ Fragale has created a new Facebook Page: The Scoville Unit LLC, to replace his original Page which was hacked and lost.
- Shane ‘Viking Heat’ Hammond has a new YouTube video of 6 women doing their first ever LOF Challenge: Chug LIFE – The Ginger One Challenge by League of Fire, at an event hosted by Haico ‘The Warrior’ Krijgsman for the Heat Wave Hot Sauce Expo 2023, in London, Canada.
- Festival of Fire has announced that Gary ‘Scorpion Slayer’ Concar will return to defend his title at the South African National Chilli-Eating Championship on 1 April 2023, in Cape Town, South Africa.
- Arturo ‘Mr. Spicy’ Rencricca, Mike ‘The Molten Moose’ Jack, Gregory ‘The Inferno’ Foster, and I appeared on Guinness World Records’ Italian Prime-time TV Show called Lo Show Dei Record. We were invited to beat the 2014 Guinness World Record for The Fastest Time to Eat 10 Bhut Jolokias in 30.7 seconds. None of us succeeded in this episode but Mike and Greg who were closer to the record time were asked to try again in another episode.
- League of Fire has restocked some of the Willy Pete’s Challenges in The LOF Shop.
- Cem ‘Caliente’ Dervish has a new blog called Nougat To Be Kidding Me! – Thoughts from a Chilli Challenger, on the League of Fire website.
- LOF HEROES Collector’s Cards issued for:
- Nikki ‘NikiTrix’ Young
- Rey ‘Canadian Reaper’ Chivas
- Neal ‘ChilliBobs’ Price
INSIDE SCOOP
- League of Fire will be making a major announcement on its social media about a possible World Title Belt Match next week.
- League of Fire is planning to announce the launch of a 3rd series of LOF collector’s cards to join the HEROES and WORLD RECORDS collections.
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