Week Ending 12 March 2023 - Written By
- Katie ‘Saucy’ Bannister and Roger ‘Hot Dang Show’ Trier have announced that due to personal reasons, they won’t be able to take their seats at the 4th Americas Belt Match at the West Coast Hot Sauce Experience on 18 June 2023, in San Diego, Calfiornia.
- League of Fire has drawn from the Road to the Americas Belt Match contestants; Alexandria ‘Never Better Club’ Morgan and Chris ‘Pepper Bae’ Fisher will now be the contestants to fill those seats at the 4th Americas Belt Match.
- Mike ‘The Molten Moose’ Jack and Gregory ‘The Inferno’ Foster appeared on Guinness World Records’ Italian Prime-time TV Show called Lo Show Dei Record. They were invited to try one more time to beat the 2014 Guinness World Record for The Fastest Time to Eat 10 Bhut Jolokias in 30.7 seconds. Mike improved his time from 39 seconds to 35 seconds while Greg succeeded in setting a new Guinness World Record with an outstanding time of 30.01 seconds on 3 February 2023, in Milan, Italy.
- Burnin Bites Down Under has a new Canberra champion to go into the Australian Chilli Championship to be held online on 12 August 2023. Jordan ‘The Pink Snake’ Williams, Travis ‘The Bear’ Agerbeek, Trish ‘Trash Modular’ Bassett, Rob ‘The Dragon’ Morris, and Luke ‘The Machine’ Grahame took part in a Qualifier – Reaper Face Off, where they had to eat a Reaper and wait 60 seconds before the next. It was a close call between Trish and Jordan going head-to-head when Trish bowed out after the 9th Reaper leaving Jordan to emerge victorious.
- Fire Dragon Chillies has announced that the 13th Annual NZ Chilli Eating Champs Finale will take place at the 8th Annual NZ Hot Sauce Festival on 27 May 2023, in Auckland, NZ. There will be 8 Heats; the winner from each will take a seat at the Grand Finale to decide the ultimate Champion. The Heats are as follows:
- Heat 1 – Up In Smoke BB Fest, Ngatea, 18 February.
- Heat 2 – Brewtown BBQ Fest, Upper Hutt, 11 March.
- Heat 3 – Southern Spice, Christchurch, 25 March.
- Heat 4 – Opononi Hotel, Hokianga, 8 April.
- Heat 5 – Rose & Crown, Palmerston North, 20 April.
- Heat 6 – Beer & Bacon Festival, Sweatshop Brew Kitchen, Auckland, 22 April.
- Heat 7 – Brewaucracy, Hamilton, 29 April.
- Heat 8 – Dunedin, TBC.
- League of Fire has set up a new Facebook Group called League Of Fire Challenge Group to have one centralised, official, and unified LOF challenge-focused location.
- Old Agness Store‘s Steve ‘Brownie Boy’ Berlant and Michele Berlant were the first 2 people to do a live together in the League Of Fire Challenge Group. They each did Chug LIFE – The Ginger One Challenge by League of Fire and The UNBEARABLE ONE Challenge by Old Agness Store.
- Burnin Bites Down Under broadcasted Adam ‘Chilli King’ Connell‘s 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. Adam managed to eat 50 Reapers in the incredible time of 4 minutes and 4 seconds. However, due to the neglection of the following of the required set of rules, his attempt will not be officially recognised by Guinness or recorded in League of Fire.
- Lily House – daughter of Chris ‘Chilli Wonka’ House – has become the youngest person to do a LOF Challenge. She is 13 years old and she did Chug LIFE – The Ginger One Challenge by League of Fire. Before this, at 15, Sienna ‘Scorpion’ Scholefield – granddaughter of Stu ‘Grandpa NEUK’ Walker – was the youngest to do the same challenge on 5 February 2023.
- Kris ‘The Scoville Unit’ Fragale has just announced a sponsorship deal with Harvest 912.
- Mike ‘The Molten Moose’ Jack and Jamie’ The Coach ‘Jack set a new Guinness World Record for The Longest Habanero Kiss at 15 minutes and 6.5 seconds beating the previous record of 3 minutes and 36 seconds at the Heat Wave Hot Sauce Expo 2023, in London, Canada. Mike now holds 10 Guinness World Records and Jamie has 1.
- Chilli Festivals Australia hosted the 4th Annual Chinderah Chilli Festival on 11 March 2023, in NSW, Australia. The next one will be the inaugural Sunshine Coast Chilli Festival taking place on 18 March 2023, in QLD, Australia.
- Hot Pods ran a charity fundraiser selling all LOF Chug Challenges from 1 to 5. £100 was raised by the highest bidder Chilli Of the Valley who graciously covered postage cost on top to make sure all of the money went to the charity.
- League of Fire has announced a new series of collector’s cards – LOF CLASSICS Collector’s Cards. The first player in the collection has been unveiled to be Jayson ‘Bat Pants’ Hairrell, as The Killer Queen Machine.
- Wildfire Chilli held the Hot in the Hills Chilli & Spice Event on 11 March 2023, in Perth, Western Australia.
- Jason ‘Late For Work’ Pettibone and Kim ‘Late For Work’ have started a new venture – an online shop stocking some great products: Late For Work YouTube.
- League of Fire announced the next World Title Belt Match is to be held at the 8th Annual NZ Hot Sauce Festival on 27 May 2023. I was asked to defend my Title against Oceania Champion Greg ‘Iron Guts’ Barlow but due to being unable to travel to defend, as per League of Fire rules, I will vacate the Belt in order to facilitate a duel for the The Bird in the interest of keeping the momentum going.
- Cem ‘Caliente’ Dervish has a new blog called The UNBEARABLE One – Thoughts from a Chilli Challenger and another blog: The Chilli Project’s Grizzly Garlic – Thoughts from a Chilli Challenger on the League of Fire website.
- LOF WORLD RECORDS Collector’s Cards issued for:
- Kris ‘The Scoville Unit’ Fragale
- LOF HEROES Collector’s Cards issued for:
- Honza ‘The Regretful’ Farmer
- Heather ‘The Scots Queen’ Wright
- Gregory ‘The Inferno’ Foster
INSIDE SCOOP
- League of Fire will make an announcement about what happens next with the World Title Belt Match in New Zealand.
- The second in the challenge series Chug LIFE by League of Fire may feature super food Goji Berry.
- Talks are taking place to arrange a major LOF event at the The Hell Contest in October 2023, in Algemesi, Spain.
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