I get the impression that this is like, a medieval tournament, jousting, sword/melee combat, etc. So, you might be able to impose a rule (maybe now, maybe in future editions) of the Peanut Gallery!
For each *cheer* a duelist gets from someone outside of the 8 registered duelists, maybe they get a random bump in stats for that fight? Maybe something like 1 cheer = +1 random stat for that day's fight? Or maybe for every 3 cheers = +2 All, or +5 all, or something like that? Could possible encourage victory for the daily underdog, encourage general trash talking and shenanigans, and otherwise ruin what could be a pretty fun game with silly out-of-thread forum alliances. Just my $.02, not that you asked for it, and not that I'm even involved in any way...
Edit:
I mean really, how could would it be if 30 people came in here and cheered Jcakes on to victory against The Black Knight, Sir IHaveTooManyGoshDarnLettersInMyNameSoIAutomaticallyWin?
Edit2:
Oh, sorry. I'll stay out of your thread then...