(Pictured: Keanu Reeves backs his man Tiger Chen in last year’s debates.)

Tim League is a debate champion – and he will hurt you.

The Alamo Drafthouse founder is a four-time winner of the Fantastic Fest Debates, the annual genre film festival’s sideshow which feature filmmakers and critics arguing key points about the film industry before lacing it up and taking their arguments into the ring. Some of those brawls made their way into this sizzle reel from last year’s debates. Warning: deep philosophical differences punctuated by bouts of extreme violence to follow:

Now Tim League has won four times in a row. And this year, he’s got his sights set on director Ti West who’s going to be arguing on behalf of the ubiquitous found footage genre.

“I’ve done about zero preparation for this pre-fight video,” League said, decked out in pajamas and squinting into a cellphone camera for this exclusive challenge video recorded yesterday. “And from what I gather, that’s about the same amount of preparation you took to do The Sacrament.”

Of course, West isn’t taking the champ’s challenge lying down. The House of the Devil filmmaker left a voicemail message for League, letting the man know exactly what he thought of League’s “debating” style.

“I didn’t know that when Tim League promised us real fights at his crappy ass festival, that what he actually meant was just him bullying people he knew he could beat,” West said in the voicemail, officially making it on like Donkey Kong.

League and West’s fights is just one of three title cards, including filmmakers Joe Lynch (Everly) and Josh Ethier (Almost Human) going at it over whether cowboys or samurai are superior in film while producer/Twitchfilm founder/friend o’ this here writer Todd Brown will come at Bittorrent’s Matt Mason over whether Bittorrent is a boon to or bane of filmmakers.

This year’s debates will be held Saturday, September 20 at Randy Palmer’s South Austin Gym – you can find more information here.