Tournaments and Practices

Oh wait, I have a blog? I should write a thing.

*****

My first Pennsic Champs Qualifier Tournament went pretty well. We had 18 people. I didn't fight in it, but I watched and MiC'd. It was a single-pass, double-elimination, double-kills-refought-once tournament. There were a few hiccups with it, but they allowed me to iron things out for the next one. Will Deth won with no losses, Gregor came in second after only losing to Will Deth in the finals. Good showing! I am, however, unsurprised by the result.

*****

My second PCQT went well as well. I had an MiC to help me out and some marshals to marshal, so I had more time to watch people. We had 22 people this go around. Same format, with a few minor changes to how shuffling happened.

Antonio won, with Orlando in second place from the loser's bracket. Antonio was notably courteous - as someone from the winner's bracket fighting someone from the loser's bracket we had decided this go around to make it double elimination through the end. Antonio refused that, and said he wanted to decide things in a single pass, despite the fact that this gave up an advantage for him. Given that this was a big thing for him in the K&Q Rapier he ran, I was touched by seeing him stand by his tourney-format convictions.

It was interesting to watch this one. There are some people who fight very differently in a tournament. There were one or two fencers who were physically shaking from stress by the second half of the tournament, which was interesting to observe from the outside.

*****

Actual fighting was fun. I did a bunch of melee things, which was nice.

*****

I got in some singles passes against Connor, who was visiting from Atlantia. It was a good time. I'm 99% sure that he wasn't giving his full-on game, but that's okay. It was interesting. We fought some dagger, some him-single-me-dagger, and some single. He did a lot of interesting things, like a beautiful straight-in shot taking advantage of me not covering myself appropriately. During singles, we kept ending up in "we are too close to do anything useful" range and resetting.

He gave me the advice that I need to trust myself more,  which was nice to hear.

*****

One more tournament to run this weekend. I'm probably going to fight in this one. I gathered the data from the last few tournaments in an excel sheet, which is fun. Next comes analysis of data.

I've not been super-inspired to drill. The thing I need to work on can only be worked on in practice - maintaining the 45º, 90º, or 135º angle with my opponent's sword.when fighting.