http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=24376
An A2 event, there were 25 of us. My initial seed, based on rating, was 20th—better than it used to be thanks to being an E now. After the pools my seed was 13th, and in the final results I was 11th. Looking at it that way, not bad. In fact, looking back, I did much better than the last Open Epee event at SAS, where I came in 19th out of 20. The one before that, in February, was when I earned my E, coming in 8th out of 18. And the one before that, in November, I came in 26th out of 27. This time, to earn a D I would have had to come in 10th or higher, I think, which would probably mean winning two DEs. I won my first, barely, but not my second.
I was quite familiar with most of the people in my pool of six, except Jeremy Phillips, who I hadn't seen before. My pool in terms of rating was John Varney (A), Jeremy Phillips (B), Garrett Armstrong (C), John Comes (E), and me (E).
I tried to quickly analyze each touch during the bouts using the questions I learned from Leland Guillemin on reddit/fencing—How? Where? Why? Quickly asking and answering these questions in the mind during the quick break between touches can help me figure out what to do, and not do. It also helps me remembering the details of the bout after the fact. In the last few tournaments I had begun to try writing down some quick notes about how bouts went and found I rarely remembered anything specific other than a particularly unusual touch or two. This time, asking how, where, and why, after every point I not only felt like I understood the bout better during it, but was better able to remember after. The real benefit of doing this is during the bout, but it also means I can better recall the details and write them up here.
The first bout was me and John Varney, of course. I seem to remember facing him in the first bout of a pool in another tournament and getting crushed 5-0. But quickly looking back I'm not sure when that was—not too recently. This time went much better. He was fencing his usual game of slowly giving ground and eventually fleching. I tried to not play into it too much and be patient, waiting for his fleches and counterattacking, mostly. He got the first point. I don't remember how. Then we had a double when he fleched and I managed to sweep around his blade, 1-2. Then again he scored with a fleche and I just barely managed to extend into it in time for a double, 2-3. Then we were maneuvering and I did one of my semi-feint flicks to the wrist I've been practicing. He went for my thigh and hit, but to my surprise my flick had hit his wrist and I got a single light, 3-3. Tied at 3 with Varney? How unusual, I thought. But then he scored with another of his fleches, 4-3. The final point was also a fleche of his, but I managed to make it a double. So I lost, but 4-5 is not bad with Varney.
My second bout was with Andrew Lee. I remembered the last time I fenced him, when I felt like I had a plan that could have worked if I had been more careful. It involved pressing him and distracting him with beats and such. It prevented him from fleching. I tried to do that again, pressing him and waiting for openings. In hindsight I pressed too hard, too recklessly. I closed distance too much and my bladework, meant to distract him and make openings, ended up opening myself up. I got the first point. From the very start I was fairly aggressive and quickly pushed him back to his end of the strip and used lots of beats. Perhaps he wasn't quite ready for something like that, I don't know, but it worked. I forget exactly how I scored but I think it was either a beat-lunge or a beat-counter 6-lunge. Scoring that point gave me confidence in my plan—too much confidence I think. I got reckless.
He got the second point. I was pushing him and doing blade stuff. At one point I pressed his blade into 4 a bit—something I had seen him do before, thinking it could turn into a suddenly hard push/beat, or into a disengage. Instead as I paused for an instant in the blade push he did a fast disengage-lunge and hit. As I returned to the line I thought, oops, I needed more of a plan than just push and pause, or at least needed to be able to retreat faster. So we were tied 1-1. Then we had a double touch, but I can't remember exactly how. Tie, 2-2. I still felt my plan was good and kept at it. It was about at this point where I got more reckless, and probably also where he adjusted to what I was doing better. I know he can do well against aggressive tactics—I remember watching him calmly beat Adam Chase's aggressive tactics in another tournament. Looking at my notes I see I attacked more than I had planned. My plan was to push him, disrupt his blade a lot, and wait for openings. But I ended up making real attacks more than I meant to, and he scored against my attacks. I suppose it is hard for me to be aggressive like that and not attack but be patient.
Well, maybe I'm overstating it. The next point came much like his first—I pushed his blade into 4 and he did a fast disengage lunge and hit, 2-3. I should have learned from the first time he did that. He got the next point too. While pushing him back I tried one of the things I had been practicing—a second intention kind of attack with a flick at the wrist that might hit, but probably won't and might draw a straight counterattack. Then the second intention is a counter-six take and lunge or fleche. I've been able to make that work against some people sometimes, but in this case Andrew did not react much to my flick. I tried the take in 6 anyway and he easily disengaged out and hit me, making the score 2-4.
Now things were looking bad. I kept with my plan but tried to be more cautious. My plan did work in preventing Andrew from fleching, but to do this I kept closing distance. He went for a toe touch and almost hit, then did hit with a remise to the body. He may have hit my toe, I'm not completely sure. I think it was the remise that hit. Either way he won 5-2. My worst result in the pools. Well, I learned a bit about both fencing Andrew and in general about plans and adjusting, about aggressive tactics and patience and the need to get away when needed, etc.
My third bout was with John Comes. Last year we were fairly evenly matched but I think lately I've been practicing more than him and winning more often. In this case I scored the first point, I don't remember how. A counter-six I think. Then we both attacked, both missed, and ended up infighting. His blade went between my legs while I managed to "saw" his chest a couple times before hitting. Not pretty. Then I think we had a double touch, making it 3-1. Then I set up a fleche on his advance, hitting his shoulder. He managed to counterattack for a double, 4-2. I remembered I have had success using my 4-6 tactic. Lately I've had some trouble with it in general, but at 4-2 I thought I'd try. I did my half-advance in 4 on guard and at the same time he attacked—not because of my 4 I think, but trying something of his own. It worked perfectly for my attack because I completed my advance and closed out 6 while he advanced, pushing his upper arm right onto my point. So I won my first bout, 5-2. We chatted about it after, and later he gave me advice. I like him and am always happy to see him at tournaments.
My next bout was with Jonathan Phillips, a young, tallish B fencer from Eastern Washington University Fencing Club. So, Spokane area, I think. I had watched him a little in other pool bouts and he seemed generally good. I didn't spot any obvious weaknesses I might exploit. I wasn't sure what I would do. As I hooked up John Comes said, simply, "patience". Alright, I thought, that's enough of a plan. So I fenced with patience and lots of footwork. I kept using the thing we drilled at last week's epee clinic: a slow advance followed by two fast retreats. Sometimes the advance can draw an attack that then falls short due to the retreats, which might make an opening. Sometimes the other person advances twice after the two retreats. If their second advance is slow enough there can be an opening when their front foot is in the air—in the drill we fleched to the shoulder in that instant when their front foot is up. I wasn't able to make that happen exactly, but I did do a lot of footwork of that sort while patiently looking for openings. Overall the bout felt very nice—I don't often fence someone I don't know at all. Learning to do that is something I've been trying to get better at. In this case he was fairly patient too, and the bout seemed to be mainly about maneuvering and distance. I failed to ask myself how, where, and why after every point and as a result don't have a clear picture of the first few points. I think he started up a point, then I caught up and tied 3-3. Then I scored a point that felt very nice. Russ has been trying to improve my beats. I had gotten the point about doing beats with the wrist and not the arm. "Like turning a doorknob", as Jeff put. What I hadn't understood until last week was the way Russ rotated his wrist back after the beat. I had been beating fine but then thrusting from the beat with a pronated hand and a non-ideal angle. Russ pointed out how he quickly rotates back to a supinated hand after the beat, in effect making the epee point do a semi-circle to the inside on the beat, then a semi-circle back on line on the thrust. I had been practicing this a bit, and enjoying how much better beats feel with my new SR-71 epee compared to my Vniti. Anyway, that was what happened next. Jonathan and I were patiently maneuvering, feinting, threatening, retreating, etc. There came a moment when he had his blade out and the distance was just close enough. I did what felt like a lightning fast beat-lunge and hit. It felt just about perfect. A nice feeling when something works exactly the way it's supposed to. That one touch was a high point of the tournament. So, I was up, 4-3. I don't quite remember the last point, except it was a double. So I won, 5-4. And against a B fencer I didn't know. Progress!
My final pool bout was against Garrett Armstrong. We've fenced a couple times in tournaments. At the Open Epee at SAS in November he was a U and I thought I would beat him in the pool, but lost badly. In the DEs he beat Johannes Klein and Jeramy Gee, which was impressive. That's when he earned his C rating. I'm not sure why I thought I could beat him then. Maybe because he's young, not very tall, and seemed to have exploitable weaknesses, like a tendency to put his weight on his front foot. He also seemed to have a slightly foil-like style that I might be able to exploit. Well, after seeing him do so well in November, and at another tournament I think, I was more cautious this time. And as it turned out, our bout was one of the most interesting of the tournament, for me.
My basic plan was patience and, having watched others fencing him I thought I might have luck taking his blade. He seemed a bit off that evening. So I tried the second intention flick to the wrist followed by a counter-six take. Well. I was able to draw a counterattack with my flick, and I was able to take his blade with a counter-six. But when I made my attack he slipped out of the six into a prime and hit me. I tried something similar and he did the same thing and hit again. Somehow I got one point, and somehow he got another. I should have learned from those two prime points he had scored, but I ended up doing the same thing a third time, and he scored with the same prime a third time, making the score 1-4. I felt foolish having made the same mistake three times. One time would be fine. So that tactic isn't a good idea with him. Two times should drive the point home: don't do that! Three times seemed just dumb.
Finally I got the message, I had to change tactics! I should have changed before it got to 1-4 and I thought it was probably too late, but I did change. I tried the clinic drill tactic—a slow advance followed by two quick retreats, hoping for two advances, then fleching into the second advance. I think I had tried setting that up earlier in this bout but he didn't bite. But now he did. Maybe being at 4-1 made him less cautious. In any case, I set it up and he gave me two nice advances. When his front foot was in the air on the second advance I fleched to his shoulder and scored. Worked nicely, but it was still 2-4. I set it up again and he gave me the advance again. I fleched to the shoulder again and scored, 3-4. Then he was more cautious and it took more time to set up, but I managed it a third time. Fleche to the shoulder, single light. Tied, 4-4! Maybe then he was feeling like I had after getting hit by his prime three times. He was much more cautious and I wasn't sure I could do it again, but I thought I would try. After some maneuvering I set up the footwork and the timing seemed right. I fleched but, not surprisingly, he was ready for it and managed to counterattack, making a double touch. The score being 4-4 the double was thrown out. I set it up again and again we doubled. Then I tried taking more time and hiding the set up, but still I fleched and he countered for a double. Finally the next time I fleched he managed to beat my beat just before I hit. My point went past him, he scored and won, 5-4.
So that was quite the bout. I fell for a specific attack of his three times. Then he fell for one of mine three times. Then we doubled at 4-4 three times. When we shook hands we both agreed it was a good bout. I wished I hadn't lost, but I felt good about coming back from 1-4. I also felt good about changing tactics to something that worked so well. It shouldn't have taken me three points to realize I needed to change, but I was happy that once I realized it I was able to change to a more appropriate tactic that worked as well as it did. My comeback felt good, and the three doubles at the end added fun to the whole thing. So I didn't mind losing too much. Of course, if I had won I might have had a better place in the DEs and a better chance to win two and earn a D. But who knows.
Still my pool results were not bad. I had won two and lost three, but of the three I had scored 4 points in two of them. So my indicator was -1. Not bad for an A2 event really. It made me the 13th seed for the DEs, out of 25. Pretty might right in the middle. I actually did better than Yuly to my surprise, who seeded 16th. So my first DE was against the 20th seed, which turned out to be Joel Howard. Whoever won would fence the 4th seed, which was John Varney. Looking at the DE tree now it is hard to see how I could have won two DEs. If I had seeded one higher I would probably have faced Matthew Comes in the second DE. Another higher would put me against Andrew Lee. In fact I have a hard time imagining beating any of the fencers who made the round of 8: Hans Engel, Jonathan Hutchinson (well, I don't know him and have never fenced him), Matthew Comes, John Varney, Cameron Brown, Andrew Lee, Tobias Lee, and Jay Slater. To earn a D in this tournament I'd have had to beat one of them. I didn't earn a D.
So my first DE was with Joel Howard. He's a clubmate so I know him pretty well, but we don't fence all that often and when we do it's usually only to 5 or 10. He has a curious style that sometimes I can do well against and sometimes I can't. In this DE I had a lot of trouble. I couldn't figure out what to do. The tactics I had been using did not work on Joel. If I retreated he rarely advanced, instead just holding ground and waiting. He used a lot of absence of blade, exposing his wrist in an obvious invitation. I didn't fall for that trap, but his absence of blade meant I couldn't try my flick to the wrist second intention tactic—or most of my other standard tactics. So I just tried to work the distance and attack straight in. I was able to score that way, but he was clearly seeing the distance the same way and we ended up attacking at the same time, resulting in a bunch of clashing doubles—often with me being hit hard on the mask.
The score was off and on tied. Sometimes he got a point or two up, then I'd catch up. I don't think I ever got more than one point ahead. He didn't fence total absence of blade. Sometimes he had his blade out, or even high. A few times I was able to use my feint-flick and catch him in a counter-six. But other times he totally faked me out, attacking with feints and disengages. He seemed quite on, fencing well and with a lot of energy. I tried to turn my own energy up higher, and I tried to be patient.
Near the end we tied 12-12. Somehow he scored, making it 12-13. Then he launched a charging attack that I rather easily caught in six and scored, 13-13. Then he scored, somehow, 13-14. Oh no! Then we ended up in an ugly infighting clash and I somehow managed to score, making it 14-14. Then we both maneuvered, cautiously looking for an opening. When the distance closed just enough we both attacked, like we had earlier in the bout a lot, resulting in doubles. In this case I hit but he just barely missed, his blade sliding across my chest. So I won, 15-14, lucky me. He was frustrated and I felt a little bad. It didn't feel like I had won for being better. It felt more like we were even, or he was slightly better, but I got lucky at the end.
Having won that DE I had to fence John Varney. I fence him all the time in practice. And I've fenced in in tournament pools and DEs before. I've never beaten him in a tournament bout of any kind—although I came close in this tournament's pool. In practice I've never beaten him to 15 points but sometimes have managed to beat him to 5 points. With that in mind I came up with a plan—something similar to what I had kind of tried when I fenced him in the DEs of the Battle in Seattle vet event, but this time I figured I would be more single-minded on the basic idea: I would go totally defensive, only counterattacking and waiting. He tends to be passive and likes retreating to his end of the strip. If I was also passive and quick to retreat perhaps I could keep the score very low, especially if non-combativity got called. I knew I had no real hope of beating him to 15 points, but if the score was kept closer to 5 I might have a chance.
At first this tactic worked pretty well. We were both passive, waiting, retreating, keeping the distance wide. I didn't manage to get non-combativity called in the first period but did keep the score low. I think the period ended 2-3, with John a point up. The second period began much the same. I managed a double on his fleche, making it 4-3. His next fleche involved some rather wide blade movements and I scored a single light with a straight, low counterattack. So I tied it 4-4. Not bad so far! Then I tried hard to keep anything much from happening. He seemed willing to wait too. We moved back and forth at a fairly wide distance for a long time. I was hoping for a non-combativity call. Afterwards the ref said we were "so close" to her calling it. But with seconds to go John fleched and hit. So we ended up fencing the rest of the second period, and John scored with a series of fleches. Once he was up a few points he began holding back, like he does. So I began trying attacks of my own, knowing I had to go to him for any hope of a comeback. But attacking John is dangerous and just what he wants. I scored some but he scored more. By the end of the period the score was something like 12-6, or 13-8, or something not very hopeful. The chance I had had when it was 4-4 had evaporated.
I kept trying in the third period but he soon wrapped it up, 15-8. Still, I liked the plan I had and how close it was in the second period. Of course, even if non-combativity had been called and we had moved to the third period I'm doubtful I could have won. But the idea of keeping the score low to increase my chances seems sound.
That was it for me. Other highlights of the tournament: George Raush beat John Comes, then lost to Andrew Lee 15-11, putting Andrew in the final 8 and earning him a C rating. Cameron Brown, a C, also made it to the final 8. Then Andrew and Cameron fenced for a B rating. I don't think I had ever seen a bout with a rating at stake for both fencers like that. Cameron won, earning his B. Also in the final 8 John Varney fenced Matthew Comes. It was close until near the end, when Matthew scored a bunch, winning 15-11. In the semifinals Hans Engel beat Matthew Comes 15-7, and Jay Slater beat Cameron Brown 15-10. Then Hans beat Jay in the final, 15-10. Nothing too spectacular in those final bouts.
As usual I took some videos. Some are only partial. I think I got the entirety of Russ and Tobias's DE, and the final, Hans and Jay.
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