2014 Leon Auriol Open

2014 Leon Auriol Open, Senior Mixed Epee

http://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=26987&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=106864

Another tournament, another mediocre result. I was a little bummed after losing my DE, but the rest of the tournament was interesting and the final bout was amazing. So that was good.

Pool bouts:

Henry Lange, lost 1-5. I didn't know Henry Lange and had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that he was left-handed and rather tall. For some reason I assumed he was lower rated, but later saw he's a B. Well, he made quick work of me. I felt rusty with left-handed tactics, and those I tried failed.

Bob Noble, won 5-4. I'm not sure if we've fenced before. If so it has been a long time. I got a chance to watch him fence before our bout, so I had the vague idea that he likes to attack to the inside, often quite angulated. After trying to be aggressive with Henry Lange, and losing, I switched to a much more defensive approach, retreating from his feints and attacks and looking for openings. Luckily for me he made some small mistakes I was able to capitalize on, and before long I had a 3-1 lead. I can't remember the details exactly, but he got a point, making it 3-2, then we doubled, 4-3, then he got another point. At 4-4 we maneuvered a bit and eventually had an exchange in which he went to my inside. I managed to parry and hit with a big four, getting somewhat twisted up. Phew, very close.

Carlo Malaguzzi, lost 1-5. I've seen other people beat Carlo, and I've done okay with him in practice, but I cannot figure him out in tournaments. I feel like there is some fairly simple understanding I am just not quite getting, and so he keeps beating me rather badly in tournaments. I knew he would fleche a lot and felt prepared. I planned to retreat quickly, or counter-fleche, or try a prime parry. My counter-fleches failed, as did my primes. Perhaps I stopped him once or twice with prime, but failed to score a riposte. Mainly he timed his fleches just right to catch me unable to retreat quickly. Next time perhaps I should pay extra close attention to footwork and distance. I thought I was pretty well this time, but apparently not well enough. The one point I got felt good, at least. We were moving in and out of distance and in a split second I saw the distance close and I made a fleche to his shoulder. I tried to recreate the opportunity but apparently just gave him opportunities, hmm.

Matthew Comes, lost 2-5. Well, I did not expect to win this one, Matthew has gotten so good over the last year or two. My goals were simple: Score at least one point, avoid his toe and leg touches, and at least try to avoid his awesome fleches. I expected him to go for a toe touch within the first three seconds, as he often does. I was totally ready to pull my foot back and fleche, but he didn't make the attempt. I tried to be very defensive and avoid getting too close—his infighting is weird and good. He still managed the first couple of points. I eeked out a double to get to 1-3. Then we had an exchange at a close-but-not-too-close distance. He reacted with a strange big parry in the wrong direction and I was able to take aim and pop him on the chest. That felt nice. Even though it was his mistake I was able to take advantage, in part because I didn't launch an overly large attack, which his parry would have stopped.

After that, with the score fairly close at 2-3, we had another exchange after which I tried a fast beat-fleche. He went into his body-twisting 4, blocked my blade but missed his riposte. He tried again as I ran by, twisting even more but still missing. As I passed I managed to land my point on his leg, almost by chance, although I had at least made the attempt. I wasn't sure if it would count, since I was passing as I hit. We both looked to the ref, who was Justin Meehan. Justin thought for a moment. I assumed he was thinking about whether my point counted or not, but after a moment he pulled out a yellow card and said to Matthew, "disorderly fencing"—explaining that he had twisted his body to the point where his his head was tipped over backwards to me. And he annulled my touch. It was surprising enough that I didn't think to at least ask whether my touch should stand. Afterwards Matthew and I talked about it. He knew he had twisted enough to make the yellow card reasonable (although I said "but that's your whole thing!"), but seemed to think it was too bad, for me at least, that he annulled my touch. I guess he thought my touch was good at least. Ah well. As it turned out the point would not have made a difference for DE seeding, so whatever. Matthew got the next two points—the first after a lot of maneuvering, the second easily with a fast fleche off the line, catching me unprepared.

Mark Benack, won 5-1. This was a case where my now being an E helped. Mark was the U in our pool. If I was still a U I would not have had another U in my pool. I met Mark and fenced him at a few RCFC open fencing evenings in August. He's Stephen Benack's brother and only just getting started fencing. He's a nice kid and fun, but new enough to fencing to beat rather easily. The one point he got on me was due to my trying a 4-6 attack. Mark simply pegged my arm as I stepped in in 4. Whoops.

So my pool result was 2 and 3, which isn't too bad, although my indicator was -6 thanks to a couple 1-5 loses and one 5-4 win. So I seeded 29 out of 43. Not terrible, but I felt like I could have, should have done better.

I thought it was likely I would end up in a DE with someone a lot better than me, but it turned out the top 20 got byes. So I got paired with Jameson Lu, the 36th seed. We've fenced once or twice before, and I've seen him a few times. He's a relatively new fencer and still a U, but young (early 20s?) and fast. I thought I had a pretty good chance, and I did, but failed in the end, losing 12-15. He got me several times with fast fleches with nice disengages. I also tried beat-fleches a few times, but every time I failed to get my point back on target, and he recovered from the beat quickly and hit me. After the first period Russ suggested I just retreat from his fleches and not try to parry or counter. He suggested I concentrate on shallow attacks and keep pressure on his hand and arm. He also said my beat attacks were not working, which I had already figured out after screwing them up two or three times. As usual Russ's advice was good and I did get a nice hand hit. But by the end of the first period the score was something like 9-12, which was too much for me to come back from. In addition to the shallow attacks I got at least two nice touches with my 4-6 tactic. Both times he fell for it perfectly (unlike Mark Benack, who just picked my arm). Weird how that tactic works against some people but not others. I also scored a few touches when Jameson made mistakes—like many newish young fencers he tends to be a bit too aggressive, sometimes attacking too deeply or from too far and such like. We were both putting our all into active footwork, with lots of bouncing, but at one point he stopped and was still for a moment, perhaps thinking of a plan. I took advantage with a advance-lunge with feint disengage kind of thing, scoring nicely. Kyle Margioles, who was calling out advice, yelled "don't just stand there!" Heh.

I felt down about losing to Jameson. If I had won I would have faced Henry Lange. Henry had beaten me badly in the pools, and probably would have won in the DEs, but maybe I had learned enough in the pools to have a chance. Didn't get to try though.

The rest of the tournament was interesting. I got to watch a lot of good fencers I don't get to see very often. Kaiden Crotchett beat Andrew Lee, then Henry Lange, then beat Jay Slater in an exciting bout that went 14-14. I got to see Kaiden enough to get over the annoyance I had had after the Battle in Seattle and his incessant screaming. I'm sure he's a fine kid.

In other bouts I watched Sam Larsen, who was 1st seed, beat Cole Mallette 15-8. Cole got quite frustrated and angry with himself, but Sam is simply amazing. In another bout Stephen Benack, who was fencing quite well (and had his french grip epees again), went 14-14 with Denys Kovtunenko, but lost. Yuly did well, beating Matson Lalor by a very close 15-14, then Denys Kovtunenko by a larger margin, 15-9. Then Yuly fenced Walter Dragonetti and lost 15-3. Dragonetti is amazing, although he had some close bouts before facing Yuly—beating Thomas Antal 15-14 and John Mcdonald 15-13.

The final bout was the top two seeds, Walter Dragonetti (2) and Sam Larsen (1). Both are amazingly good fencers and really nice people too. They are very different though. Dragonetti is in his 50s, while Sam is more like 25. Sam had the advantage in terms of raw speed and youthful flexibility (he can make extremely long lunges). Dragonetti is very strong, with a kind of raw power. He's extremely smart, tactically, and deadly accurate technically. He seems to have great fencing instincts, parrying, disengaging, counterattacking just right within milliseconds. I made a video and watched parts of it in very slow motion, stunned by how both of them adjusted in-the-moment at speeds too fast for me to see except in slow motion. They both had very interesting tactics. Dragonetti tended to be very defensive, retreating to his end of the strip and doing everything he could to draw attacks, including all manner of body feints, foot stomps, and strange blade motions (including lots of tapping the floor with his tip, a curious idea I've been trying a little myself). He was almost always able to get at least a double touch out of Sam's attacks.

For his part Sam has an awesome long lunge to the leg. I watched him use it against other fencers. I think he has a whole set up pattern of footwork with the aim of stealing distance. Then he makes an advance, or hop lunge, his blade flicking high before dropping low at the last moment, right to the thigh. He got so many people with that attack in this tournament. But not Dragonetti. He tried, but Dragonetti's sense of distance is impeccable and he always managed to retreat and pull his leg back just in time for Sam to fall short. Sam also has a super fleche and was able to score with it several times. Dragonetti, although mainly defensive, has good fleches too, as I learned when I fenced him in the Battle in Seattle. He tried a couple against Sam but they totally didn't work and he gave that up soon enough.

Anyway! Here's the video. I slowed down most of the touches. It is one of the most exciting and interesting bouts I've ever seen in person. I was able to stand quite close to Dragonetti's end of the strip, rightly thinking most of the action would be at his end. Watching these guys gave me several tactical ideas I've been trying out in practice. I haven't been able to do Sam's long lunge to the leg very well—maybe I am too old and creaky to lunge so deeply. I have had some interesting results trying something Dragonetti was doing—fleching high but pulling his arm back and replacing the tip low to the outside flank, running off strip to the left.