https://askfred.net/Results/results.php?tournament_id=27101&highlight_competitor_id=91067&event_id=107256
Came in 16th out of 28, meaning of everyone who won their first DE I had the worst pool results. I beat Kyle Margolies in that DE, and he came in 17th, or best of everyone who lost their first DE.
My pool began nicely, with a win against Johannes Klein, then went bad with four bad losses, 5-2, 5-2, 5-0, 5-1, ouch. Then a 5-4 win. I didn't have high hopes for the DEs, but got Kyle. Even then I didn't have high hopes, but worked hard and pulled it off, yay. Then I had Andrew Lee and lost, but felt like put up a respectable fight. So I was pleased with everything when it was over. And it was nice to see Steven Benack win 1st and get his A, and Andrew Lee take 3rd and get his B.
POOLS
My pool started off as the one six person pool (the others were all seven). But just before we began Jeff Lucas got there—he had missed the close of registration but they let him fence and added him to my pool, making all the pools seven.
For some reason when they set up the pools they didn't make clubmates fence each other first, so my first pool bout wasn't against John Varney but Johannes Klein. Having fenced him in a pool and DE just a few weeks ago I had a decent plan ready, mainly involving absence of blade, careful distance, not making big attacks, feints and body feints, and attacking into his prep or counterattacking as safely as I could. I got the first two points this way—trying to get him to attack, then attacking into his prep. Then he got a point, I forget how. Then I got another, again attacking into his prep, but this time going low to his leg, making it 3-1. I think he was ready for my attacking into his prep that third time, but expected a higher line, so my low line snuck in.
Then my plan broke down a little and he got a couple points, tying it at 3-3. I think I let my focus flag a little, but at 3-3 I got worried and refocused. Even so I got a lucky break at this point. We were maneuvering, looking for advantage, and he found a good timing and fleched. I was caught a bit off guard. I awkwardly parried, sending my blade far wide. He disengaged and, passing me, hit. I felt like I had made a mistake and left myself wide open, but there was a little uncertainty about whether he had hit before passing or not. I thought his hit was probably good, but the ref decided no, it was after the pass. I didn't argue but felt a bit lucky.
So then we were maneuvering again. I was throwing out feints in various ways. At some point he started an advance just as I made a little flick toward his hand, and it landed, woo, 4-3. Then, at the end, I managed another attack into his prep to win 5-3.
So! That felt like a nice start. But I lost the next four bouts, all badly.
First was Andrew Lee. I thought I was being careful and keeping good distance, but he scored with a nice long attack that surprised me stepping in. Then, if I remember right, he made another nice long attack which just touched my knee. I tried to set something up and attacked with my wavy-wave. But it didn't fool him and he easily parried and scored on the riposte. Then he got a great toe touch, catching me totally by surprise. I think that was the way the points went. Maybe I have the order wrong but in any case he got up 4-0. Not good! Throwing caution to the wind I tried my Dragonetti fleche and got a single light. He had responded with a nice counterattack toward my shoulder, but doing the "drag fleche" my shoulder drops down and to the left, which in this case effectively displaced the target he was aiming for. Soon after that he fleched and I counterattacked for a double. I think he wasn't trying too hard for a single light, maybe being okay ending it with a double. Having been down 4-0 I was okay losing 5-2. At least I got two points. Still, ack.
Then I had John Varney. The last time we had a pool bout, a few weeks before, I won, to my surprise. Not this time. I tried my usual stuff with him but was a little hesitant and got confused by his fleches, making parries in wrong directions. A few days before we had fenced in practice and he beat me pretty badly. I asked him after what I had been doing wrong, but he just said he was "practicing his lesson". Whatever he was practicing, it was working on me. Anyway, in this bout he got up 3-0 pretty fast. On his next attack he missed, so I got a point, lucky me. Then he scored again, 4-1, ack. Next he fleched with larger prep blade action. I saw it coming and was able to duck and hit him from below. At least I got one point not due to a mistake of his. Finally I tried a "drag fleche". It failed and he won, 5-2.
Next up, John Mcdonald. I liked fencing him in the last tournament, and did pretty well too. So I was looking forward to this bout. I wasn't expecting to win, just to try my best and have fun. Well, this bout wasn't like the last tournament. He very quickly destroyed me 5-0. I looked at the clock after it was over and it showed 2:42 remaining. He had beaten me in just 18 seconds of fencing time.
Before the bout John Varney told me that Mcdonald was fencing very fast this day. He advised me to "fleche first", and that it would probably be hard to retreat from his fleches fast enough to escape. So I went in planning to attack hard and fast, which is exactly what John did too. It was just that none of my attacks hit before his.
Afterward I told him my plan had been to attack first. He said that made sense but I mostly hadn't attacked first—he had made several attacks immediately right off the line, while I wanted to take a second or two to scope things out or get ready or something. I didn't really think it was wise, or even possible, to attack right off the line without at least a little preparatory footwork. But he got me with an immediate attack to my foot, and another to my leg. I think he did those with big advance lunges, fast enough to do "one tempo", more or less. I was impressed, and I think I will try practicing that kind of thing a little. Seemed like saber-like. And it just occurred to me that the saber event, which John was also in, had been just before epee.
A few times I got my fleching attacks off first, but got hit going in before I could land my point. Afterward I remembered that he had been using a French grip and my attacks were blade avoiding types (like the Dragonetti fleche). When I told him, after, that I had forgotten about his French grip he said something like "yea, you got to deal with my blade if you're attacking".
Well, at least he was nice about giving me a little constructive advice afterward.
After John I had Audun Holland-Goon. After the last three badly lost bouts I hoped I could be better with Audun. Over the last couple of years I've lost to him a number of times. I think I've won a pool bout or two along the way, maybe. I felt like I knew his style fairly well and had a decent chance of winning. But no, it went much like the last few bouts, reaching 4-0 before ending 5-1.
I went in planning to be cautious, knowing his strength is defensive, with good parry-ripostes. I wanted to draw him into attacking me. So I tried pushing him, threatening, feinting, whatever I could to make it seem like I was attacking, hoping to draw his attack. But he just wouldn't bite. Thinking about it now I realize there must be a difference between drawing attacks from someone who likes to counterattack or attack-into-prep, versus someone like Audun who likes to parry-riposte. You might be able to draw an attack-into-prep by feinting in ways that look like "bad prep", but if the person wants to have your blade engaged in a parry maybe you need to actually let them take your blade in order to draw them out. And then? I guess you could use a ceding parry, or retreat so their riposte falls short. Hmm.
Anyway, I can't remember now how Audun got his first point. Probably I got tired of trying to draw an attack and tried to attack into what I hoped was an opening. I probably tried my wavy-wave thing and he parried and scored. Once he was up, even just one point, drawing an attack seemed even harder. He seemed to relax into a very defensive attitude. I kept pushing him back down the strip, feinting and so on. Maybe I should have pushed him all the way to the end. That might be a way to force him to attack. I usually get nervous when the other person is near their end of the strip—doubtlessly in part due to all the fencing I've done with Varney, who loves to be in the box. So I often stop pushing and back off if the other person is getting close to their end. Maybe with someone like Audun it would be better to keep pushing. If someone just won't attack, push them all the way back? Hmm.
Also, before the bout John Varney gave me some advice, using his fingers as blades and showing me a pattern of moving my blade from 6 to 4 and back to 6, or something, ending up with my blade just over his wrist. But I was confused about which finger was whose blade and didn't quite grasp the pattern, and there wasn't time for more. During the bout I kept trying to figure it out, but never quite did.
I'm not sure, but I think Audun got at least one point by attacking as I pushed into distance, surprising me. In any case, once he was up two points I began feeling like I had to try attacking if I hoped to catch up. So I tried my "pool plan" actions one after the other, trying my best to set them up and get past his defenses, but they failed. Either he would parry-riposte and score or at least get my blade out of the way as I fleched by. In this way we got to 4-0.
Then he had an exchange involving, if I remember right, some beats and feints followed by a fleche to his inside. I got a good hit on his chest but the machine showed a single light for him—he had made a late, I thought, counterattack. So I asked the ref, Dan Berke I think it was, to check my epee. Sure enough it wasn't working. I felt a little silly getting another, hooking up, testing, etc, with the score at 4-0. Apparently I had lost hope. I think in the final point I made some kind of fleche attack, he did a parry-riposte and scored, but I managed one of my prime-ish remises and got a double. So I got one point instead of none, losing 5-1. Sigh.
Afterward both Audun and his mom said I should have had my epee checked a couple points before, thinking I had probably lost a point or two. I hadn't felt like I had made any hits in time or I would have had it checked, but who knows. There was only one action I could think of that I might have hit and gotten maybe a double, but if so it wasn't obvious and didn't feel like anything was amiss at the time.
So anyway, after starting nice with my win against Johannes, this pool was no good. Four big losses. My final bout, and the last of the whole pool, was with Jeff Lucas. I can usually beat him and felt like okay, I should be able to at least get one more win out of this pool. But the way things were going I was far from confident. And Jeff has been getting significantly better lately. Still, I thought I could probably do well using absence of blade and distance tactics.
Before we started Jeff said he would be happy to get just one point against me. As we hooked up and tested he joked with me and Dan about it, making up a joke story about rigging the bout so he'd get that one point, or something like that. I got the first point, then he got the second. Our "plan" was working! I got the next point, but then he got one, tying it at 2-2. I think I had made a bad fleche, from too far and ending up off balance infighting instead of passing. Annoyed at myself I pulled off a good "Drag" fleche and got a single. Then I played the absence-distance game, working up to a good feint that got him to make too large a parry, letting me lunge in for a single. So I was up 4-2. Better. Then I made another bad fleche, ending up off balance too close. He scored, making it 4-3. Dan said something like "so much for your guys's plan". Yep. We ended with a double, so I won, but barely at 5-4.
So I had won two, 5-3 and 5-4, and lost four badly. My indicator was a sad -12. I figured I had blown the pool and would have a very bad seed and an impossible DE. The tournament was basically over.
I see now that my win over Johannes resulted in my coming in 5th out of 7, since Johannes had gone one and five, and Jeff had lost all his bouts. My indicator was worse than Johannes's, but my win ratio was higher.
So I was 20th seed out of 28 fencers. I see now that my seed was the lowest of those who had won two bouts. All the pools had seven fencers, so the seeds were all in order of the number of wins. Two had won all six bouts, John Mcdonald and Yuly Suvorov. Six had lost only one, including Andrew Lee, who got 4th seed. Two had lost all their bouts and six had lost all but one. Thanks to those eight I seeded 20th, despite having an indicator worse than the three who seeded below me.
I didn't realize any of that at the time. With 28 fencers were would be only four byes, so there would be no "easy" first DE. I assumed I would get someone very hard, like Varney, or Jay, or Matthew Comes, or someone like that.
DIRECT ELIMINATION
So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw I would fence Kyle Margolies, who was 13th seed. The last few times we've fenced I've lost pretty badly. And given the way I seemed to be fencing this time I thought it was unlikely I would win, but at least it was someone I enjoyed fencing. Plus I felt I had learned quite a bit from the last couple of times we'd fenced—particularly what not to do, what to watch out for, and the need for extra distance.
Had indicators been a point or two different I could have ended up with Luke LaRocque, Robert Tiosejo, or Audun, who all had gone three and three in the pools, like Kyle. If I was given the choice of those four I would probably pick Kyle. Maybe Robert or Audun, but I haven't fenced Robert in forever, and given the way I lost to Audun in the pool, well. And Luke? He's fun to fence, but in a first DE? Yea, no.
Anyway, this DE turned out to be the high point of the tournament and made up for my terrible pool. Because, to my surprise, I won. And decently well too.
I mostly got my points by staying relatively far, having fallen to his long attacks before, and being very careful about attacking, having fallen to his parries, especially four and prime. A few times when I was retreating before his fast but small advances I was able to slow my retreats and let distance collapse just enough to score with a fast direct fleche. Despite my trying to keep distance wide he got a bunch of points with long attacks, often to my leg or knee. He also got two or three hits to my arm on the inside. I was playing a little with holding my arm a bit back and out, vaguely like Steven Benack. I stopped doing that after getting hit on the arm a few times.
One thing I remembered from the last time we fenced was the way he would retreat when I attacked, just enough to be able to make nice parries on my foible, while I wasn't retreating from his attacks and trying to parry too late. So this time I focused on retreating when he made any kind of threat, trying to find that position where I could parry and riposte, or wait for him to fall short and then attack. I think my retreating got him to make larger preparatory actions, which I was sometimes able to attack into. It seems like my retreating plan could have let him force me back to the end of the strip, but I rarely felt like I was too close to the end. Maybe as we got closer to the end he got nervous and backed off. Or he got a little too pushy and came too close, letting me fleche. OR, maybe my feints and body feints kept him from pushing too hard. I've been liking this body feinting stuff.
I tried to keep the score fairly low in the first period, working on being very defensive and shallow, testing things out and trying to get a feel for how the bout might go. Even so the score got up to 7-7. I think I got one more point before time ran out, making it 8-7. Russ talked to me during the break, saying things I mostly was already trying, but reinforcing ideas about what was working and what wasn't. Also some specific ideas that, hmm, I can't remember exactly now. I'm mixing up advice he gave me in the next DE. Kyle got advice from someone, but I can't think who now. I don't think it was Kevin Mar because he was directing bouts, nor John Mcdonald because he was fencing, I think.
In the second period the score stayed tied or a point up or down. We worked up to 10-10. Then things began going my way. I scored attacking into his prep, 11-10. Then again, I retreated and retreated until he started an attack. I attacked into the prep and scored. That time he could have, should have doubled, but missed. Lucky for me, 12-10. Then, again I retreated as he advanced with quick but very small steps. He seemed focused on this footwork, so I slowed/shortened my retreats, letting the distance collapse a little. It felt dangerous as he stepped in closer, but he didn't attack. As he took another step I fleched and hit his shoulder before he could react.
Now the score was 13-10. I tried my best to not get excited about it, thinking "one touch at a time". Remembering stuff Tim Morehouse wrote about in his book I even thought to myself, as I walked to the en guard line, "I'm down, I'm down". Not sure that had any effect. I think the score effected Kyle though. He began to seem frustrated and got more reckless, especially regarding distance. Still, he got the next point, 13-11. Then I got the next, 14-11! I forget the last point exactly. He was trying for a single light, but trying to set something up I was able to sneak in a hit. I'm not sure if we doubled or not. So I won, 15-11 or 15-12, woo! Oddly, on AskFred it shows the score as 14-11, but we didn't even reach the third period.
I felt pretty good about winning. I hadn't expected it and had no idea who would be next. Turned out my next DE was against Andrew Lee, who was 4th seed and had gotten a first round bye. It would be his first DE. Given how he had beaten me badly in the pools, and how he usually beats me, I expected to win even less than I had with Kyle. On the other hand, at least I had a decent idea of his fencing style.
I think I mostly had the right ideas about what to do, which was similar to my approach with Kyle: Keep distance rather wide and retreat, looking for him to fall short, then attack, but carefully! As it turned out I often either did not retreat enough and he'd hit, or I'd retreat more than enough, he'd fall short (very short) and I'd launch an attack from way too far. In the first case, Russ pointed out in the break that Andrew would lunge and I would retreat alright, but then he would fleche out of the lunge and I was being caught flat-footed. I might manage a double in those cases, but it would be better to retreat again. In the second case, well, if I did manage to retreat again and he fell short, great—just don't trying to follow up from too far. I needed to stay away, retreat and let him fall short, then finish, but only if the distance was decent.
As with Kyle, I tried to keep the first period score low. Well, I managed to keep my score low. Not so much with his. I got the first point, which was nice. Then he got one, then another, then another. By the time the period was over he was up 8-3. I don't remember the details well, except that he got a great toe touch and I scored once with that "Dragonetti fleche"—his counterattack going over my shoulder. In the second period, after getting advice from Russ, especially about Andrew's lunge-fleche thing, things began a little better. We traded pointed to 9-5, then I started to catch up a tiny bit, reaching 10-7. Then things fell apart. He got two points to my one, making it 12-8. Then he got the rest except one (probably a double), winning 15-9. Still, I felt like I had done decently. Andrew went on to beat Jay Slater in the next DE, securing 3rd place and earning a B rating.
I stayed and watched the rest, taking videos of the semifinals and final. Mark Benack pointed out how the four people in the semifinals were from the four WWD clubs (the competitive clubs anyway): John Varney SAS Seattle, Matthew Comes WFA Issaquah, Steven Benack RCFC Bellevue, and Andrew Lee MTFC Tacoma. For the division championship that was pretty cool to see. Varney squeezed a win out of Matthew, 9-8. They were tied 8-8 and went into sudden death overtime. Steven beat Andrew 15-13, a good bout. Steven and Varney fenced in the final. I wasn't sure who to cheer for. I mean, you're supposed to root for your clubmate, right? But I like Steven too. And more, if Steven won he would earn his A. While John, well, he's won many tournaments and has been an A for a million years.
Well, Steven won, 15-12. He and his brother were thrilled. It was nice to see. Videos:
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