Longpoint Tournaments

In a major change from previous formats, this year’s Longpoint tournaments will all adopt the Meta-Event format of the Longpoint Triathlon. We are re-focusing our tournaments on being tools for training and development rather than a race to dominate a bracket. There will be no winners in individual events—medals and prizes will be awarded to those to perform well in their selected triathlon or pentathlon. By abandoning the bracket for other formats, fencers will be able to focus on their individual fights rather than where those fights are going to put them in the eliminations. For Cutting and Longsword Technique (formerly Paired Technique), this has ushered in a larger change in feel, as we address the longstanding issue that these competitions quickly pare people out in search of an overall event winner. In the current format, by the third round, judges are essentially deciding who was just a bit more perfect than the others, instead of who failed and who passed.

Our reasoning for the changes to our tournament offerings can be found here, followed by this Q&A post.

The Events

Each Meta-Event is made up of three or five individual tournaments. The individual tournaments are as follows. Note that all rules are subject to minor changes:

Longsword Blossfechten - Bring Your Own Sword. A blog post about this year’s tournament structure can be found here. The Longsword rules can be found here.

Messerfechten - Bring Your Own Sword. Messer will follow the same tournament format as Longsword. Messer rules can be found here.

Cutting - Cutting’s format has drastically changed. You will complete a single ‘course’ and be awarded points based on your performance. The elimination phases are gone. Cutting swords will be provided, but you may use your own if approved. The cutting rules can be found here.

Longsword Technique - Formerly Paired Technique. A high level description of this event can be found here. Otherwise, the training for this event and the goals remain the same as before. The rules and the list of techniques can be found here.

Ringen - Draft Ringen rules can be found here.

Passage At Arms - Armor standards for this event can be found here. Rules can be found here.

The Meta-Events are:

Longsword Triathlon - Longsword Blossfechten, Longsword Technique, Longsword Cutting

Messer Triathlon - Messerfechten, Messer Cutting, Ringen

Man-At-Arms’ Triathlon - Passage at Arms, Longsword Cutting, Longsword Technique

Liechtenauer’s Light Pentathlon - Longsword Blossfechten, Messerfechten, Cutting, Longsword Technique, Ringen

Liechtenauer’s Heavy Pentathlon - Passage at Arms, Longsword Blossfechten, Cutting, Longsword Technique, Ringen