On the 26th and 27th August we held an international HEMA tournament in Harman Romania - Teutonic Fecht 2023. The Longsword competition had our distinctive format in which every pool was judged by the fencers from another pool. This gave the organising team the option to fence as well, so I joined the competition.
Note on the audio quality: there was a lot of very annoying background noise from a power generator, so I did my best removing it, but it also drowned out some of the other sounds. Definitely not a perfect solution, but I spent about as much time I could spare on this issue.
My goals for the competition were:
1. Try to pass the pools with a minimal effort to sustain myself on the hot weather
2. Try to abuse our ruleset so people can get more used to it
3. Calibrate force and speed to match my opponents without exceeding their ability but still win
In this video you can find my matches from the entire longsword competition, all the way to the final. I've also added the judges calls and score. You might see some judging mistakes but this happens at all HEMA events.
A short summary of the rules so you can see why the exchanges are called as they are:
End of exchange conditions - a judge calls “STOP” or ”HALT” when any of the following occurs:
- A valid scoring hit is made to the head of a fencer - target covered by the mask;
- A valid scoring hit is made and fencers have exited the fencing distance - more than one step is required for both to reach each other;
- A valid scoring hit is made and then a hit was parried by either fencer;
- Оther valid scoring action is performed - ring out, disarm, wrestling control;
- A total of two valid scoring actions are made from one or both fencer;
- Equipment failure or injury;
- A call for a break by a fencer - it has to be stated clearly and in a safe manner outside fencing distance with both arms raised;
Scoring
- A valid scoring action performed by one fencer rewards them with one point (1-0).
- If both fencers perform a valid scoring action before an end of exchange condition is met - neither receives a point (0-0) - in the video it's called "Double hit".
- If a fencer starts and performs a valid scoring action after an end of exchange condition is met, that action will not be scored (example - nothing counts aft head hit).
- If a fencer performs two valid scoring actions they are rewarded with a maximum of one point per exchange (1-0).
- If the judges are unable to score an exchange due to uncertainty after consultation with the fencers they will call a no-exchange and write down - “no score”.
00:03 - Pools Match 1 - Matei Macri
01:03 - Pools Match 2 - Adrian Mirea
03:25 - Pools Match 3 - Mihai Florian Miu
04:31 - Pools Match 4 - Eduard-Vlad Manea
06:00 - Pools Match 5 - Mihnea Suteu
07:13 - Pools Match 6 - Andrei Chirlesan
09:46 - Pools Match 7 - Clara Ioana Ionescu
10:26 - Playoff Pools Match 8 - Catalin Ungureanu
11:21 - Playoff Pools Match 9 - Adam Milovanovic
12:57 - Semifinal Match 10 - Andrei Ciuta
16:30 - Bronze medal Match 11 - Ionut Zainea
Angel Chernaev is a historical fencing instructor from Sofia, Bulgaria.
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Any feedback is appreciated.