Hilt and Helm Fights at Queens Court Open 2022
On June 18th, Hilt and Helm Fencing Club travelled to Cincinnati Ohio to compete in Queen’s Court Open 2022 hosted by Queen City Sword Guild. I had fought in the first Queen’s Court Open back in 2019 and came in 3rd. Although that was the first time I’d ever come in 3rd in an open fencing tournament, I would have to wait for the second time to actually receive a medal. 1st and 2nd place received beautiful ceremonial daggers, but 3rd place received a free t-shirt. This year I was determined to fight again and get the medal I’d wanted the first time I competed.
Pictured above: JW Pugnetti getting 1st, Frank Zamary getting 2nd, and my gay ass getting 3rd in Queen’s Court Open 2019
Pictured above: Dope ass medals for this year’s tournament!
For those who don’t know, fencing tournaments are typically split into two parts: Pools and Elimination. In the pools, the event organizers split everyone into groups of 5-7 people called “pools”. Event organizers look at the ranking of every person and distribute the highest ranked fighters amongst all of the pools to ensure that the average skill level across all pools is about the same. In the pools, each fighter fights each other fighter and at the end all of the fighters are ranked according to their win/loss record and points scored. It is from these scores that the elimination brackets are seeded. In them, the highest ranked person fights the lowest ranked person, the second highest fights the second lowest, and so forth. Each time someone loses, they are eliminated from the competition and the winners are the ones who last the longest.
When the pools were announced, I was pleased to see I was the scary person in my pool, but that doesn’t mean that I could afford to underestimate my opponents. In this tournament, there were only 5 exchanges. Whoever had the most points at the end won the match, meaning there was very little room for error. If an opponent managed to get 5 points ahead, there was nothing their opponent could do; which is why I employed my 3 round domination strategy:
Step 1: Establish a pattern. In this round I approach my opponent moving forwards and backwards at a constant tempo. When they present an opening, I attack into it and observe their response.
If I hit them, repeat this step again until it stops working.
If they block but don’t hit me, proceed to step 2
If they block and hit me, proceed to step 3
Step 2: Feign the pattern. In this round I approach my opponent moving forwards and backwards as I did with step 1. The difference here is that now that I’ve trained them in what my attacks look like, I can feign what they’re expecting and hit them when they leave an opening. This step only works when they see your attacks and react defensively which is why it comes after the “teaching” step.
If I hit them, go back to step 1. They’ve already fallen for the trick. If you keep trying to trick them, they’ll catch on.
If they block, go to step 3.
Step 3: Break the pattern. By this round, I’ve deliberately misinformed them on what it looks like when I’m about to attack or feign and attack. They think they know what my body does and they think know what my sword does. Ideally at this point I’m either up a few points or we are about neck and neck. Either way if we are in round 3 I still have a chance even in the worst case scenario to claw my way back to a victory. Now its time to wreck them! At this step and only this step do I pull out my fastest techniques that give little to no tells. One handed thrusts. Shieldhau’s. Sometimes I’ll throw out a deliberately telegraphed strike because my next strike is queued up and ready to go the instant I see them react the way I want them to.
With this strategy in place, I was able to win every pool match. My opponents didn’t make it easy by any means, but I was seeded 3rd coming out of the pools. Predictably, JW and Frank were seeded 1st and 2nd. Funny enough this was the same order we’d finished in at the end of the last tournament. It seemed our reunion was inevitable, but that’s the great thing about HEMA. You can never predict who’s going to win, and this tournament was no exception.
When I got up to the semi-finals, I faced off against Chris Yang. He has been fencing for the past 11 years in California and came back to Ohio recently. We’d faced off at the Ascalon Sword Festival before and he managed to beat me then, and this time was no exception. My round 1 strike was parried and reposted. He saw through my round 2 feint and reposted again. And in round three when he knew I needed to press the attack and claw my way out of the hole, he pressed in with a ferocious assault that clenched his victory. Hey, there’s no shame in losing to someone that skilled.
Then came the fight for 3rd place, and I once again I fought my great friend and long time friendly rival, JJ Conlon. I’ve mentioned before that he has an entire spread sheet on me, what moves I use, the frequency I use them, and their success rate. It was from this spreadsheet that he learned the efficacy of my legendary right low zwerkhaus. My biggest problem with him is that he is as skilled a practitioner of my moves as I am and I rarely ever fight someone who fights the way I do. Hell! When I teach people my best techniques and they use them against me I am legitimately startled every single time even when I know its coming. This was no exception. When he came at me with my own oberhau, zwerkhau, zerkhau combo and I went to block , each time his blade came in lower than what I was expecting even though that is exactly what I do to people on a regular basis. Now this is NOT me saying “I’m so good that I can only be beaten by my own techniques”. I’ve been beaten by plenty of other people’s high level techniques. Ask Chris Yang.
So as nice as it would have been to get that 3rd place Queens Court Open medal I’ve always wanted, 4th place is nothing to sneeze at and I’m glad it went to someone who deserved it.
Shout outs go to:
Ben Houck for hosting me at his house and hosting such an awesome event
Chris Yang for helping me refine my strategy.
JJ Conlon for yet another nail biting super close match.
Matt Huller, Chris Burke, Thomas Kesler, and Stephanie Eaton for some really fun fights
