Week One Leader Richard Liang
It was an experiment, not without its foibles and follies. But overall the first week of Southern California’s Summer Slash series was full of excitement, energy, and ferocity.
Many of these Lightspeed Saber fencers were bouting for the first time in over a year, having last dueled at Engage II at Dreamhack, though most looked more or less in their classic fighting form. For some, like League #21 Jamar Johnson, this was a benefit. For others, adaptation was what was needed to succeed, and it just was not possible for them after 14 months of pandemic. Still, every competitor scored at least one win, and one competitor actually won them all.
The evening began with a victory for Teohua Martinez, who, unlike his fellow competitors, walked into the ring with a massive Ren Saber. Martinez is only the second person SoCal competitive history to go in with a crossguard, so this was very much an experiment for him as well as the league. Martinez did not muster another win after his first, but came very close in matchups against Penguin Saberist Richard Liang and Knight Clubber Max Whitaker. The crossguard proved difficult to use, at least in this environment, for protecting the hands against the much faster Rey Sabers. However, Martinez did score numerous defensive kills using his guard, providing value data for himself and the league as to the effiicacy of this weapon for the future.
Earlwin Famor surprised many of his opponents, perhaps being the only person in the pool to make effective use of the bolt, and indeed, his matches were some of the best of the evening. Unfortunately his bolts were not enough for him to qualify, and he went home with 1-4 record.
Jacob Areias turned in one of his best performances to date, earning two wins, and using his size and reach to surprise his opponents with clean headshots and legshots. He narrowly missed 3rd place to teammate Max Whitaker, who also took home two wins but edged ahead just enough to place 3rd for the evening. Whitaker dazzled opponents with fancy footwork, agile dodges, and swift attacks.
Finally, the top two contenders were Richard Liang, from Penguin Saber Academy, and Jamar Johnson, of Lightspeed Saber Irvine. Johnson was the top rated fencer in the pool, but Liang of PSA was definitely known to be underranked, having competed in other systems before. So he went into the competition as a bit of a wild card. Johnson fought with characteristic bursts of speed with the use of his Tyrant Saber, and Liang battled back with high aggression and a classical “ blade take” style of fencing which returned mix results. But in the end, in a contentious and very tight bout, Liang defeated Johnson 12-10, giving him 1st place for the evening, with 5 wins, compared to Johnson’s 2nd place and 4. They will move on to the eliminations bracket along with Max Whitaker.
While the event was intended to be livestreamed, unfortunately only 10-15 minutes of footage actually made it onto Twitch, due to various technical difficulties and staff inexperience in dealing with them. The reffing team was also relatively inexperienced, though they became tighter and more confident toward the end of the evening. The referees, Jose Daniel-Ortiz Miranda, and Tony Zaldua Jr, will carry on as referees for the remainder of the tournament. SoCal Director Sean Holtzman was instrumental in getting the stream to work to the extent that it did, and Kieran Haile and Priscilla Good were extremely helpful staff members as well. So we thank them for their assistance!
Overall this was a learning experience for all involved, and Lightspeed Saber SoCal is looking forward to learning more and getting back into the swing of things. See you next Saturday for Week 2!
Supreme Leader Snow
Week One data
