SUMMARY

First off a special thank you to the Lightspeed Saber League and Cang Snow for bringing a unique and exciting version of a sport that has roots in martial arts with the flair from the universe we all know and love. Thank you to all the family and competitors for coming out making this a great event! Also special thanks to Aedan Stadther for agreeing to forgo competing to help run the event and edit the footage.
The sun was out with a slight breeze on June 4th as the first Virginia tournament began. The majority of the fighters were under 18, and a lone adult, Josh Blum, captain of the Riverbend team. All of them considered novices, most with little or no athletic competition experience.

With only 8 total participants, it was opted for one pool of eight, with a total of 28 matches, each 8 points, running 2 minutes long. The pool bouts were distributed across two arenas, being referee’d by Aedan and Chris supported by the participants themselves, second reffing and scorekeeping. A new version of scorekeeping was used that had been practiced in the local mock tournaments to capture the actions that were occurring.

Out of the gate there were some very quick decisive wins, as it was obvious who was warm and who wasn’t, but as the evening wore on, the level of competition grew. Grant, Hayden and Josh came out strong, with Locke and Sofia proving that winning wasn’t necessary to move up the ladder, scoring a lot of points to keep their index high and in contention of the top 4. Arden, Liam and Emily showed their skills with bladework, but were sometimes outgunned by the more aggressive stances of their opponents, but battled through, and really showed how much their skills have improved over the last 6 months.

One best highlight match during the pools, was Liam’s catch of multiple returns against Locke, showing that when he gets warm and into the zone if you give him the opportunity for a parry-riposte, he’ll gladly take the 3 points.

At the close of the pools, it looked like Josh and Hayden were the two strongest, with Josh going undefeated and Hayden only losing to her match with Josh. Rounding out the top 4 was Grant and Locke.

Into the direct eliminations, where the first match was father vs son, Josh and Arden. Josh started out with a strong lead, using his speed to his advantage, but Arden was not ready to throw in the towel and battled back from nothing, once he had his dad’s timing down. Unfortunately it was enough in time, and Josh won the first match 12 to 8.

Next up was Sofia vs Locke. Locke had been using a style, where he baits his opponent to attack and avoids the hit while able to score. The second match ended, landing Locke into the semifinals with a 12-9 victory.

The third match brought up Grant vs Liam. Grant took a quick lead and looked to close out the match quickly, but Liam was not to roll over without a fight. Liam battled back with some very precise timing attacks that caught Grant before he could land his own. However, Grant managed the lucky victory 12-10 by switching to more quick cuts at the end.

The last match of the bracket of 8 was Emily vs Hayden. Emily fought valiantly, but was ultimately defeated by Hayden’s long arm sniping attacks, with the final score of 12-3.

On to the semifinals, with the first match Josh versus Locke. At this point it looked that Josh was in the groove and Locke was looking tired. Josh claimed victory with 12-3, but Locke has secured that coveted top 4 position which earned him an E rating.

The last semifinal match pitted siblings Grant vs Hayden. Hayden continued her dominance with the long armed sniping, scoring on Grant before he could get into range for his own attacks. Hayden advanced to the finals with a 12 to 5 victory. Grant ended his run in 3rd place, also earning himself an E rating.

The final match of the tournament was between the quick footed captain of the Riverbend team and the long range, hand hunting powerhouse. The final match was set to 15 points and 3.5 minutes. Josh proved he was able to get into range quickly, bypassing the point where Hayden had the advantage. Though at one point, Josh moved so fast, he forgot to hold onto his saber and dropped it allowing Hayden to score an easy clean hit. The mistake didn’t phase Josh and he regrouped, claimed victory and first place in the tournament, with the final score of 15 to 7.