Members of Lightspeed Saber Academy took the stage Friday evening at the Westminster Civic Center to promote the league in a public demonstration of our newest team event: Control Point! As the sun went down, red and blue sabers lit up as two teams (representing the Academy’s homebase of Orange County [John Mullins, Matthew Kim, Jacob Yoo, and Dinah Kolasa] and nearby Los Angeles [Sean Holtzman, Brian Lee, A.J. Enesco, and Samantha Kolasa) faced each other across the lines of a light up dance floor for an all-out turf war.
Control Point, designed and programmed by Cang Snow, is a time-based team event where two groups (usually with three to four members each) compete to take control of the clock and be the first to run their time down to zero. It has seen rotation at the Academy and made its competition debut last June at 2025’s Nationals, but the festival marked its first public premiere.
WHAT IS CONTROL POINT?
The rules are simple:
Each team has their own clock, and only one side counts down at a time. Players enter from opposing sides of the box, each trying to hit a buzzer in enemy territory that will switch the countdown over to their team’s side and pause the other timer. Only one member of each team is allowed in the box at a time. The two active fencers compete against each other -- a successful hit against someone gets them out, and they must ‘tag in’ one of their teammates waiting outside the box who will then face off against the other team's fencer. Getting someone out does more than protect your clock (or allow you to tag the button uninterrupted), it can also award your team an advantage through extra time deductions.
A bodyshot or indirect hit merely eliminates the fencer struck, but a clean hit, headshot, or counterattack is also rewarded with increments of time (from 7, 7, and 21 seconds, respectively) being removed from the attacker's clock. In a close match, a clean hit is enough to turn the tides of the game, or even steal a win when it looks like the other team has the advantage.
THE FALL FESTIVAL
It proved a very successful public introduction to Lightspeed -- despite the low light, the audience was able to follow the teams, and root for their choice, over the course of three skirmishes. Identifiable by saber and shirt color, Team LA and Team OC were easy for the audience to follow across the matches, with the team-based format encouraging easy loyalty from spectators who didn’t have to track individual fencers. Another bonus: the scoring procedure of Control Point is designed for rapid judgements. The referee does not have a secondary ref to deliberate with. Calls are made swiftly (time is the most valuable currency in Control Point) and allow for quick eliminations. Instead of breaking and resetting between hits, a new fencer is always running in to continue the bout where their teammate left off, keeping the flow of the fight uninterrupted.
Beyond the novelty of the sport capturing attention, spectators at the festival soon realized how quickly the time ran down on the two clocks and how suddenly the tide could change.
Early on in the first match, OC had over a minute lead on LA’s clock, a lead that was slowly chipped away at as blue team found their footing and held the box. It was an upset the crowd hadn’t expected, evidence by their cheers for OC and whoops when people scored solid hits. By the end of the first round, Team LA had won the match with 28 seconds left on Team OC’s clock. In a quick reversal, Team OC dominated most of the second round, easily gaining a large lead for their team. They had 30 seconds to blue team’s 1:20, and then only 12 seconds compared to over a minute on LA’s clock. In a dramatic final minute, OC’s clock was stuck at 0.81 seconds while LA made their final stand, protecting the button until their own time had only 24 seconds left and OC recaptured the countdown and the win. With both teams tied 1:1 and the last bout ending that close to the wire, the energy was high for the final fight. Despite the crowd’s support for the home team, LA pulled ahead early in the match. Showing the importance of the advantage of clean fencing, LA ended up securing the final win while OC’s clock was live, a clean skillshot bringing their clock down to zero even before the final fencer could recapture the button. It was an energetic night, and hopefully a memorable one for the crowd watching!
THE FUTURE OF CONTROL POINT / WHAT’S NEXT?
Interested in playing Control Point at your base or event? Here’s what we know so far. Control Point is definitely making a reappearance at the next national event, but other than that there aren’t firm plans to implement it yet. You can likely expect more Control Point special events that are separate from our traditional tournaments. As for taking it on the road… Control Point was built (and gets updated) right at the Academy. It requires a custom app designed to be paired with a specific physical apparatus. The Academy is working on the best way to share it, whether that means sharing the design or packaging and shipping the pieces to you. Either way, plans are in the works, so watch this space for updates!
Samantha Kolasa
Lightspeed Interim Reporter
