Hello all! So you last day of class, we will have a small competition. In general, USFA competitions work like this:
People sign up via askFRED.net or by faxing in a registration form (oi, it’s the 21st century and we’re still faxing…) or just walk in. USFA events require body cords to be verified for conductivity, and the mask to be punch-tested for mesh stability. Usually there is an armorer’s table somewhere in the venue and they will inspect your gear and mark it. You find the organisers, they will collect your names, your ratings and your money, then make a list. They will create an “initial seeding” list, with the highest rated fencer will be at the top, and the lowest/unrated at the bottom. USFA ratings are designated by the letters “E” through “A”, where the “A” rating is the strongest possible.
Depending on the size of the event, they will then create any number of “pools”. This is the first round of the competition. A “pool” is a set of rating incremented fencers, usually between 5 and 7 people, that must all fence each other. For example: 15 total people register, 3 of each “A” through “E” rated people. That means there will be 3 pools of 5 people, one of each rating in each pool. If, for example, 16 total people register, one pool would have 6 people. This can totally dis-balance the difficulty of the pool, if per chance, the 16th person was “A” rated. There would be two “A” rated fencers in only one pool. But, such is life.
So the pools were created, you were called to the strip, and the director checked your gear for inspection marks. You will be assigned a number, and the fencing will commence. In the pools you fence to 5 touches, 3 minutes per bout.
After the pool is finished, you must check your score for the number of victories and points scored/scored against. If everything looks good, initial the pool sheet. When someone ask you how you did, you reply “X in Y” where “X” is the amount victories and “Y” is the amount of losses. Then, you might be asked “And your indicator?” Your indicator is the ratio of total touches scored vs received. If you scored 25 touches in your pool, and received only 5, your indicator would be “+20″. If you only scored 5, but received 20, your indicator would be “-15″ You don’t want that indicator, 
There are many tournament formats possible, but the most common one is the “One round of pools followed by Direct Elimination”
Based on your victories and indicator, you will be seeded into the “Direct Elimination” table. Every time a round of DEs is fenced, half the people get eliminated, until only one, the winner of the event, is left. These can be referred to as the round of 256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4 and the “Final”. The top 8 can be called the “Finals” if the competition is an important event such as Nationals, a N.A.C. or large local competition. This all depends on how many people are in the competition. Yes, North American Cups can be over 256 people strong. What happens for 3rd and 4th place and other numerical oddities? They can be fenced for, but usually it’s a tie.
The seeding table works like this: the fencer with the best pool results meets the fencer with the worst result. If there is not a number of people present that fits a power of two, the top fencers coming out of the pools will get a “bye” to next closest round. That means they will not fence until it is determined who all are in the closest “power of two” round. So for example, if we were to have a 9 person tournament, all but two people would get a bye. The bottom finishers out of the pools would fence for a spot at the bottom of the round of 8.
Don’t worry, there is good software that does all this, plus every club has a few stats junkies, so if you just want to fence, there will always be someone who will organize all this for you! I hope to see you tonight, it should be a good time!
