WEIRD Open has prided itself for seven years on being a fun, welcoming event for HEMA enthusiasts of all levels to come together to safely hit each other, enjoy the magic of a giant slumber party, and fly the WEIRD flag high enough for the other WEIRD-os to find you.
General Format
For each weapon, all competitors will be grouped into pools (6 for longsword, 5 for other weapons). We will run FOUR full pools of single exchange for all events. There is no hard time limit for this exchange, but the head ref reserves the right to end the fight in a draw / no exchange after 60 seconds if the fencers are refusing any sort of engagement.
After each round of pools, fencers will be seeded based on their current overall score, with the highest ranked fencers matched into one pool, and so on. All fencers will be fencing in all four pools.
After four rounds of pools, the top 25% of fencers will be lined up in order, and starting from the lowest ranked fencer, each fencer will have the option to challenge up the line. This means (for longsword) the 12th ranked fencer will fence the 11th ranked fencer. The winner will challenge the 10th ranked fencer, and so on. Should these matches result in a double, neither fencer will advance further.
Note: We reserve the right to modify these rules and sizes as needed to ensure a smooth and timely event.
