Southeast Section Tournaments

[broncofencer]

Alright all you SE fencers I am new to the central florida division and thus the SE section. So what I really want to know is what are the MUST ATTEND tournamnets? I fence primarily epee but I provide a warm body to sabre pools on ocassion. Any suggestions so I can plan ahead to travel would be great.

[Frank Pratt]

The tournaments at the Atlanta Fencers Club are usually worth the drive. The epee events in particular are usually "A2" or "B2" rated. You can check out their web site or The Georgia Division's website for more information. Speaking of Georgia, our schedule will not be set until all the clubs meet sometime this month. Check out the division's website in late August or Early September for the '05-'06 tournaments in Georgia. Epee is growing stronger and stronger in Georgia. We currently have 3 "A" epeeists in the Atlanta area and about a dozen more from other states in the Section. There are roughly a dozen "B" epeeists from all over the state.

Birmingham's tournaments are often large and highly rated (their last one was an A2.) Some of their events are aimed more at beginners, but there will be some good fencing at the larger open events.

In South Carolina, The University of South Carolina hosts The Chicken Challenge in the Fall and The Sword in the Stone in the Spring. Both are usually good "B" or "C" rated events in all three weapons. This year's Chicken Challenge will be on October 15, 2005 and The Sword in the Stone will be on March 18-19, 2006.

This year's Sectional Championships will be somewhere in Alabama, and will probably be in April or May. Check the SE Section's website for updates. The Mens' epee and foil events are generally the biggest and most competitive in the southeast (last year's ME competition was an "A3" event.)

It's a bit of drive (or even a flight,) but you shouldn't miss the Crescent City Open in New Orleans on March 4-5. It's one of the biggest non-NAC tournaments in the country. The men's events will be big and "A" or "B" rated. The womens' events will also be very competitive. I have never been, but I have heard only rave reviews.

Of course, don't miss the Div II/III/Cadet NAC in Miami, assuming you meet the classification and age restrictions.

These are the events that come to mind at the moment; I might have missed a few. Anyone else have any good suggestions?

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

The scenic city open in Chattanooga TN is predicted to be a large and strong tournament. The epee event last season had 49. entrants, and we expect many more at this event.

http://askfred.net/Events/whoIsComin...nament_id=1100

[glowstix]

Originally Posted by broncofencer

Alright all you SE fencers I am new to the central florida division and thus the SE section. So what I really want to know is what are the MUST ATTEND tournamnets? I fence primarily epee but I provide a warm body to sabre pools on ocassion. Any suggestions so I can plan ahead to travel would be great.

aiight!! so you're new to central FL, ehh?? as far as tournaments go, orlando/clearwater area is the main area. being in central FL you're lucky 'cause you have access to the south FL tournaments too. if you go down there you'll have your hands full with cochrane and parrish and cerruti (sp?). they're A's, and they're nasty.

the best tournaments in the fall are bankuti challenge (sept) and great pumkin(oct) and there's also one in november close to thanksgiving too, can't remember the name of that one. the clubs in gainesville also have tournaments in december too.

also, this year, there's the NAC in south FL. in central FL, you'll have a lot of fun dealing with alex gromov and his fencers (yergler et al). they're also nasty. epee in FL is growing, especially in north FL too.

in the spring there's the tournament in jax, then there's a few more in orlando in march, april then the season winds down with a tournament in clearwater. most epee tournaments in FL are usually B1 or B2 with about 20-30 fencers showing up. now that parrish is an A, i'll suspect we'll get a couple of A1/ A2 events in next year.

if you're looking for 40 or 50+ fencer tournaments in epee, FL is not the place. i gaurantee 100% you'll never find an A3 or A4 down here. you'll still get really strong fencers here but the numbers just aren't high.

since you're in central FL the drive to AFC grand prix will be a long one and most of the time its not really worth it since the numbers are usually small. you'll get one really tough bout in, possibly two. for me the drive is worth it but for you its a llloooooonnngg drive up I-75.

see you in the fall....

[CvilleFencer]

Okay, we are quite the drive/flight, but VA is also an SES division and I might as well mention a couple of our tourneys that are large enough to be worth the drive. The Kickoff Open in September 17th/18th is one of the largest tourneys I know (about the same numbers as the Crescent City Open, except that we do not run separate women’s events) of in the SES usually having about 75-100 foilists and about 60-80 epee fencers. The epee is (and in fact most VA epee tourneys) will be at least an A2. I would not be at all surprised to see it be an A3 this year as we missed it by 1 fencer of the appropriate rating last year. The Hangover in Richmond is also a good event, although not quite as large. About 50-70 for foil and about 50ish for epee averaged over the past couple of years. Again the epee is pretty much always gonna be an A2 event. We are a bit of a drive, but it may be worth it for you. For our larger tourneys we pride ourselves on using USFA rated refs (preferably ones that are not fencing!), having a full time BC for big tourneys, offering pre-registration and computer assisted registration and seeding to keep things moving along.

Not saying that the other divisions don't do the same thing. Truth tell I have not made it to many other divisions in the SES (actually now that I think about it I have made it to none…) so I don't have a huge amount of experience to recommend other SES tourneys outside of VA. Something I am going to try to correct this year, so I am glad you started this thread. I am also primarily an epee fencer so I think I will try to put the Scenic city, the Crescent City and a few of the NC and SC events on my schedule. As has been pointed out by me fellow SES fencers, I probably should get out a little more!

[fluidfencer]

DFP,

Isn't that the one that will be used to hold the practical portion of the FOC referee test? If so, the date is October 22-23. It should be even better than usual because of the referee rating draw.

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

The scenic city open in Chattanooga TN is predicted to be a large and strong tournament. The epee event last season had 49. entrants, and we expect many more at this event.

http://askfred.net/Events/whoIsComin...nament_id=1100

[I fence epee]

Don't forget the DFC tournaments in Georgia. They tend to be strong epee events (at least B level), and have pretty good numbers(more than 30).