Long Beach Invitational 2006

[akaiyuki]

Just got an email saying LBI is now open for registration on askfred.
http://askfred.net/Events/moreInfo.p...nament_id=2178

The email and the askfred details also mentioned that this year, Foil and Epee have been "unmixed" and capped at 112 fencers per event.

What are you guys' opinions on the change? Will the unmixing of foil and epee events effect the strength of the women's foil and epee events? I'm assuming there are usually a few strong women fencers traveling a bit for LBI and competing in both the women's and mixed event. Will unmixing of foil and epee drive these strong women fencers away, causing the women's events to be slightly weaker this year? On the other hand, without these changes, mixed epee will probably have like 200 fencers. Applying only the 112 fencers rule without unmixing, there will be many men's epeeists who won't be able to register in time.

[smurfette]

Well, despite the fact that Daisy Flores made the final last year in both the women's and the men's, I have been persuaded that "unmixing" is a better idea. This will not only make the men's event smaller (which is desireable at this point), but it will also encourage what I see as more healthy competitive experiences for both the women and the men. Most of the women who competed in the "mixed" should definitely not have been there, and so this will discourage them from participating in an event that can be extra-painful physically and semi-traumatic emotionally. This will prevent the pools from being badly skewed (when the B or the A in the pool of a mixed event is a woman, this makes for a very different kind of a pool).

And finally, I actually don't think it is entirely fair to the men to introduce gender politics into a competitive situation without offering some alternative. Women don't have to deal with fencing men in competition -- why shouldn't it be the other way 'round? If we buy that men's and women's fencing are very different overall (and I know there has been some debate over this in the forum -- to me it is unquestionable), then unmixing is definitely the way to go.

[oso97]

Different events, different purposes. One system cannot serve every type of event.

Sounds like the LBI wants to move to a "higher level" status of tournament. This being the case, it makes sense to impliment this kind of change.

Again, different systems for different events. One system will not work for everything.

Its no secret I'm a strong poponent of "unmixed" events at "serious" sub-national competitions. But I also strongly believe that there is a place for mixed events at that level as well.

[KD5MDK]

Offhand, why the limit at 112 fencers rather than 128, or 100, or something else?

[DHCJr]

Since I'm on the committee, I will try and answer some of the questions. With Duel out for this year, it was expected LBI would become too big. As everyone knows who has been there space is limited. We talked about using some of the smaller rooms, but the most we could get in any of the smaller rooms is 2 strips. The communication and logistics to those rooms would become a big hassle.

Think of the hassles of flighting the pools. Some fencers will need to wait to start their pools maybe an hour to an hour and a half after everyone else and the rest of the fencers will need to wait an hour to an hour and a half for the second flight to finish before the DE's can be started.

Many have commented on how fast DE's are posted and how quick the competition is run. We would like to keep that reputation.

Divide 112 by 7 and you get 16.

Does anyone want to guess how many strips we have available?

[OROD]

$70 to register... WTF???

.

[seven6ty]

Awwww, I don't wanna WAIITTTTT though! *whines*

There aren't anyyyyy competitions over the summer, grrrr.

[epeemike81]

Originally Posted by seven6ty

Awwww, I don't wanna WAIITTTTT though! *whines*

There aren't anyyyyy competitions over the summer, grrrr.

sure. how far are you willing to travel?

-m

[seven6ty]

Southern California? Maybe a tiny tiny bit further, but not too much.

[teacup]

Originally Posted by seven6ty

Southern California? Maybe a tiny tiny bit further, but not too much.

Los Angeles International Fencing Center Invitational will be Sept. 3 - 4, 2006.
Men's Epee, Women's Epee, Men's Foil, Women's Foil, Men's Sabre and Women's Sabre
Tournament details will be posted soon.

[mfp]

Originally Posted by DHCJr

Since I'm on the committee, I will try and answer some of the questions. With Duel out for this year, it was expected LBI would become too big.

While Duel is out for this year, the Sierra Nevada Open looks to be back. But is it really now scheduled for the weekend before LBI?

First the 2006 SNO was to be held this past spring, but got cancelled. Then it sounded like it would be back the weekend of Sept 16th, but that conflicted with a religous holiday for some. Then we heard it was to be moved to Labor Day weekend. Now the SNO is showing up on askfred for the weekend of Sep 23rd, the weekend before LBI.

I'd imagine two PCS events on back to back weekends could have more of an effect on attendance numbers than would the exclusion of women from some events.

[DHCJr]

As was mentioned by Eric Dew in another thread with complaints about being on religious holidays, Sierra Nevada is on the weekend before LBI. It was the only time they could have it.

Being a school, our schedule revolves around Basketball and beginning of school. If we had it any later, we wouldn't get the big Gym because of basketball practice and if it was any earlier, we wouldn't get either Gym because of orientation.

We've had this date since last spring. I would rather not have these so close as that is the date of our work party to go over all the equipment the week before.

[AAAI]

.....

[KD5MDK]

What is Jacob Osborne doing out there?

[AAAI]

.....

[fatfencer]

Hmm. My 2 cents: The idea of open(mostly men) and womens is absurd. They should both be open or "allow" men to fence in womens events. Or have the men's champion fence the women's champion to truly be the OPEN champion.

We've come too far in the world's 'struggle for gender parity' to quit now. Though I'm most certainly NOT a feminist by any stretch I'm willing to ride a trend to its conclusion.

Fencing, btw, isn't about gender. It's about two people trying to fight with mock weapons in their hand at full speed. Putting a weapon in someone's hand means they need to be treated with seriousness.

FF