Mistakes Referees Make When

[Sinestra]

My personal favorite was a referee, upon seeing one light said, "I didn't see where it hit. No touch."

I've seen parry-ripostes called by certain referees at certain tournaments with no blade contact whatsoever...but screwing up a one-light like that? That's a new low...

In the absence of an actual BC--say, at a smaller tournament (since I'd really hope that's the only situation where someone who makes calls like THAT would have any chance being hired)--if something like that happens, what would be the best course of action? The ref seems unlikely to see reason, so it seems like the only real options are to make a big stink about it on principle, or to cut your losses and just finish the bout. And, of course, never go back to an event hosted by that club again. But at the time, when there's no BC/higher power to defer to, is it a better idea to just put it out of your mind and move on?
Though I'd imagine that if a ref won't award my one-light touch, then I'm going to have one hell of a time getting them to acknowledge that I ever have priority :|

1 Situation I have seen:

Referee is talking to spectator during the bout, effectively making fun of the fencer.

Unfortunate Fencer: "Sir, would you mind not making fun of me during the bout, I find it kind of disrespectful."
Referee "Blackcard!!!"
"Can I appeal this, this doesn't seem fair."
"Appeal it to who"
"The Bout comitee"
"I am the bout comitee"
"sigh..."

Aaaaand I think that is officially the worst tournament I've ever heard of...

[catwood1]

Aaaaand I think that is officially the worst tournament I've ever heard of...

Not the worst event I've been to, but some of the worst assigning. Here was my day last year:

Pool of MF, 2 WF DEs, 1 MF DE, gold medal of WF, semi final of MF...

[SpiralGalaxy]

Back when I could fence, I was fencing WF at a tournament. My opponent's coach was the referee. She would lunge, and I would parry. As I was riposting the ref would call halt, and then disallow my touch because it came after the halt. He did this 4 times in a row.

I knew that I needed to adapt to the ref, but evolving a game without a parry-riposte option was a little tricky! (I lost.)

I like to think these sorts of experiences make me even more sensitive to fairness and conflict of interest now that I'm a referee.

[bigdawg2121]

I like to think these sorts of experiences make me even more sensitive to fairness and conflict of interest now that I'm a referee.

Now that I'm a referee my sensitivity to fairness renders conflicts of interest a foreign concept which exists only in the mind of people that don't know me. I still avoid these conflicts for the benefits of these people b/c I don't want their own misconceptions to disadvantage them