Tournament Awards

[JLaRue]

Our academy is having a tournament soon. Instead of the standard medals and trophies (boring), does anyone have any suggestions for more interesting awards? Thanks in advance.

"I'll take my answer off the air."

[damianip]

Equipment or a gift certificate from a vendor.

Paolo

[Lumberg]

Plaque with custom engraving.

------------------
Lumberg.
"...ahhh, we have sort of a problem here... yeah, you apparently didn't put one of the new cover sheets on your TPS report"

[veeco]

Wine, beer, cartons of cigarettes.

[edew]

Depends on who the fencers are. For youth fencers (Y10, Y12, Y14), believe it or not, but a piece of paper with their name on it means so much more than a medal or a trophy or equipment prizes. Somehow, a certificate of merit, framed by their parents looks so much cooler than a medal or some cheesy plastic trophy.

For adult fencers, money is always a good prize, but if you can't do that, bottles of wine seems to look good in photos. Medals are almost mandatory and your prizes are just additional tokens indicating that the event is more than your run-of-the-mill tournament.

Simple Green cleansing solution and several rolls of duct-tape, however, is not an impressive set of prizes.

At our Pacific Coast Sectional events, we've had gift certificates (for fencing equipment and dinners at a local restaurant), $1000 in casino chips, $100 in cash, $200 in gift certificates from a fencing vendor. The next two will have $1000 for first place and perhaps some nice lithographs or something of that sort.

I personally think that while monetary prizes are nice, they seem to be a lazy way to give out something good without taking the effort to consider what would be good. I hope in future years, that the PCS circuits do not all just go towards monetary prizes. Otherwise, they take on the uniqueness of a medal: good to have, but doesn't distinguish that event from any other.

True, Vegas will always have something to do with money, so $1000 in casino chips is perfectly "unique" and apt. But for other events, I would like to see something different. Take the $1000 and get a really nice looking METAL (silver?) engraved plate, like Wimbledon's prize, or some decorative swords (although taking one home on a plane could be messy).

As for junior-level fencers, it's hard to quantify, as bottles of wine or money is practically verboten for them, and paper "certificates" are a dime-a-dozen for those who've collected many in their first few years in the sport.

In that case, maybe a Britney Spears CD or an 'NSync videotape. I don't know...

[MHS Fencer]

Originally posted by edew:
As for junior-level fencers, it's hard to quantify, as bottles of wine or money is practically verboten for them, and paper "certificates" are a dime-a-dozen for those who've collected many in their first few years in the sport.

In that case, maybe a Britney Spears CD or an 'NSync videotape. I don't know...

Yeah, you do that - I'll quit fencing. Well, not really, I'd rather give away my left arm than stop fencing (afterall the left arm is pretty much useless)but giving away such prizes would drive away most of those with any taste in the junior fencing world. That having been said, a gift certificate to a national chain of music stores would be fine with me and most teens I know. Additionally I have a place in my heart for large trophies that aren't just a plastic fencer posed atop a run of the mill base.

-Ian
Jeez, too many fencers have this name...

[Crash55]

At our big tourney in the spring we always give swords for first, daggers for second, letter openers for third and some random stuff (I think our coach raids the dollar store) for 4th to 8th. They also all get Pez dispensers

[darius]

Yeah, but we didn't get to keep the sunglasses!

I'm planning on representin' again this year, although your tournament is conflicting with the Mid-Atlantic circuit event in Wilkes-Barre...

Choices, choices...

darius

[EnoYls]

Our salle used to give out a nice sword for first place. Over the years they had awarded like 3 katanas, 2 calvary sabres, and 1 rapier before they had to stop giving out lethal weapons. I was lucky enough to win one of the katanas =)

[Gav]

I always liked the idea of giving out equipment. It seems to me that this is a particularly apt way of keeping people in the sport - especially juniors. Lots of these guys rely on their parents for support and not everyone can afford to buy top notch equipment. Lets face it if they don't want it they can always sell it and get cash that way.

[edew]

This past weekend, I was involved in two tournaments, one in Santa Cruz, as a referee, and one in Sonoma, as a competitor.

In the Santa Cruz tournament, the top 8 finalists won, in addition to medals to the top 3 (or 4, actually), prizes from a prize table. The first-place winner took his or her favorite item from the table, the second-place winner took his or her favorite from the remaining prizes, and so on.

In the Sonoma Wine Country Invitational (why are these called Invitational when it's actually an Open?), the top 8 finishers all got bottles of wine or champagne. And nice bottles they are. Not a Ripple among the bunch. The first-place finisher in the women's event also received an one-hour spa and massage treatment.

So those are some pretty good prizes, no?