Blademasters Cup 2017 – Open Steel Longsword Tournament: Rules and Regulations
Summary:
- Tournament will include a pool phase (round robin) + single elimination phase
- Pools will be designed to give each participant maximum number of fights possible
- Each pool fight to 5 exchanges, eliminations to 7 exchanges
- Scoring: 6 head/torso, 3 arms and legs, 2-1 afterblow, 0 double hit
Tournament:
- Tournament will consists of group pool phase with up to 8 participants each in group
- We will separate club members between groups then draw randomly
- Whole tournament structure will be publicly available before the event
- Pool phase will take place in turns, group A, then group B, then group C etc., which will give a break time to the fighters (as there are no other breaks assigned)
- Single elimination bracket will be assembled from the 8 highest points scored during the pools ranked so the 1st score fights with 8th score, 2nd vs the 7th etc,.
Bout:
- Each pool fight will consist of 5 exchanges with a 3 mins time limit.
- Each elimination fight will consist of 7 exchanges with no time limit.
- Exchange is where one or both people score a hit (0 is a valid score here)
- Each exchange will be recorded even if it didn’t produce a point to ensure correct scoring.
Exchange:
- Each fighter starts an exchange in their dedicated corner
- Main referee will call the start (Fight) and stop (Hold) of the exchange
- After the HOLD command both fighters need to stop immediately and go back to their corners
- Parrying a late attack however is allowed (to prevent double/afterblow) but attacking is not.
- Any attack made after the HOLD command is nullified
- Fighters have the right to raise their hand and call out opponent’s hit (giving away the point to the opponent) and/or object against the decision if necessary (once per bout) but ONLY when standing in their corners,
- Main referee will always make the final call, after consulting with fighters and side referees
- If the exchange was unclear and/or the winner cannot be decided the exchange can be restarted by the Main Referee’s decision.
Scoring:
- 6 points for a clean hit in torso/head area (this include shoulder/waist area)
- 3 points for a clean hit in arm/leg area
- 2 points for an afterblow for the person who hit first, 1 points for the person who hit second (regardless of the hit location) – this applies only if the afterblow is warranted from the martial perspective, eg. comes are a result of failed defence or a one time counter action.
- 1 point for forcing your opponent out of the ring (both feet)
- 0 points for double hits (regardless of tempo in which hits were scored, if both hits landed without any defensive action from each side then it is considered to be double hit)
- Strikes with the body and wrestling doesn’t score any points but can be used (in controlled manner) in order to facilitate scoring with a weapon (blade or pommel). Joint locks and throws are not allowed, but leg sweeps/light takedowns are.
- 3 points for striking the mask with the pommel (mask is the only valid target for the pommel)
- +1 BONUS POINT is awarded for quality and control of the fight, eg: Clean hit and parry to nullify potential afterblow (abzug, nachreissen), counter technique used to strike the opponent while controlling his blade (zornhau, zwerchau, absetzen etc.,)
- Disallowed targets: groin area, back of the head, back of the knee, ankle and feet
Referee Guide can be found >>> here <<<
Others:
- There will be 3 Referees for each match using Blue/Red flags to show scores, the general rule is that at least 2 out of 3 flags need to show the same result otherwise exchange is restarted.
- Foul will nullify the points gained within the same exchange and is recorded on the score card, this can be called out only by Main Referee
- 3 Fouls will disqualify the fighter from the tournament
- Foul can be incurred by failing to obey referee’s orders or acting in a way that can potentially cause an injury to the opponent or by interfering with the conduct of the bout