The Austin Challenge Fencing Tournament 2018

Here’s some information needed to compete at The Austin Challenge Fencing Tournament 2018.

USFA Membership

• Austin Fencing Club tournaments are all USFA-sanctioned. To compete in a USFA-sanctioned tournament like The Austin Challenge Fencing Tournament 2018, you must be a competitive member of the USFA. You can join online here. The membership year runs from August 1 through July 31 of the following year, but if you join after April 1, your membership is extended through the following year. If you already have non-competitive membership, you can simply upgrade your membership to competitive.
• The USFA no longer mails hard-copy cards, unless you opt to pay an additional fee for them. You can print a paper card from the membership area of the USFA website.

Tournament Formats and Age Brackets
Your “fencing age” is determined by your age on January 1 of the current year, so age brackets correspond to the year you were born. Youth fencers should bring a copy of proof of age (passport, birth certificate, etc) to the tournament for age verification.

For the 2017-2018 season age brackets are as follows:

Event                    Birth year range
Youth 14 “Y14”      2003-2006
Youth 12 “Y12”      2005-2008
Youth 10 “Y10”      2007-2010
Cadet (Under 17)    2001-2004
Open                      Born 2004 or earlier

The format for a tournament is:

• One round of pools – pool size will depend on how many fencers there are in the event, but is usually 5, 6, or 7 fencers. Each fencer fences everyone else in the pool.
• After pools, fencers are seeded into a direct-elimation ladder based on their pool results. The direct-elimation bouts are 15-touch for Open, Cadet, Y14, and Y12, and 10-touch for Y10