Okay peoples, story time. Still have to look into videos, I'll update this when I have it.

So, for this tournament we have the grand freezy city of Rolla Missouri, the town I'm studying in. We were supposed to have 7 clubs and guilds, but most of them dropped, and left us with 4 schools representing: St. Louis University, University of Missouri - Columbia, University of Central Missouri, and home town Missouri University of Science and Technology. My weapon of choice, Epee. We had 20 total entrants between the various schools, and as you can guess already I started off at 17th.

That day I had with me my mother, aunt and uncle. The recent snowfall made it very damn difficult for other family members to show, and my father started 6 day work weeks and couldn't come. We started late that day, winding up with first no printer to use, then no way to connect the printer to the computer, before finally giving up and writing everything down by hand who fought what and who. I was put into a pool of 6 people, facing a rather hefty number of people. From Missouri Columbia was Wes, the C-Ranked fighter, and my first match (And me the first match of the pool.... and tournament.... Again....) He was fast, he was limber, he was lightning. On the strip like last time I've got the jitters, my legs are shaking. That day I had with me a little help though. My left leg was hurt from developing arthritis in the joint along with the still very weak ankle, so both were braced up pretty tightly. The energy racing from me, the excitement kept me bouncing on my legs, and with very little pain to speak of. The match starts, he's cautious, I'm cautious. Little by little we close the gap on one another, and seeing an opening I lunge inward, taking his wrist and getting the first point. He's just getting warmed up though, and he pushes back hard, blowing through me for his first point. Two double touches come after his next attack and I'm down 3-4, and he quickly finishes me for a 3-5 finish. The fact that I did that against a C-Ranked fighter though was amazing, my level and experience should have been whipped, add to that 4 months out of action and only 4 fights between.

The next match was my worst of the day, Lee, our club armorer and club's ex president. I did everything near as perfect as I could, pushing my way in, and lunging, but I couldn't connect. He was so much faster, so much quicker, all of my strikes would just bounce off of him without a light, and he would take advantage. I did terribly against him, 0-5 loss and a shameful reminder in humility.

My next was against a rookie, I've yet to figure out where he was from. My best guess is he was from UCM, and he was very very timid against me. I pushed him, watched, studied, and without much effort took 4 easy hits, and him basically unable to do anything against me. What should have been a 5-0 match turned when he suddenly raced, taking a point. He returned the favor again, getting me at 4-2. Desperate to finish the match we both lunge at one another, our swords bouncing into the other's chest for a 5-3 finish.

My last match of the pool, or I think it was, was the most amusing, and the closest of my pool matches. It was against SLU captain Tran, a Korean business man and very well known armorer to our clubs. I've fought him before, and back at SEMO I beat him. Today he was ready. I came in, taking the early lead. He came back at me, taking it to 3-2 with me struggling to beat him back, then a double touch and a return from me. 4-4 in the pre-lims, I was ready to take the win, but what happened next nobody expected. I get a little distance, and I rush, sword first, hoping to take the win. His sword comes down, knocking my blade towards the floor, and his wrist comes around to take me in the leg. The light sounds and I'm still rushing full steam. I see the light and attempt to stop, but my arm felled down I couldn't get balance, and my right shoulder meets him in the middle of the chest. All I see next is him having been launched 5 feet backwards, having been turned completely around in the fall, and me stopped because I managed to send him off his feet. A crowd of about 15 people circle in, looking awestruck and amazed as hell that I managed to throw him so far, He's laughing his ass off on the ground as he tries to pick himself back up, falling again behind the table as he tries to get up. I'm in a panic and apologizing for it. The people around me ask how, why, what happened, how much I weight (The previous mentioned story, 280-ish, couldn't stop, ect.) and I answer. We wait for a moment for him to be able to stand back up, I shake his hand and spend the next weekend apologizing to him just being amused by it. At the very least, every time I fight Tran there's always a goofy ass story to leave with.

I'll need someone to post because I don't know I can fit the rest on this post.

The first match sounds like it was pretty intense. Cool to hear that despite the loss you felt that you performed well against a very skilled opponent, and you persevered through the next one. Way to show that rookie what it's all about! As for the last match, quite a good story - I wonder if there's a video of that? :p

Just think it's just the pre-lims. Let me get a drink and get relaxed and I'll get the elimination matches written up.

Okay, next up, elimination matches. First important note: 20 people, I placed in 17th, so that's 3rd away from last place. That gives you the original amount. Next, direct elimination: I fought someone who I think was from Mizzou (Columbia). Our club treasurer is amazingly good, he has the most experience in our club, and their match went 4-5 (his win) in the pre-liminations. So, this was going to be a little rough for me already. Our club's ex president, now armorer came up to me before the match and told me to keep distance. This guy liked in-fighting. What's infighting? It means you fight with your sword up close. It's difficult for someone as tall as I am, it's a weakness I can do nothing against in exchange for my naturally long range. So, I do as I'm told. The match progresses slowly at first, I play the distance game, sword up and towards the foe. He constantly tests, teases my blade, looking for a reaction. As I said before, I've been injured, so I haven't had a lot of practice in a while. What I've gained though at the last tournament is the ability to watch, to see, perceive and notice weaknesses. The fight starts to get into a pattern. He walks up to me and teases my blade. I stand my ground as best I can, backing up when possible. When he thrusts his blade at me, I step back and tap his exposed arm for a point. The next round he switches up, I switch up and launch to keep him on edge. He gets the point when I attack. Every so often he gets the point, every so often I get the point, but the motions are the same: Defend, lunge, react, score. Attack, react, defend, score. We get a couple double touches, and we pass the first round. The habit continues into the second, and we're sitting close to the end, 13-8 or so with me in the lead. There's a strike, then another. Double, singles, I don't remember. He continues to test me. The air between us is tense as hell, his taps probing me for reactions, for me to panic and expose my arm. When he tries I jerk and tense from shoulder to arm, keeping myself from opening up weakness. There's silence between us. There's a launch. There's energy, a blur of motion, and the round ends. 15-10, I've won my first ever direct elimination round in a tournament, moved from 17th place to 16th, and I'm cheering myself in so many god damn ways that I'm on a euphoric high.

The next match would be another story. It was against my Club treasurer. He hasn't been to the tournaments for a while, but he's good. On the sheets, he's top rated for the pre-lim matches, and it's 1st place against 16th. I've fought him so many times, and he's taken advantage of my weaknesses so many more times before. His favorite tactic on me is to strike my wrist, faster than I can see, faster than I can react. The ex-club president visits me before the fight and tells me to keep distance. Push forward, be a brick-wall, don't let him push me back, and I do that to the best of my ability. The match begins and I'm still on my high. I begin and approach, keeping just out of range of a good strike. He's taking me slowly, testing me and checking for an opening. Recall what I said before though: I've learned to take weaknesses. He lunges at me. I step just out of range and with my exceptional reach strike his wrist and his arm. I've taken the first point. This continues a couple times with me getting easy, but intensely tense touches. He starts to change tactics, pushing harder. I'm focusing on defense, he's worrying about getting me to open. I attack next when I see an opening and he starts getting points. Our dance continues and I'm starting to get sore. My braced knee and ankles are holding up well, better than I could hope. My defense against his defense, we keep trying to break one another, getting strikes when one of us opens up. I begin to switch to pure defense, and reaction, because it's the only thing keeping me ahead. I take the lead, 12-11, then he begins to catch up. It goes to 12-12. I get ahead, 13-13. There's tension, there's fire. He's getting hungry for the win, and he can see a way to it. I don't like to move. He launches himself into the air when I'm preparing to counter him. I can only watch helplessly as he launches at me, me unable to move, defend, react, and gets the lead. 13-14. We're still so close, and now I'm so desperate, but so is he. I get hungry for the win. I see it in reach, I don't want it to slip. I push, I get ready to strike, I see the opening, I lunge. He defends, he gets the counter. I've lost 15-13 against the #1 rated fighter in the pre-lims. But I'm so damn euphoric still. I saw my chance. I saw it within inches of me, two points made the difference between me finishing at 16th and automatically placing at 8th and another round ahead of me. God, damn, it was close, but it was a fantastic match. I only wish I could have pushed through, brought him so much more closer and made it 14-14. The loss would have been so much more brutal, but the energy and the memories would be so much more lasting.

I spend the next few hours making calls, letting family know the news, cheering sort of in my own way. We all go out to dinner, those that stayed and have chinese nearby. I sit with some of my other club members, regaling stories of knocking a man on his ass, disappointment in a 0-5 loss, my first direct elimination win, and the so tantalizingly close win I could have french-kissed it. The highlight of dinner was in my fortune cookie, a reminder that I made a man topple, it's words leaving me with "You will step on the soil of many countries in your lifetime." I shared it with the room, got a couple of mean looks and fingers from Tran and had a fun night. The next day I woke up, stiff, sore, my right leg barely able to push me up off the bed, but my damaged limbs more or less no worse for wear. That day on Sunday I found myself being in the right place at the right time to help a Columbia fencer find their way to the tournament, I find myself being interviewed for the local paper regarding our tournament, and I'm supplying pictures to both the local student newspaper and the local city newspaper, so it was one hell of a weekend on top of what I had already done this week.

So, moral of the story is that even when you've lost, you can still feel like a winner when you look back and walk away with stories and memories to last you for years. Because of that, surprise bitches! We've got 3 winners. Mondo, Lugem and Aniki are all getting a $6 prize from me. Thank you everyone for your time, I'll let you know what I get ahead of and hopefully there will be more stories to come. After all, there's 2 more tournaments before the semester ends. That's right, QC is going to fight even if he has to break both legs to get there. Take care and have a good evening.

Ah I made a mistake in forgetting the first post was just the preliminary matches. Needless to say, sounds like you got a variety of types of competition and gained some good experience. I can tell how excited and proud you are by the way you've written the descriptions for each match, especially the one against the Club treasurer. I know what you mean regarding how sometimes you can feel just as good from a loss as you would from a win - I've felt the same way a few times in my life.

Here's hoping you're at 100% for the next tournament! the positive feelings and momentum can keep building and building, leading to more success and higher rankings. Congrats on the interviews and articles, too - definitely will prolong the memories and provide nice tokens on which to recollect at later points in life. Glory days!

Thank you for taking the time to write your experiences - it was a very genuinely enjoyable read, and the details allowed me to play out the matches in my head.

Also, big thanks and proper dues to you for gifting lugum and Aniki as well - very, very generous of you, QC. You rock! :)

We'll see how it goes. The next two tournaments are at Mizzou and UCM, so I'm looking forward to getting matches in and showing that my success this week wasn't a mere fluke, and I'll be trying my best to keep my leg intact until then.

Sounds like a plan. :)

It's great that you can compete on a level playing field with better contestant. This match with your club's member was very important because he was not only better but he knew your weaknesses so theoretically he should have won easily. But he didn't! I bet you gave him a scare ;) You have a very good attitude. A lot of people are pessimists and they tend to give up before a match starts when facing a better contestant. It's good that you are not one of them! Congratulations!

Great stories QC and well fought! Thanks for sharing!

I've found out that there is video of me fighting, I don't have it personally though, my mother has it. She's also sitting about 100 something miles away and doesn't know how to extract it off her camera, so videos of me fighting will be given to people personally in a couple weeks when I manage to get hold of it. Otherwise, starting this weekend I will begin uploading the hour of footage I took on my own camera, which knowing my connection will probably take about 3 weeks to get it all up. I'll update when I start getting it online though.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkO0npKOret_0wC2rt2QMkjw5x7Mj-KEz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgnAN1K-5rQ

Okay, last update for this thread. Short version is this is about all of the compiled video of the tournament. The first link is to my playlist with all the footage from the last two tournaments. The second is a video my mother shot of me with me on the right hand side, I'm still pretty bad but oh well. This is the match I won. You can see my friend the next strip over fighting and think of him as the way one should be moving. I'm a fairly lazy fighter so I largely just got by. Enjoy and I'll let you guys know when the next tournament is coming.

Because I held this giveaway by the way, no 25 Skadoo birthday giveaway this year. Sorry, but I'm looking at being super busy that week. Take care guys.

Thank you for posting the videos and the summary of what happened in the tournament, and for creating the giveaway in the first place. Also, congrats on the win, and Happy Birthday in advance! +1

Thanks for posting the videos, QC. I watched a few in the playlist and also watched the second link to the match that you won (congrats again) - definitely interesting, and makes me appreciate the skills you guys have.

Have a good upcoming birthday!

Thanks for sharing QC! It's great to actually see the footage after reading the story.