MTFC Sharks and Minnows Mixed Foil

Join us for our first MTFC in-house plus national points Y10/Y12 youth sharks and minnows foil tournament. You must be an active member of MTFC with both an up-to-date club membership as well as a current membership to the US Fencing Association (non-competitive membership is fine) to participate. Also, since the Y10 and Y12 fencers in the area have fewer opportunities for tournaments and practice, we invite all youth fencers from any club with current national points for foil in the Y10 and Y12 age groups to join us. ------------------ Important Info ------------------- Tournament: MTFC Sharks and Minnows Date: 10/7/2012 Close of Registration: 11 AM Location: Metro Tacoma Fencing Club, Tacoma, WA We are physically located at 1106 South 15th Street, Tacoma, WA 98405 in the Sons of Norway building called "Normanna Hall" at the corner of 15th and Martin Luther King. Entrance is on the 15th Street side of the building. Look for the neon crossed swords sign in the window. REGISTRATION CLOSES promptly at 11 AM. Fencing will begin shortly thereafter. ENTRY FEE: $5 for the event. ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT RENTAL: $10 if you need to rent equipment. ------------------ Tournament Rules ------------------- At least a non-competitive US Fencing Association (USFA) membership is necessary to participate due to liability requirements. These events are not rated, and you cannot get a classification change from this event. A responsible adult is expected to stay as long as a child is still participating in the tournament and is encouraged to help getting the child on and off the strip (we will show you if needed). ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT If you do not have electric equipment you are welcome to rent gear for $10 for the event, but plan to arrive 15 minutes before closing of registration to get fitted. If we are short on electric equipment you will need to share with other fencers who also rent electric equipment. A youth fencer must go through an electric equipment introduction with a responsible adult and one of the coaches prior to competing. TOURNAMENT FORMAT This is a sharks and minnows foil event. We will conduct our tournament with an initial round of pools as is standard for USFA tournaments. There will be a second round of pools to follow with a separate "sharks" group for the top 6-8 fencers (after the first round of pools) who will be protected to advance to the direct elimination round. All the "minnows" will be sorted based on their first round pool performance for their second round of pools with other minnows. Direct eliminations will follow based on the second round of pools (the sharks have a guaranteed spot) adding some of the the top seeded fencers in the minnows group after the second round of pools. Not everyone will advance to direct eliminations though this format will allow two rounds of pools with the second round more equal in fencing strength which is more and better fencing for everyone. If we have 24 or fewer fencers, the top 16 fencers will advance to the direct elimination table, with 28 fencers the top 12 will advance, with 32 fencers we will skip the direct eliminations since we will fence pools of 8. Depending on the number of participants we may need to fence pools in two flights though we will try to avoid this by having pools of up to 8 fencers. Either way, there will be plenty of fencing for all participants. The rounds will be self-directed. Because this will be a mixed tournament with combined youth and adult fencers, direct elimination will be a standard 15 point, 3 period format unless either of the fencers in a direct elimination bout is 12 years old or younger in which case the format will be best 2 out of 3, 5 point bouts as is standard for all 12 and under events. Events Scheduled: Mixed Foil Preregistration opens on 09/22/2012. Preregistration closes on 10/06/2012.