27/02/2026
Over the past few years, we've been having a bunch of fun running biannual tournaments for our students and external participants in Winter and Summer at the end of each of our teaching semesters. These tournaments are free of charge, but are limited to invited participants. That said, we want the tournaments to be as inclusive and diverse as possible, which is why we provide an openly available sign up form - so that anyone can request to participate.
Participants at these tournaments regularly comment on how relaxed, fun, friendly, and welcoming the experience has been. That is when they aren't catching their breath or collapsed on the floor due to the large number of matches they end up fencing. Generally speaking, fencers are normally offered between 10 and 20 matches on a given day, although they are not required to fence that many if they do not want to.
This year, we are trying to get the word out a little earlier to widen the participation base for students at those tournaments to include more fencers from outside of Victoria. As such, we would like to advise that this winter we will be running the following tournaments:
- Long sword on Saturday 27/06/2026 from 9:30am - 5:00pm (large-sized tournament);
- Sword and buckler on Saturday 27/06/2026 from 9:30am - 5:00pm (small-sized tournament);
- Smallsword on Sunday 28/06/2026 from 9:30am - 5:00pm (medium-sized tournament); and
- Sabre on Sunday 28/06/2026 from 9:30am - 5:00pm (medium-sized tournament).
More details and our request to participate form can be found here: https://forms.gle/6LMfsEESnBRVRtaa6
To help people work out if they would like to sign up, we provide the following information:
Our primary objective for these tournaments is to facilitate opportunities for current FSV fencers to test themselves against each other and participants from outside the club. Because of this, there is no cost associated with participating in the tournament and we try to make the roster for the tournaments as diverse and inclusive as possible.
Our secondary objective for these tournaments is to provide a safe, welcoming and enjoyable tournaments for fencers of all levels of experience. Towards this end, they are particularly intended to support fencers who feel less able or willing to participate in other Open tournaments.
Importantly, prospective fencers should be aware that we use a bespoke ruleset in our tournaments designed to encourage and reward defensive actions in fencing as well as offensive ones.
From what we have seen at previous tournaments, this produces a different fencing experience to what is usually encountered at many other HEMA tournaments. Different fencers will respond differently to this experience. Based on our observations, aggressive fencers sometimes seem to enjoy it less, whereas defensive fencers seem to enjoy it more.
Because of this, we request that prospective fencers to read and understand the rules before signing up for the tournaments.
In order to deliver the best possible tournament experience, places available in each tournament are strictly limited. Given that we want to try and make the tournaments as diverse, supportive and inclusive as possible, priority for participation will be given to:
- Current FSV students;
- Interstate, international, or regional Victorian participants;
- Persons with limited tournament experience; and
- Persons who have positively engaged with previous FSV tournaments.
Invitations to participate in the tournament/s will be confirmed by email on 31/05/2026. Those application who do not receive invitations at that time will be put on a wait list, and may be invited to participate if we have a withdrawal during the lead up to the tournament/s.
Earlier confirmation can be obtained for appropriate reasons (e.g. interstate or international participants wanting to lock in travel arrangements) by way of email to [email protected].
Similarly, if you have any other questions please contact us on [email protected]
This is the sign-up/request to participate form for the FSV 2026 Winter Invitational Tournaments. Tournaments running will be: Long sword on Saturday 27/06/2026 from 9:30am - 5:00pm (large-sized tournament); Sword and buckler on Saturday 27/06/2026 from 9:30am - 5:00pm (small-sized tournament); Smal...
