Irvine Open 2022 Finalists
SUMMARY
RESULTS
Tony Zaldua
Jeremiah Rodriguez
Raphael Estrada
Hunter Allison
PROMOTIONS & RERATINGS
Tony Zaldua A->A
Jeremiah B->B
Raphael Estrada U->C
Hunter Allison D->C
The second competition in our Southern California season started strong, with strong showings from all competitors, and some newer competitors showing an insane amount of work and practice and skill.
Starting in the pools, we saw Jeremiah take a dominant lead out of the pools, with Tony, Hunter, Jose, and Alex who are all seasoned and D or greater ranked competitors also doing well. Some surprises came out of these, with Raphael Estrada and Antoinette Vidal of Krait Base, and Kevin Criswell of TSL San Diego earning into the top 6 out of the pools - Raphael being the only previous LSL competition fighter, and Antoinette and Kevin in their first competitions. Of note was that this was the most balanced pool results of any competition in the last few years by score exiting the pools.
The fighters then entered top 8 brackets with some blistering fights. Starting with Box A’s bracket fights we saw Jose and Tony paired up, with Tony taking the win but Jose getting some very great shots and going all out with a ton of very very close shots a lot of the time. Raphael and Kevin’s match was next with both fighters flying back and forth with their lunges and dodges constantly with some amazing blade work shown much like their match in the Boxes, running to time.
In Box B we saw Jeremiah and Alex fight first, with Jeremiah taking a commanding lead early, and Alex fighting hard and changing things up coming back 9 points in a row before Jeremiah was able to get in another point for the win. Then we saw Antoinette and Hunter fight, with a lot of stalemate going on with Hunter having to get extremely aggressive with her movement and lunging due to Antoinette showing great control of her location and lots of great defenses.
Then in the quarter finals we saw Jeremiah and Hunter fight with Jeremiah really hammering in great return actions and holding a great defensive play while countering Hunter’s range and mobility well. Then Raphael and Tony had Raphael surprising Tony with how hard he was going and Tony having to pull out the stops to prove why he is number one, but Raphael pushing him that hard was certainly a surprise Tony hadn’t fully expected.
Then in the finals saw Jeremiah and Tony go back and forth with amazing returns, great defensive strikes, and a lot of close shots. The entire match showed how much energy and skill both fighters had, and how serious Jeremiah has been gunning for an A rank and the number one slot. Tony, however, managed to eek out a win by only one point after a 14-14 tie.
All in all the fights were great and seeing some of the fighters in this tournaments growth was an amazing experience. We hope to see more from all the fighters of this event.
SEAN HOLTZMAN
Director of Southern California
STAFF
John Mullins
Cang Snow
Sean Holtzman
Patricia Bauler
Jamar Johnson
David Walker
COMPETITORS
Jose Miranda-Ortiz
Tony Zaldua
Kieran Haile
Raphael Estrada
Jeremiah Rodriguez
William Alonzo
Walter Simbol
Alex Monterrosa
Kevin Criswell
Hunter Allison
Jacob Areias
Antoinette Vidal