TEMPLE TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS: JOSIAH TAKES FIRST IN OREGON TOURNAMENT
RESULTS
WINNER
Josiah K. (BS)
Cyrus H. (BS)
Oliver R. (BS)
PROMOTIONS & RE-GRADES
Josiah re-earns his D
Cyrus re-earns his E
Oliver re-earns his E
Nate earns his E rank
Temple Trials started out as a C2 rated Lightspeed Saber League tournament. Six familiar faces were present, Allison Fournier (D), Josiah Kupitz (D), Cyrus Hamilton (E), Oliver Rosier (E), Nate McCroskey-Izzet (U), and Travis Pace (U). Newcomers David Guyer and Joe Tibay brought the field up to an even eight competitors.
Allison dominated the qualifiers by winning all her matches while Josiah failed to find his groove out the gate, losing all his qualifier matches and taking the last seed. Sadly, this meant our two D-ranked competitors faced off in the quarter finals, ensuring only 1 D-ranked player would advance to the semifinals and thereby reducing the event to a D2 rank.
In the quarterfinals, Josiah stunned the crowd with a 16-8 upset against Ally. Newcomer Joe impressed with this beat/bolt strategy, but Oliver maintained a Dyad defense to earn passage to the semifinals. Travis pulled off some great defensive maneuvers with the Dyad class, but Nate took the win with his signature evasiveness. David lost out to Cyrus’ accuracy but not without getting in some spectacular snipes of his own.
The semifinals brought us two exciting matches. Josiah and Oliver traded points until it came down to the wire with Josiah eking out a 1-point victory. Cyrus earned a commanding early lead against Nate, but just when it seemed like a shutout was imminent, Nate began to close the gap. It wasn’t enough though, and Cyrus moved on to the finals to face Josiah.
Oliver and Nate battled for the bronze medal. Nate struggled against the Dyad defense and had to settle for fourth.
Josiah and Cyrus went head-to-head in a best-of-3 final match. The first bout was neck and neck, an exciting match that had Josiah just barely taking the win. Cyrus changed things up for the second match and nearly shut Josiah out with one snipe after another. Josiah dug deep in the third match and rallied hard with some new moves of his own that caught Cyrus off guard, nearly shutting him out in return.
Josiah took first place, re-earning his D rank. Cyrus took second place, re-earning his E rank. Oliver took third place, re-earning his E rank. Nate took fourth place, advancing from U rank to E rank.
The event ended with our much-anticipated Guardian saber giveaway. Nate was the lucky guy to take home the beautiful gold and black hilt.
Jasmine Wats once again ran our stream like a pro with special thanks to Travis Pace for providing a nice mic. Joli Rosier kept score and stats for every match; she’s super amazing and makes it so much easier to be a head referee. Neal Pace, having taken the level 1 referee exam, filled in as secondary during the brackets, allowing the competitors the freedom to focus on the games. Tournaments run on volunteers, and I’m truly thankful for ours.
That does it for the 2022-2023 season at Basin Saber Academy. We thank all the fencers and spectators, both online and offline, who supported us. We are eager to bring our A-game to Nationals next month. Hope to see you there.