General information
EHMS will host the seventh annual open longsword competition on the 31st of January and 1st of February 2020. This year we will be hosting a total of six competitions. Open Longsword, Women’s Longsword, Cutting, Paired Technique, and Rapier and Dagger. We will also have a Triathlon which combines Longsword, Cutting and Paired Technique tournaments.
Rapier and Dagger is capped at 24 participants, the other tournaments do not have a participant cap at the moment.
Triathlon
You will automatically take part in the Triathlon if you register for Paired Technique, Cutting and at least one of the Longsword tournaments (women can take part in both). If you take part in both of the Longsword tournaments, only your higher placement will count towards your Triathlon placement. Rapier and Dagger is not part of the Triathlon.
Paired Technique
In the paired technique competition, you and your partner will be asked to perform a few (like 4-5) selected techniques from the manuscripts. You will get the list of these techniques approximately a month before the competition. The manuscripts we are basing this on will be Döbringer, Ringeck and Danzig (you will get the exact manuscripts numbers and versions, what folios and details closer).
The judging will be based on two criteria. First one is the objective one, where we will look at did you perform the play exactly as the text describes you to. For example if the text tells you to hit with a zwerchaw, so that your hands are above your head with a step to the side, for every thing that you do wrong you will be heavily penalized (hands not high, wrong cut, no sidestep etc). Doing things correctly will be the most important criteria for success in this competition.
The second part will be based on how we view (subjectively) the performance as general. We will look at things like speed, form, intention, power etc. A good guide line is that if you are slow and unrealistic in your performance, you will get less points than if you go with intention and speed.
In Paired Technique you and your pair will be scored as one. You both must be registered to the Paired Technique. Closer to the event we will send an email to ask you to confirm your pair. You can complete in the Paired Technique only once (you can’t pair up with two or more people).
Rules and gear requirements
Please read through the rules carefully.
The structure of the tournament
The longsword rules
The cutting rules
The paired technique rules
The rapier and dagger rules
Triathlon scoring
Swords for the Open and Ladies Longsword will be provided by the tournament.
The sword for Cutting will be provided by the tournament.
The daggers for Rapier and Dagger will be provided by the tournament. You must bring your own rapier, the exact requirements for the rapiers will be made available soon.
You must bring your own sword for the Paired Technique. Any sword or feder which can be called longsword like can be used. If you are unsure if your weapon qualifies, contact the organizers.
You are not allowed to use your own weapons if the tournament provides one (feders for Open/Ladies Longsword, sharp for Cutting, dagger for Rapier and Dagger).
Please read through the equipment requirements.
Date and time
The schedule
Friday 31.01.
Rapier and dagger pools and eliminators
16.00 Doors Open
17.30 Explanation of tournament rules and structure
17:40 Gear Check Pools 1 & 2
17.45 Pools 1 & 2
18:40 Gear Check Pools 3 & 4
18:45 Pools 3 & 4
20:00 Elimination rounds
21:00 Packing up and leaving
22:00 Doors close
Saturday 01.02.
Longsword Tournaments
08:00 Doors Open
08:50 Welcome speech followed by gear check for Open longsword Pools 1,2 & 3
09:00 – 10.00 Open longsword pools 1,2 & 3
10:00 – 11:00 Open longsword pools 4,5 & 6
11:00 – 12:15 Open longsword pools 7,8 & 9
12:15 – 13:30 Break
13:30 – 15:00 Open longsword eliminators
15:00 – 16:00 Womens longsword pools 1 & 2
16:00 – 17:00 Womens longsword pool 3
17.00 – 17:30 Women’s longsword eliminators
17.30 – 18.30 Break and setting up for livestream
Cutting:
9:45- 12:30 – Preliminary round
Paired technique:
15.00 – 17.00 – Preliminary round
Notes: Cutting and PT competitions run at the same time as the longsword tournaments do. Do your part during the time interval given. Flexibility in the time slots for these events can be arranged for people staffing.
All weapons
18.30 All Finals
22.00 Doors close
Afterparty at Bar Felt Bay (the same place as previous years)
Sunday 02.02.
Free sparring and cutting of any left over tatami from Saturday at EHMS salle.
Venue info
The Rapier and Dagger tournament will be held at the EHMS salle on Friday. The address is Suvilahdenkatu 10, 00500, Helsinki, and you can reach it by multiple buses and subway from the city center. There is limited parking near the salle.
On Saturday, the main tournament will take place at Ruskeasuon liikuntapuisto. This is the same venue that has hosted the Helsinki Longsword Open the past three years. The address is Ratsastie 10, 00280 Helsinki. The venue can be reached by several bus lines (bus stop Tilkka) and the tram line 10. There is plenty of parking available. Parking is free, but restricted to 4 hours.
Insurance
EHMS will not provide insurance for the event. We highly recommend getting a sports insurance that covers full contact martial arts in a competition setting. Note that Finland does not have a national HEMA association, which is something some insurers may ask about.
First aid
There will be first aid staff on site during the event.
Contact info
You can contact the organisers by email at events@ehms.fi or through the Facebook event page.
Facebook event: HLO 2020
Payment and registration
Please register using the links at the bottom of this page!
The pricing of the event is as follows:
A Longsword tournament: 85€
A second Longsword tournament: 35 €
Cutting tournament: 35 €
Rapier and dagger tournament: 35€
Paired technique: 10€
You can register as a club (minimum of 5 fencers) to receive a discount. See registration at the end of the page.
Note that women can compete in both the Women’s and the Open Longsword tournament.
We will send bills per email based on your registration. You can pay the bill using bank transfer, or through Paypal.
The registration will not be considered confirmed until payment has been received! The bill will have a due date 14 days from the date it is sent. The bills will be sent in batches, so don’t worry if you don’t receive yours right away. Note that if you neglect to pay the bill within a month of issue, you will be dropped from the roster. Please contact us if you have questions regarding billing.
We will not issue refunds after 31.12.2019 without a good reason!
All participants must be at least 18 years old.
Questions? Contact us at events@ehms.fi or post a question on the Facebook event page.
Please view the data privacy statement in English or in Finnish.
Registration
The registration is now closed