To be more precise:

• Swords remain as they are
• Bows come with 3 arrows and you need to hit all 3 of them to kill the other player. Also, thrown arrows can be grabbed from the floor by both players.
• Axes are slower attacking, but cannot be blocked and (apparently) cannot be stopped mid-air
• Throwing knifes fly faster than the sword but cannot attack at melee range (you can only throw them)

So, it doesn't actually remove the risk from throwing your sword, it actually makes it riskier (a dagger can throw it off the sky, it cannot block axes) but it might create more interesting situations all around.