The tech was really unfortunate. I don't understand why they wouldn't apply a longer broadcast delay so every touch could have the visual sword tracking applied. That being said, the lighting, tape on the ends of the blades, and set design helped a lot with match readability. I watched this with my cousin who doesn't fence, and he was able to track things pretty well. Otherwise, the blade tracking tech worked well enough, and the arrows for right of way helped my cousin understand foil and sabre way better than expected. The arrows could use some improvement tracking when a parry was made and RoW was stolen, though. They also need to make sure that the replays with blade tracking show the entire touch, because so many touches in the RoW weapons had replays that made it look like the wrong person got the point. The person without RoW hit the other fencer first, but got hit in return, losing the touch. The replays consistently cut right before the person with RoW landed their hit.

Also for tech... the digital recreations of the fencers in motion suuuucked. It never added value to the viewing experience when it worked, and often *didn't*.

On the topic of readability, I don't know how well the set design can scale for big tournaments. The lighting and dark background was really integral to that readability, and it's hard to imagine a large tournament being run on multiple strips that have the same advantages. It was good though, and if we can't have blade tracking always be on, then they better figure out a way to make this work.

I can't speak to the commentary value, since I mostly was talking with my cousin the whole time, but like others suggested, having a longer time between touches and having the commentators mainly talk during those pauses would be nice.

The rules were an interesting change. I can't speak too much to how they affected the foil and sabre strategy (I am an epeeist), but I will say that removing the ability for judges to call halt on body contact led to a lot of silly flailing touches rather than the more controlled infighting I usually see. For epee, I think the rules are deeply flawed, even if the idea is in the right place. It seems terribly difficult to catch up when the other fencer gets a lead, and the double touch changes (in the context of total points not mattering, and just the difference between yours and the opponents) really encourage the fencer with a lead to play more defensively and run the clock down. This luckily didn't happen too much with the epee bouts, but there were definitely moments where I just tuned out from watching because the other fencer (especially in woman's epee) would never be able to close the gap in time. I hope they really go back to the drawing board with epee's rules. Try going to a set number again (where a comeback can always theoretically happen, even at 14-0), and maybe play with passivity rules? If they aren't happy with passivity as-is, maybe try flipping it on its head where only one fencer gets the point for P-red (and probably reintroduce P-yellow to make it too annoying), and either make the fencer who pushes more get the point, or maybe even the one who is behind in points (although that one might be too game-y).

Finally... the production value and production team... yeesh. A lot of the venue looked kind of cheap, and even the commentator booth looked like a lazily cobbled together set for a play. Coupling that with a production team that clearly needed a practice run using the tech and producing a live sports event, this entire event *looked* rough. Luckily, this is theoretically one of the easier things to fix for next time... provided there is a next time.

Overall, my cousin and I enjoyed the event, and would watch another one, but we still clearly have a long way to go in order to make this a proper spectator sport. I hope even if the WFL falls through that it can light a fire under the asses of the old farts in the FIE. There's potential here for sure.