We Built the Biggest Stage in Regional Fencing. Then We Stepped On It.

Three days in Ontario, California. Nearly 3,500 entries. More than 1,700 fencers. The largest regional tournament of its type ever held, and one of the largest regional fencing events in U.S. history, organized and hosted by Fortune Fencing. And in the middle of running it all, our fencers took four podiums and two new ratings.

The Ontario Convention Center during the Fortune ROC/RJCC/RYC: strip after strip, morning to night, for three days.

A Record-Setting Weekend

From September 5 through 7, the Fortune ROC/RJCC/RYC turned Ontario, California into the center of American regional fencing. The numbers speak for themselves: nearly 3,500 individual entries and more than 1,700 fencers across three days of competition, spanning every level from Youth-8 to Veteran, from first-year competitors to A-rated épéeists chasing regional points.

That scale makes this tournament the largest regional event of its type on record, and one of the largest regional fencing events in U.S. history. Running a Regional Open Circuit, Regional Junior/Cadet Circuit, and Regional Youth Circuit simultaneously, the full ROC/RJCC/RYC stack, is a logistical mountain: hundreds of pools, thousands of DE bouts, referee crews, armorers, strip rotations, and three days of nonstop scheduling. Fortune Fencing didn’t just participate in the season opener. Fortune built it.

The referee and officials corps that kept nearly 3,500 entries running on schedule for three straight days.

To every referee, armorer, volunteer, staff member, and coach who kept the event moving from first pool to last final: this tournament is now the benchmark other regions will be chasing. Thank you.

A tournament of this size does not run on enthusiasm alone, and Fortune owes a special thank-you to AA Event Management, the operations team behind the weekend. With more than a decade of experience running fencing events across the country, their crew handled the machinery that made three flawless days possible: venue layout and strip logistics, staffing, registration, coordination with USA Fencing, and the minute-by-minute execution that kept hundreds of pools and thousands of DE bouts on schedule. When people ask how a single club hosts nearly 3,500 entries without the wheels coming off, the answer is a partner like AA Event Management. We could not have set this record without them.

The Fortune team behind the event, led by tournament organizer Coach Elsayed Emara with Coach Zeyad Elashry and the Fortune coaching staff.

Every Final, Streamed Live

Matthew Hwang on the show strip, where every final was fenced and broadcast live.

The record wasn’t only on the strips. Every final of the tournament was streamed live on the Fortune Fencing YouTube channel, produced by LocalFinder LLC with a broadcast treatment regional fencing has simply never had: multiple camera angles, slow-motion replays, and on-screen fencer information so viewers at home could follow every touch with full context.

National championships get production like that. Regional tournaments do not. Until now. Families who couldn’t travel watched their fencers’ finals live; grandparents followed along from across the country; and every bout on the show strip became a piece of content the club and its fencers keep forever. Like the entry count, the broadcast sets a precedent: this is what a Fortune-run event looks like.

Four Podiums on Home Strips

Hosting a tournament this size and fencing well in it are two different jobs. Fortune’s competitors did both. Twenty-four Fortune fencers posted 46 results across seventeen events, and four of them ended the weekend on the podium.

Matthew Hwang: Silver, Y-14 Men’s Épée, and a B26 in Junior

The Fortune podium: top-eight ceremonies ran all weekend across every age category.

The result of the weekend. Matthew took silver in Youth-14 Men’s Épée on Saturday, then walked into the Junior Men’s Épée on Monday, an older and deeper field, fenced to 11th, and earned his B26 rating. Back in April, our pre-Nationals report wrote that Matthew’s C26 “positioned him to push for a B.” Five months later, in the first tournament of the new season, on his home club’s strips: done. At the Y-14 level, a B-rated épéeist is national-contender territory, and Matthew is opening 2026/27 exactly there.

John Li: Silver, Y-12 Men’s Épée

John Li on the finals stage in Youth-12 Men’s Épée, live on the stream.

John’s move up from Y-10, where he won two RYC golds last season, is officially a success. In his new age group, against Y-12 fields at the biggest regional event ever staged, he fenced all the way to the final on the show strip and took silver. He also entered the Y-14 event two years above his age, banking experience for later in the season. The trajectory we flagged in the spring is holding: John is a name to watch all year.

Silver medal ceremony with the Fortune coaches.

Alston Yang: Silver, Y-8 Men’s Épée

Silver in Youth-8 Men’s Épée.

The youngest podium of the weekend belongs to Alston Yang, who took silver in Youth-8 Men’s Épée and then went and fenced the Y-10 event as well, placing 19th against older fencers. The pipeline that produced Isabelle Wong’s national title starts exactly here, in the Y-8 and Y-10 brackets, and it is clearly still producing.

Allison Yip: Bronze, Y-14 Women’s Épée

Allison Yip with Coach Elsayed Emara and Coach Zeyad Elashry after her bronze in Youth-14 Women’s Épée.

Fresh off her national bronze in Portland, Allison opened the new season with bronze in Youth-14 Women’s Épée and, just as notably, a 10th-place finish in Division IA Women’s Épée, the open division where she was fencing adults and collegiate-level competitors. Two bouts from the podium in an open field, at her age, on the first weekend of the season. Her ceiling keeps moving up.

Two New Ratings for 2026/27

Matthew Hwang, B26 (Junior Men’s Épée, 11th). The promotion the spring report predicted, delivered at the first opportunity of the new season. Matthew joins Allison Yip in Fortune’s B-rated youth core.

Matteo Taverna, E26 (Junior Men’s Épée, 47th). Every rated fencer’s story starts with the first letter, and Matteo earned his the hard way, in a Junior field, while fencing four events across the weekend (Junior, Cadet, and Y-14). His E26 is the first ratings brick of what the club expects to be a long climb.

These two ratings are also the first strength-point contributions of the new season, the opening entries in the ledger that will decide whether Fortune cracks the top 30 this year. The club’s rated épée roster now stands at 28 fencers, including six A-rated and seven B-rated épéeists, a depth chart that very few clubs in the country can match.

Fortune Highlights: Top Results

And the depth ran well beyond the leaderboard. The Y-10 cohort, Ariel Liang (16th), Elizabeth Wang (17th), Brielle Cubillas (25th), Caffrey Mah (26th), and Mason Zheng (36th), all got season-opening starts. Lucas Parra fenced four events in three days, including Division IA. Bryan Lin and Matteo Taverna each covered three events. Carlie Li, Chloe Li, Kayleigh Wu, Maggie Yang, Jenson Zhang, Yulin Zeng, Zihao Liu, Theo Ferriere, and Naomi Lichtenfeld all took the strip. On the veteran side, Laurance Lingvay and Mark Kruger reached 11th and 16th in Veteran Men’s Épée.

James Gallivan, 82, between bouts. Two events on the weekend, because of course.

And James Gallivan, at 82, fenced both Division II Épée and Veteran Saber, giving the thumbs-up between bouts and adding two more entries to a competitive career that now spans the entire history of this club.

What This Weekend Means

The 2026/27 season is three days old, and Fortune has already banked four podiums, a B-rating, a first-ever rating, and, above all, proof that this club can operate at a scale no regional program has attempted before. A tournament with 3,500 entries isn’t just an event; it’s infrastructure. It brings the region’s deepest fields to our fencers’ doorstep, it puts the Fortune name on every strip, every scoresheet, and every live stream, and it sets a standard for what a club-run regional can be.

Last season ended in Portland with a 10-year-old national champion. This season opens in Ontario with a record-setting tournament, a nationally unprecedented broadcast, and a home-strip medal haul. The through-line is the same one we keep writing about: Fortune competes at every age, at every level, at every scale, from Alston Yang’s Y-8 silver to James Gallivan’s veteran entries, from first E-ratings to a 28-deep rated épée roster.

To Coach Elsayed Emara, Coach Zeyad Elashry, the full coaching staff, the LocalFinder broadcast team, and everyone who organized, refereed, armored, volunteered, streamed, and fenced: this was a weekend the club will be measured against for years. The season is on.

SEE YOU ON THE STRIP

Results: Fortune ROC/RJCC/RYC, Ontario CA, September 5–7, 2026. 46 recorded Fortune Fencing results. Finals available on the Fortune Fencing YouTube channel. Compiled September 8, 2026.