Wizolympics 2020: Fencing

Hello, and welcome back to our coverage of the 2020 Wizolympics in Japan! I’m Minerva Miles, reporting live from the start of another crowd favorite event, fencing! In this competition, the Wizolympians must build a fence that is both interesting enough to the judges and powerful enough to beat that of their competitors. This all-day event kicked off this morning with 25 competitors.

During this first round, all athletes must simply construct a fence out of any material they wish. Already, this morning has seen the disqualification of three competitors. First, Canadian Nathan Roy was disqualified for trying to build what he considered a fence of magical syrup, but the judges deemed it to be a wall. Any athlete who builds a wall and not the required fence is immediately removed from the event. The Wizolympians from China and Brazil were also disqualified for similar reasons.

Now the judges are beginning their first round of observations of the competition. During this stage of elimination, the competitors who are unable to build any sort of lasting structure are removed since the competition quickly becomes dangerous if you don’t have a fence!

An early standout in the ring is the entry from Japan’s own Daito Tanaka, who seems to be building a beautiful and very sturdy fence out of cherry blossoms. He remains in the game, but four others are removed. Once the athletes from Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey have left the arena with their materials, we can continue.

And continuing we are! This second round of competition is always when things really start to heat up. You can usually hear gasps from the crowd as the fences really begin to take shape, but those sounds appear to be muffled by everyone’s required Bubble-Head Charms. Anyway, this round is quickly becoming serious, as the American competitor and returning Wizolympian Stacy Smith can attest to. She seems hard at work on her fence, which she is building out of an odd combination of fries, burgers, and… melting ice cream? Oh! She’s using the ice cream as glue! Those Americans always seem to know what to do with food. Tanaka’s fence is also coming along nicely, as is that of the United Kingdom’s Jacob Broadmoor, who appears to be making his entirely out of broomsticks and Quidditch equipment. Ah, the Brits.

This round, the judges eliminate competitors based on how “interesting” their structures are. Unfortunately for the competitors, the judges never seem to disclose what they are interested in until the time of judging. It seems the judges don’t like this group much and are sending ten competitors to the holding area, thus eliminating them from the competition.

Now we can enter the true heart of this competition. In Round 3, the Wizolympians can move outside their allotted space and try to steal the space of their fellow competitors. From here on out, the takeover continues until there is only one fence left standing!

Unfortunately, it seems that Tanaka’s cherry blossoms, though beautiful and elegant, are no match for Smith’s burgers and fries since her fence quickly ruins the flowers and causes them to collapse. On the opposite side of the arena, Broadmoor’s Quidditch fence has – well! It’s flying! This is genius! Broadmoor’s fence is flying straight toward France’s Alexandre Martin, who stands at the ready with a lot of baguettes held together with butter. Clearly, food was a theme this year. But look! Broadmoor’s fence comes equipped with Quaffles on the ends, and just like that, the baguettes lie strewn across the floor and Martin is left to head to the holding area.

As that was happening, it seems that the Egyptian design of papyrus leaves was no match for Mexico’s intricate design of colored bricks.

And now, suddenly, it is time to determine who will win the coveted Galleon. Smith quickly makes her move against the Mexican José Álvarez, but it seems that the beautiful bricks have simply smashed the burgers and fries. Smith is out of the competition. Now the only creators left are Álvarez, Broadmoor, and the South African Amahle Khumalo, who has built a fascinating fence out of what appears to be Muggle technology. Khumalo, though, appears to have lost control over these devices, and his fence has exploded. Meanwhile, Broadmoor’s ode to Quidditch is flying high and circling Álvarez’s bricks. This will come down to whether Quidditch equipment is stronger than bricks and – oh! It is! Jacob Broadmoor’s fence has somehow tumbled Álvarez’s bricks and the Brit has won the Galleon!

Álvarez lands Mexico the Sickle, and Khumalo wins the Knut for South Africa. Thanks for reading my coverage of the always-exciting fencing competition. Live from Japan, I’m Minerva Miles, signing off from another great year of building and destroying.