Hot Sword Summer draws record HEMA turnout in Gainesville
A 120-fighter field packed Gainesville’s new HEMA venue, up from 71 fighters in 2025, as Hot Sword Summer expanded to five divisions.
A capped field of 120 sword fighters packed the Alachua County Sports & Events Center in Gainesville, the first time Hot Sword Summer filled the venue and the clearest sign that the Society of Historical Fencing’s tournament has moved beyond a local bracket. The two-day event ran June 27-28, 2026, at 4870 Celebration Pointe Ave., and drew fighters from Florida and Georgia into five divisions.
The size of the field mattered most on Sunday, when the longsword brackets swallowed the weekend. Beginner Synthetic Longsword drew 29 entries and Open Steel Longsword pulled 87, a combined load that made longsword the backbone of the tournament again. The other three disciplines were Open Rapier with optional sidearm, Open Singlestick, and Open Sword and Buckler, giving the event a broader competitive profile than the four-division 2025 edition.
That growth is not a one-off spike. HEMA Ratings recorded 71 fighters and four divisions at Hot Sword Summer in 2025, with 41 in Mixed Steel Longsword, 28 in Mixed Singlestick, 27 in Mixed Steel Rapier and Any Sidearm, and 15 in Mixed Synthetic Longsword. The Society of Historical Fencing said the 2025 tournament had already grown into a two-day event and drew more than 75 participants after beginning as the club’s inaugural tournament on June 22, 2024. By 2026, the jump to 120 entrants showed that Gainesville was becoming a regional stop, not just a home-field event.
The draw also reached beyond Florida. Jacob Pendergraft traveled from Athens, Georgia, and won gold in rapier, a result that fits the way the Southeast circuit is knitting itself together. Mike Roth, the tournament director, said the club had to cap registration at 120 to keep the field manageable and expects Hot Sword Summer to rank among the seven largest HEMA tournaments in the country. That benchmark says as much about infrastructure as it does about popularity: clubs in the region are recruiting, keeping beginners, and building enough depth to send competitors across state lines.
Glenn Best, the club’s longsword coach, said the Society of Historical Fencing has been growing since it was founded in 2021 and that students have medaled at almost every competition since 2022. That kind of consistency matters in HEMA, where success comes from more than brute force. Judges score hits, fencers often acknowledge touches even when they are not required to, and the rules reward precision and target selection. Hot Sword Summer also ran on HEMA Scorecard, the free online tournament management platform, another sign that the event now has the logistics to match the turnout.
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