King’s Cup HEMA adds video replay for 2026 semi-finals and finals

King’s Cup is putting its biggest calls under review. Blades of Glory will test video replay in the semi-finals and finals at the 2026 tournament, and each fighter will get one challenge if a disputed exchange needs another look.

That matters because King’s Cup is not a small local showcase. The two-day event will run September 19 and 20 at The Mount Community Centre, 1545 Monaghan Road in Peterborough, Ontario, with four tournaments on the weekend: Open Longsword, Open Single Sword, Open To The Death, and Women’s Longsword. The replay experiment is aimed at the highest-stakes bouts first, not every early pool match, which keeps the officiating change focused where one bad call can decide a title.

The structure should make the bracket easier to follow, but it will also raise the pressure on every flag and every judge’s table. The longsword and single-sword events will start with round-robin pools on Saturday, then split competitors into Glory Division and Honour Division brackets before Sunday’s elimination bouts. Open To The Death is set for Sunday afternoon, right before the finals of the other three tournaments, so the weekend should build toward a sharp finish rather than dribble out. Blades of Glory says the replay review will look at disputed exchanges from at least two angles. If the footage clearly shows the judges were wrong, the call will be overturned and the fighter will keep the challenge. If not, the challenge is gone for the rest of that match.

The rules around the event still lean hard on discipline and control. Competitors are being told to arrive fully geared, salute before the command to fence, and understand that legal hits depend on correct alignment, intent, and control. That is the right baseline for a replay system: video can settle the edge cases, but it cannot replace the need for clean blades and clean structure in the bout.

Blades of Glory, based in Hastings, Ontario, is presenting King’s Cup as part of a broader HEMA ecosystem that includes weekly sword lessons and partnerships across the sport. The organization’s tournament infrastructure also fits a wider trend: HEMA Scorecard is already used as a free open-source tool for running events and making information accessible, while video-analysis services have made instant replay and breakdowns more common around the community. If this test works in Peterborough, King’s Cup could become the kind of precedent other regional HEMA events copy when the next controversial exchange decides a medal round.