Quoc Lieu wins large longsword field at Hot Sword Summer 2026
Quoc Lieu outlasted a 68-fencer open longsword field in Gainesville, beating Eric Musgrove in the final as Atlanta Historical Fencing Academy stacked three top-eight spots.
Quoc Lieu of KdF Fencing won the open steel longsword division at Hot Sword Summer 2026, beating Eric Musgrove of Atlanta Historical Fencing Academy in the final of a 68-fencer field. John Knoch of Crossroads Swords took third and Glenn Best of Society of Historical Fencing finished fourth, giving the Gainesville bracket a podium spread across four clubs.
The third annual Hot Sword Summer ran June 27-28 in Gainesville, Florida, at Society of Historical Fencing’s new location there. The event listing set the weekend for 8 AM to 6 PM and said registrations were closed by the time the listing was posted. Society of Historical Fencing billed the tournament as its yearly summer fencing tournament and said the 2026 edition included five events: rapier with optional offhand, singlestick and sword and buckler on Saturday, then beginners longsword and open longsword on Sunday. The club also said it would again present its Iron Fencer and URG awards.
The top eight told the bigger story of the bracket. Atlanta Historical Fencing Academy did not just place Musgrove in second. Paul Groover finished fifth, Ian Lowry took seventh and Daniel Pierce placed eighth, a depth chart that makes the club’s weekend look stronger than a single finalist run. Sean Lewis of Bold City Longsword finished sixth, while David Russell of Society of Historical Fencing placed ninth. In a field this large, that kind of spread matters: it suggests repeated tactical success against different opponents, not just one breakout performance.
Lieu’s title carries real weight because it came from a full 68-fencer open longsword pool, not a trimmed invitational where the path to gold can hinge on a handful of bouts. HEMA Ratings, which describes itself as a performance-rating system for competitive HEMA, lists July 2026 mixed-and-men’s steel longsword activity at 723 fights from five tournaments at three events in three countries. Gainesville fed directly into that wider competitive picture, with Quoc Lieu taking the win and Atlanta Historical Fencing Academy leaving with the clearest signal of depth anywhere in the upper bracket.
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