Women's steel longsword rankings see one debut, big upset in June update

The June women’s steel longsword board still revolved around one crowded main island, six smaller islands and a long-stable group that had stayed put as long as they had fenced in the category. That shape matters: 626 fighters sat on the main island, 53 more were spread across six islands and 50 had been island-bound for their entire time in the division, a sign that depth remained real but upward movement was hard to win. HEMA Ratings, which runs its rankings through the Glicko-2 system, uses the data to seed tournaments and track individual progress, so this month’s board doubled as a snapshot of where pressure was building.

Barbora Ptáčková provided the month’s only debut, entering at 548th with an 880.3 rating and immediately standing as the highest-rated newcomer on the main island. The larger move came from Rebekka Günther, who lifted her weighted rating from 1,311.3 to 1,363.0 and also delivered the month’s biggest upset, taking a win with an estimated 8.40 percent chance. In a category this dense, that kind of result matters because it shows how quickly a fighter can force the board to notice her.

At the top, the familiar names held firm. Anna Solovey of Hema Praha led with 1,992.7, Isabella Panzera of Club Scherma Apuano stayed second at 1,950.5 and Elena Muzurina of CounterTime remained third at 1,908.2. Melissa Kleiß of Twerchhau e.V. was fourth at 1,863.8, Minna Vasarainen of EHMS was fifth at 1,845.3 and Rashelle DeBolt of Noble Science Academy held sixth at 1,811.4.

The next block showed how wide the field still was, with Stevi Parker, Iris Garcia, Marta Guzdek, Anastasiya Plohova, Marcjanna Magdalena Jelińska, Petra Rubesova, Natalia Balybina, Valentina Kazachevskaia, Sara Vertanen, Geraldine Farías, Kristine Rinka, Britt Sjöqvist, Milena Bazhanova, Matylda Bobnis, Ágnes Pongrácz, Marina Hertlein, Irina Olbrychska, Clizia Buniotto, Stefani Metodieva, Lacey Eck, Josefin Bohman, Emilia Skirmuntt, Cynthia Kop, Beatrice Lostracco, Martina Stazi, Jane Gylling, Jessica Young, Josephine Schryer, Magdalena Jurczyk and Ashley Hearn all packed into the same competitive band.

Marta Guzdek gave that middle tier a clean climb of her own, moving from 11th to 9th with a 1,741.4 rating. Put together, the June board looked less like a frozen ranking than a living ladder: established clubs still controlled the summit, but small jumps, a lone debut and one sharp upset suggested that the next disruption could come from just outside the top tier.