Budapest was the final tournament in the 2015 World Cup calendar. I have delayed publication of a proper recap because watching the final again will make me cry, and because everyone in the sabre world has already heard about the grotesque farce that was the Yakimenko/Rousset semi. Instead of serious analysis, we’re going to be announcing some awards.

In case you’ve been on Mars and haven’t seen the juicy bit yet, here it is: have something around that you can punch.

Budapest was the third gold a row for Alexey Yakimenko, winner of our inaugural award for “Fencer Most In Need Of A New PR Agent”.

The actual “Fair Play” award goes to Nicolas Rousset, for all-round gentlemanly restraint in not doing what I would have done under the same circumstances:

Meanwhile, Kim Junghwan takes home the “Glass Cannon Award for Unstoppable Badass Who Is Actually Surprisingly Easy To Stop”, narrowly edging out Tibi Dolniceanu.

Now that Aldo Montano has dealt with his unfortunate man-bun issue from earlier this year, Kim also was a clear winner in the “Fencer Most In Need Of A Haircut” category.

Serious business

Now it’s time for our major category: “The Big Damn Hero Award For Most Dramatic If Ultimately Futile Points Chase In A Team Event”.

With the team captain on the bench with a mangled ankle and the alien cyborg apparently malfunctioning, it came down to the 22-year old Korean reserve to put up a fight against an overwhelming Russian offensive.

Here is hero time for Ha Hansol:

Poor Kovalev, I think he got a bit tense towards the end there. To be frank, he got a bit lucky on that last point too. That was the theme of his day:

This time, he got away with it by the skin of his teeth. The last few comps have not been so forgiving. As a result, Nikolay Kovalev gets the 2015 award for “Most Inexplicable Team Anchor”.

And so we reach the winner of the actual 2015 World Cup, about which it seems nobody cares at all.

Mr Gu was responsible for our single favourite moment of the Budapest tournament, and claims our prestigious “Most Gu Bongil Thing Ever” award.

That GIF encapsulates everything that he is, in 5.2 seconds. It’s perfection.

Gu also took out another award, “Fencer Most Likely To Successfully Get a Call Flipped By Hugging The Ref”

Finally, a shout out to the winner of the award for “Fencer Most Likely To Be Found Strategically Positioned Next To All The Best Fights With A Video Camera”, our good friend Andrew “CyrusOfChaos” Fischl. Love your work, dude.

That’s all for now!

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