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| Team All Stars wins the world team fights. |
The Quebec Open is the only NASKA tournament that takes place outside of the United States. The setting is Quebec City, Canada and the competition is exciting! Held April 23-24, 2010, this year's Quebec Open offered the international flavor of French Canada along with some of the best competitors in the northern hemisphere going head-to-head to for a chance on the fabulous Quebec Open finals stage.
The tournament started with some awesome two on two girl fighting - in women's team sparring. Full Circle sported a full team of Canadians with the Full Circle Canada part of the team. Lace Godin and Claire Cocozza defeated Team Cobra's Marie Eve Dicaire and Cindy Cote 16 to 9 to give Full Circle Canada a first round win. Godin and Cocozza continued their domination as they defeated their next opponents, Team KJS, with the total score of 9 to 4.
The United States invaded Canada in the junior forms and weapons divisions. Micah Karns, Jacob Pinto, Danny Etkin and Andrew Franklin won their respective junior extreme and musical forms and weapons divisions. For the girls, Americans Dayna Huor, Mackensi Emory, Sammy Suddeth, Stephanie Figueroa, and Sammy Smith won theirs also. In the adult divisions, it was the Americans and Team Paul Mitchell that swept almost everything. Paul Mitchell's Kalman Csoka, Caitlin Dechelle, Matt Emig, and Marc Canonizado dominated the extreme and musical forms and weapons divisions.
Quebec Open's men's team sparring competition has always provided great entertainment, spectacular performances and amazing victories. There were seven teams this year with two from Venezuela, two Paul Mitchell teams, Full Circle, Next Level and an appearance by Team All Stars, including the formidable Raymond Daniels.
In the early rounds, Team All-Stars clearly dominated Team Venezula 32 to 5 and Team Full Circle defeated a more challenging second Team Venezula with a score of 25-16. Team Next Level came up from New York to prove that they can beat out the rest of the competition, but their obstacle was Team Paul Mitchell White. Lawrence "Kodaq" Wray faced Elias Lemon of Paul Mitchell in round one. Kodak wasn't able to handle Lemon's kicks, which led to a score of 12-5 for Paul Mitchell. Chris Rappold of Paul Mitchell earned 6 more points for his team against Anthony Merricks and the score was 18 to 9. The last match was between Deandre Walker of Paul Mitchell and Dejuan Brown. Walker and Brown matched in height and Walker struggled in the first minute of the match against Brown's speed. However, Walker was able to finish the match using his kicks and keep his team in the lead for a final score of 28-14.
Team Paul Mitchell Black next faced Team All-Stars. These two teams are not strangers to each other. In the first fight, Greg Betlach and Jack Felton had a close battle. Felton was up by 1 point at the final bell with the score of 8 to 7 for All Stars. Next was Alex Lane's speedy kicks against Willie Hick's fast reaction punches. It was another close battle that ended with a score of 12-11 with the All Stars in the lead. Last but not least, Travis Plowden face Raymond “Real Deal” Daniels in the last round. Plowden wanted badly to lead his team to victory, but so did Daniels. Daniels left nothing to chance, putting on a great show and leading his team to a 21-14 victory.
Team Paul Mitchell White needed to defeat the Canadian Team Full Circle in order for a Paul Mitchell team to make it into the final fight. Elias Lemon did his job and got his team to a 6 to 2 win over David Bossinotte. Chris Rappold faced Maxime Wiliams, and Williams used his speed on Rappold to put his team back into the fight with an ending score of 11-10 in favor of Paul Mitchell. The final match was between Deandre Walker and one of Canada's favorites, Jason Greiner. Greiner's unorthodox style of fighting threw off Walker's rhythm and the close match led to a close score of 20-18 in favor of Team Full Circle Canada.
The fight for the title was between Canada and the USA with Team Full Circle Canada facing Team All Stars. Maxime Williams defeated Willie Hicks by a score of 8-7 in round one. Another of Canada's favorites Rene Perrault stepped in to fight Jack Felton in the next round. Felton was confident enough not to let his team down by adding 9 points on Rene Perrault as the score moved to 18 to 10 in favor of Team All-Stars. The final match of the night for men's team fight was a showdown between Jason Greiner and Raymond Daniels. Greiner had narrowly defeated Daniels in the past but he would need more than a close match to get his team a victory in this fight. Greiner kept his game up by pressing Daniels with his speed. Daniels did not feel the pressure at all as he stayed relaxed throughout the fight and scored when needed. The final score was 26-18 with Team All-Stars being crowned the 2010 Quebec Open men's team fighting champions.
Saturday offered more forms and weapons but the men's point sparring eliminations and run offs to the grand championship were by far the most exciting events during Saturday eliminations because they offered a great view of NASKA superstars fighting against some of Canada's top fighters.
All Star teamates Willie Hicks and Joe Fife both won their respective light and superlight divisions and had to face off for the light weight grands. It was a close match but Fife took the victory on a questionable last second kick. In the middle weight grands Team Full Circle Canada's Sam Gagnon was on fire all weekend and defeated Team Paul Mitchell member DeAndre Walker for the middle weight grands. As expected Raymond Daniels came through with another heavy weight grand title as he defeated Travis Plowden.
Then the real excitement began as the men's sparring run offs got underway. First, Joe Fife was unable to stop Sam Gagnon's momentum that was carried though the whole weekend as the Canadian received a majority of the close calls in the match to advance. The other semi-finals match pitted Raymond Daniels against Canadian Tom Roberts, who won the 30 and older sparring grands. Daniels clearly was not on top of his game in the beginning of the match and Roberts was able to get off to a fast start from which Daniels was not able to recover. A happy Roberts watched as a stunned Daniels conceded defeat.
The grand championship fight was an all Canadian match as Gagnon and Roberts squared off. Roberts and Gagnon were in all practicality two Cinderella story's at this event. Roberts has spent a lot of time on the circuit and Gagnon has not been seen much on the NASKA circuit despite competing regularly in Canada. Both fighters spent a lot of time feeling each other out during the fight and when it was all said and done the final score was closer to a hockey game then a sparring match. It was a score of 2-1 that gave Roberts his first overall NASKA sparring grand championship
Saturday Nighttime Finals
NASKA's junior superstars Tanah Dow, Sammy Smith, Jackson Rudolph, Danny Etkin, Andrew Franklin, Austin Crain, and Jessica Goldman provided a spectacular NASKA-stars opening demonstration that was developed by another superstar Matt Emig. After the special introduction presentation from the president D'Honneur to Quebec Open promoter Clermont Poulin, the infamous Toupie's Dance Performance entered the stage to dance their hearts out to the crowd's delight.
Ricky Morris, Kyle Montagna, Stephanie Figueroa, and Jessie Pelligrino competed in the 17 and under traditional weapons grand championship to open the evening competition. Kyle Montagna's precision and intensity took home the crystal gold trophy for the night. Montagna was up again to shoot for another title of the night for the 17 and under creative/musical/extreme (CMX) weapons grands, but dropped his bo during a release. Mackensi Emory showed some crazy corkscrew and flip variations in her routine along with multiple kama manipulations. Dayna Huor challenged Emory with her own variation of flips while brandishing her kamas but it was Ricky Morris' flexibility and usage of his bo staff that carried him through the competition and earned him the title as the grand champion of the night.
Jeremy Epstein performed a simple wushu style form to open the men's CMX forms grand championship. Marc Canonizado showed his consistency and stuck to what he was good at with his fluid tricks and solid kicks. Finally, Matt Emig was on a mission to get his first grand win after 21 months of wait. He had a small stumble on his touchdown raiz to corkscrew combo and Canonizado was awarded the grand champion win.
Caitlin Dechelle won all of the women's CMX divisions during Friday and Saturday eliminations so she had no one to compete against for the grands. Instead she performed a demonstration to the Canadian audience to show off her skills. She walked away with barely any sweat on her forehead and a trophy in hand.
The Quebec Open always offers special team fighting on stage that pits different countries and parts of Canada against each other. This gets the crowd into the fights as they cheer for their Canadian heros. For the women's team sparring challenge, Team ProAm faced Team WKA Canada in WKA fighting and despite the name of the competition, Team ProAm ended up the victors. In the junior male WKA team fighting. Team Kicks from Montreal defeated the home town Team Studio Unis.
The youth traditional forms grand championship was next on the schedule. This featured Amanda Chen, Dayna Huor, Jackson Rudolph, and Kyle Montagna. Despite Amanda Chen's injured foot, she didn't show any signs of weakness during her Japanese form. Jackson Rudolph is known for his bo work, but he definitely showed his intensity with open hand kata. Kyle Montagna was up for his third time on stage. Montagna redeemed himself from the drop in the previous grand champion bout by taking the 17 and under junior traditional forms grand championship and basically dominating the traditional competition.
Sammy Smith displayed an upgraded version of her form by throwing in more tricks in the youth CMX forms grands. Sammy Suddeth is no stranger to the game and in her stage performance she threw more kicking combos to accent her tricks. Jacob Pinto stepped up his performance by adding corkscrew combos and a round off stall flashkick fulltwist in his form. Finally, Micah Karns came to the stage. The boy loves to perform under pressure and he had a lot to overcome after the first three performances. This time he showed off a new routine that included a cork swing through cork combo with hands behind his back. Pinto and Karns' performances were close, but it was Karns' thumbs-up that walked out with the 17 and under junior CMX grand championship.
After a quick intermission the crowd enjoyed a very nice breaking routine by one of the pro-am instructors during which he broke three sets of multiple bricks. The Quebec Open provided one of its trademark divisions on stage again - the handicapable competition. This event has become a highlight of the tournament because it allows those who would normally never get a chance on stage to show their abilities and the true spirit of martial arts. This year's winner was again, Florent Fortin who remains undefeated so far in all the years that the event has been placed in the finals. Perhaps he will get a special award for such consistency!
Hall of Fame inductees and special presentations were next. The adult traditional forms and weapons winners were given their awards: congratulations to Kalman Csoka, Caitlin Dechelle, Olivia Wicker, Scott Wu and Drew Brisbee. Another Canadian demonstration took the stage as Team Cerio, the winners of the Team Demo competition performed their routine which blended bo and sword.
The crowd was ready for more crazy tricks as Marc Canonizado was first up for adult men's CMX weapons grand championship. Again, he was very consistent but didn't throw in anything unusual to work up the crowd. Kalman Csoka was up right after Canonizado and he was ready to stun everyone. Double swords were his weapon of choice and he did some crazy new releases that had the crowd on its feet. Matt Emig was the final competitor and he was ready to give Csoka a challenge but a dropped nunchuk was his downfall. In the end, which Paul Mitchell member won? Kalman Csoka of course!
Olivia Wicker was on stage for her first time in a creative division for the women's CMX weapons grand championship. She was doing very well until she dropped her bo in the middle of her routine. Caitlin Dechelle was next on the stage and knew that her opponent was out of the game so long as she could hold onto her sword. Dechelle did fine and took home a second gold trophy and title.
Team Cerio came back up on stage hoping to take another title home as they competed in synchronized team form. The 3 person routine was flawless until team member Cedric Ferland dropped his weapon. Team Cerio Extreme was challenger one and gave an extreme routine that had the crowd cheering. Team Paul Mitchell's Caitlin Dechelle and Marc Canonizado were the final team performers and worked together well. To no surprise, Team Paul Mitchell went home with the Team Sync win.
The last event of the night was a 4 man and 1 woman World Team Fight. The participating teams were Team Paul Mitchell and Team All-Stars. It was ladies first for the fighting. Chelsey Nash started it off for Team Paul Mitchell with a 6 to 1 score. There was a size difference in the next match as super lightweight Joe Fife faced light heavyweight Greg Betlach. The two went at it and exchanged blows often which led to Paul Mitchell gaining more ground with a final team score of 14 to 6 after the match.
In round three, Willie Hicks was up against Elias Lemon of Team Paul Mitchell. Lemon and Hicks were comfortable as they tried to out-time each other which ended in a low score of Hicks 2, Lemon 2 and a team score of 16 to 8 in favor of Team Paul Mitchell. In fight four, Alex Lane fought Jack Felton of Team All Stars. Felton went to work on the taller Lane and brought his team back into the game a bit. When the bell rang, the score was 19 to 13 in favor of Team Paul Mitchell. In the final fight, Travis Plowden of Team Paul Mitchell was charged with holding onto the 6 point lead for his team as he again faced Raymond "the Real Deal" Daniels. Daniels and Plowden put on a good show. Daniels was able to make the crowd cheer when he landed a two point head kick on Plowden and Plowden worked hard to keep Daniel's at bay. The fight got the crowd all worked up as they screamed for the fighters. When regulation time ran out, the score was tied 20 to 20 and the fight went into sudden victory overtime - with the first point scored winning. When the center referee yelled go, Daniels pounced and struck Plowden with a scoring hand blitz and Team All-Stars walked out with a $2,000 (Canadian) victory.
With that final blitz, the 2010 Quebec Open was concluded and it was time for another type of blitzing at the AFTER PARTY. There was a lot of fun to be had which all ended at the McDonald's! It was a great time for everyone before, during and after the event - another successful Quebec Open for the promoter and all the competitors and spectators.
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