Well, this wasn't an international tournament. It was an internal for AMEK only, and specifically aimed at people with no tournament experience. I believe there were one or two people with some international experience, but still, for one of the least experienced people to win, was not something I expected. He also doesn't look terribly athletic. Somewhat overweight, in fact. I forgot how much instruction he got. I think a year, but I could be way off there. No sparring experience at all, though. He was pretty clear about that.
I just can't seem to get the hang of it without some instruction. A few guards are different and I have no idea what to do with them. We use dussacks for some sparring games, but don't get any real instruction in them. And there's a dussack tournament (again internal) coming up.I think you can do ok right out the gate (i.e. no training) with Dusssack.