At the USA Fencing Board meeting the motions on adopting FIE Rules for Non-Combativity and to loosen the “Hard 8” qualification from Div IA ROCs to Div IA Nationals were approved.
What this means:
For Non-Combativity USA Fencing will be using the current (as of 8/31/11) FIE Rules regarding non-combativity. No more penalty cards will be assessed.
For Division IA ROC events the top 8 fencers who are not already qualified for Div IA Nationals will receive the automatic qualification slots. That means that foreign fencers and fencers who had already made a top-8 will not “eat up” a qualification slot.
The 1,000 points for qualifying via points for Div IA will only be totaled AFTER the last Div IA ROC, so I expect that those fencers who already have 1,000 points won’t be skipped over if they make a top-8 after they have 1,000 points.