Creators have brought new fans to football and basketball. Why not fencing?

Between September 21-23, the organization that oversees competitive fencing in the United States is bringing influencers onto the strip at a unique event in New York City. USA Fencing is behind the Creator Showdown, which will test whether creator partnerships can do for fencing what they’ve done for sports as diverse as cycling, pickleball, and auto racing.

12 creators are participating in USA Fencing’s event, and they collectively reach more than 215 million followers online. The roster includes some of the biggest names on YouTube and TikTok, including Sofie Dossi, Merrick Hanna, itsPikaaa, and JoJo Sim.

Those influencers will pick up their foils, épées, and sabers to take a crack at a sport that boasts hundreds of years of history. USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews told Tubefilter that his team reunited with some creators they had worked with before while also seeking new partners who are curious about the sport. “There were a few factors — reaching different audiences, different sectors, but also people who genuinely see the value in that relationship ahead of [the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles],” Andrews said.

The creators have come to New York to inject some hipness into the fencing world. Content from the Showdown has been coming in, with Future’s “Mask Off” providing an appropriate soundtrack for one of the videos.

This form of video production has become a winning marketing strategy for basketball and football teams. Now, it’s being used to reinforce a call for new members at USA Fencing. “Our goal is to send people to ‘TryFencing.org’ where our 800 clubs around the nation have made offers to come in and try the sport,” Andrews said. “Ultimately, that’s the real goal for us.”

So how will USA Fencing advertise its namesake sport? The Creator Showdown will consist of a variety of challenges, which will pit four professional fencers — Maia Chamberlain, Bryce Louie, Mitchell Saron, and Lauren Scruggs

— against the novice creators across several challenge formats and disciplines. Appearances from guests like Dolph Lundgren and Mandy Patinkin will add more star power to the festivities.

The inclusion of the man who played Inigo Montoya is a nod to fencing’s place in pop culture. Visions of deft swordplay often draw new athletes into local clubs and teams. I myself was once a high school fencer who picked up a sabre for that very reason.

“I know Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Parent Trap influenced both Maia and Mitchell into the sport,” Andrews told Tubefilter. “It’s a gateway to the sport, a gateway most other sports don’t have and one therefore we should take advantage of.”

In truth, however, there are key differences between modern fencing and the duels you see at the movies. The sport is akin to a tennis match played on a narrow strip. It’s a high-speed, strategic affair that requires careful planning and precise movements.

Those qualities are hard to depict on TV broadcasts, and that factor has historically limited fencing’s viewing audience. Complicated right-of-way rules in the foil and sabre disciplines add another layer of complexity, and the visibility of top fencers is limited, both literally and figuratively, by the masks that cover the athletes’ faces.

The Creator Showdown is addressing those difficulties. One of the sponsors, Cloudflare, is delivering Tip Tracker technology that makes it easier to follow the blades as they move through the air. And by giving Olympians the chance to take off their masks, USA Fencing is upping the name recognition of its biggest stars.

The result will be distributed through multiformat uploads across the USA Fencing social media network. If you can’t catch the event this year, stay en garde, because USA Fencing has already indicated that it plans to bring back the Creator Showdown in 2027.