Hong Kong men's foil head coach Greg Koenig has backed the new World Fencing League as a "positive move" for a sport he believes needs better visibility, with Hong Kong's world No. 1 Ryan Choi tipping his hat to the format after participating in the inaugural Los Angeles event in late April.
The League's debut, held on Sunday, April 27, pitted invited teams in a TV-friendly format with a US$100,000 prize fund split across the night. Team Shield — featuring American Olympic medallist Race Imboden, Australian foilist Eden Mancuso and a roster designed for broadcast — defeated Team Blade in the final.
Koenig, an American coach who has overseen Hong Kong's rise to a top-four foil team nation, watched the format closely.
"It brings fencing into a more modern era, with technology and a new way to engage," Koenig said in remarks to the South China Morning Post.
He acknowledged the established Olympic-cycle calendar of FIE World Cups and Grand Prix would always be where world ranking points were earned, but said the League had a different job to do.
"At the end of the day, the more visibility fencing gets, the better it is for everyone," Koenig said. He also pushed back at suggestions the League was a radical departure for a sport that has spent the last decade slowly modernising its TV product.
"Fencing hasn't just started evolving recently; it has been evolving for over a century," he said.
Choi, who in May reaffirmed his ambition to take Hong Kong's men's foil team to the world No. 1 ranking before he retires, made a typically dry verdict on the League.
"Do it again," Choi told reporters in Hong Kong when asked whether he would return to a second event.
The League is the brainchild of American foilist Miles Chamley-Watson and a private investor group that has signalled it will run a multi-event 2026-27 season. Format details for the next event have not been confirmed, but the inaugural night used a one-touch sudden-death overtime rule designed for television, and team matches rather than individual draws.
For Hong Kong, the League's appeal is partly commercial. Foil is the only fencing weapon in which the city is a top-tier nation — Cheung Ka-long won the 2020 Tokyo Olympic individual gold and recently took bronze at the Turin Grand Prix, and the team is currently fourth in the world rankings. A League appearance gives Hong Kong sponsors an English-language broadcast platform that mainstream FIE events do not consistently provide.
Choi, ranked world No. 1, has more directly framed the team goal. "Both [Cheung] Ka-long and I have ranked No 1 in the world, so I think we can now be bolder in having an ultimate goal, and that would be our team climbing to the very top," he told the SCMP last week.
Hong Kong will not host a senior World Championships until summer 2026, when the global event lands in Asia for the first time in a decade. Koenig and Choi will both have a hand in making sure the World Fencing League's profile push translates into a packed home crowd.
