They posted the statistics from Longpoint 2014. The stats clearly show that you don’t have to win EVERY match to advance or place, just win the RIGHT matches. 
http://hemaalliance.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4161#p56387
What I find interesting is how the indicator scoring is calculated. It's weighted quite a bit on wins/losses of course, but takes a lot of other things into account.
I came in last in my pool, and my indicator score looks awful. I was rusty, no denying that. But I also tied for second place in my pool for points scored, and came in second for blows delivered, and had the highest exchanges. My problem was that all my points were getting countered (lots of doubles and afterblows in both directions), and I was getting a lot of low-score hits (arms and legs, frequently).
In most of the other pools, there was someone who got utterly destroyed. I think my pool was probably a little more balanced in skill levels (with one somewhat more advanced combatant, of course, who went on to be defeated by Brian later).
