User blog comment:Jkphantom9/RWBY clip on Lazer Team Livestream/@comment-10317392-20140622171955/@comment-11188061-20140623013520

At the beginning Mercury was being obviously lazy. Their current objective was probably to 'don't stand out' or 'tell those kids who's the real boss around here' but Mercury is just being himself. So he went for a super simple attack - it's more of a courtesy gesture really, like saying hello - and allowed himself to be countered. Then Pyrrha went in on the offense, fought seriously, and scored the first hit on Mercury.

That got Mercury interested. So he went in ferociously, and he nearly scored a K.O. feint attack on her head (forcing Pyrrha to cancel her own counter mid-flight to block it, and as you can see, he was surprised she noticed it), and since Pyrrha's grip on her weapon then was loose, he manages to disarm her quite easily.

So up to now, they each score a point. Pyrrha got in the first hit, and Mercury disarmed one of her only two weapons. However, Mercury's point is larger because Pyrrha basically has to rely on just her shield and one hand to weather the onslaught of blows that's sure to come (if that was not the end of the fight), and let's be honest - if it's a strength contest between the leg and hand alone, fantasy or not, the leg is going to crush the hand. Like really, in real life Pyrrha's hand would have snapped like a twig already, with all that force and steely weight behind.