Your suggestion does the very same thing, causing the server's reaction to each sword input to be delayed in order to check with surrounding rendered players. It sounds like a load of strain on the server as well as an annoyance during a quick instance like a fast-moving spar.

Tyler is right, ties used to be marked down as losses on the record anyway. Even so, it doesn't make sense that a draw clear to the human eye should reward a player with higher latency because the signal takes longer to travel to his/her client telling the player to display the death gani. Which triggers a removal from the arena, and a loss in spars.

So Zid, when your client promptly responds to the server's direction in a spar, your opponent may not display those same actions as quickly, resulting in a delay between the moment a sword connects with a target and the moment the server accepts and reacts to the information the clients have provided. If you are also slashed at the same time as your opponent, your client will receive and send information back to the server quicker than your opponent's. So in lines of code, the server will read the opponent's death information after yours and award him/her with a win instead of the tie every human witness saw. It can get annoying if you know what you're doing and still get a loss. The only true remedy is to deal with all latency carefully and accordingly during a spar, regardless of its severity.