How the heck do you do fistfighting.... Most frustrating combat I have ever experienced. I am trying to do the high stakes gwent tournament and its mandatory at the part I am at. Anyone have any tips? Strategies? I don't feel like my reflexes are fast enough to counter the attacks.

Easiest way is just dodge when the opponent attacks you and counter with a strong punch and some fast ones, you won't even get hit provided you have some reflexes.

Depending on your surroundings you can simply whack them with strong punches only, provided they always bump into something when you do so. Most fail safe way I found so far is getting just out of range, and doing a strong punch the moment your opponent starts moving towards you and readying a strong punch themselves, followed by a dodge to the back. They won't hit you this way at all.

Thanks. Just a different strategy to make it work I guess. I did that stand out of range and hit them as they come thing; was very effective.

If there is something I love about this game apart from the variety of locations, situations and monsters is the fistfighting... it's really one of the coolest things in the Witcher 3, I like it even more than sword combats :P

keep you distance from the person you are fighting until you recognize the tells between the fighters powerful attack & fast attack.

make sure you are holding right mouse button as this will parry fast attacks but make sure to dodge powerful attacks as they will stun you if one lands while your guard is up

when opponent is attacking dodge to the side & swing, i usually throw either a couple of fast punches or one powerful punch before bringing my guard back up & waiting for my opponent to attack me again.

also remember that not every fight can be won in seconds by doing nothing but attacking some of the fights are well...an actual fight!, where some skill is needed to win.

At the start of the fight, i press the dodgebutton. Then i press the buttons in the following order.
LMB, LMB, LMB, S, LMB, LMB, LMB, S, ...... win.
LMB = Leftmousebutton
S = dodgebutton

1. only dodge with ALT
2. Always try to block to get the counterattack.
3. When 1 or 2 work. Attack till the enemy blocK and go back to step 1 and 2 :)

My strat, parry, light, heavy, dodge backwards. Rinse and repeat.