Flatlands recap

Just one weekend after MUDI came the big hometown tourney, the Flatland Ultimate and Cups Tournament (FUCT), or simply Flatlands to most. Unlike pretty much every other long-running tournament on the Prairies, Flatlands is Open and Women’s only, so Chaos split by gender, added a few alumni and others to have enough players for each roster, and competed separately. The men’s side had a competitive and rec division (we were on the comp side of course) while the women competed in a single division.

Our pool had us in with Liquid Assets (Minneapolis’s 2nd open team; a significant step down from Sub Zero who we’ll probably never see at Flatlands), Mangina, and Flood. The other pool was made up of Genital Stroke (basically General Strike), DingWop, Paul’s team (a disparate but talented group of players from Minnesota, Winnipeg, and Edmonton), and the Canadian Junior National team, preparing for Worlds in Massachussetts in August.

First Game: Liquid Assets. We looked a bit rough in this game with just way to many mistakes including more drops than I have seen in an elite game for a while. This was a game we could have and should have won, but not with the way we played. Some promising flashes but not a complete game. L, 13-10.

Next up: Mangina. Always a tough matchup, as witnessed in the Regina men’s tourney earlier. First play I struck deep and scored. They answered back. We traded for a while, then our mistakes caught up with us and they opened a lead. They took it to 11-5, then something triggered in us and we stormed back to tie it 11-11. Alas, we couldn’t keep up the momentum till the end and with another inopportune drop they got the turnover and a quick score, then took the next point to win 13-11. The comeback to tie was encouraging, but again we knew we hadn’t played a complete, solid game.

After a break for lunch, we were up against Flood. While a solid master’s team (2nd place at nationals last year), we knew they didn’t have the legs to keep up with us so we should have the win. However, at this point we were down to 10 guys as one of our players had left temporarily… lots of playing time and few breaks. We managed to survive despite being relatively shorthanded and won pretty handily, something like 13-4. I had one of my better games and almost scored a callahan on a layout D. Instead I got spooked as the intended receiver still had a chance at the catch, and I simply swatted away the disc for a turnover at the line. Inexplicably we turned it back over and they worked it up for the score. I resolved to just catch the disc next time.

Final game of Saturday was a crossover for seeding, we were 3rd in our pool and would take on the other 3 seed for 5th and 6th seed in Sunday’s quarters. The other pool had ended in a 3-way tie for 2nd through 4th (Paul’s team was 3-0, others all 1-2), with DingWop ending up 3rd after tiebreakers were sorted out. Both teams were clearly fatigued and I’m not sure DingWop was really motivated to win this game. We played pretty solid and took the win, 13-8ish.

Following the games I really wanted a nap but had volunteered to oversee the cups tourney. It ended up being dominated by DingWoppers and other Americans who lingered around even after the cups championship was won. I packed up, headed home for a shower, and then straight to the party with no nap. I was feeling sleepy within minutes of being there. I managed to perk up long enough to enter the sumo-suit wrestling competition (won in the first round against the self-proclaimed drunkest guy at the party, the lost in the quarterfinal), but bailed early and was home by midnight. Not nearly the same sort of endurance at the party as the previous weekend. Bu at least I was getting well-needed sleep, and besides I needed to redeem myself after pretty much sucking on Sunday at MUDI.

Sunday’s quarterfinal had us up against Genital Stroke, seeded 4th. As a rule, Chaos always beats Strike at Flatlands, and we were determined to continue this tradition. A hard-fought and intense game throughout, we battled hard to make turnovers and played smart with the disc. We took half 7-3 and then held off a late surge in the second half to win, 13-10ish. Probably my best game of the tournament, and much better than either game last Sunday. I was feeling pretty good.

The semis found us up against DingWop again… as 6th seed they had knocked off 3rd seed Mangina, while in the other quarters the juniors (7th) upset Paul’s Team (2nd) and only Liquid Assets managed to avoid the upset by beating Flood. I had the feeling DingWop would play us tougher than on Saturday. They did, but still made plenty of mistakes for us to capitalise on. We played pretty solid except for a bit of a lapse at the end of first half, and took the win by about 13-10.

A break after the semifinal let us take in the women’s final. The Chaos women had been crushing their opponents and were undefeated. They were up against the team from Duluth for the final. Not much of a story here – the women cruised for another decisive victory and took the final by a score of about 13-4. Now, it was our turn.

The final was us against Liquid Assets, who disposed of the juniors pretty easily in their semi. Again, we knew we could beat Assets but they were looking pretty strong. They had easily the largest roster at the tournament and were fresher than any other team. Game got underway with us giving up a break on the first point, then trading points. My first point on (I was on the D-line) I matched up against one of their speedsters. I was caught out of position as the huck went up, and even with a chase and a late bid he caught it for the score. Not a great start. We score the next point on O and I was back, and marking the same player. This time I had better position but was still a bit behind him as he struck deep. I closed the gap and got inside position… only to see the disc rise with a wind gust and sail over my hands into his reach. Dammit! Meanwhile, we were beginning to lose the initiative as out O turned the disc again, and the D gave up another point… not my guy this time at least. Another score for us and I was back on D. Same guy, again. I was trying to back him a bit but got caught running too hard in on an in cut as he turned and burned. I made up most of the gap and was inches from the disc on a late bid, but once again, he caught for the score. I was beyond frustrated by this point and let fly a hat spike that got a bit of a reaction from the fantasy players on the sideline… luckily, no hostile hecklers at this final. A few more points and the half ended with us down 7-4.

At half we did not make too many adjustments (though personally I started putting more attention to my positional play on D), but renewed out commitment to fundamentals like swinging the disc and holding the force. Still, we continued to struggle early in the second half and were down 10-5 by the time we called a timeout. Not sure if I recall what was said but the intensity was certainly ramped up thereafter. Several questionable calls and one really bad one by the other team (drawing boos from the crowd and some harsh words from our captain towards the player at fault) may have had something to do with it… anyway we were now playing with something to prove. Suddenly our D began to produce breaks, and capitalise on them. Our big-game players were making some highlight reel plays (literally – the game was being taped) with a few huge grabs in the endzone. Somewhere in there, even I scored, albeit on a nondescript short pass into the endzone. We narrowed the lead and made a game of it… but the surge was late and we couldn’t completely shut down their offence, and they got what they needed to close out the game. I think the final score was a repeat of our 13-10 loss the previous day. Another 2nd place finsh.

Disappointing result in the final, but again there were signs of promise. Intensity for the tourney was pretty good throughout and great on Sunday. And while the first half of the final was lacklustre, the second half was much improved and we didn’t just roll over and take the loss, which is essentially what happened in Regina. With a month left ‘till nationals, we are starting to look pretty good.

Next up: a well earned weekend off from ultimate, which my banged-up body will appreciate. Then Disc Odyssey in Saskatoon on August Long Weekend, and two weeks later the big show in Halifax. Things are starting to come up fast.

MUDI recap

Been a while since the tourney now but I’ll try to recall the pertinant details…

We entered the tournament at the #3 seed out of 14 coed teams, which led to an uneven 3-pool system. We were in one of the 5-team pools so 4 games on Saturday. Games were deliberately kept short (to 11 pts) due to the crazy hot weather (something like 37 C for the high). Quick synopses follow:

Hot Dish (W, 10-6). Hot Dish is Minneapolis’ 2nd coed touring team, not quite on the same level as Flaming Moe, nor the same level as us. However they game us some trouble early on. We barely eked out a halftime lead before finishing strong in the second half for the win.

KaBLAMMO! (W, 10-5). Minneapolis’ 3rd coed touring team, featuring one of our Trogdor winter leaguers back in the Cities for the summer. They looked decent overall but again not quite on our level… nevertheless we again managed to struggle early on, even trailing 3-2 at one point, before rebounding for the lead and this time a shutout in the second half.

Funk Dancing for Self Defense (W, 11-1). Clearly not an organised team of elite players. We dominated throughout but lost the elusive goose egg late in the second half.

So Many Ducks (W, 11-?). Don’t remember much about the details of this game. We were never challenged for the win, but the game wasn’t too enjoyable as there were a lot of calls that slowed the game down and by the end it felt like both teams were just going through the motions to finish out the game, no doubt a function of the heat and fatigue from three previous games. Finally it ended and we finished 4-0 on the day.

Saturday night: there was a bit of a dinner at the fields but we headed back to the billets shortly after. Our billet this year was the same as last year, one of the tourney organisers and a great guy. Unfortunately he had forgotten to leave the back door open this time so we were stranded outside while he was still behind at the tourney site running the dinner and party there. We eventually figured out that one of the storm windows could be removed and then the screen lifted so were able to ‘break in’ to the house with no damage and minimal inconvenience… never told the billet this though! Got inside, napped a bit and then hung out there the rest of the night. A bunch of the DingWop boys were in for the night too… those guys know how to have a good time. I had a great time too, unfortunately a bit too much so…

Sunday Games:

Quarter final - New World Love Clan (W 13-7). This team appeared to be made up of Madison players who weren’t quite good enough for the elite men’s and women’s teams. They were probably as good as the first two teams we played Saturday. I was feeling a bit groggy from the night before and didn’t really contribute much… nevertheless we won without too much of a challenge.

Semifinal – Flaming Moe (L 13-6). Finally a true elite opponent, Minneapolis’ top coed team. This was a team that came ready to play and didn’t make mistakes, and capitalised on our miscues. Just a few too many turns for us and we were unable to stop them on D. I was getting absolutely schooled by a few of their cutters, who seemed to have unlimited endurance and were as fast as I was on a good day. And I was not on a good day – the last night of partying had left me ‘slow as ass’ to repeat a later assessment by one of our captains. The game ended decisively for Flaming Moe. While overall we had a decent game, and certainly did not fold, we finally saw a team that was just that much better – fitter, more organised, more mistake-free. The type of team we’ll see for at least a few games at nationals, so a good early test. Just a month left to bring it to that level, we’ll see if we’re up to it.

Escape is at hand for the travelling man

Sitting here in a New Orleans hotel half an hour from checkout... I realise that in the last week I have been home only eight hours in between two trips. Last weekend was the Minneapolis Ultimate Disc Invitational (MUDI), about which I'll go into more detail later. Drove there Friday afternoon, played some games, left Sunday as soon as games were done, got back at 10 pm, unloaded, finished some last minute packing, then grabed a few hours sleep. Monday morning awoke at 5 to catch an early morning flight to New Orleans (via Mineapolis... no, I didn't want to overnight there) and spent the last week here on business. I'm off to see a bit of the town now and then back to the airport to go home and hopefully get a bit of sleep on the flight. Tomorrow, right back into tourney mode at Flatlands. It'll be good to be home.
More on all this later.

Nothing in particular

Seems to be the middle of a bit of a lull during the summer. No ulti tourneys or other major happenings in the last few weeks. But just thought I’d check in and post on what’s been going on and what’s coming up.

Ultimate – touring: No tourneys as noted in the last while, practices are continuing… while I mentioned the nationals roster was set, it appears not just yet… might need a few more women, hopefully that’s sorted out soon. Elsewhere a number of other regions are already having their regional tourneys this weekend to see who goes to Nationals; we’re the lone team from our region who wants to go, so we’re in by default. Yay, default. Next two tourneys: Minneapolis Ultimate Disc Invitational (formerly Aquatennial) July 15-16, Flatlands Ultimate and Cups Tournament right here in Winnipeg July 22-23. Can’t wait.

Ultimate – league: Trogdor has managed to survive the first few rounds in a very competetive Monday night Tier 1, winning just enough to stay in the top bracket… now Tiers 1 and 2 are merging to for a larger A Pool. A few easier games in the next several weeks, but we’ve still got our sights set on beating the top two teams in our division… getting closer each time we play them, but haven’t beat them yet. Good to see we’re improving though.

Running: I’ve been doing several 10k-ish runs this year, along with my wife and some of our friends, and we’ve been doing pretty well. Earlier this spring had a half-marathon relay (about 10.5 km each leg), and a 10k the week after… more recently saw the return of the Homestar Runners in the MB Marathon (6th place of 265 mixed open teams… not bad), and just this past weekend another 10k run. Doing pretty well (I seem to be able to manage about a 45-minute pace for the 10k), but damn, do my calves hurt for two days afterwards.

Concerts: Last one was the Constantines at the Pyramid way back in May… very late start to the concert (doors opened at 8 pm… Constantines didn’t take the stage until after midnight) but well worth it. The Cons put on a very tight show, you could feel the energy in the room pick up as soon as they took the stage and they held it for the whole show. Worth it just to hear “Soon Enough” live, not that the other songs were at all disappointing. Next up: Winnipeg Folk Fest coming up THIS WEEKEND! We won’t be taking in quite as much of it as in previous years – just Friday night to Sunday, and yes we’re camping – but lineup looks great. Richard Thompson, Hawksley Workman, Neko Case… and a whole bunch of other performers I don’t even know I like yet.

That’s everything major… next post, who knows, maybe something interesting happens at Folk Fest this weekend and I blog about it. ‘Til then…