Nationals Recap - Day Four

Sunday morning arrived quickly. We slept until mid-morning - not so late as to still be waking up at gametime, not too early lose any precious sleep. We gathered everything we would need for the big game, and then headed off to breakfast at a chain restaurant on the way to the field. Cautious of repeating an excessive meal from the morning before (which certainly did not help me in a mediocre personal performance vs. Zen Asylum), I chose a light breakfast, high on carbs and skipping the breakfast meat. (As an aside, never - ever - choose the 'all sausage' option for your pre-tournament meal... you will pay for it one way or another. Anyway...)

We pulled out and found our way to the fields. Quite literally this time... although our billet was driving and a few of us had a general idea where the stadium was, we never actually bothered to look it up. We stopped and asked a student with an SMU sweater on for directions, which proved to be not to be very helpful. We spotted a cyclist wearing a CUC 2006 short and followed him instead. Sure enough, we soon found ourselves headed into the parking lot at Saint Mary University's Huskies Stadium.

Walking through the parking lot into the gate, a few of us realised we didn't have our player cards to gain entrance - but no matter, we weren't just spectators for this one, they had to let us in. We breezed through the gate with an air of "we're on the list...". Once in, we found ourselves opposite the stands, across the field where the Open Final was taking place (GOAT from Toronto was in the process of cruising to victory over Montreal's Mephisto). None of the other carloads had yet arrived and we had time to kill. Some pre-game washroom visits and scoping out the GAIA merch tent helped pass the time. We eventually found our way to the stands but did not last long there; the rest of our team had shown up. We filed down to a spot opposite the field and started a warmup.

The stadium setting made things a bit difficult for us during the warmup, with limited space. Some cramped warmup running drills and stretching, followed by close-in throwing drills. No room for the usual box drill or Seattle (or for this tournamnet, 'Sackville', naturally) as the other field was being used... first for the remainder of the Open Final (GOAT won, 17-?), then for a poorly conceived hucking contest that pushed back our start time several minutes. Finally the field cleared and we launched into a short Seattle drill. Even from the warmup, it was clear the intensity was there for the final. The game itself would start shortly.

Game Nine - The Final. Well, pull out all the cliches, because this was the big one. The game we were here for. Last of the tournament, and as fara as Chaos went, the season. Many of our players had played in games this big, or bigger - those on the team who had won Nationals in '03 went on to Worlds, where the played in the finals there - bu for a substantial part of the tea, this was the biggest game by far we had ever played. The national championship on the line, and a few thousand spectators there to watch. I tried to put the magnitude of the game aside and just play it - a quiet acknowledgement to the Winnipeg fans as our name and city was announced, and then back to focusing on the game.

We started receiving on offense, and worked it patiently for a number of passes before giving up a turn. Camelot capitalised and we were already down a break. Wecame back and scored next possession on O. I was in on D, and we got a turn while I was focused on my mark. On offence, I made a cut... got open... caught it for a gain. Looking around, a handler was making a berkelely cut. My nerves caught up with me and I floated a tentative pass behind her, which was easily D'd. Nevertheless, we got the D back and had the disc. I made a virtually cut and catch but this time delived the following pass perfectly. We worked it up and scored, now leading 2-1. Now back on serve, we played more disciplined offence but could not convert breaks on defence, as the teams traded points. The specifics of the game are a blur to me now, save for a few personal notes - a botched D on a long huck to a player who did not look like he should be so fast for his age; a successful strike to the goalline, followed by my panicking for 8 stalls, finally finding an open dump who then threw for the score; a weird foul where I kicked a player in the hand on a huck, then pretty much convinced him to call a foul after the fact. We kept battling until we were at 8-7; half would be at 9 due to the game to 17 for the final. Camelot came back to score on a huge layout by one of their women which the whole crowd applauded. Next point would be half, whoever scored... our offence held on and we took half, 9-8.

As always we gathered at our sideline for a huddle. We were playing well to this point, aside from a few early game jitters. The intensity was high, and this was something we wantred to maintain. We knew that Camelot would keep coming second half. They had been down in games before and came to play when it counted. We ended the huddle with a cheer - double loud! - and turned to the field to play the second half. Unfortunately the field was still in use, for another huck competition (this time the women... the men had gone before the game) so again we had to wait for the game to get going. The decision to hold the competition during halftime - during games at all, realy - was one of the poorer ones of the tourney organisers.

Eventually we got to the line for a pull to start the half. We started on D with the disc going to Camelot. They worked it up and scored that possession. 9-9. We were still on serve and receiving... but turned it over the next point and found ourselves down 10-9, first time trailing since early in the game. Our O got a clutch point to tie it at 10's. After this, though, something went awry. Camelot scored on their next point - no big deal, to be expected. But then we blew our next chance on O, now were trailing 12-10. And one more time, we failed to convert starting with the disc, and trailed 13-10. Cap went on, game to 15. Finally we snapped the streak and scored to cut the gap to two. Then another turnover and a score on a weird point where the scoring player didn't realise until several seconds later the observer was signalling her in... no matter, we were now just down one. The next point saw Camelot methodically work the disc downfield to the goalline and then a score as my player threw a breakforce hammer over my head, pulled down for a goal. 14-12, game point. As cap was on, we would need three in a row to win. Our O line received the disc and worked it up from our end... but then a heartbreaking drop on a routine pass, and it was Camelot's disc. We scrambled back on defence to prevent the quick conversion... but the kill was not to be had. A pass up the line into the endzone to a receiver with a few steps on our player... Camelot pulled it in, and with it, the national championship. Our hearts sank with the realisation it was over, and not in our favour. Earlier in the tournament we would have been ecstatic with a second place finish, but we had already had at least that wrapped up since Saturday evening, and the loss was disappointing no matter what our finish. We shook hands and returned to the sidelien to mull over the game and wrap up the season. We accepted our second place medals (no fancy ceremony... we had to convice the medal bearer to place them around our necks individually rather than just leaving them for us in a bag on the grounds) and then sort of dispersed... A few stuck around for a bit of the women's final, which was by all acounts a great game, but we ended up leaving early for one final team activity - dinner and drinks at the billets, which we had planned to do, win or lose, since the day before. Dinner was great and the team partied long into the night, a last hurrah before we would return to Winnipeg on Monday. Partying was never a weak point for Chaos, one of the things I love about the team.

In the weeks since the final I've had a chance to reflect on what went wrong, and why it slipped away. Certainly the poorly planned halftime show didn't help, it let halftime drag on way too long and helped our momentum and intensity fizzle out. But the other team had to deal with that too, so we can't really blame that for failing to bring it in the second half. Perhaps a larger factor was our smalling roster and short bench. After eight and a half games, many of our key players were hurting from fatigue, cramping and rough play by certain opposing players and teams. While the will was there to storm back and reclaim the game, the physical ability to do so was not quite there. We were not at our best on Sunday, period. With a few better choices and making a few plays we didn't, the win still might have been there, though. Perhaps it is best to look back on it as a learning experience, the same way our initial loss to MHUC refocused us for the rest of the tournament. And second place is nothing to be ashamed of. Something that can be improved on, for sure, and something I'll keep in mind for next year. Just eight months till spring practices start. Looking forward to playing with the team next year. If it's anything like this summer, it'll be a blast.

Nationals Recap – Day 3

Playoffs for the Mixed division began well into the afternoon on Saturday, as opposed to first thing Thursday and just after noon on Friday. This was fine with us; we were finding we were playing better as the day wore on, perhaps not surprising given the 2-hour time difference between Halifax and Winnipeg. As with the previous days, it was sunny and pleasantly warm. However the wind had picked up significantly. Any points scored upwind would be huge.

Game 7: The playoffs begin. Our quarterfinal placed us against Zen Asylum from Toronto. Zen was affiliated with Bombing Madd Fatties as effectively the B and A squads, respectively, from Toronto. In theory at least, this should be an easier matchup than our game against BMF on Friday, but we weren’t looking past them yet. And additionally, I was a little apprehensive about how the game might play out, given our experiences in the game with BMF. Undoubtedly Zen Asylum had heard all about it.

We started out on offence going downwind, and scored in short order. Next point on D, we generated some turns and pushed fairly far against the wind a few times, but could not quite capitalise and Zen ended up scoring eventually. The next several points were struggles – the wind was significant enough to be a definite advantage for the team attacking downwind, but not quite strong enough to make reckless hucks a viable strategy. We traded a few downwind and then Zen managed a break upwind. As the first upwind point, this was huge for them, and earlier in the season we might have folded – I recall we lost a few in Regina in similar fashion. However no one got down on the team this time – we stayed focus and upped te drive a little bit more, which paid off with an upwind point of our own to get back on serve. Before half we got another upwind to tilt the advantage decidedly in our favour. By the time we reached half we were already in cap, and now with Zen Asylum up against a wall. They never capitulated, but couldn’t break us and we traded a few downwinders to win 9-5.

The celebrations were brief as we had to switch fields and play our semi immediately. Our next opponent would be the winner of the matchup between Gecko and Rip. Given the performances on Friday it looked pretty sure Gecko would be going through – they were quite confident of themselves with solid play on Thursday and Friday, their only loss being a close game against top-seeded Camelot. However as we walked towards the field there seemed to be a lot of familiar Rip jerseys among the players on the field. As I walked up to the first player I asked in slight amazement “You guys took Gecko?” “Yep.” “Nice job!” Perhaps I was letting my elation show, seeing as we now had a matchup that looked quite favourable – we had easily handled Rip just a day before. But before the game, we were reminded this would be a very different game than on Friday. Rip obviously had come to play when it counted.

Game 8: Last step to the final. Again, we started out by jumping to an early but tenuous lead. The wind at this field was more sheltered, so while we scored an early upwind point, it didn’t mean much. A few plays later we lost this advantage and were tied at 3’s. We got back on track with a score on offence, then a few on D for a chance to open up a lead at 7-3. With one more score we could take half and really look to put them away. However they weren’t ready to roll over and pushed back, playing disciplined offence and capitalising on our miscues to storm back to 7-6. We refocused in time to take half, 8-6. As with the previous game, cap was in effect early – game to 10. We took a quick half and then back into the game. The lapse at the end of the first half was over and we were putting our all into finishing the game. We scored another on a huge sky in the endzone, which Rip countered with a score of their own. At our next chance we worked it methodically to within striking distance of the endzone, then a somewhat ambitious put… read perfectly and hauled in for a score. GAME OVER! We were going to finals! The team exploded onto the field in celebration. We’d been rushing the field all tournament but this time it was just instinct. Hard to explain the feeling or the general atmosphere, but everyone was in a pretty good space right then. Looking at the pictures later, the grins on the faces are more than evident.

We had a quick chat afterwards about the tournament so far… everyone obviously was very pleased, and we were pleasantly surprised with how the team seemed to be gelling at just the right time. We had already shown a lot of intensity, grit – heart, basically – and it was manifesting itself in a run to the final. Not to get too self-congratulatory, though, we hadn’t actually won the tournament yet, there was still a game to be played tomorrow. We were to take care of ourselves (and each other) until then – go to the Saturday night party if you want (this year hosted at the Citadel, towering over downtown – very cool location), but there’s a curfew, and don’t drink too much. I was singled out as the one to keep an eye one – evidently I hadn’t lived down my ’slow as ass’ performance on the Sunday at MUDI. We went back to the billets for a pasta dinner, got a bit dressed up and made a showing at the party, enjoyed a beer or two each, and headed back.

I went to bed, anticipating the final. With every vision of every play I might make, my adrenaline rose just a bit. Somehow though, I got to sleep, visions of layout Ds dancing in my head. Tomorrow, the biggest game of my ultimate career so far.

Nationals Recap – Day Two

Friday saw the initial four pools reshuffled into three: the top 3 from each pool were lumped into two larger pools of six teams, while the last place teams were grouped together to battle for the basement. We had emerged on top of Pool C with the best points differential among the 3 teams at 2-1, followed by Hammerhead and MHUC. We joined the top three teams from Pool B: Here to Pickup, an improbable group of players (not sure exactly what portion were actual pickups) who had eked out 3rd in the pool over the hometown squad, Rip Tide; Rip from Montreal, who had finished 2nd; and the top Ontario team, Bombing Madd Fatties, who had cruised to a 3-0 record on day one. We would play those three teams in that order, and our results from MHUC and Hammerhead would be carrier over to determine our pool finish.

Game 4: Looking for that killer instinct. We opened up strong against Here to Pickup, scoring several unanswered points. They were probably the weakest team we had faced at the tournament (unsurprising as they were ranked 15th going in). I believe we had 5 or 6 points before they scored… ending what was a realistic shot at a shutout. We scored a few more to take half 8-1. Pretty satisfied with the lead, we came out flat after half and let them pick up a few more points here or there… at one point I think they went on a 3 or 4 point run. Our substantial lead was being cut into and we didn’t seem to have the drive to just end it… we were looking to the hard cap to end the game for us. Eventually we did manage to score the 15th point and end the game, but nearly at hard cap. Final score was 15-8. We had only tied the second half. Not as humiliating as our loss to MHUC, but it certainly served as a reminder – we need to take all teams seriously and finish them when we have the chance. Little time to linger on that, though – the next game would start shortly.

Game 5: Another must-win. Our second game was against Rip, the second team from Montreal. I recalled last year we had played them and destroyed them 15-1. But I was expecting they’d be stronger this year. They had finished 3rd at Quebec regionals – ahead of MHUC – and were seeded 7th. Hard to know what to expect, but we did know this was a big game – we’d need it to ensure a spot in quarters, as we couldn’t count on a win versus BMF, nor could we count on squeaking into quarters with a 2-3 record (the win against the lowest team is dropped from the record) like we did last year. Knowing this, we came out motivated and again took an early lead. With the last game fresh in our minds, we were determined not to let them back into the game – especially since they were a better team and could be dangerous with some momentum. We surged to a 10-1 lead before trading out to win 13-4. I had one of my better games scoring three memorable points – toeing the line to stay in the endzone while grabbin a pass that never crossed the goal line; pulling down a wayward pass that was intended for one of our women cutting at the front of the endzone; and a diving grab of a quickly falling hammer just inches off the ground. I also recall getting skied by a receiver a few inches shorter than me for one of their only points… not a bad game on the whole though.

Game 6: Game of the tournament (so far). Following a bye we would face our toughest opponent yet - second-seeded Bombing Madd Fatties for Toronto. They had been having a solid year so far, winning a few tournaments and were nearly undefeated against all other qualifying teams, the only exception being a narrow 15-13 loss against Camelot in a previous tourney final. This would not be an easy game. The first point would set the tone, in a way I did not expect. Cutting deep, I was thrown a pass that went up the sideline and out of bounds, curving back in but perhaps slightly underthrown. While running up the line trying to take the disc at the earliest point while still in bounds, my defender cut underneath and out of bounds, swiped at the disc but merely tipped it, and I was able to catch the wobbly disc just outside the endzone and then throw from a score. As I was being congratulated, a player on their team (not on the field for the point) started arguing – the defender was out of bounds, thus the disc was out, no point. I knew for a fact that a defensive touch in itself would not make the disc out of bounds, and argued back emphatically (talking about it later, my teammates told me they’ve never seen me that fired up). When he didn’t just drop it, I shot back: “No! That’s a point. I’m getting the rule book! That’s a point!” and sprinted across the field to my bag for my rule book. Apparently he let it go at that point. Some of the more experienced players assured me that that was just this guy’s way of playing – trying to get under our skin. This would be made more than apparent later.

Following this first point the Fatties ended up scoring on offence, then getting a break for a 2-1 lead. We countered with a 2-point run to take a 3-2 lead ourselves. It was clear this would be a dogfight. Sometime arounf the middle of the first half (tied at 3s or 4s, I think), one of our handlers sent a huck to one of our women cutting long; the disc hung a bit short and she went up for it but was fouled on the reception attempt. The girl covering her emphatically contested the foul, though it looked quite legitimate from the rest of our vantage points. There was some heated discussion which was quickly joined by the player who I had argued with over the first point. Despite the fact he was 50 yards away from the foul he seemed quite determined it was a bogus call, and let us know loudly. “I hope your mother’s proud of you!” he called to our fouled player as a parting shot before the disc finally went back to thrower and play restarted. We ended up scoring the point and taking the lead again. We maintained a slim lead until taking half 8-6.

Second half picked up with the same intense play as the first. We fought hard and through a lot of contact – resulting in may fouls and other stoppages – to protect our meagre lead. Time was quickly winding down, no doubt a factor of the number of calls, and the game was capped at 11. Just a few more points for the win. Late in the game, and with stakes rising, the intensity that had been building finally reached a boiling point following a few more calls. It started when one of their players intercepted one of our passes, and the dropped it – it certainly looked intentional to us – before landing. Should be a double turn, we argues, but they ended up keeping possession. They picked up the disc and hucked for a score – no, wait, travel, they did not play it from where it went out following the ‘drop’. Back to thrower and a do-over, this time a turnover. We worked it up the line and hucked… intercepted… but there was a foul on the throw. The player who intercepted the pass was none other than the hothead who had been jawing at us all game. Upon hearing the foul call he turned around and in a show of frustration whipped the disc back to thrower as hard as he could. His aim was off however and the disc shot into the stands, hitting my wife in the head as she was bent down looking for something in her bag. Naturally, we were pissed. Our captain went over to talk to the hothead. However his request to talk to him was met with an emphatic “Fuck you!” then turned to walk away. Our captain was fed up at this point and gave the guy a stiff two-handed shove in the back. Fortunately things quickly settled without escalating further, but it was clear the teams would not end the game on good terms. Now it’s personal! We eventually returned to the game and scored a huge point for a 10-8 lead. Next point could win it. The next point, however, would be a marathon with hard defence by both teams, many turnovers, and two of our players leaving the field with minor injuries. At some point the hard cap horn went on but no one seemed to notice or care. We were still fighting hard for the point. Eventually BMF worked it up and sent a big break throw into the endzone to my mark, who scored… I had barely enough energy to cover the force side. BMF stormed the field, but it didn’t matter… the game was effectively over once the hard cap horn had gone. 10-9, Chaos wins.

It was a huge victory and despite our 3rd seed, looked like a pretty big upset. Moreover, it meant we finished first in the pool and would have the 2nd seed overall (Camelot was still undefeated) for playoffs. We would be taking on the 7th seed to get into semis. And after that, who knows? Right now, we could beat anybody.

Nationals recap – Day One

First day of the tourney saw us up bright and early for our first game at 8:30 am. We were in a pool with Hammerhead (Ottawa’s top mixed touring team, seeded 6th), Mauvaise Herbes Ulimate Club (or simply MHUC, from Quebec city, seeded 11th), and Les Polatouches (‘The Flying Squirrels’, from Sherbrooke, Quebec, seeded 14th). Our schedule was MHUC, Polatouches, a bye, than Hammerhead. An early warmup, and we were right into it.

Game one: too early to get upset? The start of the game saw us take an early lead and get on serve, but not much else. MHUC kept it close with decent play (and a whole lotta calls, some sketchy), while we just didn’t seem to have anything special to offer. Cuts weren’t reliably open, throws were off, defence was at times uninspired. We limped to half with a thin lead. After half MHUC seemed a bit resurgent and finally took the lead – just barely – up on serve. We traded several points – and finally the hard cap went on, just before a point we scored to tie it at 11s. Next point wins! We got the D, but turned it back. MHUC worked it up, sent a pass up the line into the endzone… and scored. Ugh. We just lost to the 11th ranked team (checking the results, this appears to be the upset of the tournament in terms of both initial seedings and final rankings. Ouch.). Nonetheless, not too much time to get down on ourselves. Next game would start right away.

Game two: confidence building. While MHUC and Polatouches had come in the #4 and #5 seeds from Quebec, there was clearly a large gap between the two teams in talent and spirit, Polatouches were clearly a ‘fun’ team, highly spirited but not the greatest athletes. The game was a lot more fun, both because there were far fewer calls and spirit was far better, and because we were winning. While we never delivered the knockout punch we could have (and should have) been able to deliver, the game was never really in question. I nearly got a Callahan early on, but couldn’t get a handle on the disc as I laid out in front of the intended receiver (damn sunscreen! I would later resort to using a lot of chalk the rest of the tourney). We scored on one pass afterward, but still one of the things that haunts me afterwards. I did later score on a short cut from a handler position and kinda spiked the disc – I immediately regretted it as Polatouches just weren’t the kind of team to spike on. We finished up 10-5, and then played some team games that were pretty fun. Polatouches wished us luck and continued on. They would lose all their games on Thursday, but still finished ahead of their seed at 12th. Good guys, the Polatouches.

Game three: Game of the day. Our 1-1 record was looking not too inspiring at this point and I was apprehensive about the next game. Another loss would make things difficult. We had already lost to the 11th seed, and our win over the 14th seed, was not impressive. Now we were playing the 6th seed – on paper, we are in trouble. Fortunately, games are not played on paper.

Following the bye in which we checked out the merch tent and the Winnipeg Flood master’s game, we got back into a warmup and prepared for Hammerhead. This was a big game – a must-win. Anything other than a win would make things very difficult – perhaps even deny us the quarterfinals then and there. We were made aware of the imporntance of the game, and got underway. First point we threw on a ‘zone to half’, which ended up getting the turn before we switched out of zone. I went long for a pass that floated – I read it OK, but got slammed into by the defender coming up behind me as I went up for the disc. Foul! Contested… back to thrower, but we scored a few throws later. Next play, we threw on another zone, and the player who fouled me previously threw a low pass through the cup that whisked off the ground. A challenge by one of our players… and he let the turnover stand. Perhaps feeling guilty for the contest on the previous play? Whatever it was, we were up 2-0. We got another break for a score, 3-0. Then 4-0. They finally scored after we got 4 or 5, but we continued the run thereafter. Big plays by O and D. We were looking better than we had all season. 8-1 at half. The usual drow the puppy speech. We were looking for blood and for the points differential to lock up first place. I think a figure of a 10-point win is tossed out sometime at or after half. No mercy.

Second half Hammerhead is out stronger, but we are hanging with them. 9-1. One of their players makes a spectacular layout D for a Callahan. Could be a rallying point… It’s not. We keep rolling. They get a few points in. We get more. I even score a couple… one on a nice cross-field swing when I was massively poached, another on a layout in the endzone, the latter for a 14-4 lead and game point. We once again send down the zone that had confounded them, and it pays off… with a Callahan of our own. Beautiful exclamation point on a convincing and very satisfying win. 15-4, and first in our pool. Who would have though after our first game. Now we were thinking of ourselves as contenders. Still three days to play, but we were looking forward to it.

Nationals recap – pre-tournament

At last, mid August had arrived and the much anticipated trip to Halifax was upon us. We were heading out early to get acclimatised and enjoy a few days in and around town while we were out there. We were being billeted for a full week by some players people knew who had lived in Winnipeg previously, so we were planning to set up there, see the city, so some touristy stuff, relax, and prepare for the biggest tourney of the year.

Despite the saying, getting there, this time anyway, was not half the fun. The flight out that I was on along with my wife and one of our Trogdor teammates was cancelled, and we were redirected to another flight that was just about to leave as we were checking in. Not surprisingly, some of our luggage didn’t make it with us (luckily it did later that night, it was delivered to our billets just before 11 pm). Note to anyone flying to a tournament – pack your cleats in carry-on!

Aside from that we got there OK (aside from getting lost in Sackville on the way from the airport – Sackville would naturally become one of the running jokes for the week), and met up at the billets with our teammates who had taken an earlier flight. Our billets – I cannot stress this enough – were the BEST BILLETS EVER, constantly one-upping all previous billets, and themselves, with their hospitality and support. They were a couple who had previously lived in Winnipeg, then moved to Calgary before moving to Halifax. One of them, I had forgotten, was on my team for Disc Odyssey three years ago, my first ever out-of-town tournament. Aside from putting us up (or should that be putting up with us) in their spacious suburban home, they kept us well-fed, entertained, and were hugely supportive of us on and off the field (as volunteers at the tourney, one of them later complained when he had to scorekeep at one of our games as he wouldn’t be able to cheer for us) – even took pictures and made us a custom photo DVD to remember the weekend by. I doubt we’ll ever get billets who can match Dave and Jenine, or even come close. Like I said before: Best. Billets. Ever.

Anyway for a short recap of what went on before the tourney start: A slow start Monday night as most of us were exhausted from the flight in; Tuesday a tour of the Keith’s Brewery, which was entertaining but not ultimately satisfying on the amount of beer supplied; more than making up for this on Tuesday night, with some heavy drinking at the billets, resulting in some embarrassing incidents recounted later, plus a stubbed toe which would bother me for the rest of the tournament; a short practice, followed by a day touring the city on Wednesday; many hearty meals of Nova Scotia seafood and other delectables. Good times.

Now, wasn’t there something else…? Oh yes, we were there for a tournament… going in seeded 3rd of 16 teams, behind Camelot of Montreal and Bombing Madd Fatties of Toronto, both of which had looked impressive in pre-Nationals touring. How would we do? We would see, starting Thursday morning.

Saskatoon Recap

Before I get to my Nationals recap it occurs to me I have been remiss in doing one for Disc Odyssey in Saskatoon. So, just a quick one…

Competitive division this year had 5 teams, and almost all were the same as last year when we finshed 3rd. They were, in order we played them, Psychoplastique (Edmonton), Lawn Party (Calgary), Jebus (Calgary), Syndicate (Regina) and Prairie Snatch (Saskatoon).

Saturday we had 4 games. We started flat our first game and went down to Pyschoplastique by a score of 9-2. Our second game against Lawn Party was an improvement, but not enough of one, and they played a very strong game to defeat us by another 9-2 score. Next game was a must-win against Jebus. We finally clicked and won decisively, though the final score escapes me. Finally we played Syndicate in a grudge match from the Regina Riot final. Just like that game, we took a 3-1 lead early… but saw it slip away and we trailed by half. While we didn’t roll over like we did in the Riot final, we never fully recovered and lost by several points.

Not completely down on ourselves, we knew we had one last pool play game Sunday morning to get ourselves in position for semis. We made an appearance at the Saturday night party – several of us went along with Porn-Oh from the rec side, who as always impressed and apparently ended up winning the party with a solid showing and a late exit. Chaos, however, didn’t stick around too late as we had work to do the next morning.

Sunday morning was our last round-robin game, versus regional rivals Prairie Snatch from Saskatoon. They were’t going to nationals this year, but were nonetheless solid. This was a must-win game – we needed it to make semis, and besides our pride was on the line. We do not lose to Prairie Snatch.

Again we got up early, 3-1. They rallied and tied, 3-3, we traded until they went up a break, and they proceeded to take half 7-6. A bit shaken, we regrouped at half. The first half was done – put it out of our minds. Resolving to focus on the now and treat every point as a game to one, we came out swinging second half. Scored the first point easily on O. The a D, and another score. Two more breaks and we were rolling – 10-7. At this point the game got a bit sloppy, but with some huge plays by our big-game players we finally took the game 12-9. On to semis.

The semifinal saw us up against Lawn Party, the team everyone loves to hate but always the favourite to win at these tourneys. We played a much stronger game than in our first matchup, but Lawn Party was as usual a tough opponent. I don’t recall much in the way of specifics but our intensity was high and made them fight for every point, while scoring more than a few ourselves. Final was 15-9 but it seemed much closer. Lawn party went on to win the final over Psychoplastique, 15-8.

No one wanted to play for 3rd so we finished tied with Syndicate. Not a spectacular result, but we were pleased with the effort shown on Sunday. The intensity and drive were there, and Lawn Party was a team as good, if not better, than we would see at Nationals – a close loss to them was as good as a win over a lesser team. Could it be we were finally hitting our stride before Nationals? Two weeks and we would find out.

Best Holiday Ever

As I write this it s less than one week away from my favourite holiday in the whole year. It’s the basis for the August long weekend, the holiday observed to some degree and under various names across most of the country, known here in Manitoba as simply Civic Holiday. A holiday for its own sake, which is just what I like about it.

The origins of Civic Holiday are as inspiring as the holiday itself – borne of pragmatism and devoid of any artificially imposed meaning. The holiday was originally conceived by Toronto City Council in 1869 as a summer “day of recreation”, and in 1875 settled on the first Monday in August, which it remains today. The holiday was not proclaimed provincially (hence the name) but soon spread to other municipalities in Ontario and eventually most of the rest of Canada. Since then, the name and purpose of the holiday has been corrupted in many places. It is British Columbia Day, Saskatchewan Day, and New Brunswick Day in those provinces; Heritage Day in Alberta; Natal Day in Nova Scotia and PEI; and in Ontario various municipalities have renamed it based on local history, even in Toronto where it originated it is now known as Simcoe Day. And alas, it is not recognised at all in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, and Yukon. However in Manitoba, NWT, Nunavut, and much of Ontario, the holiday maintains its original, meaningless yet inspired nomenclature.

So what is it I like about it? It’s a day off, no strings attached. Pretty much every other holiday has some sort of meaning or tradition attached to it that limits the enjoyment. Even if it’s something trivial or no longer relevant, if the holiday is in honour of something, or requires some sort of observance, that detracts even if very slightly from the pure joy of not having to work. Here is what is wrong with every other holiday:

New Year’s Day – obligation to make plans to go out New Year’s Eve and inflated expectations of having a great time, always leaves me feeling a little unsatisfied. The holiday itself is then used for getting over a hangover and making New Year’s resolutions. Bah.
Valentine’s Day – not a day off. Totally commercialised. Forced sappy romanticism. Lame.
Flag Day – not a day off. No one cares about it. Nothing happens.
St. Patrick’s Day – not a day off. Usually a contrived conflagration of drinking and Irish heritage that doesn’t do justice to either. Case in point: green beer.
Good Friday – Don’t go out and have fun because Jesus died today, many years ago. For your sins. Feel guilty about having a good time. Everything is closed. Don’t even try to have fun.
Easter Monday – Not everyone gets a day off. Inevitable family obligations on the Sunday, little chance to just enjoy the time off.
Victoria Day – named after an old dead queen, effectively celebrating the monarchy and British imperialism. Supposedly the unofficial start of summer, but the weather often doesn’t agree.
Canada Day – celebrating our nation, not a bad thing in itself but too easily co-opted by fake beer-commercial patriotism and the like. Not always on a weekend. Fireworks are usually lame.
Labour Day – a day off work, basically celebrating the achievements of the labour movement who fought so that we can have things like days off, 40-hour work weeks, living wages, decent working conditions, etc. Almost makes me feel guilty for enjoying the day off. Plus, it’s the unofficial end of summer, which is kinda depressing.
Thanksgiving – family obligations. Too much food. Starting to get cold out.
Remembrance Day - Don’t go out and have fun because a bunch of people fought and died in wars, many years ago. For your freedom, etc. (or due to some complicated geopolitical reasons driven by the global elite that don’t really affect us in a meaningful way – but that’s beside the point). Feel guilty about having a good time. Everything is closed. Don’t even try to have fun.
Christmas Eve – I only get a half day off. Boo.
Christmas – ridiculously commercialised. Build-up is way too long. Christmas shopping sucks. Numerous family obligations including the extended family, pretty much eating up all spare time for weeks. Overrated.
Boxing Day – if I’m lucky, a chance to unwind after Christmas. But there’s generally so much Christmas stuff it spills over. God help me if I have to go to a mall on Boxing Day.

So there’s my list of complaints (mind you, I wouln’t give up any of those days off even with a few shortcomings). Civic Holiday, on the other hand, is just pure enjoyment, with a long weekend every year, generally nice weather, and nothing to think about. The perfect holiday.

So what am I doing this weekend? As always, heading out to Saskatoon for the annual Disc Odyssey tournament, which also happens to be my favourite tourney of the year. But that’s for another post.