Regionals Recap, Part 2

Game 4: Jawbone. Our final game of the first day was against Jawbone from Cleveland, the same team we had watched earlier in their marathon game against DingWop. Our game against them would not be much easier. For one thing, it was the last game of the day, and by this point we were tired and a few players were nursing injuries. The previous game had been mentally and physically exhausting, as we had let them stay with us far too long and barely scraped out a win. And to make matters worse, the game got ugly in a hurry.

First point, Jawbone had the disc and was working slowly upfield. Eventually a player sprung open downfield and a pass was sent into the endzone… a bit off, but catchable. The receiver caught the disc in a falling position, bobbled it, dropped it, then appeared to catch the disc between his thighs off a bounce. Everyone on our team though the disc had touched the ground before the catch. The receiver thought it was up (though during his fall, he had no doubt lost sight of it on impact and had recovered it subsequently). A few of their players initially indicated the disc was down, while others though it was up. The players who though it was down quickly changed their minds. This then devolved into a protracted argument about who had best perspective, and no one was willing to just send the disc back to thrower for a do-over. Finally, we got an observer for the rest of the game. Their first ruling was to send the disc back to thrower and we played on from there.

For the next few points the game was uneventful with the teams trading points. Tempers reached a near-boiling point again however when one of our captains scored, then casually tossed a floaty disc towards his defender. He defender spiked the disc back at him; he picked it up and returned it back. The defender spiked again and walked away… our captain threw another floaty pass that drifted right in front of the defender. Things could have snapped but for the intervention of teammates. The observer gave our captain a warning – any further actions would result in being kicked out of the tourney – and generally both teams behaved after that.

There was still a game to be played, and we managed to open up a lead early and slowly build on it to half and thereafter. Finally we found ourselves at 14-10 and on D – just like last game. Again though, our defence couldn’t close it out. Again, our O line turned it over on their first chance to end the game, and Jawbone pulled within 2. However our O line left us a bit more breathing room this time and closed out the game 15-12.

First day of the tourney was over and we were still in the running for second place. Back to the hotel for some relaxation and a decent night’s sleep. No party at Regionals. The next moring we were up early again and back to the fields for the remainder of our games.

Game 5: Madison. Our first game on Sunday was a rematch against Madison, who had beaten us on universe point in the semifinal at Sectionals. Madison was young and athletic, but we knew we could play with them; it would be great to avenge our sectionals loss. I remembered how much I had detested playing against them the first time and was hoping to draw on that for this game. Unfortunately, we didn’t have it in us on this day. After the first day of the tourney we were down three starters and were hurting particularly on our O line. Meanwhile our defensive line was having trouble keeping up with Madison’s cutters, let alone challenging for D’s. We never folded but never really challenged either, losing about 15-7.

Game 6: Machine. The loss to Madison knocked us out of the second place bracket but we had made it far enough that we were now in triple elimination, and were playing for third. We found ourselves matched up against Machine for the second time this weekend. We had had some success in making things difficult for them the day before, and countered their adjustments with some new ones of our own. It might have worked any other day, but from the start it was clear that Machine had come to play today. First point, my guy broke free on the break side and caught a huge layout for the score. Offensively, we were being pressured more than all weekend and without some key handlers working the disc upfield was difficult. Machine went up 3-0 and kept rolling even as we got a few back. Halftime was 8-4. Second half, Machine kept pouring it on, while we had little left in the tank. At 12-5 we took a timeout; the final outcome by this time was general, but as the captain who called the timeout reminded us, we still could give them a good finish. We owed it to them, and to the teams they would face in the following rounds, to show we came to play. Just win the game to three. The speech worked and we came out with whatever we had left. After a D, I broke free for a long run and ran down the nearly overthrown disc for a score. Gotta love those half field sprints when it means coming up with the disc. We got a few more points back and battled Machine for the rest of the game, eventually going down 15-8. Machine seemed to appreciate our finish, acknowledging it in the post-game handshakes. They went on to take 3^rd in the tourney, beating the hated Madison squad for the last spot to Nationals.

While it was disappointing to end on a couple of losses we could be proud of our performance – 6^th place, apparently the first time a Winnipeg open squad had finished in the top 8 at Regionals. Things are looking good for Strike next year if they can get a similar squad together. As for me… my preference is still to play mixed, and hopefully Chaos is back for next year (I’ve heard rumours that many key players will be playing open/womens next year), but who knows how it’ll turn out.

That’ll do it for competitive touring for me this year. One more tourney on the horizon – Hallowinona at the end of the month – and then it’s just indoor league to tide me over. Hallowinona recap and a postseason roundup to follow.