Touring summary 2006

Well, I’ve tallied up the final numbers and looks like 2006 was a groundbreaking year for me in terms of ultimate touring. I hit 11 tournaments in total (not including some minor local hat tourneys), more than any other year and possibly more than I’ll have a chance to go to in future years. Actually it came close to doubling the number of real tournaments I’ve gone to (and if only out of town tourneys are counted, 2006 accounts for more than half). Here’s the tourney by tourney summary:

(Tournament, location, team, , finish W-L) (Note: formatting editted from earlier post)

Fools Fest, Lawrence KS, DingWop, ?-teenth, 1-5

Boh-down, Regina SK, Winnipeg, 1st, 6-1

Beat the Skeeters, Winnipeg MB, Slim Jim, 2nd, 3-2

Riot, Regina SK, Chaos, 2nd, 3-3

MUDI, Maple Plain MN, Chaos, T-3rd, 5-1

Flatlands, Winnipeg MB, Chaos Men, 2nd, 4-3

Disc Odyssey, Saskatoon SK, Chaos, T-3rd, 2-4

Canadian Ultimate Champtionships, Halifax NS, Chaos, 2nd, 7-2

Northwest Plains Regionals, Maple Plain MN, General Strike, 3rd, 7-2

Central Regionals, Naperville IL, General Strike, 6th, 3-3

Hallowinona, Winona MN, Anarchy, T-5th, 5-1

So: 6 open tourneys, 5 mixed; 5 with Chaos, 6 with other teams; finishes ranging from who-knows-what at Fools Fest with DingWop in decidedly preseason form to first in Regina with a thrown together men’s team… and three second-place finishes, most notably at Canadian Nationals. Not too shabby. Overall my teams’ combined record was 46-27. I was pretty happy with my teams’ play on the whole and while my personal performance and contribution varied from tourney to tourney, I was pretty happy with my own progress as well. I’m a little less self-conscious thinking of myself as an ‘elite’ player now… at least when it comes to taking advantage of the elite player discount at Gaia. No delusions of being an impact player in the UPA or CUPA open divisions, but I’ll take being a decent mixed player. Definitely the division I fit best with and enjoy playing the most.

One other thing – while I was tallying the tournament totals I also decided to calculate the total distance travelled, just for kicks… the total was pretty surprising. In all, accounting for road and air travel (and not accounting for intra-city travel, just city-to-city), I travelled over 19,600 km… about 5,450 km by air (all for nationals) and the other 14,150+ km by road (and about 11,500 km in our own car… yikes). It’s a fair distance in itself – about 400 km short of the distance from the North Pole to the South Pole, to give you an idea – but when I thought of it in time, it seems even larger. Considering just the road travel, at an average of 100 km/h that makes over 140 hours…. Equivalent to three and a half weeks of work. In a car. With me driving at least half the time. And I’m not getting paid for it… actually I’m paying at least a share of the costs. But of course – it’s worth it. I hope I can spend as much travelling to tourneys next year.

Hallowinona Recap

Oh dear. It has been over a week and half since the tourney and I have yet to write a recap. Well the time for procrastination is over! So much to cover though and I don’t feel like writing another rambling post. So, looks like a time for the great crutch of the writers-block-stricken blogger: point form.

Friday:

- Leave Winnipeg around 1:30 pm. 6 people heading down from the ‘Peg in 2 cars. Meeting the rest in Minny.

- Stop at the Duty Free for some cheap booze. Natch.

- Shortly after the border (and already into the booze), we pass our teammates in the other car. Totally uncoordinated, but something like this always seems to happen on road trips.

- Shortly after that the cap for the raspberry vodka is out the window. Somehow didn’t see that coming.

- Rest of the ride featurs some drunken passengers but was otherwise uneventful. Into Minny a bit before 10. Quick detour to Chipotle and then back to the house. Out of vodka shortly thereafter. Then onto the beer.

- [details missing]

Saturday:

- Get up crazy early (for a weekend anyway) as it’s still 2.5 hours to Winona.

- Oddly, hardly any hangover. Not the case for certain other teammates though…

- McD’s for breakfast on the way out. Mmm, biscuit and egg sandwiches. Tournament weekends aren’t for healthy eating.

- Nice drive out to Winona. Only about 2 hours too long for a Saturday morning.

- Get to the fields just in time for the 10 am start. Of course, not like it’ll actually start then.

- Extended warmup. Finally, both teams are ready to go. Game on.

- First game: Winona State Alums. A bunch of DingWoppers pick up. Like us, they are also playing with a few women.

- Winona alums can’t seem to complete more than a few passes. We don’t turn it over for te first several points. Off to a big lead.

- Eventually, they start to connect, but not before the game gets outta hand.

- I sky the hell out of the girl who was covering me on a deep strike. Am told not to cut deep anymore.

- Next point, the same girl scores when I blow y coverage in zone. Karma?

- Anyway, we cruise to victory, 13-5 or something. Next: DingWop.

- But wait, they’re not DingWop today, they’re Wizard’s Quest. Complete with full costumery. Awesome.

- We open a small lead early, but they claw back second half. Game starts to get tight, but still fun.

- After they tie at 12’s soft cap is on – game to 14.

- We score on a long sloppy point to make it 13-12, but they claw back for the next one. 13-13, universe point.

- We receive to start, but it hardly matters. Lotsa turns on the last point. Finally we get it back and score. Great finish.

- Anecdotally, I have a 5-0 record vs. DingWop this year.

- Next slot: bye. We get some free burgers, check out the merch tent (Gaia is representing… sweet tourney to he field, watch an absolutely ridiculous and entertaining game between two drunken teams (WSU Alums and Sedated Catfish). Highlight: Clennon from DingWop, picking up with Catfish, goes for a score whilst carrying around a milk jug full of beer, lays out, catches the disc, rolls once, stands up. No beer is spilled. Spectacular.

- Finally out third game: Winona State. College team, actually look serious. This could be a real game.

- Stiff upwind-downwind breeze had picked up by this point.

- We go on a bit of a run to start with an upwinder. They battle back and get one upwind as well. Game is tied with us on serve.

- For about the next 10 points, neither team scores upwind. We get close a few times but can’t convert. They are having even less luck against the wind.

- Finally at about 11-10 we work it upwind and punch it in. Just one more downwind for the win, and we get it. Hard fought 13-10 win.

- Man, still one more game?

- Yes. But they’ve pretty much drunk themselves out of the tourney by now. We agree to a quick game to 7.

- Horribly sloppy game. We open a lead early, then try a bunch of goofy stuff (designated scorer etc.) to make it a challenge.

- I play absolutely horribly pretty all game, playing down to their level. Afterwards am asked if I am still drunk. Unfortunately, I am not.

- Meanwhile, the other team has managed to get back into it, 5-4. Yikes!

- We buckle down a bit and start trying. I get a layout block. Finally, something useful.

- We convert for the game winner. Finally, done.

- Back to the hotel to shower. Then out for dinner. Service is terribly slow. Food is OK though.

- Back to the hotel, which is full of drunk ulti players. Will we actually make it to the party this year? Decision seems to be on hold. Drinking starts.

- Finally we decide to make a go if it… but these plan are quickly shot down when it turns out the party is full. Drinking recommences. Also, poker. I suck and lose quickly. I blame the beer.

- More drinking.

- [details missing]


Sunday:

- Wake up at 9:45. Games start in 15 minutes! Oh wait… time change. Yay daylight savings!

- Pack quickly, as we’ll be leaving from the fields.

- Breakfast at McD’s again. Steak and egg bagel sounds like a good idea, but isn’t.

- To the fields. First game is against a buncha guys in suits, who won the right to play in from the B bracket.

- Guys in suits are not good at ulti. That is pretty much a general rule.

- What more do I need to say about this game? Final was about 13-5.

- Lotsa time to kill before the next game. Hmmm.

- Someone asks if anyone has any beer. I have a few in my bag I packed from last night…

- Beer seems like a good idea. I’ll have one too. We have lots of time.

- Other people also agree beer is a good idea. Rest of the beers get pulled out.

- "Hey, let’s drink a disc!” People are full of good ideas now.

- We drink a disc.

- Now we are out of beer. This causes a panic. What, beer stores are closed on Sundays in Minnesota? Wait, someone has vodka and juice.

- We drink a disc.

- Someone has Jagermeister and Rockstar, which actually taste really good together. We drink that.

- Did I mention that we only had nine players, and two weren’t drinking? Yeah.

- Wait, there IS a keg at the fields today!

- We drink a disc.

- We drink a disc.

- Drunken mac line. Some of our players cannot throw straight. Yikes.

- Other team is there and ready to play. OK, so are we.

- The other team is University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, who appear to be one of those sober, serious college teams. OK then.

- Sloppy play to start, we go down 3-0.

- Finally, we start to play a bit better and stop the bleeding.

- Unfortunately UW-W is a bit too good for our late comeback attampt and we still lose 13-10. They go on to win the tourney.

- Quick post-mortem afterwards (not enough interest to play the 5th place bracket), in which one player observes “it might not have been a good idea to drink like it was the last alcohol on earth”. True, but we still had fun.

- Drives home are never interesting, so won’t write about it.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. Would’ve been nice to repeat our victory from last year, but realistically we weren’t “in it to win it” this year – smaller roster, fewer ‘studs’ and a few women on the roster for an open tournament (who held their own against most teams, mind you) – but as for our goal of having fun, definitely mission accomplished.