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.