UPA Finals Update- Day 2 Recap

Nation,

Quick update before a little shut eye. Making the trip to Kingston for Goosebowl early tomorrow.

Bets of luck on day 3!

OPEN

Reason to celebrate and reason to be disappointed if your a Canadian ultimate fan today.

GOAT, whose great season has been largely discounted on many UPA finals hype threads, had another solid day Friday. They lose 15-7 to Johnny Bravo (of Boulder , Colorado), but then take care of the legendary Condors of Santa Barbara 15-10. With this win, Goat moves on to Quarters against Chain Lightning of Atlanta. Thus, the Toronto/Ottawa squad has a realistic shot of making semis, and going further in this tournament than they have every done.

3 time UPA and defending World Champion Furious George looked to rebound from a dismal 0-3 day one. They needed to win both of their games and hope for a bit of luck/fate to get a crossover opportunity for quarters. They did their part, beating Rhino 15-1o and Pike 15-11. Unfortunately, the carry over loss from day one left them in a three way 2-1 tie from Rhino and Truck Stop, and Truck Stop advanced on a tie breaker. Furious is now out of the running for the title and will compete for 9th.

Here is how the Open Quarters shape up

• Johnny Bravo versus Boston Ultimate
• Chain Lightning versus GOAT
• Sockeye versus Truck Stop
• JAM versus Sub Zero

Women's

Bounced out of the power pools, the Capitals of Ottawa/Toronto looked to bounce back and get into the quarters in back door fashion.

Starting the day 1-0, Capitals defeated MOJO 15-8 and then shot the Loose Cannon team 15-4 to finish 3-0 and have a shot at making quarters. Down early to San Diego's Safari, the Capitals came back to win 14-12.

Coming back from weak pool relegation, the Capitals find themselves in the quarter-finals against Riot. This will be a daunting task.

The quarters look like this:

• Fury versus Backhoe
• Lady Godiva versus Ozone
• Riot versus Ozone
• Brute Squad versus Zeitgeist

Given the scores, Fury and Riot look like the absolute class of the division, and anything less than a matchup between these two teams would be a surprise.

Random Thoughts on UPA Finals and the Fourm Posting

-I think picking who is going to win this year in most divisions (except Women's) is a crapshoot. It makes for entertaining ultimate.

-How can there be so many passionate predictions on Ultimate forums? We have zero stats in this sport except win/loss records. Maybe it's the Masters in Sports Management making me a jerk, but how are people writing these predictions/explanations. It's just recycled cliches and myths.

-I think there is way too much mean spirited slagging and coarse language on rec.sport.disc. It's taking over the forums. I love clever quips like the ones found in the CDN Nats preview.. those are gold and everyone can laugh at.

-I think a post after UPA finals should be a discussion on whether Ultimate at the highest level is won by team depth, or by a small group of dominate players.

-For a long time, I have wondered if Furious could win without one of the big guys (Cruickshank, Lugsdin, Grant) being healthy. I wonder if today's 0-3 performance is a signal of things to come, or if it's a blip on the radar.

-I think the Iowa teams have great names.

UPA Finals Update- Day One

Nation,

Just a quick update on the Canadian teams. You can see the complete Results for each division by clicking on the respective link.

Open

Goat has a great day (2-1), taking care of Ring of Fire and The Van Buren Boys. They lose badly to JAM, but ensure a spot in the power pools for Friday. D line player Colin Green reports that he and his GOAT teammates are looking forward to tomorrow's games.

Furious has a surprising 0-3 day, as the last seed in their pool goes 3-0 and takes first in the reseed. I have no idea what happened to our favorite monkeys. Some people are saying on rec.sport.disc that Mike Grant is injured. Others point out to a consistently inconsistent seasons as the foreshadowing of this kind of performance. Scobel Wiggins Photography

Women's

The Capitals of Toronto and Ottawa went 2-1 on day one. They beat Lady Godiva and Box, and lost to Zeitgeist. Good enough to hold seed and move into the power pools right?

Wrong.

Lady Godiva, the same team that offered virtually no competition to the Capitals (losing 15-5 to the Caps) at their own Boston Invite tournament this June, beats the top seed in the pool (Zeitgeist) 16-14 to steal a power pool spot from Capitals. Looks like the storied team from Boston is still a team to be respected.

So, the Capitals must now win at least two games on Friday to get a cross over opportunity. If they win the crossover, they will play the top team from Power Pool E. That means Fury in all likelihood stands between them and semis.

Best of luck to the ladies.

Goosebowl Ultimate Tourney Preview

Nation,

Before I give a Canadian update for UPAs, I wanted to give you information about another tournament in the East- Goosebowl.

Goosebowl is a long standing halloween/costume tournament hosted in Kingston, Ontario by Queens University. It serves as the last major outdoor tourney in this part of Canada. In the past, over 40 teams play some solid ultimate and party hard on the field and at the tournament bar.

This year, the tournament is contracting, reducing the entries to 20 teams. The defending champs that I played with last year will not be returning, but there are plenty of pick up teams full of club players from Ontario, Quebec and upstate New York.

Here are the links for the tournament
Tourney Website
UPA Reporter Link

Due to the nature of the pick up teams, it is hard to determine who is on what team and who will win. However, I will take some guesses and bet the following will be in the semis

• MUPH
• Martha's Downstairs Kitchen
• Above The Law
• Monster

UPA Finals... So Hot Right Now!

Nation,

Best wishes to all participants traveling down to Florida this week.

I have posted polls (to the right) with all divisions/pools posted. Let me know who you think will make the final four for each division.

Here are my picks, pure speculation in the Masters and Mixed divisions.

Masters
DOG and Troubled Past in the finals.
DOG wins

Open
Jam, Sockeye, Furious and GOAT in the semis... dreaming in Canadian Technicolor
Jam and Sockeye in the finals
Sockeye pulls out another UPA victory.

Women's
Fury, Riot, Zeitgeist and Capitals in the Semis
Fury and Zeitgeist in the finals
Fury repeats.

Mixed
Shazam Returns and Slow White in the finals
Slow White wins out.

UPA Regionals Diary of a General Strike Captain

Nation,

I recently talked to Kyle Parker of Winnipeg's General Strike. I thought it would be interesting for viewers to get some thoughts on a Canadian team not named Furious or GOAT making a run at Sarasota.

Obviously upset at the losses at regionals and the absence of Mark Lloyd (Who is the 18 year old Winnipeg prodigy now wearing University of Western Ontario garb, Parker nonetheless had some valuable thoughts on their UPA attempt, the games they played and the team's off season plans. He's a straight shooter. Think Brett Taylor or that guy on your team who will tell you when you're not giving enough effort.

Here's the gist of my questions and his answers. If it helps any team prepare for next summer/fall, then I'm glad. Otherwise, you'll just get the same chuckle from his takes that I did.

How did the team perform at Regionals?

We were brutal at Regionals. We played like total sacks against all of the teams that were worth playing against... We definitely needed a heavier dose of Mark Lloyd.

What was your perception of the teams that you faced? What was the summary of the games you played?

Day 1

• 11-4 L to BAT. That BAT team wasn't even that good either.
• 11-10 W over St Louis. Because of some call/rule issues, Parker thought "It was ever-so-sweet to beat them on double game. They were basically a 2-man team. We were once again not very impressed."
• 11-8 W over LouEVIL: Played a bit better in this one. I think we were up 10-6 and had a bad drop in the endzone that allowed them to score a couple more points. They weren't very good.
• BYE: I can't believe they close down their outdoor pools for the winter in Oklahoma once the temperature dips down to the 25C mark. What a joke.
• 11-? (7-8-9) W over Kansas: Lowest seed in our pool and they seemed like they were just in it for fun. They had some talent, but weren't quite as determined to compete. Used their height and had some weapons; if they were a tighter, more serious unit, I think that they'd do some damage. We probably played our best game of the tournament here.
• 11-5? L to Madison (Frontline): We played against these guys in the last game of the day on 3 of 4 days of Fall Series action. They killed us each and every time. In fact, in this Regionals game, our D-line didn't get 1 turnover against their O-line. They absolutely destroyed us.

Day 2

• 11-5? L to Madcow: Last game of pool play was Sunday morning. It was raining during the first half which is usually a great equalizer. Unfortunately our O-line got broken early and often and we were down 6-1 at half. It should be noted that these guys were playing an all-out inter-squad game during their BYE on Saturday, because they had about 35 players. When we arrived at the fields Sunday morning to play them, they were already in full-on Seattle. This team was serious about making Regionals and fell just short yet again this year. They can play with anybody, but they didn't seem all that impressive in our game with them - but that could've been the rain. Hey, is the UPA/CUPA going to wake up and put a cap on rosters at some point? Having more than 30 players is ridiculous.

• 15-5 L to Van Buren Boys: Great game played by a team with a great name. These guys were playing lights out against us and I'm not surprised to see that they qualified for Nationals later that day. Our O had nothing against their D and our D had nothing against their O. These guys will get absolutely kicked around in Sarasota, but they deserve to be there.

What are your team plans for the off season? (training, coed/men's tourneys, etc)

• We have no plans for the fall and winter. Hopefully we can get it back together again next season. I guess it'll all depend on whether we can get Mark Lloyd back.