Boston Invite 2008- Debrief

Nation,

For Canadian teams, the Boston Invite signals the start of the summer homestretch. With Nationals in mid August, the amount of time and number of tournaments left to fine tune is starting to quickly vanish.

Tournament Results

You can find the Open, Elite Women's and Women's divisions on the UPA reporter site.

J.F. Mauger @ CUT 2008 (Greg King Photography)

Run down of the men's Tourney

Canadian Team Results

GOAT-2nd
Mephisto-6th
Phoenix-7th
Tombstone-18th
Red Circus- 21st
Firebird-26th
Grand Trunk-27th
Demon-31st
Magma-31st

Elite

• Boston Ultimate wins the finals over GOAT 15-10. After losing to GOAT in last year's Boston Invite, I think Boston has taken a major step forward this year. Don't be fooled, GOAT will still be a force as well when October and November rolls along.
  
• PoNY and Great Britain finish tied for third, losing by one point in each team's semi. Excellent results for both squads.
• Bodhi and Phoenix continue their excellent results this summer by going undefeated on Saturday and winning their crossovers into the top 8.
• Mephisto gets some revenge from CUT and upends Phoenix on Sunday, after Phoenix gave everything they could to Boston
• Machine and Pike have very tough Saturdays, fall out of the quarters and fail to win tier 1.
  

Open

• A team called the Providence Pack Dogs (apparently a pick up team consisting of stars like Josh Zipperstein) destroy all comers on both days and win the tier 2 crown. A Grand Trunk source describes their match-up as a "slaughter".
• Death or Glory wins the tier 2 title with a final win over Tombstone. Ironically, this will be the match-up at worlds in the Masters division. Wish I could have seen it.
• Red Hook wins a tough one over my very own Firebird to win the tier 3 title

Firebird Experience

I've never lost so many heart breakers in one day. I've never lost 3 games by four points in one day. We had a great chance to win our cross-over against a good team in Philly Love, but lost on universe point.

I wasn't playing as much as I normally do (I'm also an idiot who found out how badly you can get burnt even under clouds), and I had a great view of our performance. The positive is we had an excellent game plan, we were extremely athletic/fast, and we forced many turnovers. The bad news is we didn't follow the plan and we turned it over way more than I though capable. I can only compare it to a dog who catches the ball with the sole intention of handing it back.

We messed up and lost the lead to Colt .45, then got too far behind a jacked up RSRD squad. We then lost a heart-breaker a very athletic Roots of Rhythm (not quite as good as they think they are), losing on universe point once again.

Having said that, the tight games were fantastic experiences, and we saw a lot of good stuff from all the teammates. (This year's team might be as fun to be around as my " 4AM This is a a shitshow" Western crew).

Missing out on a chance to move up and play DoG (I dare you to come to No Borders guys...) we won some close games versus Savage Strike and Nor Easter and moved on to the tier three final versus Brooklyn's red Hook. We lost 12-10 and the consolation hardware. The quality of the teams that low in the tourney is pretty suprising.

Off-Field Stuff

The ride to Devens from Ottawa is long, but always well worth it. The trip down was miserable due to Montreal traffic and construction on the highways, but luckily I had the Praha Princess with me. (She had a great time at the Wrenthem Premium Outlets by the way, and highly recommends it to Canadians next time around). Is it just me or do the accents south of Boston differ greatly from those north of Boston?

We took a different route on the way back and it was much better.

We always stay in Leominster with all the other Canadian teams at the Motel 6. It's not the greatest hotel but the near-bye amenities are vast and within walking distance. I didn't make the trip with the team to the local Italian restaurant El Dente, but I did manage to get a Calzone at Pizza Fort on Sunday before the trip back. Those are two places I strongly recommend.

The only downer was watching some good old fashion child abuse by a mother in the grocery store in Leominster. Yikes.