Huge thanks to Jazz 2008 tournament director Sonia Scalise and her team for a great tournament this year, as well as the final results and pictures below.
Tournament Itself
- Visiting Montreal in the middle of the actual Jazzfest is fantastic. It's hard to mess it up.
- Field food was great and the free BBQ on Sunday was greatly appreciated. Trying some cold apple cider on a very hot day was refreshing.
- It was hot all weekend, but some very light breezes and plenty of trees for shade were great.
- Sadly, our fields were a bit rough on Saturday. Most fields were fine, but our pool had fields that were not quite up to competitive par. Some major holes and a hill just before one of the endzones were the main culprits
- I definitely would recommend the tournament experience to other Canadian teams.
Saturday
Well, as boldly predicted, we made it to quarters after an excellent Saturday.
Firebird 13 Raynet 6
Not our best game, but a good start against a team from Trois Rivieres. If you ever played on bad teams, you have to appreciate being on a team that doesn't play their best but pulls it out easily.
Firebird 11 Tabasco 10
This was a team full of Montreal vets who have played coed and open. We started off well and lead by a score of 5-1 at one point. I was sat off for an o point and thought nothing off it. Next thing I know, it's tied and we're fighting to try and take the half.
We lose the half, but come back and take a lead which our o line held onto.
I would say that this is one of my better games this season. It's also the game where I knocked a "leg humping: mark to the ground, right on his back. After he called foul, I retorted "Stop humping my leg!!!" He admitted to said humping ("yeah.. I was humping your leg") and got back up and started the stall count at zero. Good laugh, good spirit.
Firebird 13 Zebra Muscles 7
The matchup we were waiting for was tempered by the fact that Zebra had a small bench. It was very hot and we wore them down very quickly.
At this point, no one on our team is standing out, but everyone is doing well.
Crossover:
Les Ringards Famléqiue 12 Firebird 10
This was a pick up team featuring some Montreal talents, some Queens alums, the Dowlers, and none other than the Beast (Scott Stinson). Hard ultimate, but fun to play.
This one was a little surprising. We shortened the bench early and we got into a big hole. Our team really felt the heat and the exhaustion from playing in such temperatures, We go back to the "bench" and they are more effective. They simply keep it simple. We close it to one but the Ringards finish us off at time cap.
On to the quarters, moving up to 5th going into the 2nd day.
Sunday:
BearProof 15 Firebird 6
Talk about letting one get away. They had one medium size dude with amazing jumps and blazing speed. He torched us. They had some Penn state guys who really shut down our long game and solid handler/bail defence.
We very well could have walked away from this game had we went underneath and adjusted, but it never came. I personally felt like I did little to help us win. It was very frustrating.
GLUM 15 Firebird 13
These Ottawa match-ups between us and the old guard of Wax and GLU legends is not usually pleasant. $hit gets said, calls get argued, and no one plays their best.
This was not the case.
Facing a strong GLUM squad (bolstered by PHX d line stalwart Jaime Craig and some ex Firebird/PHX grads), we got off to a rocky start. After giving up a cushion we ended the half going on a run and making it close. We kept inching closer and closer, but we can't make it all the way back. Appreciate GLUM for finishing the game past time and playing a good game with us. They are going to be dangerous come nationals and upas this season.
Worst case scenario- Our valued cutter Adam Binks seperated his "good shoulder" and is likely out for the rest of the year. Few guys have dedicated as much as to the game and struggled through as much injury/illness as Adam in his short career, so I hope he can come back from this.
One last piece of advice- Do not P%ss off Ian Brooks. If he's slacking off and not doing much, that is not a good time to argue a call with him, and set him off.
Overall, a tournament where we won a lot, finished top 6, got lots of playtime, and had some of our lesser known players get a chance to shine. Phil Boisvert, Josh Tai, and Eric Mathieu are but 3 of these examples.
Final Results
Open
1st – Mephisto
2nd – Stimlus Package
4th – MIT Geek Mystique
5th - GLUM
6th - Firebird
7th & 8th - Les Ringards Famléqiue & Zebra Muscles (left before end of game… no socres given)
9th - Provedence Packdogs
10th - BIEFS
11th -Double Dragon
12th - Tabascomen
13th - Demon
14th - Run Silent Run Deep
15th - Ray Net
16th - Magma
17th - ROY
18th - DQ & Friends
19th - OPUS
Women
1st - Storm |
2nd - PPF |
3rd - sMITten |
4th - Fusion |
5th - QUB |
6th - Bleu Nuit |
7th - Scarlet |
8th - Fish Fingers |
Ottawa Results
GLUM finishes 5th
Firebird finishes 6th
Scarlett finishes 7th
3 comments:
I'm curious. Now that Ottawa has combined open teams, how do you guys decide who goes to a Firebird-only tournament? If the top players in the programme ask to go, do you refuse them?
And as for the mid-range players sitting on the fence, how do you decide for whom the tournament is mandatory? I imagine you have some players going to both PHX-only and Firebird-only tournaments, and some players going to neither.
T-1000,
-Phoenix guys (at the time of the tourney) have first right at PHX only tourneys
-Firebird guys (at the time of the tourney) have first right at FB only tourney
-Top players only get to go to FB tourneys if there is room for them.
It seems insane to say no to guys, but in the hopes of program development, this has been a fair system.
We had 2 tournaments this year which we only sent 1 team to. We only had one bid to CUT in June and sent Phoenix and we only sent 1 team (firebird) to Jazz Fest. First dibs for the Jazz fest roster was given to players who did not get to go to CUT. Obviously this was mostly the FB guys, but deffinately players who had played Phoenix at earlier tournaments were on the roster.
I'm sure we may have had some people at neither and maybe some people at both.
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