Nation,
The results are in from the weekend in Montreal. The weather was reportedly rainy and windy on Saturday, prompting a lot of zone and weather forced errors. However, the weather was better on Sunday, and the tournament was run in a first class manner by the TD and her volunteer staff/partners.
Special thanks to Kirsten for sending the final standings, and for the many who sent me their team results/reports.
Also of note, Tushar Singh from IAMULTIMATE was providing live streaming from the fields and intends to do so in future tourneys. If you had the chance to watch it, please feel free to share your thoughts on the coverage.
OPEN
Every TD's worst nightmare- one team drops out after day one and another team no shows. Space Jam must have read my preview and gotten scared. Jokes aside, No Shows= Not Cool.
In the power pools, Medicare from Waterloo was the most impressive team of the day, beating GLUM and NADS to join Phoenix and Mephisto as the best of day one elite teams before losing their seeding crossover to Big Science.
The big surprises of the day outside of the power pools were Demon, Magma, and Blue Carnival. Demon went 3-0 in their pool (beating rivals QUF and ROY) and then beat the Providence Pack Dogs to cross over into elite quarters. Magma had their first 3-0 pool day since Eric St Amant donned their jersey (OMG, 2003?) but could not advance into the 9th place pool, getting spanked by a talented but short staffed LXG squad from Ottawa. Blue Carnival from Halifax went from last seed, to 3-0, to losing on universe point to ROY to move into the 9th place bracket.
Phoenix won the crossover on Saturday with the local hosts in convincing 13-8 fashion.
On Sunday, everyone expected a Phoenix-Mephisto final. It appeared that would be the case until Ottawa' GLUM beat Phoenix in the semis by a score of 14-9. To many this might be shocking, but not to me. GLUM is fielding perhaps their most talented squad ever this year, and the combination of savvy veterans/athletic newcomers can punish young teams. Phoenix fans shouldn't jump off the bandwagon yet either.
Mephisto played like champs in all of their Sunday games. They disposed of local team The Veterans 15-8, then beat Chuckwagon 15-4 in semis, and finally pounded GLUM 15-5 to win the tournamnet for the second year in a row.
Open- Final Rankings
1) Mephisto
2) GLUM
3) Phoenix
3) Vermont
5) Medicare
6) The Veterans
7) Demon
7) Big Science
9) LXG
10) Opus
11) QUF
12) Chesapeaked
13) ROY
14) Pack Dogs
15) Magma
15) GOB
17) Blue Carnival
18) Thruway
19) Armageddon
20) BDU
21) Jerk Factory
22) Vandalay
23) NADS - dropped out
24) Space Jam - no show
Womens
In my preview, I discussed Salty from Halifax and QUB from Quebec City. If these two teams could turn the corner at Jazz, it might do wonders for the women's programs in those respective cities. It would also help CUC 2009 hype.
On Saturday, the girls from QUB may have made a wind assistance leap over a mental barrier by defeating Storm 8-7 in pool play. Both Salty and QUB went 2-1 and tied Storm for a 1st palce tie in pool play. Chrome Ladies from Frederiction had a tough day but managed to win their crossover on universe versus a red hot Fingerbell.
Vintage Ultimate did play the role of handler heavy sleeper, and won their pool with wins over PPF, Sugar Shack and Hucking Gorges. PPF was missing some key players on the weekend, and took some day one lumps learning to play around the challenge.
The story of Saturday (as was the case on the Open side) was the performance of the local B squads. Mystik of Montreal went 3-0 in pool play and won the crossover into elite quarters. Fingerbell cruised through their pool but lost a heartbreaker in the game to go to quarters. It was nice to see lower level teams make noise and threaten the elite pool spots, not something we often see on the women's side.
Sunday's championship bracket saw Storm and QUB on a rematch collision course to the finals. Storm demolished Sugar Shack in the semis, while QUB won a 13-10 decision over Vintage Ultimate. Undoubtedly eager to re-establish dominance over their provincial rivals, Storm won the finals 15-8.
The consolation bracket saw the matchup everyone wanted- Scarlett versus Lilly. The score at half time was 8-3 for Lily. The second half was dominated by Scarlett. However, Toronto took the game 13-12. These teams are finally starting to build up the same rivalry that Firebird-Roy had. That is, mutual respect while wishing the other team poor results and sadness, especially head to head. :)
Montreal champions in both divisions! Congratulations to Storm and Mephisto.
Womens Final Rankings
1) Storm
2) QUB
3) Vintage Ultimate
4) Sugar Shack
5) PPF
6) Salty
7) Mystik
8) Chrome Ladies
9) Lily
10) Scarlett
11) Fingerbell
12) Chicklet
13) Hucking Gorges
14) Chinchilla Heart Attack
15) Karma Chameleon
16) Feisty
3 comments:
I actually switched to the dark side for CUC 2004...
Very unfortuante we didn't get to play the birds in the finals, especially after loosing to them in the crossover game.
Hopefully NB will see Mephisto and Phoenix playing each other for the title.
I would wholeheartedly agree that no show = not cool. Cross Space Jam off any tournament you organize!
In the women's division, I was extremely impressed with QUB. Looks like they finally have been able to come up with a strategy that compliments their athleticism. These women can give anyone a run for their money. Mystik have had an exponential improvement over the last 4 weeks. These women play without fear. Good to see that Quebec Ultimate is on the rise, and will make waves at Nationals in Winnipeg.
Small correction to the results section. Though Roy and Blue Carnival did play a close game, the final score was actually 14-12. Leading 13-12 in a ridiculously windy game, Roy earned the margin of victory on an upwind break. Roy took half 8-5 (or 6?) before Blue Carnival made a big run to make things close at the end.
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