Nation,
This weekend, the open and women teams from both Canada and the US's east coast travel to one of the best destination cities on the competitive circuit- Montreal and the Montreal Jazz Tournament.
Last year, Sonia Scalise did a great job with the tourney, and now Kirsten Niles is assuming the role. Expect a well run tourney, good food, and lots to see and do in Montreal during your evenings.
Sadly, I won't be able to make it this weekend as planned. I'm protesting the dismantling of my beloved Habs this past week, and more importantly I am spend some time with the Praha Princess before she heads out to Vancouver for 8 months to work on the 2010 games. It's looking like a lot more ultimate, dojo, and french lessons to busy my time this year!
But hey, this blog isn't about me, it's about the previews and predictions!!
Open
24 teams will be competing in the divison. The tournament is not listed on UPA, but I received the following Pools.
PowerPool A features Mephisto (MTL), GLUM (OTT), NADS (North Bay), Medicare (Waterloo)
Mephisto is not a home team that hides from Saturday pool play competition. They have a tough pool that will challenge them. GLUM is a very strong masters team every year and has added some young (legal masters age mind you) legs that have experience playing top level elite ultimate. NADS is always tough (in the Invictus mode) and features the Beast (Scott Stinson) and Beast Jr (Scott's younger brother). That may cause some huge matchup problems. Medicare features some of the better coed males from Waterloo and the surronding region. Once again, I will shower Andrew Higgins with some props for being a great cutter and defender who can give any team 3rd handler reps when needed.
Powerpool B features Phoenix (Ott) Packdogs (RI) Vermont (VT) and Big Science (MA)
Phoenix hasn't won this tourney in over 5 years, but will look for an appearance in the finals. Their season has seen them win some very crucial crossovers in CUT and Boston, and now we will get to see how they handle being a favorite in their pool. Fans might want to check out some of the many new players that are assuming big play time for the Bird this season (Ray Arteaga, Colin Froats, Jeff Moloney, etc).
Packdogs had a very strong Boston Invite and might take this pool if the roster remains in tact. The Packdogs actually faced Phoenix last weekend in Boston and won the head to head battle.
Vermont is formerly Chuckwagon. They are a very solid team by reputation that can take advantage of huck opportunities and down field matchups. Big Science is mostly a pick up team from Boston area of college and open players, they might cause teams trouble on day one.
Pool C features Chesapeaked , The Veterans (MTL), LXG (OTT), and OPUS (MA)
I can't say much about Chesapeaked. The veterans is a new Montreal masters team that intends to be part of CUC 2009. LXG is a collection of solid players from the new elite men's league in Ottawa.
Pool D features QUF (QC), Jerk Factory (NB), Demon (MTL), and ROY (TOR)
This might be the most interesting pool on day one. QUF is essentially the old Q team. Most of these players have moved on to coed, but they reunite for this tourney, and add players such as Jonathon Lestage (PHX) and JF Mauger (PHX, Q). They should be solid and are the best bet to win a crossover in the elite pool.
Jerk Factory is a combination of open and coed players from Fredericton. They might be hard pressed to hold seed. Demon is the home team that had a wildly successful Boston Invite. Expect their best sqaud available. ROY is rumored to be better than any of their past incarnations (2007 CUC team was pretty strong for a C team, so that is high praise).
Pool E features BDU (Ott), Thruway (NY), Magma (MTL) and Vandalay Industries (MTL?)
Bad Daddy Ultimate is Ottawa's alternative masters team. They are lead by Mike Belanger, Keith Bourdon, Ken Maclean, and Mehmet Karman. I'm not sure if super throwerWah Phung Lu is playing for this team.
Thruway is a new team from Albany. Magma is a local team looking for results this weekend and
Vandalay Industries has the best team name in the tourney.
Pool F features GOB (?) Space Jam Ultimate (MA), Armageddon (?) and Blue Carnival (?)
I can't say much about 3 of these teams. Space Jam Ultimate is a team I am desperate to see play. They walked into the very elite CUT tournament this year with a lot of hype and fanfare. Since then, they've gone 2-9 in two tournaments and keep falling in tournament seeding. Perhaps this young team will rebound in la belle province.
7 comments:
Blue Carnival is Halifax-based, to my knowledge. They constitute the Red Circus B-programme.
I'm really impressed by how committed the Nova Scotians are to travelling.
Lestage and JF are playing with QUF this weekend. Sweet.
This sounds like it will be a very competitive tournament this year. I'm interested in hearing about the fall-out. Hopefully some stories and at least scores will be posted here. Obviously, I'm cheering on Phoenix from abroad.
Regarding teams from Halifax traveling, they really don't have a choice if they want to play higher-level teams, which are lacking in the Maritimes. A drive to Montreal is 12-13 hours and even a trip to Fredericton would be 4 hours or so for a game. Yikes.
I think GOB is Good Old Boys, a Montreal Masters team.
Batch,
Bang on. I saw the GOB profile on the AUM site after the post.
And the Veterans are former Mephisto players. Not all of them have played with us, but most have. They are there to have fun but, like Lettuce Burn in previous No Border editions, fun teams can create surprises while cooking Weiners on the Hibachi...
What's the story from Jazz (Glum beats Phoenix?) Also, does anyone know where the Potlatch results are posted (or who won?)
I don't know where or when to expect general Potlatch results. But I believe Team USA took the final over Team Canada 13-7.
Canada led the first half 7-6 (I think), but suffered offensive trouble in the second half.
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