Nation,
Pool Play
- I have no idea how we made it all work and everyone got their games. So much had to go right and be done. Hence, Miracle in Manotick.
- Pool play had great parity and teams like General Strike, Red Circus and Toba Party impressed opponents.
You heard it here. The party was won by the following cities
- Toronto
- North Bay
In the Win a Wii costume contest, people went above and beyond the call of dressing duty. The finals pitted Dave "Axel Rose" Hennigar versus Dee "Jacko" Roderique. I had said before the contest that no MJ lookalike could win, unless they moonwalked. Dee did that and saved some break dancing for last. The fans chose her as the winner.
I should also mention that a male player named Aaron did a full own costume of Jennifer Beals from Flashdance. The crowd went WILD.. but he didn't save the water splash till the semis and finals.. and that spelled his fate. Amazing concept though.
Dee has won two party titles in a row. I want a picture if anyone has one, and I want people to try and dethrone this champion "show dawg"!
Playoffs
Here is a rundown of the men's and women's Championship bracket.
Women's
We were very happy to have Brute Squad from Boston make the trip this year. They are a great team and feature players like Dory Zipperstein that Canadian fans know of and want to see. Further, we have equally strong teams at Borders like Lotus, Stella and Storm who are making this tourney a strong event for women's top clubs to consider.
Pool Play for both power pools went exactly as seeded. That might be the only time ever for me.
PPF and Sugarshack were relegated out of the top 8 after day one and a surprisingly strong Toba Party from Winnipeg and Salty from Halifax made the jump to Sunday Quarterfinals.
Stella, Storm, Lotus and Brute Squad made semis as expected. Brute and Lotus made it to finals and put on an amazing show for Rogers TV and the fans that gathered. With the score tied 10-10, the game went into hard cap. A hard fought point ended when Brute Squad won on universe and became the 2009 champs. The image in this post is from Rene Champagne and he will upload many tourney picks at his site
Taking off my TD hat, here were my observations from watching women's play when I could stop dealing with fields and admin
- Malissa Lundgren has come a LONG way from Zen and looks to be a big body presence that can make d's and make throws. I was really impressed with her play
- Brute Squad was a deserving champ and their talent is spread out through the team. I hope we have helped spark rivals that will lead to a return from them
- It seems like Lily has drastically pulled away from Scarlett in the Toronto-Ottawa B team rivalry, and I hope by nationals this will not be the case
Proud to say our tournament has gotten to the point were quarters provide excellent parity, and very good teams go home at this point. Red Circus, General Strike, GLUM and Medicare had this happen to them despite a realistic shot of winning it all.
In semis, Phoenix Moondoggies was an epic battle of Toronto versus Ottawa. Specifically, the match up of Ottawa Native Colin Green versus Phoenix's Kielan Way one on one was what fans really keyed on. Moondoggies won and moved to the final.
Mephisto overcame a 5 point deficit with NADS to take their semi. NADS were a great team this year and their chance to win No Borders was very real this year. However, Mephisto continues to have the mettle to win these kinds of great battles.
The finals were set. Mephisto allowed a short benched Moondoggies to add some great pickups to make the TV a real challenge. Clearly, tough quarters and semis hampered both teams, with Moondoggies reaching a little deeper for a 13-7 win and the No Borders Championship.
My Thoughts
- Phoenix had a strong weekend at times and proved to many they will be a Nationals threat
- I did not get to see General Strike play due to non stop TD work.. which sucks. I can tell you that Kyle Parker and company look like big organized squad that might win Nationals on home turf this year.
- The Montreal program is on the rise. Mephisto is classy.. and so is Demon (way better this year) and Magma (also improved).
- I hope the NADS make another run to win next year. I thought this might have been the year
- GLUM might be the best masters team I have ever seen
14 comments:
No love for Jennifer Beals? She looked hot.
I have to edit and add that part!
good job TD'ing this weekend despite the adverse weather conditions
just wondering if you could post some info about when and on what channel the finals will be playing? Is it across ontario or just Ottawa? I heard a few different things this weekend so I just thought Id get some clarification
Mooney,
Originally, it was going to be semis and finals all over Ontario.
Only finals were taped, and the games can be seen throughout Ontario. However, because Rogers is broken up in local stations, you simply have to call your station and request it to get aired. Ottawa is more than willing to provide it.
Pat, you should definitely ask for it because you made an amazing d/push pass from your a$$ scoring throw. Replay angles were awesome.
thanks for the info man and again for a great weekend. love to see that north bay got a nod for winning the party (im happy to share the honour with the toronto folks as well)
and cant wait to watch the game. its really cool that you made this happen and got the sport more exposure
later dude
Moons
Great. I'm trying to teach my juniors to make calm, deliberate throws from their feet, and you mean to tell me Mooney is all over the TV throwing push-passes from his ass in slow-motion replay?
Mooney, only you could give me an aneurysm from 3000km away.
Even though I was cheering for the other team, that push-pass-from-the-ground was hot!
Steve, great work with No Borders again. I thought I would let you know a few people at my work came up to me and were talking about watching the game last night on Rogers22, and they are not Ultimate players, although I have had them out playing at lunch for fun! You are bringing it to the masses, keep up the great work.
hahaha! no probs about the shirt. At least I can say that it was used by the guy who pushed-passed from his ass on TV!
I also wondered how the UPI fields will be fixed after all the playing? Definitely a couple of them will need to be rolled out (notably field 15 and 3), I would think or else there will be a ton of ankle injuries :(
Some more photos from the weekend.
http://www.pbase.com/cmberghout/noborder2009
nice shots mama haig
Just curious on why you opted for port-a-fields for No Borders after your previous poll suggested painted lines were preferred? In light of the weather the port-a-fields were clearly the best option, something I don't think was discussed previously. I'm not complaining - I prefer them.
Taylor,
I do remember the poll and how much people were against it. However, I had to make an executive decision where I knew people would come around.
I decided to go with port a fields for the following reasons
-The TV cameras needed them
-Ottawa would like them to bid for future worlds or nationals.
-We were able to secure sponsorship for the port a fields
-They can be used over many tournaments
-They are easy to set up and less susceptible to weather as you mentioned them
-People really underestimate the cost of field painters, how much paint costs for each field times 4-5 tournaments a year, and the time it takes. Our field liner was broken and the replacement costs are in the thousands.
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