Ontario Mixed Regionals Preview

Nation,

This weekend, the Ontario Mixed Regionals will take place in Waterloo.

Currently, there are 6 bids available in the region. The schedule seems to be pretty straight forward. Every pool game will be important, as you can avoid any Sunday concerns by winning on Saturday.

(Photo Source: Hilary Leung)

Where are the Sick Mitts from Barrie? They are registered on the CUC site but not in the tournament schedule. They are a really exciting young team, and feature some very athletic talents. (World Junior Shaw Dungate, Joel Bellavance, etc)
Pool A- Liquid (Waterloo), Mayhem (Hamilton), Disgraceful (North Bay), The Company (Waterloo), Desklamp (Guelph), Druid (London)

Depending on who Desklamp and Druid, this might be an easy regionals for Liquid, Waterloo's A team. Andrew Higgins and company (He will be teased mercifully for being singled out) finished 5th at nationals last year, and have their sights higher this year.

Mayhem has been in existence for several years now, and have always been a solid team that qualifies for nationals. 8th at CUC last year, they are capable of beating any of the top coed teams in the tourney.

Discgraceful from North Bay is a new team name. If it is mostly 626 players, they will be a force in this pool. The Company is one of three coed teams from Waterloo, and would probably be the 2nd best of those teams. Druid is captained by former LUCifer leader Pat Pace, and will feature some London players from a growing market. (Note: Did anyone know that St Thomas , near London, is the Disc Golf Capital of Canada?)

Pool B- Monster (Toronto), Tundra (Toronto), BFC (Ottawa), Zen Asylum (Toronto), Crisis (Waterloo), Big Fish (Ottawa)

From the outset, this looks like the much tougher and much more interesting pool.

Monster deserves their seed. I really have to hand it to Hilary Leung, Stephanie Hui and others who started from the very bottom with this team around 2005 and built it up to its current state. 6th at the 2008 nationals had to be a dissapointment given their results during the summer season. If they want to play at 2010 clubs, they have to build on their Boston Easterns results and take the top seed in this pool.

Tundra has the best open player who never played open (Craig Froats) and comes off a 12th place CUC 2008 finish. They are following a slow progress similar to Monster, dealing with the competition that comes with so many open, women's and club teams that exist in Toronto.

BFC, 13th at CUC 2008, finished 3rd at TUF and went 0-6 in Mixed Easterns. This year's squad promises more tournament continutity (having a roster that can dedicate the entire season) and features some male and female players that can produce. Predicting where they finish in this pool is tough- Could be the top, could be the bottom, probably right in the 2-3rd place. Players I like watch include Victoria Cole, Josh Tai, and one of the hardest workers in the game, Thom Ferguson.

Zen Asylum suffers from B team syndrome. They develop players, start to get good, and then have to start again. If you look at the players that have moved on to Lotus, GT, Tundra, Monster and even GOAT, you have to respect the work being done.

Crisis from Waterloo is the successor to B team Quicksand. Given how strong Liquid is this season, Crisis might be a hard foe for the higher rank teams to vanquish.

Big Fish is in year one AG (After Gavin) and that has be hard. However, I have heard a lot of positive feedback from opponents about their results at TUF and Northern Flights. I've also heard scrimmages with A team BFC have been very competitive. Two players to watch are former open players Devin McCabe and Erik L'Abbe. McCabe has battled injuries and inconsistency, but when he is focused and confident, he can be very productive. This is L'Abbe first full summer of touring outside of juniors, but he has all the physical tools needed to develop into a front line coed player.

Predictions

I think the following will still be in the hunt for the 6 bids come playoffs on Sunday

Waterloo, Monster, Mayhem, BFC, Disgraceful, Tundra, Big Fish, Desklamp

I don't see many surprises from the original seeds.