CUT 2008 Saturday Update

Nation,

Quick Rundown of the Canadian teams at CUT:

• Phoenix goes 3-0 in pool play (beating Med. Men, Colt .45, Upstate NY) and win the play-in to the Elite pool. We (our program) were given a very low seed(12) and have beat it handily now. Quarters vs Boston Ultimate tomorrow morning at 9am. (Hat tip to AA Binks post on ocua.ca)
• No website updates for Mephisto yet
• Ditto GOAT

Barring a miracle, I expect all three to be in the quarters. Best of luck to all three squads.

Steven

CUT 2008

Nation,

Out "east" (well, not my east but the west's east) a big men's tourney is taking place this weekend.

CUT is a smallish ultimate tournament that focuses exclusively on elite open teams. In its fourth year, it is developing a niche as a good early tourney that brings in some high level squads.


Source: Bruno Avard/Ultypics.com

I'll have a full report of the action next week, but I want to throw some imperfect predictions for those of us still in the office.

-GOAT, Truck Stop, Boston and Mephisto in the semis
-Boston with the win over GOAT
-Phoenix to win their cross over and join elite for quarters

Teams should be sure to go to sponsor bars and establishments. If you need something extra, I recommend Dinosaur BBQ chain. Our team claims it to be the best ribs in the state of New York.

Flowerbowl 2008

Nation,

On a weekend full of big tournaments, Flowerbowl 2008 is the biggest of them all.

The men's pool are missing some of the UPA's finest from Canada and the US. However, the elite pool is full of great club teams (Furious, Invictus, Nomads, Voodoo, and Blackfish) as well as some unknown teams. I will be interested to see how the TFP men (who will represent Canada at the Worlds in the coed division) and the Junior men from the West do playing together.

Expect Furious, Invictus, Voodoo, and Nomads in the semis.

The women's division looks fantastic:

• Great Britain's women's team for this summer's worlds
• Team Canada women (Traffic with great pickups)
• Riot from Seattle
• Team USA rep and UPA champ Fury
• Flo from Calgary
• Team Canada Coed reps TFP women
  

I have to predict Fury, Team Canada, Riot and TFP women in the semis.

Predictions?

Gender Blender- The Best CoEd Tourney in Canada?

Nation,

Gender Blender takes place this weekend in Fergus Ontario.

Let me just say this straight up: I've never been. The reasons are numerous. I am certainly not against going at some point.

Every year the hype for this tournament remains as high or higher than previous years, and every year people come back happy. This is what I know

-It's an outdoor camping style accommodation
-Each team must submit (for prizes) their team drink for all to sample on Friday night
-The costumes are extreme
-Debauchery ensues. See picture below.

So, is Gender Blender the greatest co-ed tourney in Canada. If not, then which tourney is better and why?

And does anyone even care who wins this thing? TUF results aside, I have no idea who the best coed team in Ontario/Quebec is at this point. Monster? RIP? BFC?

No Borders 2008

Nation,

The website for No Borders 2008 is now up.

We are still accepting bids for both men's and women's division, so please make sure to contact me and register your bid.

Some of the best players and teams in North American ultimate history have played in this tournament. They come for the excellent field food. They come for the legendary tournament party. They come for the best fields in the world and the chance to play in front of the fans that make up the 5000 member Ottawa Carleton Ultimate Association.

Tournament Highlights include:

• Elite power pools featuring only the best open and women's teams in Eastern Canada and the U.S.
• Ultimate Parks Inc., 19 fully irrigated, lined and maintained ultimate-only fields which will provide excellent field conditions for high level play
• Local television and internet coverage
  
• Exceptional on field amenities provided by sponsorship and local league partners.

Quite honestly, We aim (in the coming years)to make this tournament the elite summer tourney on the east coast outside of Boston Invite, and we look forward to hearing from your team with questions or bid confirmation.

Bring your passports!

WMO Debrief...

The Town

• Was great. Think small quaint college town with a humble but well maintained downtown area.
  
• Went to a lovely little diner called the polka dot room on Saturday morning. Train tracks next to the restaurant, so trains came by seemingly beside as you ate. 4 Aces dinner on Sunday was on the way and was very antique. Old ladies who served us were tipped well.
• Had a number of choices for a saturday meal, and went with Thai food at a place downtown called MAI THAI. Delicious. Service was a little bad though.

The Venue/Tournament Setup

• First of all, we always need to be patient with university aged organiers.
  
• Fields were nice. Zero complaints except that they were not lined or set up in time
  
• We had a default team that lead to schedule change. This, along with organizers being tardy and reseeding the teams the night before lead to confusion for all teams (who and where we play)
  
• Water supply to respective fields was scarce on Saturday at best. Sunday we found taps that were not part of the tournament
• Outhouses were disgusting

The Teams

• Out of respect, it is worth the trip to see or play a DoG squad.
• I don't think anyone had the benefit of their full squads, but there was still good ultimate to be seen
• Derek Alexander was on Fire for Phoenix.
  
• Mephisto won the tourney, beating a Bodhi team that featured ex twisted metal guys and some young talent players
• Phoenix had a great 4-0 saturday, winning a great game against DoG 14-13. They were beaten in semis by Bodhi.
  
• Other teams making it worth the trip: Demon, Slow Children, Dartmouth Alum DieNasty, and two split squads from the Gunslingers/New Noise merger

The Team Experience

I liked what I saw from the Ottawa Open Program this weekend. Closer evaluation of Phoenix can be found via the Polish Prince (Patience, we are busy men)

• Saturday was brutal
• A default win that had us get out of bed at 6:30 AM
  
• A loss to Bodhi in which our offence failed to score
• An easy win of U mass Lowell where we didn't play that well
• A very bad start versus Slow Children that lead to a second loss to a team that was far too cocky.

Personally, I had 5 turns (according to our stat taker) which is far too many for a tournament. We also had far too many throwaways and drops as a team. It was an epidemic. Playing in strong winds is definitely a good experience in May.

• Sunday was a complete 360.. extremely positive. We won games against better teams than we lost to on Saturday. Our offensive troubles were solved with a line change and better focus.
• We pasted the Dartmouth college team. it would have been much closer, but we made very few errors on offence. And they had no subs.
  
• We lost a heartbreak against a team called Run Silent Run Deep from Brighton, MA. We took the half with some d breaks and the o line scoring at a very high rate. The second half starts and the d line stops getting breaks. After a couple of breaks for the opponent, our O line goes out time and again and puts it in. Tied at 12, we have them on the run and I throw one deep to a very open teammate with a large height mismatch. A surprising d and a quick rush down the field and we go from winners to losers. Tough one. Our second half builds a lot of confidence, despite the final.
  
• We finish off the day with a win over Colt .45 . Tied 7-7, our o-line and d line both go on big runs to finish it out at 13-8.

Overall, I think the tourney was very worthwhile. Our team has always struggled on day one at Boston dealing with "squirley" american teams that run the vertical and don't play much of a style system. These teams usually have some underated athletic guys that are just "good at frisbee". learnign to play and beat these guys is just as important as stepping up against the GOATs of the region.

In advance, I apologize for not having any results for the women's. Nothing is posted on the upa site.

White Mountain Open

Nation,

The Ottawa program is heading to Hanover, New Hampshire this weekend for the White Mountain Open. We'll be a little short staffed for both squads, but we'll be looking to turn some heads in both the elite and the open divisions respectively.

I quickly realize that the past year's success/failure is the only thing that early tournament organizers can go by to determine where you are seeded this year. For a program like ours, with many new players and depth/strength we have not previously enjoyed, it's something we're going to have to play our way through. Conversely, a team like Magma is in a complete rebuild, and they will be hard pressed to hold seed.

As much as I think Firebird could handle an elite seed for this tournament, I think the open seeding will be just fine. We're short in terms of our roster size this weekend (again.. a bad thing if we want to turn heads this year outside of our country) and we'll find plenty of teams that will play squirely ultimate. Learning to play and beat those teams is just as important as giving the big boys a run for their money.

It is also not lost on me that last year, a team called Slow Children ran the bejebus out of us in the final game of the Boston Invite last year. They weren't slow at all. They had some solid young players who really played some good ultimate. We play that team first thing Saturday, and we'll be looking to have a better outcome.

I guess we have our motivation not to take any teams lightly.

Does anyone know who the best teams in this tournament are? I have many eastern US readers, so maybe they can shed some light on the teams.