The Last Trouble in Vegas…Ever. No deaths reported.
With many of the top college teams playing further out west at the Stanford Invite, the level of play was certainly diminished from past TiV elite divisions, but that left the field wide open for younger teams to step up, capture some Vegas glory and let it all ride on black.
Unlike the past two years the weather was in full cooperation. Temperatures hovered around 70° F with sunny conditions during most of the day and just enough wind to make zone play interesting.
College Open
With many participating teams having not seen any of the other competition the college division was wide open to any team willing to step up. The main contenders were Oregon State, Lewis & Clark, The Air Force Academy, Azusa Pacific, Arizona, and Claremont.
The final of the College Open division brought the Saturday bracket winners together, Claremont Brain Eaters and Arizona Sunburn. The Brain Eaters tasted blood early and went up big in the first half. The second half saw Sunburn playing a loose zone that begged the Brain Eater handlers to push the disc into risky situations. The defensive strategy gave Claremont just enough rope to hang themselves, and they gladly took the line, giving up easy D’s and making OB throws. Sunburn went on to break and win, on universe point.
One of the biggest surprises of the weekend was Colorado B, Cockfight, not necessarily in terms of overall wins, but in quality of spectating pleasure. Young, yet numerous, Cockfight was not afraid to throw big and go big, which easily made up for their inexperience. With a B team this committed it’s no wonder why Mamabird can return such a great force year after year.
College Women
The University of Central Florida Sirens came 2000 miles and were ready to take Vegas for all it was worth. They brought a good mix of serious athletic deep threats and a group of handlers who weren’t afraid to boost big throws and reward hard cuts. What put UCF in control of each game they played was their ability to push the disc, almost never looking off an open side cut, in or out. They went undefeated in Saturday pool play.
UC Irvine also went undefeated on Saturday, but fell to the Arizona State Red Hots in the semis. However, UCF wasn’t willing to give anything away, continuing their weekend long dominance with a win in the final, and the title of last Vegas women’s champions, over Arizona State.
Also of note: BYU showed up for their usual, Saturday only play, and went 4-1 losing only to UCF. It would’ve been nice to see a rematch of the pool play loss , had they made finals vs. UCF.
Club Mixed
The mixed division kept in the tradition of being competitive, but not at the expense of fun and drink. With a few experienced mixed players peppering the more serious teams there were no stand out teams slated to win it all this weekend.
Happy Ending, a team compiled of players from Downtown Brown, the Mental Toss Flycoons, and even Space City Ultimate players squeaked out a 15-13 win over a mostly LA based team to capture the title.
Club Open
Most notably Vegas saw the reigning college champions come out to compete in the Club division and square off against their own Florida alumni in the semi finals. But players like Tim Gehret, Brodie Smith and Kurt Gibson couldn’t be held back even by their Alma Mater.
The final was slated to be Florida alumni vs. Wisconsin alumni, but the game was forgone and drink was consumed. A fitting end to Vegas.
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