Club open is getting into full swing with the second major tournament of the “regular season,” Emerald City Classic, on the horizon. Here are some updates, reminders, and things to look for—an expanded IB dumps, if you will:
The majestic Triborough Bridge provided a great backdrop for the NY Invite, held on Randall's Island.
- Two “mid-major” tournaments took place this past weekend, impacting the Central, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast regions.
- Ring beat Ring at the Furniture City Shootout—the Raleigh boys went split squad and captured their ninth consecutive FCS title. Cash Crop’s O-line and Masters team Boneyard both made the semifinals.
- After a difficult Saturday in which the little lion men lost to both Madcow and Oakland Ultimate, the Pride of NY rebounded in Sunday bracket play to capture the NY Invite title on their home turf at Randall’s Island. PoNY beat the Virginia Squires in one semifinal and then avenged their Saturday loss to Oakland in the finals. Oakland, carrying many of the same Pitt players from old Swagger U and Roots of Rhythm teams, came out on top of Madcow in a chippy contest in the other semifinal.
- The race for the final MA bid is heating up with these tournaments in the books. I don’t want to say much more because I play for the Virginia Squires; and I don’t want to crown Ring, Truck, or Southpaw champions of the MA prematurely; I’ll just simply add that it should be enjoyable to watch Cash Crop, Medicine Men, Oakland (Haiders), and the Squires battle for the final MA berth to Sarasota. Right now, that bid is anybody’s.
- The NexGen Tour came to a close with Bus’ 15-5 win over Sub Zero. Following that tour was an insane amount of fun, and having watched all fifteen games, it’s clear that Kevin Minderhout and his team never slacked on the filming or production fronts. Hats off to the support crew (and Rob from UltiVillage) for making it all happen, and to the players for finishing over .500. If you’re still holding out, just buy the damn subscription already – it’s incredibly worth it. Not only are the games purely entertaining, but the angles at which they’re filmed also provide countless educational opportunities for players of all levels. Fun times on the NexGen bandwidth?
- On the educational note, if you’re looking for some solid critiques of the NexGen game play, head over to Kyle Weisbrod’s Facebook page. He has some great insights to share about a number of the games, and I’d suspect he’ll keep churning them out until he’s caught up with most or all of the games.
- Sweden won Euros in a nail-biter. Thanks to Tom Styles at Blockstack for sharing the video link with everyone. GB obviously lost because Ollie Gordon was too busy sleeping on The Spirit of Aaron Bell. Hopefully he won’t be doing that next summer in Japan.
- Yes, ECC starts this weekend, but so do the Canadian Ultimate Championships. The winner will earn a berth to the 2012 WUGC tournament in Japan. As was highlighted in this morning’s dumps, IAmUltimate has a detailed look at almost every team attending. If you want an idea of how everyone got to CUC and how they’ll perform, IAmUltimate’s preview is definitely worth reading. I have only seen GOAT and Furious play this season via UltiVillage’s NexGen coverage, but if I had to make a prediction, I’d say GOAT takes down Furious in a close final. The spread for that game would be ridiculous – anybody care to calculate one?
- OK, OK, I guess I’ll say something about ECC. For a lot of teams, including Machine and Revolver, this is their first opportunity to test what lines and strategies work best against quality competition. For others, like the Dingos and Buzz Bullets, it will be a fun, challenging outing and precursor to next year’s WUGC tournament. The U.S. teams should also be using this tournament as a ramp-up to Chesapeake and/or Labor Day.
- Sorry, no ECC predictions here. If you’re lucky enough to be there, don’t miss the Revolver/Buzz game on Friday night—should be a compelling rematch of last summer’s WUCC semifinal.
- Bryan Jones, the man behind the No Look Scoober blog who brought you some great coverage from Wilmington (College Easterns), Boulder (College Nationals), and elsewhere will be roaming the sidelines in Burlington. He’ll be tweeting and doing some live audio streaming of intriguing matchups (like he did at the Revolver/NexGen game). Make sure to check the No Look Scoober page and Twitter to keep up with all of the ECC results and Bryan’s analysis. Oh, and BJ and Skyd have some plans to get some interviews and game footage up, as well.
Check back in for another edition of rankings after ECC. Alex and I are excited to unveil some new distinctions and move teams around if necessary. Until then, unless you’re at the ECC or CUC field sites, happy Twitter following this weekend.
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