After Day 1…
Pool A
- Upsets: Ring over Machine, Sockeye over Machine, Boost Mobile over Ring, Sockeye over Bravo, Madcow over Ring
- Sockeye finishes atop the pool, and while people may not be shocked that they broke seed to beat Machine, I was impressed to see them control their game against Johnny Bravo. The Sockeye offense stayed patient against poaches and the defense forced plenty of turns both in man and with junk on the sideline while also capitalizing on most of its break chances. The most memorable plays of the game were Jimmy Mickle’s grab over BJ Sefton, Sam Harkness’ endzone grab over Mickle and Parker Krug, and a Bravo centering throw that went over Richter’s head and BJ grabbed and flipped in for an easy break.
- Ring had a bad day, going 1-3 and losing to lower seeds Boost and Madcow, both on universe point. A friend on the team tells me that they’ve got a lot of guys that didn’t make the trip out west, and a teammate of mine that’s approximating the USAU rankings has them sliding from 7th to 14th. Going 0-for tomorrow could mean just one bid for the Southeast.
- Aside from the Sockeye loss, Bravo stayed the course. Their Twitter called their game against Furious, which came after losing to Seattle, a character check, which makes sense to me.
Pool B
- There was only one upset: Doublewide over Revolver, 15-11.
- NexGen broadcasted Revolver v. Chain Lightning in Round 2. Chain jumped out to a 2-0 lead and went up three breaks before Revolver got a defensive score, but they became a bit too comfortable and let San Fran back into the game. Revolver controlled the second half and won 15-11. One thing I love watching in ultimate is a duo that shares strong chemistry on the field. A new favorite: Dylan and Jared Inselmann. After a number of years with Ring and a season off last year, Jared is fitting in great with Chain’s offensive line. He times his cuts really well and uses the fact that teams are typically looking to provide deep help against Dylan (rather than him) to get open in the endzone. He’s also a got a quick and accurate trigger when Dylan goes deep. In today’s game, these two connected for a hammer score and a flick huck completion when Chain was feeling the pressure after a deep pull into its own endzone; Jared threw both.
Tomorrow…
- Ring has to have a better day.
- Chain v. Doublewide will be good; if Chain wins Revolver could miss semis on point differential.
- I think the Bravo semi will be the more entertaining of the two (assuming Bravo makes semis, which I think they will).
Keep enjoying the holiday weekend.
Note: in last night’s post I said that Sockeye had beat Ring. They actually didn’t play on Saturday and are set to face off today at 9:45.
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