Fantasy Friday Results

Wow, what a day yesterday was. I watched games all day, took extensive notes, was ready to post, but then I headed by the beer tent at the fields and Universe needed a fill-in on their boat race team. After of a couple of races, the teams disbanded and I just raced Stoner over and over again as we reflected on our college ultimate days. He kept asking me if I wanted to ding it up, but I had no idea what he was saying.

So, my report due last night is just showing up this morning.

Let's take care of some business first, before we get to the exciting games.

Pool X: Hot Action 2003 (1-0), Phoberomys 2003 (1-0), CLX 2003 (0-1), Briefcase 2005 (0-1)

In the first round, CLX 2003 gets a chance to play Phoberomys for the first time. Watching them warm up while they scrimmaged themselves CLX player Seth Bartel was overheard saying "These guys play just like we do, and nobody beats us at our own game. Right guys?" Then he turned, found himself alone except for a attentive score reporter and quickly ran off to join an endzone drill. Seth was right, though, both teams tried long downfield passes and relied on tough defense to get them the disc back. In the end, CLX had too many targets and used their women well, especially Sheldahl sisters in the endzone and a one Von Schrader in the middle of the field. #99 Van Maanen was able to neutralize the deep threats and CLX 2003 wins by 3. The next field over, Hot Action 2003 plays an ugly game against Briefcase 2005. Many turnovers, sloppy throws, hospital passes, but Briefcase can bring them down. Hot Action's Rouda play some good long D to keep them in the game, but he can only stop one guy. Briefcase's Idris Nolan just keeps hucking.

In the second round, things are very interesting. All teams are 1-1 and any of them can win the pool at this point. CLX 2003 starts off strong against Mr. Briefcase 2005. Some rules arguments come into play and Briefcase's Nolan is heard yelling "Is there anybody here that actually knows the rules? Just one time, one time!, can somebody have read through the rulebook?" CLX 2003 cruises to victory after gaining a lead and wins 15-10. On stage two, Hot Action 2003 plays Phoberomys 2003. Rouda, after a great defensive effort against CLX 2003 is spent and dealing with back pain, leaving little resistance to Phoberomys's deep game. They don't complete all of them, but more than enough to win. Hot Action looks very disappointed after this game. They wanted to prove they could beat this team, but will now never get another chance.

CLX 2003 and Phoberomys 2003 finish with 2-1 records, but with the head-to-head victory, CLX 2003 plays its way into the play-in game. The rest of the teams will battle it out for ninth, or thirteenth.

Pool Y: Moe 2005 (1-0), Hot Action 2004 (1-0), Universe (0-1), Woodchuck....CHOMP (0-1)

The first round is nothing to write home about, and I wasn't watching too closely, with the matchups in pool A, B, and X too exciting to miss. Final scores had both Moe 2005 and Hot Action 2004 winning by eight and five, respectively.

The next round, Woodchuck....CHOMP took a bite out of Universe's play and was able to avoid becoming the only winless team at the tournament. Moe 2005 played Hot Action 2004 in a play-in game to the play-in game. Hot Action 2004 took an early lead off some Schiebel throws to Gardner and Truesdale. Moe answers bigtime when Guy throws a full-field backhand to Moravec. The teams battle to a 8-7 Hot Action halftime. Hot Action opens with a lefty huck (they call him B-Jar?) to Kane, but Moe takes the next three points to take a 10-9 lead. Action makes it 10s, off a Doyle huck to Gardner. Moe 2005 answers with some inspired play, though, winning the new game to 5, and taking a 15-13 victory into the play-in game.

The power pools are an odd thing in this tournament. The games are some of the best of the entire tournament, but at the same time, somewhat meaningless. All a team wants to do is avoid finishing last, because then they must compete in the play-in game. Otherwise, if you finish in the top-three in each pool, you make quarters. It can be important to win these game, but a team that spends too much energy today will be fatigued tomorrow when it really counts.

Pool A: CLX 2004 (1-0), Moe 2004 (1-0), Moe 2006 (0-1), Meth 2005 (0-1)

In the first round the game to watch is CLX 2004 v. Meth 2005. It's a battle between Meth's offense and CLX's defense. Meth comes out patient and deadly, with a Kampfe strike to Eastland. CLX 2004 has a rash of turns and poor decisions (normal decisions?) and isn't coming up with the disc. Meth works the middle of the field well and advances the disc through Henryson and Edwards. They take a 4-0 lead. Meth resident nice guy Kevin Kampfe is overheard saying "Gee whiz, they have a good team, but it's just not working for them now, eh?" Not one to back down, CLX starts a comeback. Hucks to Voytas and Seiler put them on the board, but Meth's Francis connects with Oppold on two consecutive points and the teams trade points to halftime. Meth takes an 8-4 lead. CLX 2004 switches to a more conservative offense, but in turn, their defense plays too conservative and opens up the middle too much for Meth 2005. They are smart enough to exploit it, and although CLX 2004 "wins" the second half, Meth 2005 takes the game 15-13. In a team circle after the game CLX 2004 captain explains to the team "Look, this team loses games, that's for certain, but we win them when they count. Let's forget about this game and focus on those upcoming." On the opposite sideline, Moe 2004 is playing Moe 2006. Moe 2004 is just too much for the 2006 squad and a Moe 2006 player is overheard saying, "It's like we're playing a team of ourselves, except on the other team, they're all two years younger." Moe 2004 takes the game 15-9.

The second round features CLX 2004 storming back from a loss and playing Moe 2004 very tough. They take a quick lead, but Moe answers. Both offenses are in top form, but the CLX 2004 defense is able to make some stops. CLX 2004 takes a 8-6 halftime lead. The second half is more of the same, as CLX 2004 slightly extends the lead, and the two teams play nearly flawless ultimate, with CLX 2004 taking advantage in a game they surely want to win. CLX ends up winning 15-13. Meth 2005 is fairly confident they'll win against Moe 2006 and doesn't put out their best effort. As the game stays close, intra-team conflicts arise. While they are able to win the game 15-12, they don't know at the time how important the score differential was.

CLX 2004, Moe 2004, and Meth 2005 all finish 2-1. Head-to-Head does not produce a tie-breaker. Point differential does not produce a tie-breaker, either, as each team won their games by a 15-13 score. All teams broke even on point differential, each with a two-point victory and a two-point loss. The tie-breaker involves point differential against the fourth team in the pool, Moe 2006. Moe 2004 was +6 and takes the pool, CLX 2004 was +5 and takes second, while Meth 2005 was +3 and takes third in the pool. Meanwhile, Moe 2006 must pick themselves up for another game at the end of the day.

Pool B: CLX 2005 (1-0), Blah 2003 (1-0), Kaze 2003 (0-1), CLX 2006 (0-1)

Round one has Blah 2003 battling Kaze 2003. Kaze 2003 rarely beats Blah 2003, so they are eager to win on such a big fantasy stage. The game features incredible layout attempts, big hucks, great skies and grabs, and has the overall feel of a bigtime game. The twin brothers on Kaze are scoring goals with their height, but Blah's deep receivers are just too fast and creating separation. Kaze puts up an incredible effort, lead by the all around play of the Blanchett-Ruth (sp?) brothers, but Blah is too much for them and has beaten them too many times before to lose now. Kaze 2003 loses a disappointing game. In the other game, CLX 2005 is playing CLX 2006. CLX 2005 is sure enough of themselves to keep a constant lead, but CLX 2006 is pushing themselves on as much as they can. They stay in the game with some sweet D's by Wirkus 2006 on Wirkus 2005. CLX's Lun, Staron, and Solarz show they are every bit the handlers of the previous year's Cram, Ryba-White, and Savage and Lun's hucks to Brisbois and Seiler keep them in the game. The game is tied at 10s when Gibbs makes a grab in a group of players, all apparently thrown off by Brisbois's misread. CLX 2005 does not panick, though, and takes three points in a row, and later the game 15-13. CLX 2005 is left feeling the game was too close, while CLX 2006 thinks they let one get away.

In the next round, the CLX 2006-Kaze 2003 game is interesting. Kaze 2003 could very well have won this game, but CLX 2006 took an early 2-0 and 4-1 lead. Kaze 2003 calls timeout, decides to bag the game, and plays very little defense the rest of the game. They decide they don't want to risk a loss in this round and have to play in the play-in game while exhausted. They try to score on offense and do a couple times, but lose 15-5. Will their strategy work? In the real game of this round, CLX 2005 takes on Blah 2003. Blah 2003 is riding high from their victory over Kaze and CLX 2005 is questioning themselves a little, thinking they should have had an easier time. Blah 2003 plays intense to start the game, while CLX 2005 is a little sluggish and although they play their best, it just seems void of matching intensity. Blah 2003 takes advantage and never looks back, winning the game 15-11.

Blah 2003 ends up taking the pool and the top seed on their side of Saturday's bracket. CLX 2005 finishes second and CLX 2006 finishes third. Both have free passes into tomorrow's quarters. Kaze, meanwhile, will still have another game today, one in which they should be welll rested.

Play-in games:

Upsets do happen in this round, as the top team in each matchup has to play another game after a day of losses, whereas the team advancing from the lower pools has the psychological advantage of having usually won their games of the day.

Game 1: Moe 2005 v. Kaze 2003

Kaze 2003 looks a little sluggish after having a 3.5 hour break from their last true competition and Moe 2005 capitalizes. It doesn't take long, though, for it to turn into a game and Kaze 2003 takes a 8-7 halftime lead. The second half features great plays by Kaze, which takes the wind out of Moe 2005's sails. This team just doesn't seem eager to accept the challenge presented. Kaze 2003 wins the game and heads into quarters the next day.

Game 2: CLX 2003 v. Moe 2006

Moe 2006 had a rough two days, having to play a schedule including CLX 2003, CLX 2004, Moe 2004, and Meth 2005. No wonder they haven't been too successful, yet, but they've played competitely. It would be a tragedy to see them bow out now. But CLX 2003 is eager to do such a thing. The game starts out with casual point trading until 5-5. Neither team seems to eager to take control of the game and both teams seem to be biding their time until the opponent makes a move. CLX 2003 doesn't connect on a huck that sails out of bounds and Moe takes their first lead 6-5. Then 7-5. Then they take halftime 8-5. While CLX 2003 has some great individual women, Moe 2006 seems to be able to take advantage of their own. They even play some 3/4 offense, which is somewhat scarce in the coed game. CLX 2003 tries too hard in the second half to score and seems to lack the discipline to win a big game. It just feels like this team is a year away from greatness. Moe 2006 takes advantage of the multiple turnover points and takes the game in the second half to move into quarters on Saturday. Apparently, there will be no upsets today, as those teams in the power pools were able to defeat the challengers.

That's it for today. Tomorrow promises to be a great day of ultimate.

Quarters match-ups:

A1 Flaming Moe 2004 v. B4 Kaze 2003
B2 The Chad Larson Experience 2005 v. A3 Meth 2005

B1 Blah 2003 v. A4 Flaming Moe 2006
A2 The Chad Larson Experience 2004 v. B3 The Chad Larson Experience 2006