Captain's Log: 100906

Captain's Log: 100906

Regionals were last weekend in Chicago, Illinois. Past history has shown that Chicago is not really our town to play in. While performing well at all the Tune-Ups and CHCs tournaments, we have only won that tournament once, with a 2nd, T3rd, and 6th. In addition, we played central regionals in Chicago in 2003 and that was the worst tournament experience I believe I've ever had.

The format was tweaked a little to accomodate The Chad Larson Experience. We kind of needed to finish in the top three to make sure the coordinators were right about selecting the four-advance format. We played a 16-team bracket with a 2nd/3rd bracket and a 4th place bracket.

In our first game, we played Ignition out of Michigan. We took half 8-0, had a 10-0 lead before somebody (ahem....Brisbois) got scored on, and then ended up winning 15-2. We wore our CLX greys for the first time. They are okay, I kind of like the way the color looks, but wish our jersies were black after seeing the longsleeve blacks jersies.

I think we waited around for almost an hour and a half before the next game started. The Soy Nuts-Third Coast game went long and Soy Nuts pulled off what many people considered to be an upset. I don't know about that but good job Soy Nuts. Well, we played them and took an early lead and never looked back. I believe the final score was 15-4. This game was over very fast, in fact, the Ice-Salsa game was only at 6-3, and the Moe-Happy and Briefcase-Kids games were barely past halftime. I got to watch some good games. A lot of teams weren't looking too good. The Briefcase game was 15-10, I think the Moe game was 15-10, and the Ice-Salsa game was 15-13 Ice.

So, in the thrid round, we played Ice and won handily again. We took a 6-1 lead and never looked back. Took halftime 8-4 and kept that similar lead through the rest of the game, winning 15-11. While the final score looked kind of close, I don't feel we were ever in danger of losing the game. I don't remember too many things about this game other than Mike was doing a great job of throwing hammers over their zone and Jon and Solarz were handling well. Moe won 15-8, kind of surprising, but like I predicted, a CLX-Moe final.

Saturday night was a lot of fun. We found a bowling/karaoke place. The bowling was a little expensive, but we still played two games and the Kevin-Seth team destroyed the Brisbois-Mike Lun team twice. I rolled a 159 in the first game and something around 110 or 120 in the second. Several pitchers of beer were consumed and it was good.

Karaoke was a blast. Few players braved the stage, but those that did put on great performances. First, Shawn jumped up there and rocked a "Interstate Love Song", followed by James McKenzie crooning out The Band's "The Weight". Seth touched our hearts with a "Wish You Were Here". I followed with Elvis's "In the Ghetto", my karaoke stand-by. Joe had been standing outside to avoid singing his song, but when he showed up, he was called and we tore the house down with Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy", complete with a loss of shirt at the line "I'm too sexy for my shirt."

Second round was just as good. Shawn and Abby had a duet to "When I'm Sixty-Four" by the Beatles. Seth showed his grunge side with Pearl Jam's "Alive." Just about all the guys were singing, the girls somewhat silent. Then James gets up and does the Nirvana unplugged classic "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" Possibly the best performance of the night. Again, all the guys were singing along, the girls not so much. Tai jumps on stage and does a rendition of "I'm Going Down", I think she said it was a Mary J. Blige song. Correction, Tai's song was the best of the night. I had to follow her at with a "What a Wonderful World", which I'm told sounded like Cookie Monster. Finally, to end the night, James, Seth, Joe, Shawn, and I performed "Bye, Bye, Bye" by NSync.

A great night.

Finals next day weren't until 1:40. We played Flaming Moe as said before. They weren't playing some of their players due to injuries and some seemed to be playing more than they had against us at other times. At the same time, though, we were missing the Sheldahls and Gibbs, who are among the best women defenders and cutters.

The game starts off like usual, with the teams trading points until 3-3. Moe has a little miscommunication that ends up in my hands and I toss a score to BJ to make it 4-3. I think we make it 5-3, also. I don't remember many other specifics from the first half other than our offensive teams scored every time, I believe. We take half 8-5. We pull, but get the disc back and make it 9-5. Tai makes a great layout catch on a pass I tried my best to turf. Thank you Tai. We get the disc back, but make a short field turn and they make it 9-6. Again, I don't remember much now, but I think it was 10-9 us at the closest point, but we go on to win 15-12, on a great layout score by Abby Doriani that Jon tried his best to turf. In the second half, our offense had a lot of trouble moving the disc, but we found ways to score, notably, on the "huck to Joe and Wes" plays. It was kind of a 2003 throwback there, just hucking to Wes when in trouble. We played a good game, it wasn't always pretty, but to win you have to find ways to score.

Notes:

-I felt the CLX-Moe game was a little more tense than usual. There wasn't controversy exactly, but the game wasn't free of calls, either. Moe had three calls in the game that I thought were particularly bad. All three were on misreads that CLX got D's on, but the Moe player called foul, twice on second attempts. I don't think at all that they were trying to be dishonest, but just felt the extra pressure to have to make a play since it was a regional final. I have no doubt that all three would have been nullified by an observer, even though one was uncontested by us. On the same note, Moe did score upwind twice in one point and once it was taken back by an ambiguous line call, and the second by a pick call. We ended up scoring that point. Other than that there were a couple of other calls by either team, always getting some sort of protest by the other team, whether it be short and controlled or the dreaded long discussion. Paul Norgaard told me he was telling Moe before the game that we had requested observers. He was only messing with them, and as team captain, I have no reason to request observers against Moe. I want to make that clear.

-The defense was good this weekend. Some layout D's making their way into the fray. Rachel Derscheid had one early in the Ignition game. Christina also had a good one. Jon layed out early in the Ignition game, too. Stu had a great bid in the Moe game that I had a good look at. Joe had his normal scattering of layout D's, and had a great one against him by Pat of Moe. I had a good look there, too, as I threw the disc. Tai was playing great defense all weekend and was really a force on defense all year. She will be missed in Australia, as will Christina and all the players who can't make it there.

-We tried some different strategy against Moe in the second half that wasn't as successful as I thought it would be. They traditionally aren't as good against a straight-up force, but I tried to mix in a force sideline on swing throws, intending to keep them from getting the big yardage gainers in the middle of the field. Well, they just hucked it downfield instead of putting up throws to the middle and it didn't really have the effect I intended. Oh well.

-If I had to choose an MVP for CLX I'm pretty sure I'd have to go with Mike Lun. When Mike is in the offense, we have the chance to throw the disc all the way down the field and score in one throw. In fact, my favorite thing to do is line out outside the stack on a brickmark pull and just run deep on the first offensive throw from Mike. He opens up the field a lot more with his breaks and hammers, too. I'd have to say he has the best hammer of anybody I know right now, including Karsten. Luckily, I get to play with both of them. While other players on the team can huck, none can do it with the consistency and confidence that Mike does. When he isn't in, the offense is not usually run as well and the play is more horizontal and less vertical. That's not to say our other handlers are deficient in any way, in fact Jon, Stu, and Solarz are very important parts of the offense, but Mike just has the throws that CLX needs so bad. His defense isn't too shabby either and once a tournament he skies for a disc that I thought he had no chance at getting. Against Moe, I threw him a huck that I thought he jumped a step too early on, but just kept elevated and almost floating in the air until the disc was in his hand. I'd also have Joe up there for MVP. He consistently guards the other team's best player, picks up D's, scores long, and as the season went on, contributed some clutch throws.

-I think I played an average tournament. I wasn't playing poorly, but I wasn't bringing the house down, either. I think I contributed some solid play and while some of my enzone throws weren't perfect, they were all completed! My best game was probably the Ice game. I thought I was fairly helpful in the zone offense, got to run the disc up the field with Jon, which seems to happen about once a tournament, and played some good defense.

That's about it.

I'll be posting a worlds team writeup soon. I need to write down my #1 favorite ultimate game. I might throw out some nationals predicitions, etc. We'll see.