Livestreaming Worlds Part IV

In my last installment of puffery I wrote about the necessity for the game announcers to get the correct names of players on the field during play and pronounce those names with accuracy and elan.

You can call an entire ultimate game and do nothing right but get everyone's names and you will have done a good job.

The next part I touched on was research: knowing the teams, their offensive and defensive sets, their tendencies, their personnel, injuries, game plan heading into the finals and the team's history.

All of this is done by watching, learning, and talking to team captains. I think the announcers for NexGen for Worlds accomplished this well although I was somewhat dismayed when Chase and Lou in calling the Open Final implied that the Great Britain team was a bunch of nervous newcomers to the World stage. I get it -- they played like nervous nellies but this team has guys that have some decent tournament experience under their belts. A close loss to Sweden in the 2011 EUC finals is one example, a loss they avenged a day earlier in the semifinals 15-14.

I never heard mention of that game or GB's history at Beach Worlds, Paganello, the World Games and other major international tournaments. GB is easily one of the top eight international programs and has been for awhile (USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, GB and maybe Finland or Colombia make my list).

In the end GB played awfully so in some sense maybe their observation was spot-on but there is no doubt they needed to set that table more and reveal just where this GB team came from and what GB has done internationally.

I digress. Some things that Chase and Lou did quite well in both of the games they covered (Women's final as well, which was again the superior game, much like it was in Prague 2010) was provide just the right amount of insightful commentary and keen sports phrasing.

Two examples come to mind: Lou's phrases like "coffin corner" (facing a crosswind head on from a trapped sideline) "bankroll" referring to Open Team USA collecting GB's opening half drops and turning them into points and "cash it in" when a D player gets a D block and then banks the turnover by getting the goal.

Chase's commentary after halftime of the USA-GB final was keen. He noted (and you could tell he spoke from experience as a veteran elite Worlds player) that GB needed to relax, have fun, realize this is the last time they will play together as this particular unit, and go out there and play loose.

Both phrasing and insightful yet concise commentary is good to have. I am guilty at times of over-commentating. You can do this as the color man -- think Jeff Van Gundy calling the NBA finals -- but you have to be careful. You don't want to over-opinionate without a dose of humor that lets the viewer realize you're talking jive talk for fun. This has been a problem of mine -- talking with conviction about things I wasn't 100% on. It's part of the trap of commentating -- be careful!

Lou and Chase did fine here, although they erred perhaps too much on the conservative side.

A major problem with ultimate and one that we, the loose-knit community of announcers, has yet to solve is the game's fundamental sway of "holding serve." Tennis and golf commentators are quiet. Basketball, football, hockey and baseball announcers can be chatterboxes. Soccer is somewhere in between, as is ultimate. You want to bring excitement to the broadcast (listen to a Tom Styles-called game again) but you don't want to get over excited about that sweet layout block when tend seconds later the D team turns it over and the point becomes a 15-minute marathon rendering that sweet D block useless. You have to know how to balance the nature of a game like ultimate that tilts it's value toward offensive precision and conservatism (and thus a reserved announcing style) with the genuine excitement of something like a three-goal run or the aforementioned D block.

Lastly I will say that timing is important. The interplay between the announcers has to be flawless. Speaking over each other or calling out field action while the other announcer is riffing is a real problem. Everyone runs into this problem I feel. Tom and I for Beach Worlds tried to map out who would talk at what points in the game -- color commentary, play-by-play and points in between. I'm not sure we ever quite mastered it, especially with the difficulty of calling play-by-play without knowing names and mastering player identities.

Again I think Lou and Chase did this well and Bryan and Mario needed work. They stepped on each other a few too many times. It's the nature of the beast, really, hard to find fault, but it can't happen.

After so much praise however I will mention that Lou and Chase were probably slightly too USA-centered in both of their broadcasts (and by this I mean not pointing out USA's faults and foul calls as often as they should have) and certainly a little lacking in providing a strong historical background for the teams and the sport -- how many finals for USA? This was Japan's first Worlds win, yes or no? Etc. Generally speaking their commentary on the overall state of the sport and the place of these teams could have been stronger.

And I will say that Chase's end-of-game analysis of the Women's final was just silly. He actually said that the USA "just missed by inches" in referring to their chances. In reality they made buckets of unforced turnovers, many not even close, and were destroyed after the opening quarter, 13-6 (USA had gone up 7-4). More astute words might have been: USA missed by kilometers.

Overall you have to like what both of these announcing teams did and what NexGen is bringing to the table. It's amazing that we even get to comment on commentators in a positive light.

Next up for the announcers: set the historical place, set the stakes of the game, have a spotter if needed down on the field to radio in names of goal throwers and ESPECIALLY to relay foul calls if possible.

More work is needed for some of the announcing teams on timing and color versus play-by-play and for others how to not make the game sound boring, like golf or tennis.

Looking forward to more.

Livestreaming Worlds Part III

If you can read upwards from the bottom and/or scroll down you'll hopefully figure out the ordering here. We are watching Worlds live on the internet at 1:30am and currently waiting for the final game: USA vs Great Britain in the Open division. Watching on NexGen's high quality, well-packaged broadcast. But what can they do better?

First, the stream is very good. The camera work is solid. The replays are there. The graphics are quality. The feed-switching is very good -- all the things that make a broadcast invisibly awesome are finally in place thanks to NexGen (and maybe Tushar, dear friend?)

So now we come to the section I can opine on: the announcers.

First, game announcing is not easy, that has to be evident by now. If you're a fool go up there one day and try it. You'll be hated, first, and you will probably be terrible at it. It takes a mix of public speaking, phrase-finding, name-pronouncing and impeccable timing to make it right and all of that is hard to do.

Also you probably shouldn't be playing at the same tournament you're commentating on. Although it can be a plus, I found out the hard way in Prague when I went straight from playing in a 5th place game (we won) to the broadcast booth for the finals of Open and Women.

There's two things every announcer needs to do, at least two things. I learned this the hard way of course. An announcer needs to do homework and an announcer absolutely has to get names right.

Names names names. That player going for that disc isn't "Canada" or "Red hat, Japan". That player has a name. And you should know it.

When Revolver won Worlds I knew maybe 2/3rds of the players, just from being in the scene so long. Same with their opponent, Sockeye. But the names and faces I butchered I was deservedly butchered for.

It's not easy -- 25 person rosters. Several games you have to cover. Players look alike. Numbers are hard to read when you're in stands far away from the field. That year the women's final was UNO from Japan versus Fury from San Francisco. I was handed a sheet with names and numbers of both teams about 20 minutes before the game started. I couldn't properly pronounce half of the Japanese names so I relied on a Japanese speaking cohort for that. On the Fury side they wore white uniforms with gold lettering. I never, ever saw a number and only could identify players I didn't know by sight when watching a monitor with the replays.

Lesson here: no excuses. An announcer can't blame the uniforms or the unfamiliarity of a foreign team. Hard fact.

Listening to Lou Burruss and Chase Sparling-Beckley they figured out this lesson, Lou especially. His Japanese name-pronunciations are butter smooth and he's always on the case both quickly and accurately IDing players. Grade for Lou here is an A.

Bryan Jones and Mario O'Brien in the Canada-Australia mixed final were very disappointing in this regard. I like both of those guys as announcers. But they've been in Japan for a week now? They don't have the excuse of having to compete with a team. I believe they are there solely as broadcasters. Not only that but they get the cherriest of cherry teams with names to pronounce and identities in two duchies of the Queen of England. And they can really only get to 70-75% accuracy? Not great.

But also not entirely their fault. One of the next steps for NexGen? Spotters and statisticians. Maybe they have them in Japan right now? Maybe not.

Open final is starting up so Part IV next and last.

Livestreaming Worlds Part II

So everyone always knew that livestreaming over the internet was the way it was going to work for ultimate. Kerr and I knew it in 1999 and we couldn't have been the only ones. So why did it take so long? Bandwidth? Audience? Money?

None of the above. It was initiative, or the lack of initiative.

I think having a live software-based switching program was also key. Back in 1999 you needed a Tricaster. In 2004 I think they had a sat truck. At the 2010 College Championships in Wisconsin I saw that CBS Sports (which bought CSTV and eventually re-teamed with ultimate after a hiatus) had a suitcase switcher program that was half-hardware and half-software.

In 2010 I was one of the announcers for the World Club Championships in Prague. The Czech internet company that did the live broadcast for the finals used a sat truck with an experienced director calling out the camera feed switches and instant replays.

And they did it quite well and the broadcast was really the first professional-looking live internet broadcast I had witnessed. How was it that the tiny Czech Republic had the capabilities, know-how and resources to do this and back home in ultra-wealthy USA we had nothing?

Nationals coverage that year was disappointing as it had been for awhile. UltiVillage, god bless 'em, was livestreaming miserably with inexperienced camera operators, cheap cameras, disappointing commentators and really just a boring broadcast overall. I don't want to demean UltiVillage -- they filled a need for a number of years and did it extremely fast and inexpensive which was all the UPA and its members seemed willing to pay for.

But finally last year sometime good ol' American initiative buoyed by capitalism kicked in and the ever-fervent Pacific NorthWest produced a unique product: a tour of top college players called NexGen that was flashy, well-produced, well-organized, high-quality and came with video. And it wasn't cheap video -- it was good.

And amen the people rejoiced.

And NexGen succeeded that summer and that fall did the live broadcast for the USAU Club Championships. And again the people rejoiced.

So what finally did the trick? I think it was the initiative by NexGen founder Kevin Minderhout. But then again there was also a significant investment someone made... NexGen couldn't support itself nor could the high-quality broadcasts, web design, graphics and so forth appear for free. I don't know for sure but someone put up some real money to make NexGen work and that investment was a wise one.

NexGen is making a name for itself as a premier ultimate broadcasting netwok. Watching the broadcasts of USAU Club Championships last year was great (disclosure: I was initially invited to join the announcing/commentating team but it didn't quite work out).

Watching coverage from Japan tonight has been rather pleasant. But now we get to the next step in NexGen: doing it better.

Livestreaming Worlds Part I

It was sometime in the fall of 1999 when Charles Kerr, the father of the Callahan Rules, Callahan Award and godfather of NC State's 1999 College National Championship, kicked around an idea to me of an online national newspaper for college ultimate. Eventually we teamed up to write and produce the College Ultimate Reporter which basically had no chance.

Kerr did a lot of work on it and I wrote some stuff and we tried but 1999 was just too early to fund an unfunded sport with an un-sponsored magazine.

One direction we wanted to go was live internet streaming of Nationals. It made so much sense for ultimate to go there -- tech-savvy players who graduated from college, niche market, lower costs.

But lower costs in 1999 meant thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands. And the bandwidth wasn't so favorable.

About 7-8 years later USA Ultimate (then the UPA) finally got lucky in broadcast when a small niche cable television channel based in New York (Chelsea Piers, to be precise, I visited a few times and even pushed the idea as best I could) called the College Sports Network contacted the UPA with a pitch to shoot and cover the College Championships in 2004.

This wasn't an internet thing -- it was broadcast television, shot mostly live-to-tape but not live. And the UPA paid for it, an estimated $50,000 in fact. But the UPA's player-base had been pining for this sort of thing for years so the money wasn't a problem.

Failing to watch live was a problem however -- watching sporting events days or weeks later is a deal-breaker.

Internet was always the solution... part II next, I swear I have a point here and some analysis of NexGen's Worlds Coverage.

Well it's happening again: high quality live ultimate broadcast/streamcast. It's the quadrennial World Championships, this one in Sakai, Osaka, Japan and live webstreamed by the NexGen network. You can watch it here. Once again the commentary is good, the camerawork is excellent and the quality of the webcast is very good -- so this is all good. And most welcome -- the question I have to wonder is: what took us so long? Halftime is Japan 8, USA 7 in women's final -- I'm going back to watching and will try to kick in some opinion.

Seattle: Ultimate Can Be a Career Here

The deal with New York is that you come for a career in one of thousands of top-notch career choices here, aim to be the best and along the way if you can kill it at ultimate, all the better for ya.

Career objectives first, girlfriend second, ultimate third, basically.

I've been in Seattle for two weeks now and it's a little different. There's careers here-- real lives that run by the clock of ultimate, and that's a mighty cool thing.

I'm here as a New Yorker -- I'm in a screenwriting seminar at SIFF and workshopping a feature script. Trying to make something cool, worthwhile, wonderful—and trying to make a career.

But Seattlites and Satellites of the Sity are immersed in a good lifestyle. Good eats. Good coffee. Good vacation destinations. Skiing, running, mountain biking, soccer— the Seattle Sounders soccer team is revered here. I've seen an equal number of people sporting Seahawks, Mariners and Sounders gear out here. 2 each. I'm surprised I haven't seen any Sockeye gear.

There are hundreds of middle-school and high school teams here. You can coach a team and make $2000 a semester, not bad. You can play Goaltimate tournaments here, so far in the NW there's been 3 goaltimate tournaments in fact. Ultimate fields on a lit turf field to the East of the University District are lined for two sports: soccer and ultimate.

Spring league, winter pickup, goaltimate league, tournaments here and there, and more and more. Skyd magazine is here. Five Ultimate is here, Cultimate is here. It's really just like an everyday thing here.

At pickup it's not much different at the different cities worldwide I've stopped in for pickup. But it's played at a different speed almost, it's faster. Everyone has generally smart decisions on throws. Everyone has throws. Even the low-level guys can just play smart and judicious.

I have three more weeks here and some time spent with Eats Throws & Leaves. Will report back on that and fill in on Kaimana Klassik and Hawai'i and Hilo.

Meantime if you're curious about my film career objective, you can watch my short film directorial debut, Kaya, at www.movementpictures.com.

Psychological Sports Insight/ Field Positioning

Great Skyd Magazine post by former Sockeye captain Lou Burruss about Sockeye's Regionals collapse. I liked the insight and observations but make sure to read all the comments afterward which shed additional light and open up more discussion.

http://skydmagazine.com/2011/10/tale-stories/

WCBU2011: Mixed finals

All tournament Germany and USA were on a collision course to meet in the title game. The tall and experienced Germans—a team with key players from the international beach veteran club the Woodies and featuring five who were at WCBU in 2004 (gold) and WCBU 2007 (silver) were captained by Paganello bon vivant Rü Veitl and Janne Lepthin and dominated Pool B with relative ease, their closest games three-point wins over regional adversaries Poland and Austria.

The Americans, culled primarily from a core of the 2010 USAU Mixed Champions Polar Bears and joined by other California stalwarts, were led by beach aficionado Dave Hammond and veteran Steve Dugan and also went undefeated in their pool.

The finals proved the two teams' supremacy.

Sometimes it doesn't matter which team you're rooting for when you get a game like this: Big upwind hucks for scores, layout blocks for Ds and a massive comeback completed with a layout grab leading to the game-winning goal shot.

Still it was a disappointment for many as the role of underdog spoilers belonged to the archetypical favorites—the Americans—who fought back from a 6-2 deficit to defeat a strong German squad and take the championship, 9-8.

Early in the game Germany's ultra-patient and effective offense capitalized on American turnovers to take a decisive 6-2 lead, forcing the U.S. to take a timeout. At that point fortunes changed for both sides.

Scoring downwind, USA pulled upwind to the commanding Germans. Perhaps the Americans changed their defense or maybe Germany just wanted to hit some downwind goal shots but in a decisive series of plays, Germany—uncharacteristically and against their captain's wishes— twice hucked endzone-to-endzone to an open receiver and both times the throw was carried too far by the wind. USA's Greg Marliave then laced a half-field IO forehand to Erol Yildiz for a crucial upwind goal and momentum-builder.

"Definitely [the American's] upwinder at 6-3 was the point to go," wrote Veitl afterwards.

After two upwind chances for Germany, USA converted the down-winder to close it to 5-6. On the next possession a solid pull trapped Germany in their upwind end zone. Trying to break out without the huck, a short up-field shot was instead the victim of a layout D from American June Srisethnil. An easy score from there tied the game at 6s and gave the U.S. a ton of confidence.

Facing the wind, a German short-field miscue gave the U.S. an easy goal and their first lead, 7-6. Again for another downwind Deutschland opportunity the U.S. utilized a defense that all of the U.S. teams were playing—protect the unders, play a straight-up mark and force throwers to bend or hook their hucks. Even with the wind at their backs this strategy worked. Germany's open looks were deep and temptation ruled again as a throw that sailed long was picked up by USA and converted upwind, this time an impressive, forehand rip from Tyler Grant that came out fast and high before seeming to float down like a UFO into the waiting arms of An-Chi Tsou and Sally Mimms for the back-breaking upwinder and an 8-6 lead deep into the match.

Finally Germany recovered behind the strength of their veteran A line. Two goals later, an upwinder from Nicolas Fink to Marvin Horter (one of five on the team to compete in his third WCBU) and downwind Arne Reusch to Daniela Sprunk (another of the five) and the match was tied at 9s, game to 10.

Similar to the Mixed Masters' final, the Germans failed to hear that the time cap had been called. The American's top line then took the field seeking to close out the game—although like his Condors teams of the past, co-captain Dugan utilized an open/non-sub-calling strategy and players went on the field of their own accord. In quick fashion a layout catch by Mimms at half-field gave her two looks to rip an unmarked backhand and the second look found a small spot to hit Adam Raty and just like that the match was over.

This was a thrilling game and I'm sure the Americans were overjoyed with their comeback.

For their part the classy Germans won silver and the Spirit of the Game—no small feat and a sign that the veteran German side was built with precision and passion and an unwavering belief in playing good-spirited disc no matter the circumstances.

WCBU2011: Masters Finals

My view of the finals is colored by the fact that I was in uniform for USA.

We faced a rematch with the only team that defeated us in pool play: Austria. They took us out three days earlier by playing a smart, motivated match in front of hundreds of cheering supporters on the main beach field, 10-9. It was a good game but we played tight and looked forward to meeting them again.

Finals started at 4pm which gave us time to relax, sleep in and keep it loose. That all changed when we showed up at the Beach Arena at 3 o'clock. The stadium was empty but the Austrians had taken over the sand. They were practicing a variety of throws in the wind and looked more than solid.

All tournament the weather was hot, humid and unbearably still. It seemed as if eternity had consigned Lignano Sabbiadoro to a breeze-less existence—until the Saturday finals. Now the wind was whipping flags and turning over discs. I felt this could be an advantage for Austria.

We did our usual warm-up and then tried to get in as many throws as possible with the new conditions. We did find one sweet spot on the field where the seaside stands blocked the wind and provided a clean release and flight for 30 yards or more. It would turn out useful as we scored two upwind goals from that spot.

Once the game started our adrenaline was strong. We had worked on a new defense to prevent some of Austria's keen bladey forehands and quick-look passes. Add in some nerves, perhaps, on the Austrian side (it also helped that our team had played in the arena before and knew it was a fast track) and two upwind goal shots, from Billy Maroon to Rook and Billy again to Kelly Swiryn and in short order we were in command of the match at 7-2.

The Austrians had their strengths but the Hannes half of the tall, rangy twins Michael and Hannes Zellinger went down with a foot injury early in the match, deflating the Austrian side (he would return three points later and end up with 3 goals in the finals and finish with 46 overall caught and thrown, leading the division while Michael was third overall with 40).

Whenever the Austrian offense did manage to score, the USA O line led by Al DeFrondeville, Ricky Eikstadt, Trey Katzenbach and Jim Parinella would match downwind and score with seeming ease. At no point did Austria get two goals in a row whereas the U.S. was boosted by a five-goal run in the middle.

In the end the we kept up the pressure and won handily 12-5.

It makes me think back to that Wednesday match on Field 1 when they upset us. The crowds were thick lining the field and one side was entirely Austrian supporters, cheering wildly on every pull and once, during a timeout, streaming across the field with three massively large Austrian flags to raucous cheers. It was truly impressive.

We were bitter after the loss, stung by their success and aggressive attitude. They basically took it to us.

We deserved to lose and it helped us, in a sense, focus on getting better as players and stronger as a collective team.

Maybe to some the finals were a foregone conclusion, but I don't think we ever got ahead of ourselves. They beat us once and there was no reason they couldn't do it again. This time we got the breaks, stayed focused and won.

WCBU2011: Mixed Masters Finals

This was the inaugural year for the Mixed Masters division (defined as players born before 1978) and no one knew what to expect. Would speed be a defining factor? Beach experience? Strategy? Confidence?

Perhaps all. This turned out to be the most interesting of the six finals as savvy and speedy Great Britain surprised the USA 11-7 in a convincing performance before the setting of the sun.

USA had gone undefeated in ten games of six-team pool play including wins over GB and Germany, each twice. They had expected to meet Germany in the finals because Germany had beaten GB in both matches and played the USA to closer outcomes.

But that's where Great Britain staged their first coup, knocking off the Germans in semifinals 11-9. By the time the finals were set the G.B. team was prepared for its final take-down.

Scouting was their first step: they devised a game plan for each of the top USA players. Secondly they disguised their strengths in pool play knowing results there were relatively unimportant. They sat their top player Si Weeks in the first game against USA but in the finals, Weeks was causing trouble everywhere on the field. One of their captains, Lucy Byrne, also sat for games against the Americans to nurse an injury. She too played a key role in the finals.

Perhaps USA underestimated the depth of Great Britain. GB carried core players from three-time Paganello mixed finalists Poughkeepsie, they had two women who won gold at the 2007 WCBU in the Women's Division, several men from the GB Masters team that won Silver at WCBU2007 and they had recently eligible Weeks—a human stat machine at Paganello in 2007, among other tournaments.

In other words, this team was stacked.

Great Britain also changed up their defensive sets and came out of the gates aggressive and confident. Put it all together and what we witnessed on the field was a series of turnovers from the Americans and lightning-fast strikes from Great Britain. The turnovers came everywhere: USA could not find a rhythm. Drops, miscommunication throwaways, overthrows, nothing seemed to work for a team that hadn't been down in a game the entire week. Only a couple of big plays from Kimberly Beach and some solid handling from Rod Hannon kept USA alive.

The ending was unfortunate and seemed to sum up the confusion that reigned on the American side and on the part of the time-keepers. Down 9-6 with a scant few minutes left in the time cap the Great Britain team scored on an easy 12-yard throw up the sideline. But the goal came back on a call and a discussion ensued. Upholding the call meant USA was taking a gamble. They could have let the score stand to get another point of offense before the cap. Instead the time cap was called during the discussion and shortly thereafter GB punched the disc in easily with the same throw to make it 10-6, game to 11. This gave GB a chance to win the game on defense.

To be fair to USA, the time cap was never signaled properly to either team and the Americans never checked so they never knew it was coming.

The U.S. scored on offense, Great Britain did the same and unexpectedly the game was over, 11-7. After a ten-minute delay to explain what happened to a confused American it was decided that GB had indeed won the game.

It was a fair choice by GB who would have won in a game to 11 regardless. To cap it off, they won the Spirit of the Game award for the division, a double peak for Beach Worlds.

My final impression of the Mixed Masters division was that it worked. We saw solid play, quicker-than-expected players and above all, the kind of great play that comes when you've been playing with your teammates for ten, fifteen years. Never hurts.

WCBU2011: Women's Finals

The setting was certainly unique: the game started is twilight before the evening floodlights filled the beach arena with an eerie glow and a touch of cinematic drama.

But first and foremost: USA versus Canada finals was a heavyweight bout. Both squads came out ready to compete seeking a mental and physical edge over the other.

The sides formed a mirror image: physical marking and chippy handler defense on the USA side was duplicated by Canada as the squads jockeyed for the edge. A massive forehand IO huck goal shot from Canadian star Malissa Lundgren (six goals thrown in the finals, 48 total for the tournament) was countered by a Kathleen Ratcliff forehand huck. The cuts from speedy American Marie Madaras (22 goals thrown, 24 caught) left her wide open for unders and deep goals while the fleet-footed number 42 Kate Jardine for Canada found herself with steps on defenders seemingly at will.

Both teams had their lines set by finals but whereas the United States had enough depth for solid starting O and D lines with second lines in place, Canada had shorter lines due to a lack of depth. The team had top Capitals players and veterans Anja Haman and Anne-Marie Carey but also brought several younger players and beach rookies.

Despite a slew of impressive plays from #55 Lundgren, including two quite improbable deep IO flicks and two run-through blocks on under swing cuts, USA found themselves with a two goal advantage at the time cap, 9-7. It would be a game to 10.

Canada scored on offense and then kept several of their O line players on the D line, moved Jardine over to guard Madaras and benefited quickly when Haman got a block and Canada converted to tie the game at 8s. Pressure was now on the Americans.

With their A line on the field it looked like the game was over when Ratcliff hung out a forehand for a racing Madaras. But the disc fell too fast for a turn in Canada's end zone. It sounds strange to say this on game point, but I believe that the choice to huck was a wise one to gain field position and almost immediately USA got the turnover back at mid-field. They tried to punch it in again and failed but when Lundgren picked up the turnover her cutters were swamped by the Americans' D and the final turn of the game gave USA the disc back with only a third of the field to the goal. After a dump and a swing, co-captain Rohre Titcomb had the disc in the middle of the field and slung an IO forehand to the far side short cone that sailed wide—but a foul was called by Titcomb, marked by Lundgren. It sure looked as if the disc path looked true. But after a short discussion with Titcomb illustrating her throwing motion and Lundgren seeming to suggest that the hit on Rohre's arm had come after the release, the disc was checked back in and Rohre again chose the IO, this time painting the corner but short of the goal. After a quick cut opened up a short dish up the line the coup de grace was made and the game was over with USA's second gold medal of the day.

After the game several of us on the Blockstack TV video crew (I was commentating live for the web broadcast) gathered around Tushar Singh's laptop to replay the critical foul call that so disappointed the crowd and seemed like it could have been bad. Zooming in to grainy footage and stopping the video frame brought us this: In one frame the disc is out of Rohre's hand and in the next frame Malissa's hand hits Rohre's arm. Replaying at normal speed you can see Rohre's arm snap back. But was the hit after the release? It looked like it. Would any thrower be able to know when the hit occurred exactly, especially given that a good IO needs follow-through? Doubtfully. And would a foul call be made even then, considering that at least a short follow-through on an inside-out flick is particularly necessary?

The game was a great one, it had elements of the epic Fury-Uno 17-16 Worlds title game of 2010 in Prague with neither teams ever up by more than two.

In the end Canada had two chances to score and the USA ended up with three chances to score and the third one counted.

Both sides showed some real grit and talent and special props has to go to Canada for getting to the finals with a team many didn't quite see coming.

WCBU2011: Open Finals

The scores have been posted, the final results tallied and medals awarded: WCBU2011 ended on a high note in the Discraft Beach Arena in front of thousands of players and curious onlookers witnessing six championship games of excellent beach ultimate.

From the beginning to the end Beach Worlds was a memorable experience filled with spirited fun on the beach and top competition on the field. It's no coincidence that the field is the beach and the beach the field… fair-minded spirit and competitive fire were united at this tournament.

OPEN DIVISION
The result can't be a surprise: the United States defeated the Philippines 13-9 in the finals and brought home gold as predicted. The Philippines—primarily represented by the club team Boracay Dragons— are known worldwide as masterful beach specialists and repeated as silver medalists.

Switzerland, led by Paganello stars Lorenz Stauffer and Robin Brüderlin, stifled Italy to claim bronze in the third place game.

The USA-Philippines finals gave fans everything they wanted: spectacular layout grabs, waves of speedy defenders, well-executed offensive sets and two teams prepared to compete for gold.

In the end too many early unforced errors from the Filipino side and too much firepower from the Americans proved the difference.

Twice the Philippines got caught looking for the next pass and dropped easy hammers: Perhaps USA's changing defensive sets and junky zones disrupted the Filipino flow just enough.

On offense the Americans were able to send in lines featuring cutters with just as much foot speed as fleet Filipino defenders Panoy de los Santos and Jeffrey Rodriguez. Coupled with the steady handling and deep-look options from veterans Tyler Kinley, Adam Simon and Webster McBride and a healthy height advantage the American offense proved tough to contain.

Still the Philippines fought: Down three breaks 0-3 to start they tied it at 3s before USA separated again with three straight and the counterpunching began. A spectacular hammer layout goal from Rodriguez closed it to 9-7 but was followed by a score and layout D from American Teddy Browar-Jarus to up the lead to 11-7. A double happiness D and score from Hendrix Manning was matched by a step-back flick huck from Simon to make it 12-8. There was some parity here, even if the Philippines' electric fast-moving "Dragon style" offense of quick passes proved unmatched on the beach and the Americans' calm under pressure rarely wavered. The match finally drew to a close with a Kinley throw to speedy Asa Wilson.

For the USA the tournament ended with a healthy respect for the competition and a satisfying win over a worthy opponent.

It was also notable for the USA's 12-10 showcase loss to Italy that confirmed what was suspected beforehand: even sending a hand-picked All-Star team from a nation of 40,000 full-time ultimate players isn't enough to overcome a steady and determined opponent.

For the Philippines they had to be happy getting back to the finals in what was clearly a more difficult field of competition than WCBU2007—down a break late in their quarterfinal against an upstart and largely unheralded Canadian squad, for instance, the Philippines had to run off two straight to win on double-game point.

In their semifinal against Italy, however—which initially started as a physical call-fest interrupted by a spirit-circle time-out—they strung together five straight scores twice to win in a blow-out.

But WCBU2011 in some ways may be the end of an era for the Philippines and the Dragons. The Filipino team we saw was the same group from four years ago and age may steal away some of their stars for future tournaments. Only a handful of players on this team are in their 20s and if the Philippines wants to get back to the finals in 2015 they will have to start a youth rebuilding process soon.

The Italians looked strong all tournament in defeating the USA and the Philippines in crowd-pleasing Beach Arena showcase games before mysteriously battling nerves and a sense of fear before taking the field in their doomed semifinal against the Philippines. Still the Italians proved their style of play marked by an aggressively opportunistic offense and fearless defense was a solid and successful model.

And finally we have to remember Switzerland as a presence here and a team we can expect to see more of in the future. Their tight 12-10 loss to the USA in semifinals said as much about their talent and savvy as anything.

One final note: as mentioned in the preview, competition-wise, this tournament suffered from its proximity to the European Championships. Grass is still considered superior for most of Europe and players from EUC Open finalists Sweden and Great Britain were not in attendance. GB's best player, Si Weeks, fitted himself on the Mixed Masters team, for instance.

But that takes nothing away from the players that did come to compete and a tournament environment that produced absolutely awesome displays of competition, spirit, fun and entertainment for players and spectators alike.

BULA has made it clear that it wants the ethos of beach ultimate to be different than that of the grass field game and if WCB2011 was any indication they have succeeded.

the Great Delay

Beach Worlds is over!

By, like, 2 days now. I'm an avid baseball fan. Phillies, if you must know. About 11 minutes after a routine Phillies game ends there's a complete write-up with video recaps, photos and statistics up online.

When an ultimate tournament ends there's a delay because one guy (me) is kinda maybe supposed to—although never explicitly stated—write up the results.

And i'm at a hotel outside the airport in Venice begging for spare change and emailing like a hound chasing a rabbit trying desperately to get photos of the tournament so i can put them up on Skyd.

It's sad but true. But we're getting better and we're getting closer. Any day now, any day.

Did I mention I now have a gold medallion? Traded for it. Traded my SOUL. Just kidding. In actuality I spent 23 years playing this ridiculous game to get it. Not bad, certainly better than playing 23 years without winning a championship of any kind....

USA Women, Great Britian Mixed Masters, USA Grandmasters win Gold

The beach arena is an excellent location to showcase ultimate. The track is fast, the stands are high and echo the cheers of the many countries there to watch the big games.

The action started this afternoon with USA versus Austria in Grandmasters. With precision offense and big ups the U.S. team hardly had a turnover on offense en route to a convincing win, albeit not a blowout.

In Mixed Masters the upstart Great Britain team led by an unstoppable Si Weeks began the day by upsetting the German team in semis before storming out of the gates on defense and offense against undefeated USA in the finals. It never seemed that USA could find a proper rhythm as miscommunications led to far too many turnovers for the USA O line. GB's squad, bolstered with women who won WCBU Gold in Brazil and Paganello Mixed division winners Poughkeepsie were stacked from the start so the question was how did they actually manage to lose to both USA and Germany twice in pool play—twice?

I talked to them after the game and it turns out that they played the numbers very well, using a large squad to rest top players like Weeks and Lucy Byrne over the course of pool play games before letting them fully anchor the team in the finals. They also saved up energy for the final and used heavy defensive pressure coming in waves to completely dismantle the American O.

The women's final was the highlight of the night. Both teams looked to come out of the gates hard and fast, knowing that the first 2-3 points of a quick 45 minute game can really set the pace. And that they did, blistering speedsters running down on defense, huge hucks from Canada's Malissa Lundgren (who, incidentally, dominated the leaderboard for the weekend with 44 goal shots, an average of 4.4 a game) massive ground-eating under cuts from USA's Marie Maderas and physical marks and hard D: this game was defined as a battle from the beginning.

Breaking the O and D proved not too difficult as turnovers weren't uncommon. But neither squad could find the right D-line handlers to withstand the pressure and more often than not the D would prevail. USA went up a break late in the game, 9-7, and held on as the cap went into effect meaning it was a game to 10 and Canada had the weight on their shoulders to score.

The O line managed to make it happen giving the Americans two chances on O to win. when the first one failed, however, the score was tied at 9s and the pressure returned to the American shoulders. With so much speed out there I felt the defense had the advantage and this almost proved correct after two USA turnovers had given Canada a chance to win the game. But it was not to be -- the defense of the USA proved equally stout and refusing to give in and the Canadians forced up two throws for turnovers. Finally with both crowds of stands roaring, the Americans, bailed out by a foul call on an IO throw that initially looked clean, converted the break after the same IO connected and won, 10-9, a stunning and anticlimactic end to a fantastic game.

WCBU2011: Masters, MixMastas, GrandMasters Semis and Beyond....

MASTERS

The Masters division here has two things going for it: parity and some serious height. It seems that the taller guys keep playing longer as teams across the board tend to outsize their Open counterparts. Or maybe a little extra girth makes them look taller.

Pool play has finally ended this morning and settled final positions for the playoffs. Perhaps expected, perhaps not, the Canadians managed to defeat the top-seeded Austrians this morning at 9am even though the game meant little to either team. Austria, crafty, tall, perhaps not as good looking as the U.S. Masters team, knew that win or lose they would likely face France in the semis.

France defeated Austria 11-10 and will be fired-up to do so again and make it to the finals. The French team is young, hungry and they run quite well so it will be interesting to see if they can do it again.

With the Austrian loss the U.S. regained the top spot and face off against Spain whom they defeated 13-6 yesterday—although it was clear in some ways that Spain was not putting out their best effort in the game, perhaps holding reserves for the likely semifinal re-match.

Of note is that if the U.S. and Austria win their semis we can expect a raucous crowd for the re-match in the finals. Wednesday's Austrian upset win over USA was punctuated by an energized and active sideline of fans waving flags, cheering loudly before and during plays and at one point rushing the field with four giant Austrian flags during a timeout. It was an impressive display that seemed to rattle the Americans and if they meet again we can expect more of the same—which is great for the game and great for the fans.

Both teams have been warily eyeing each other since that electrifying Austrian win and the scouting ledgers have increased. If this game happens, it will be a good one.


GRANDMASTERS

Following their countrymen, the Austrian GM team rattled of the last two of the game on defense with Johannes Petz connecting with Stefan Pichler to upset the favored Americans on Thursday and tie them for the top spot in the pool. However, USA had defeated Austria earlier by more points meaning they retained their top spot.

Still the Austrian win is a big one for their confidence even if it does motivate the Americans now to seek revenge and come out fired-up. After what should be an easy semi for the Americans against either Great Britain or France and a more difficult one for the Austrians against Germany, we'll find out tonight who's planned better for the expected rubber match to be broadcast live.

MIXED MASTERS
Great Britain upset Germany in semifinals this morning, 11-9, perhaps a shock to the German system and will now face an undefeated USA team in the finals this evening.

USA earlier outlasted Austria in their semifinal 13-6 led by their height, Jeremy Clark, Kimberly Beach and Sarah VanWagenen. In GB they will see a familiar Paganello foe, a team with several ex-Poughkeepsie and Iceni players and some serious goal-scoring from captain Si Weeks.