I took a break from work, my job search, and blogging to participate in the World Masters Ultimate Club Championships in Winnipeg, MB. For the past two seasons, I've had the pleasure to play for an Master's club team called Hey Babe. Last season, we finished 4th at the USAU National Championships and qualified to play at Worlds this season.
WMUCC is a week-long tournament with teams invited from all over the world to play. The opening ceremony was held on Sunday afternoon. Each countries' teams marched into the 'stadium', kinda like the Olympics. The key difference being the number of spectators in the crowd; we had about 20, Olympics have 10s of thousands.
The tournament is separated into two parts: Pool Play and Bracket Play. In our pool, we were placed with 2600 (Columbia), Masala Magic (India), Penguin Village (Canada), UFO (South Korea) and Bridge Club (San Francisco). After pool play wrapped up, we had a 5-1 record. In order to make it into the Championship bracket, we had to play a cross-over match against the Woodies (Germany). Unfortunately, we lost that game and dropped us into the consolation bracket.
In the consolation bracket, we went 3-0 with games against UKnighted (Great Britain), Penguin Village (again) and UFO (again). This was good enough for a 9th Place finish over all.
I've played in (what seems like) hundreds of Ultimate(frisbee) tournaments in my career and there is nothing like a World's level tourney for both spirit and for quality of play.
First of all, the quality of play is excellent. Not only because the top teams from across the globe are competing, but also because everyone knows the rules. In fact, as a requirement for participation in this tourney each team must have 100% pass rate on a basic rules test and a 50% pass rate on the advanced rules test. No matter how much you think you know the rules, you don't really know them until asked to take a test on them.
Secondly, the positive spirit among all the players, volunteers and spectators was amazing. Everyone was there for a good time, and that was demonstrated on and off the field. It wasn't unusual for player to greet each other and ask how their tournament was going, where they ate dinner, or if their kids sleep all night. Even for me, who is not exactly an extrovert, this was a lot of fun.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the tourney was Thursday night's jersey swap. Many teams, myself included, brought extra jerseys to trade with other teams. Our Hey Babe jersey's with Babe The Blue Ox on the front were a hit and I was able to trade for jerseys from New Zealand, Germany, and Quebec.
First of all, the quality of play is excellent. Not only because the top teams from across the globe are competing, but also because everyone knows the rules. In fact, as a requirement for participation in this tourney each team must have 100% pass rate on a basic rules test and a 50% pass rate on the advanced rules test. No matter how much you think you know the rules, you don't really know them until asked to take a test on them.
Secondly, the positive spirit among all the players, volunteers and spectators was amazing. Everyone was there for a good time, and that was demonstrated on and off the field. It wasn't unusual for player to greet each other and ask how their tournament was going, where they ate dinner, or if their kids sleep all night. Even for me, who is not exactly an extrovert, this was a lot of fun.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the tourney was Thursday night's jersey swap. Many teams, myself included, brought extra jerseys to trade with other teams. Our Hey Babe jersey's with Babe The Blue Ox on the front were a hit and I was able to trade for jerseys from New Zealand, Germany, and Quebec.
Worlds was an amazing (and expensive) experience. I'm glad that I got a chance to participate and represent Minnesota and the USA.
On a side note, Hey Babe participated in the 2018 USAU Masters National Championships this year and Won! Worlds isn't held every year, so we won't get to play next year.
Comments
Post a Comment