No Wisconsequences Recap

Seeing as I was unable to attend, I asked a very special person to write a recap for me. He has some experience, since he recently retired from running the Boomland Blog. Yes, I'm talking about Brian McLain. Since disaffiliating from the Boomland's Travels, he's embarked on his career as a freelance blogger. He doesn't get paid for this, and I'm not exactly sure why he said yes. But he has a big heart, and now he can put freelance journalist on his application to law school.

Thanks Brian!

No Wisconsequences

by: Brian McLain

I was helping out Boomland during Illinois’ first game against Kansas Y. So here is what I gathered from Somerslam and Halvsies. Illinois did not come out ready for what Kansas was dishing. After settling down and digging deep, Illinois pulled out the victory 15-13

After a second round bye, Illinois was once again ready to show the Ultimate community and the world at large what they had to offer. Mama Bird, a Natties regular, looked to give our boys a tough game as they were seeded #1 in the pool. Looks can be deceiving as Illinois came out with a 3 -0 lead and then took half 8-5. Colorado, never a team to back down, forged a comeback around deep hucks and brought the gap to 14-14. In an effort to create some synergies, Denis gave a rousing speech in the huddle and Illinois was able to come away with the win, 15-14.

Highlights:

- Phelan got a Callahan

- Pavan was in the air longer than on the ground

After winning both pool games, Illinois had their crossover game against the Grey Duck. This game had no bearing on how the team would start the day on Sunday. Once again defense was Illinois’ weakness as great plays individually made on both offense and defense was not enough to cover the missing defense consistency. Minnesota won the game 15-10

Sunday brought a welcomed challenge in North Park. Last year Illinois had an emotional victory over the Lost Boys at Sectionals and knew that they would be gunning for them every chance they got. Due to the extra sleep granted from a first round bye Illinois came ready to play with fresh minds and bodies. Illinois played hard and won 12-9.

Highlights:- were down 8-5 and broke them 3 times to take the lead.

Coming off of a meaningful win over North Park, Illinois was posed to face the perennial powerhouse, Carleton. With the weather turning colder and windy offense stalled at some points during the game. Caleton took the lead and did not let go of it as the claimed victory 15-7

After discussion with Colorado over what to play to, the 3rd place game would be played to 9. Plagued by injuries, the Illinois sideline seemed to lack the spark of intensity that they had enjoyed throughout the day. The game ended with Illinois taking 4th place in an 8-10 loss to Colorado.

Fun Squad Highlights:- very comfortable accommodations

- House on Haunted Hill was found out to be a better comedy than honor movie

- Ryan Smith got verbally owned by Sheeny from the women’s team. It went a little like this: Sheeny stands up and proclaims to a room full of guys, “I/m glad you’re not a douche bag anymore. I mean all you used to do was talk about how good you were at Ultimate and show us pictures of your high school team. I used to call you Cocky McCock Face.” At which point the room erupted with laughter.

- I lost credit card roulette (Editors note: you mean “won”)

- Sprite (Lil’ Kevin) got cut off by the Bed Bull Girls - Pat Stephens made a delightful appearance

- Somerslam played sleeveless

C1, Breakfast of Champions

Cultimate, the premier, for-profit ultimate Frisbee organization, decided to upend the ultimate world by unveiling Conference 1. Cultimate has asked 25 teams around the nation to compete in their new league instead of the UPA series. Besides promising elite status and competition, Cultimate has also offered to subsidize all tournament fees and jerseys. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal. The only catch is that none of these teams could ever win the UPA series.

Cultimate has published very little details. They’ve posted an overview of what they want to achieve with this league and the teams they are inviting. You should visit this link for those details: http://cultimate.com/conference1/.

Of course, the ultimate community has mixed reactions. Some say Cultimate is helping the sport. Some say Cultimate is destroying the sport. There really isn’t a good way of determining what the majority of ultimate players think. The posters on RSD and the bloggers across the country don’t speak for everyone. Besides, everyone is going to have their own bias, including this blogger (Full Disclosure: Cultimate has invited Illinois to join C1).

My thoughts

This can only be good for the sport. Now, I do have a few reservations about the specifics of Conference 1, but I agree with the over arching principle: increase the level of competition and the product will only get better.

Now, many who oppose Cultimate argue that their conference locks out hundreds of teams. Cultimate is actually decreasing competition by limiting the number of players. Without an objective set of standards for who can play C1 disc, I agree with the opposition. Cultimate should create a set of standards much like the NCAA has for who can play Div I sports. Anyone who meets these standards can then play C1 disc. This would ensure that C1 teams are truly elite and not just favored by some subjective reasoning of a for-profit organization. Then again, Cultimate is doing all the work and all of the financing, so who am I to tell them what to do? I also doubt that Cultimate could afford to pay the tournament fees and jerseys of 100 teams. So the question still remains, “Is Cultimate helping the sport or only itself? Can it do both?”

The UPA has made promises of a revolution since I joined three years ago, and I haven’t seen them do anything revolutionary. Cultimate is starting the revolution. Having a premier ultimate league could be the answer to the one problem that has held this sport back: legitimacy. Society at large could care less about ultimate. Creating a unified league that showcases ultimate will turn some heads. I’m not saying ultimate will start generating ticket revenues, fortune 500 sponsorships and primetime television slots. But it is a step in the right direction. A very big step.

Some other questions that I have:

Can our B-team still play in the UPA series?

Can our A-teamers still play in Club UPA tournaments in the summer and fall?

If C1 teams aren’t paying tournament fees, how is Cultimate paying for these tournaments? (You would think I wouldn’t care about the answer to this question, since I’m one of the teams getting free stuff, but it’s a question of sustainability. If Cultimate doesn’t have solid cash flows to fund this endeavor into the future, then an even heavier burden will fall on the C1 players.)

Is Cultimate planning to create a similar C1 for Club teams? (I am graduating in May after all)

If this league turns out to be quite profitable, what kind of positions and salaries are available at Cultimate? (I am graduating in May after all)

What Illinois is Going to Do

We had a team meeting about the invitation to join C1. The team is excited about it, but we’re waiting to hear what the other invitees say. Yes, Florida has already joined, and from online reports, it looks like Texas will also join in the near future. But three teams hardly make a competitive league. The Illini are heading up to No Wiconsequences this weekend (preview coming soon), where we’ll get the chance to have face-to-face meetings with other teams that have to make the same decision.