Why elite teams don't go to random tournaments
This trend has been gathering steam for at least the last 5 years or more. On the one hand, it saddens me a little, as I remember back in the 80's and 90's when all we wanted to do was to go to every tournament that we could. And if whatever team we were playing with at the time didn't have enough players express interest, then we took who we could, grabbed some random players, and put in a bid. We loved to play, we talked about ultimate all the time, organized our lives around the game, and partied hard on and off the field. On the other hand, I believe this represents a key evolution in the game, and shows that it is maturing and moving to the next level.
I still remember back in '94 in DoG's first year when I ended up playing in 13 tournaments that calendar year, winning 10 as DoG and playing in 3 summer tournaments (winning Hingham, being the best US team at Ow-My-Knee {losing to Ottawax in the finals}, and Corporate League). Last year, DoG went to maybe 8 tournaments, and one of the reasons is that we were merging with Boss Hogg, and required the additional tournament time to make decisions, but otherwise, we're down to maybe 6-7 tournaments a year, as the spring is especially fallow these days in the northeast. The establishment of Pike as a national contender can only help the East, as there is more incentive to go to tournaments knowing that is at least one more quality game than there was before.
As a non-neutral observer, let me point out that at my age, I like the fact that we have fewer tournaments every year, because that allows me to continue playing the game. If I had to get out for 10 tournaments every year
The elite field has definitely gotten deeper, with maybe 3-4 teams capable of winning nationals in any given year, and the top 9-10 teams capable of winning a game against any of the other teams (the reason I say only 3-4 can win is that only 3-4 can win ALL 3 elimination games, although any of those top teams could win at least one upset game).
The reason that the elite teams are cherry-picking a lot more now is multi-fold. First, they are ALL doing it (so there are fewer top teams going to the regular tournaments). But what it ultimately boils down to is that teams can no longer afford to just go to a bunch of cheeses tournaments because while they are doing that, their competitors are having intense practices, developing strategies and working on them, etc. The strategies have developed to the point where you aren't going to learn anything about them by trying them against a lower-tier team. You'll get the quickest evaluation of a new strategy by playing against the top teams, or by practicing against yourself. At DoG practice, this will typically occur where the D will get together sans O and prepare some strategy and work on it for a 10-pull. If it works, they will keep at it, and maybe ultimately they will share the spoils for the Offenses D. (Of course, the reverse usually doesn't help that much, because the D's O...).
One thing I am leaving out here is that this post is also a little East-centric. Because the balance of power has shifted west, and the most depth is west (with the east having Ring, DoG, and Pike as semis contenders, and the west with Seattle, Furious, Jam, Condors, Bravo). Back in the day, there was NY, Philly, DC, Ring, Port City for awhile, etc. within 8 hours of each other. Nobody flew anywhere to get top-notch competition in tournaments.
We never used to go to the West coast for a tournament, because we didn't need to. Now, we aren't finding what we need in the East, so we're headed to the Colorado Cup (whose competition I'm disappointed in, fortunately, I'm not going), and to the Santa Cruz tournament, where all the top teams in the country will be attending.
What this 'ultimately' means is that the sport is maturing and starting to become segregated into different tiers. Right now it is virtual, but I wouldn't be surprised if it developed into something like soccer, where you have different tiers, and you have teams that move into the A-tier based on performance, and teams that get relegated OUT of the top tier if they do badly enough. Scary thought, but I think ultimate is growing up...
I still remember back in '94 in DoG's first year when I ended up playing in 13 tournaments that calendar year, winning 10 as DoG and playing in 3 summer tournaments (winning Hingham, being the best US team at Ow-My-Knee {losing to Ottawax in the finals}, and Corporate League). Last year, DoG went to maybe 8 tournaments, and one of the reasons is that we were merging with Boss Hogg, and required the additional tournament time to make decisions, but otherwise, we're down to maybe 6-7 tournaments a year, as the spring is especially fallow these days in the northeast. The establishment of Pike as a national contender can only help the East, as there is more incentive to go to tournaments knowing that is at least one more quality game than there was before.
As a non-neutral observer, let me point out that at my age, I like the fact that we have fewer tournaments every year, because that allows me to continue playing the game. If I had to get out for 10 tournaments every year
The elite field has definitely gotten deeper, with maybe 3-4 teams capable of winning nationals in any given year, and the top 9-10 teams capable of winning a game against any of the other teams (the reason I say only 3-4 can win is that only 3-4 can win ALL 3 elimination games, although any of those top teams could win at least one upset game).
The reason that the elite teams are cherry-picking a lot more now is multi-fold. First, they are ALL doing it (so there are fewer top teams going to the regular tournaments). But what it ultimately boils down to is that teams can no longer afford to just go to a bunch of cheeses tournaments because while they are doing that, their competitors are having intense practices, developing strategies and working on them, etc. The strategies have developed to the point where you aren't going to learn anything about them by trying them against a lower-tier team. You'll get the quickest evaluation of a new strategy by playing against the top teams, or by practicing against yourself. At DoG practice, this will typically occur where the D will get together sans O and prepare some strategy and work on it for a 10-pull. If it works, they will keep at it, and maybe ultimately they will share the spoils for the Offenses D. (Of course, the reverse usually doesn't help that much, because the D's O...).
One thing I am leaving out here is that this post is also a little East-centric. Because the balance of power has shifted west, and the most depth is west (with the east having Ring, DoG, and Pike as semis contenders, and the west with Seattle, Furious, Jam, Condors, Bravo). Back in the day, there was NY, Philly, DC, Ring, Port City for awhile, etc. within 8 hours of each other. Nobody flew anywhere to get top-notch competition in tournaments.
We never used to go to the West coast for a tournament, because we didn't need to. Now, we aren't finding what we need in the East, so we're headed to the Colorado Cup (whose competition I'm disappointed in, fortunately, I'm not going), and to the Santa Cruz tournament, where all the top teams in the country will be attending.
What this 'ultimately' means is that the sport is maturing and starting to become segregated into different tiers. Right now it is virtual, but I wouldn't be surprised if it developed into something like soccer, where you have different tiers, and you have teams that move into the A-tier based on performance, and teams that get relegated OUT of the top tier if they do badly enough. Scary thought, but I think ultimate is growing up...
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 5:43 PM
8 Comments:
I think roster size might be either a cause or effect. When you have 15 guys on your team and 3 are injured or pussies, you probably get more out of going to a tournament, but if you have 23, that tournament better be damn good.
btw, your blog only shows 2 entries.
Fixed. Stupid IE. Worked fine on Firefox, although I guess I'm impressed that IE actually required better-formed html (for once).
I think roster size is effect. I feel like we have been managing roster size so that we have good practices, not so that we don't have to go to cheese tournaments. It almost seems as if that is not even an option anymore.
You explain the why pretty well and I do understand how it benefits the elite East teams to go West, but my question is this: Do you think it hurts or hinders up and coming east teams NOT to have the opportunity to play elite level teams?
In other words is the development of teams in the east that can't go to these elite tournaments affected? And does this reinforce the power in the west even more as the slightly-less-than-elite teams out there are having more opportunities to play top teams?
I would say this definitely hinders up and coming East teams. The better question is how did the West teams become so good? Because the situation had to be reversed at some point. What caused the balance of power to shift west? Is it because of the weather, the ability to play year-round? Are the better athletes moving west? What is the difference? And how can we move that balance Eastwards (unfortunately for them, the central and south haven't been factors in 20 years or so)?
Do you think that the west is dominating more because of their style of play? It might just be that their focus more on the spread compared to the run and gun style on the east has something to do with it. I'm not saying that it's better or anything, but it might be since it's not the "norm" and defenses haven't learned to shut it down for lack of practice against it, it's been successful.
The spread didn't really take hold until 2002 with Furious (and teams imitate success...), but the shift west was occurring before then. And I would say that the run and gun style is far more west than east. Have you seen how the West puts the disk up?
There is definitely a migration to having fewer upfield offensive players, creating more space, mismatches, and potential hucks. Whether it is a spread, side stack, or even a T stack. Actually, I would say this all started with the T stack (4 up the middle with side-to-side dumps), and that the various spreads evolved from there.
By the way you mention you guys are going to the Colorado Cup and Labor Day but aren't you guys going to ECC as well? The web page for it has you listed right now. In fact the ECC right now says it has all 8 open quarterfinalists plus the Buzz Bullets from Japan.
We initially planned to go to ECC, but after working the team yahoo poll, we decided to do Colorado Cup and Labor Day instead, although apparently a DC tournament is rearing it's head as a possibility at the end of August now as a third 'elite' opportunity. We also are not going to Tuneup for the first time since its inception. Interestingly enough, I think I may be the ONLY person who doesn't live in Chicago that has been to EVERY Tuneup, starting with the inaugural in 1994 (and there is no Tuneup curse, because DoG won in 94, and then won Nationals that year).
Post a Comment
<< Home