WUGC 2008 - Reflections

So, now that the week is over and I'm back home, I guess it is time to reflect on the whole experience. No matter how many times you do it, and no matter what division you are in, Worlds is something very special.

I didn't succeed in finding a ride back to Seattle, so I had to rush around and get a taxi to grab the 2:45 Greyhound bus to Seattle. If I missed it, I was going to miss my flight. I had Georgia call Greyhound while I was on the way (talk about a LONG taxi ride) to see if she could buy me a ticket. She couldn't get one on that bus, you had to buy 2 hours in advance, but could spend an extra $18 to get an anytime ticket. I get there to pick up my ticket, nice long line, finally they ask if anyone is on the 2:45 train. I move to the front of the line, we have to figure out whether to look me up in the Canada or US computer (way to have them talk, Greyhound...) get my ticket, and rush to the loading area only to find like 6 people. Oh well, there go the worries about being left off the bus. The border took less than 20 minutes as we were the only bus. Get to Seattle at 7PM, find a local bus and eventually get to the airport at 8:30, check into United, grab some food, fly to Dulles, fly to Boston, get picked up by the kids holding Congratulations! signs. Didn't sleep a wink on the flights, as is my wont.

Back to Worlds.

WUGC is a totally different experience from WUCC. At WUCC, you are just another one of many teams from your country competing for the prize. Ultimately, it may be harder to win (at least for US teams that compete as themselves at both tournaments), but it doesn't have the same cachet while you are there. There is far less of a patriotic feeling because you are just one of many teams from your country. At WUGC, you ARE your country. If you fail, your country fails. As such, there is also a lot more pressure I think. Imagine how Seattle feels right now. If they had lost to Bravo in the finals of WUCC, that would be one thing, but losing to Canada as the sole Open representative? I can't imagine how much that must suck right now, especially as they seemed to be heavily favored going into that game.

Unfortunately I missed the opening ceremonies. I would have loved to do the parade, and would probably have choked up a little bit. I also missed the Masters medal ceremony because of the rush to get back to Seattle, which was also a bummer(apparently I didn't get one of the Champion discs). According to Jim, it sounded pretty cool. I did see the Jr. Women, and it did look pretty cool.

My main objection with the tournament was that there were no socializing opportunities that included drinks after 7:30PM until the Friday and Saturday night parties at the end of a long week. I went to the chill-out lounge one night and found a bunch of people (not too many) playing board games. Uh, lame. It didn't help that Canada doesn't sell on Sunday and Monday was BC day with no alcohol, so those nights we just mooched off our fellow players on Shazam Returns and other teams. It was only once Tuesday came around that we found out actually how much beer cost in Canada, which is RIDICULOUS. Bad beer costs $35 a case and you need to pay at least $45 for the acceptable stuff. So thanks to Shazam Returns and others for subsidizing us.

It is just amazing to walk around the fields and see all of these players from different countries playing in different divisions. At first, I objected to the number of byes we had, but in retrospect, it makes the week more social, getting to pick the games you want to watch, whether a big Open showdown, the Swedish women..., etc. And based on how I feel right now, 4 days after my last game, I'm thankful that we ONLY played 11 games during the week. Hell, we played one more game than the US and Canada Open teams, who topped out at 10 games. My right heel/soleus is very sore to walk around on, there is something going on on the outside of my upper right leg. and I have something going on with a rib on my side which is VERY painful, but the rib problem is nothing like Dugan's rib (and Jim on a lesser basis).

When I was playing ultimate back in the '90s, I had always wanted to run subs, at least the O-line. Well, with this masters team, I have finally gotten my wish, and hats off to Jordan for all those years for subbing us. Being the subber, even for just half the team, is not the cat's meow by any means. You have to worry about involving all of the players during the week, trying to make a judgment when someone should play through problems, someone isn't getting it done at the moment, and do all this without it detracting from your own play. I'm not sure how well I succeeded on any of these fronts, except for the fact that we won. I know I missed some people in the finals.

As for my overall play, I ended up with more than twice as many assists as the next person on my team, but I would given that up to have far fewer turnovers, including 3 in the finals (I'm giving the long backhand to Jim). I iced myself in the second half after my final turnover flaring out Paul Greff too far. Unfortunately, Marshall got hurt a few points later, I put Paul in, and then the next point, Marshall still wasn't ready so I started going in again. But I finally played within myself for the last few points. Like I said before, I was totally feeling the hero hormones on the last possession after the Canada dump turnover. If I hadn't had any earlier hammer turns, maybe I would have uncorked the long goal score to Jim so that he could dive into the hot tub, but we are ALL probably better off this way.

This all started as a little bit of a lark last fall, and now my team has won the World Championship and we get to own it until 2012. That is pretty sweet. I know that in the post-game frolicking and huddle there were a lot of emotions. Leaving the stadium on Saturday to get my bus to Seattle, I gave a big hug to Paul 'TGPITG-BF' Greff and we both got a little emotional. Part of the specialness, especially at our ages, is that we sold the week on the fact that there was a HIGH probability that this would never happen again. As if we weren't old this year, imagine having to win masters in 2011 and then do Worlds again in 2012. Mooney would be 54! Paul 50, Jim 47, myself 45. Crazy, eh?

Thanks to the D for picking us up when we were down, and they are welcome for us holding on... I'm sure I have more to say, but that's good enough for now.

Oh yeah, like my old gunslinger reference, Match challenged me to a gun during the tournament and I finally took him up on it at the Friday night party. He smuggled in a couple of beers, and we got ready. He made a HUGE hole, so I felt a little threatened and enlarged my hole more than I normally do. His buddy counted down us, we started, and spiked my can well in front of him, although he apparently thinks he was right on my back. He also had beer left in his can where mine was completely empty. In this one I didn't really try and time the end of the beer but waited for an empty gulp before spiking. But I'm sure I'll hear from him again...

WUGC 2008 - Day 6 - Part II

Hmmm. I was starting to post, and I realized that I didn't really have much more to say.

The New Zealand game was way too close. Not that we looked past it, and not that they were looking past it to the bronze medal game, although they admitted they did at the beginning. All of a sudden, 16-13 and I think we gave them the disc. Ugh. 17-13 final. I already covered the finals...

And then the games began. First back at the room because we missed dinner. 4 pizzas later we had quite the gathering, maybe 12 teammates. Then off to the party. Huge indoor ice rink, loud music, dancing.

Ahhh, nothing else to say. My current goal is finding a ride back to Seattle so I don't have to take the bus. Later days.

WUGC 2008 - Day 6 - Part I

Mellow night last night. Had my last beer of two at 5PM. This morning we played the New Zealand team in the semis.

Alright, we won. Woohoo! Despite my best efforts. Although I blame Jim for the 'dropped' long backhand on the 3rd or 4th point of the game. Same point, a hammer turnover to Will, who I couldn't connect with all weekend. Later, a LONG hammer to Husak after I pointed him to cut there. Finally a forehand to Paul Greff that I flared too much. Oh well. I benched myself for a few points, but then Marshall pulled up lame, so I had to play out.

At 14-13, game to 15, receiving, we then proceeded to turn it over 3 times. First was a hero goal throw from Paul to Simon that was too short. Followed by a hero long backhand from Dugan to Moonee, followed by a turnover just outside our endzone that Moonee picked up to fast break to me and he was kicked blocked on a backhand. They called timeout and we set up a forehand defense. Dugan was on the mark, and after I explained that if he turned to face the sideline, take away the dump. He did, and they turned over the dump and gained us another 10 yards upfield. A few passes later, I had the disc and looked off two turnovers, one a hammer goal to Jim (that he said he would have dove into the hot tub after catching, oh well) and a dump to Paul Greff that Moonee's guy poached off on at high count. I hit Steve going upfield all alone instead, and he hit Simon for the game winner. Boy, did I want to make that throw...

More when I'm actually in front of a screen again...

WUGC 2008 - Day 5

Felt a little blah this morning. 5 straight nights of semi carousing is a little tougher at this age than it used to be. Although most of it has been hanging out in our room or other rooms on our floor. Exciting stuff I know. First game was against GB at the Jericho fields at 9AM. There are shuttles at 8:01 and 8:11 that will get us there in time. After a quick breakfast, we go out to the shuttle to find out that they are not running. Apparently there are 4 cars staffed by volunteers that are shuttling people to the fields. This of course will take forever and they talk about the schedule being modified at those fields. A taxi pulls up and 4 of us get in, we get to the fields. Most of our team gets there by 8:40 and GB appears to be there so we start on time.

Not too much exciting in this game as GB is very generous with the disc. We go on a bunch of runs, so the O gets put sometimes on D to practice and not get too cold. We end up winning 17-7. The best part was that I finally was able to give up the NO BRAIN shirt to Bobby Stoddard after he threw his second consecutive bad long throw. He still has it as of this evening. Simple huddle, and now we have a 3 hour wait for our next game. Namkung, Hollywood and I walk to the beach and out on the jetty and hang out for a bit, then it is back to the fields to 'watch' the Swedish women play the Irish. Eventually, it is time for our game against Venezuela. The Venezuelans always win the party with their omnipresent drums. It is a fun game, although Jim drops the 45 yard hammer that I uncork to him for a goal on the third point. He said that the moment he dropped it, he burst out laughing and it was pretty obvious as he was walking up to the line to play D with a shit-eating grin.

Later in the game makes an ill-advised throw to Marshall to let the Venezuelans reach 10, which they are very happy with. A good huddle after with dancing, drums, booze (bottles presented, not drunk). After our game, some more Swedish game watching before we head back to catch some mens quarterfinal action in the stadium. When I get there, Canada and the US have just finished, and GB is starting to put the hurt on Australia. Japan is pulling away from Sweden. GB ends up blowing out Australia in a surprise upset while Japan finishes Sweden, setting up Japan/US and GB/Canada.

Off to dinner and then shower and trading night. I brought a lot of old DoG jerseys plus a couple of US ultimate jerseys. I ended up getting rid of everything, including the hated purple and green jersey from 1999 which is still the most uncomfortable jersey I have ever worn. My biggest failure was to not get the French warmup jacket. I worked that for awhile, including trying to swing a 3-way trade including a Canadian jacket, offered my jacket plus a DoG shirt plus $20 and the one guy still said no. I ended up trading it for a Colombian warmup jacket which was pretty sweet. Other than that, I have now have a bunch of shirts that I will probably almost never wear. Oh well. Guess I'll have to trade them at Worlds in 2010...

They had some other fun stuff going on, with 5 ultimate setting up a bunch of carnival type games, including a test your vertical leap (not a chance I was going to do that, especially with the crowd watching), various ball games, measuring the velocity of your throw. The usual mingling with people, the 'Do you know who I was?' kind of blarney.

And now off to sleep. There is a good chance that there will be no Day 6 entry for awhile, as I will either be celebrating or drowning my sorrows FEROCIOUSLY tomorrow night.

WUGC 2008 - Day 4

Today brought up our most recent most important game of the tournament. Australia was also 5-0 and had beaten Japan worse than we did. Fortunately it was another 10:30 game, so another leisurely morning, breakfast, watched the US-Sweden and Japan-Canada games.

The J-C game was reasonably exciting with Canada taking half before we had to go to the stadium for our 10:30 match against Australia. Shockingly enough, a whole bunch of our team was actually there arond 9:45. We warmed up with an endzone scoring drill, O versus D. Come gametime, we were ready. We started on O and scored reasonably easily. The D went out and scored 2 in a row. 3-1, 4-1, blah blah blah, the O played well, the D played well, and we took half 9-4. Game over? Not quite. The O reverted back to norm in the second half and starting frittering away the lead. The D also reverted to norm by not getting ANY turnovers for their first five points of the second half. Australia brought the score to 14-12 at one point. The D finally scored a few more to take the game 17-14, effectively giving us the first seed going into semifinals.

After a short break finally (maybe an hour) we went over to the main fields to get ready for our Germany game. This was a very relaxing preparation, as Germany hadn't done very well at all this week. The post game celebration was far better than the game. The Germans had a genius gift which was the NO BRAIN shirt. To be given to the person who most recently had done the stupidest thing, usually on the frisbee field. They gave it to me as captain to hand out to someone else. Um, I claimed it because my body of work to that point. I wore it the rest of the day and night (took it off for sleep) and into warmup the next day.

Tomorrow morning we have Great Britain then Venezuela. The GB game is at the Jericho fields, about 25 minutes away by car and at 9AM. This will involve the first really early game of the week, which will be an interesting change.

Quick burrito lunch at the same place although this time I got the kids burrito because the regular was too much food. Fascinating stuff, I know. Back to the fields to watch the Jr women beat someone or other. Our first short bye of the week, and then it's time to play the German team. The team was very flat for this game. We had a number of people sit out because of tweaks, injuries, or mental breaks. Despite the hot temperatures, we won 17-4. Then the games began. Off to the 'spirit enclosure' to start the drinking. We were setting up to watch the US play Australia in the Open division. Both teams undefeated. We grabbed a set of stands and made our nest. 5 ciders later (yes I know I'm lame), we're watching an exciting game. No turnovers until 5-5. Jim and Dugan are playing a points game, predicting things every point and making in point bets on number of passes per possession, who will turn the disc over. Jim had a HUGE lead and then tied on the over under at the end. Oh well.

Back to the rooms for dinner, and because all the people coming back from the fields were clogging the entry, Jim and I snuck in the exit. We get in and then a woman comes up to us asking if we just came in from the exit. I pretend to reach into my bag as I explain that we had just eaten but that we were meeting friends who were going to eat and she let us by. Phew!

I met JB back at the room and he said he was heading out to Rec Beach which was near us. It included a LONG descent to the beach over 400 stair steps. We got down there and ran into the Tufts/Vermont boys. I took a quick plunge into the ocean which was GLORIOUS. This was also a nude beach, so as I was taking my photos of the area, at one point I had to curve the camera to catch one woman from behind...

So, I'm blogging in our room, and all of a sudden a guts frisbee flew into the room sent by the mixed team. Ah, worlds. Right now it is JB, Jeff, Brian (who showed up this morning finally), Jim, Paul G, Hollywood. They are now making fun of me for blogging during our conversation.

Hollywood making fun of us for not warming up. We are talking about tomorrows 9AM game, and why we are trying to take a bus to get there by 8:30AM. He was saying that if we aren't going to warm up, then commit to not warming up.

So, JB went to room 227 and grabbed a 12 pack of bottles. Hollywood showed us how to do twistoffs using your forearm only. Just now, Jim grabbed a beer and is trying to do the same thing. After much amusement and attempts, JB just grabbed the beer and opened it quickly with his forearm.

At this point, I'm just listening for more stories to recount from the room recap. Brian said to say notice that I'm typing slower because I just opened a twistoff beer bottle using my forearm.

WUGC 2008 - Day 3

So most normal tournaments are over by now. And yet it is the third day of worlds. We had another late start with the first game at 10:30 against France. I recently posted on Eurodisc about how annoyed I was that France hadn't sent an Open team in the last 8 years (including this year). Naturally it caused quite and uproar, and you wouldn't believe how many off-list responses I got complaining about how classless/spiritless I was. Regardless, I had caught up with the French Masters team at the opening showcase game, and had gotten a lot of agreement from them on my complaints.

My turnovers continued in this game. On the first point I threw a full field backhand to Alec Ewald, and he played the man not the disc and let it go over his head, even though he had a clean bid on it. This game we broke out the ho stack (Huck & Hope tm). The O played it for the whole game. During the opening huddle I spoke about how we were now going to be more aggressive... Then a little later in the game we got a turn back, I received a pass and looked up field. I didn't really have a force and Jim was in the middle of the field cutting deep. I uncork a long backhand, admittedly a little low, as he curls back under. We theorized that it was the furthest a pass had landed from the nearest receiver. So by the end of the game I was still 0-x on long backhands.

I'm in my room right now with Jim, JohnBar, Dugan, and Husak. Husak is joking about posting on 70-40 about how Alex has the most turnovers on the team to this point. And I would have to agree. I haven't reached superstar status yet where I'm able to bury my team, but I'm trying...

Husak also said that Corey is wondering where his invitation is. We also had the discussion at dinner at the Sailing Center that I invented Home & Away (not really), but more importantly, that I HATE it. Cuz you have to not only know the force, but where your sideline is, as opposed to just the righty-bias game.

Then another long break between games. The 4 hour byes are very tough, especially when you blow through the first game in little over an hour to extend your bye to 4.5 hours. Paul Greff and I went over to the stadium and watched the Sweden-Japan women's game. The Swedes got bagled and didn't look very good. Then it was naptime in the stadium while watching the Women's jrs Finland v. Australia. Finally it was time for our game against Japan, who had surprisingly lost to Australia and more importantly, New Zealand. They had to beat us to start making some noise and make the semis. Finally, both the Offense AND my game showed up. We started on D, got the disc and gave it back. We go out on O, they pull it out of bounds and I bring it to the center mark. Quick juke by Jim and he breaks deep, I fire a long backhand for a goal. I FINALLY COMPLETED A LONG BACKHAND! The second offensive point, this time upwind, I threw another long backhand to Jim, this time not quite as good but he was able to catch it nonetheless. Finally, I had broken through. I would have had a great game except for 2 late turnovers, one a short backhand to Gary Bernard, and a hammer for the game to Bim that he wasn't quite ready for. But we won the game 17-13. Tomorrow morning brings the biggest game so far as we play Australia who is also undefeated.

WUGC 2008 - Day 2

So, one game today at 5PM. Talk about a long day of doing nothing. I didn't know what to do with myself. I've never been the guy to sleep all day. And unfortunately I woke up at 7AM. The call from a work person at 7:15 AM didn't help with my concentration on sleeping...

I woke up at 7, caught up on the internet on someone else's laptop since my laptop screen is fried. Breakfast at the meal place followed by a walk to Thunderbird Stadium to watch Japan-Great Britain which was a tight game at the time. Lots of turnovers by both teams and then Japan pulled it out. Then another long walk to find lunch at the burrito place from yesterday. BTW, this is all with Jim, contributing to the legend... Back to the fields, catch some frisbee, and Dan F. from Canada showed us a picture from his perv cam of a woman with a long lollipop in her mouth. Fortunately the picture was out of focus so it was able to be submitted for a best day picture.

Another trip to the stadium to watch Japan play New Zealand, and actually lose. Doesn't bode well for our game tomorrow as we are totally going to look past that game... :) Especially after a 4 hour bye (even longer based on probably crushing the French team in the morning well before the 2 hours window). DoG doesn't do well after a long bye, which we have proved numerous times.

Finally, time to get to the field at around 4PM for our 5PM showcase game. Warmed up for awhile, looked at the stands, notice no one was there, realized that I couldn't drink yet, then the game started. The game didn't start out well for the O, and not because we started on O. We are worst off when the D gets a bunch of turns early but doesn't score. It makes the O think that they have to do all the dirty work, so we put a bunch of pressure on ourselves. Regardless, the O sucked and we went down at half 9-5. This included 2 hammer turnovers by yours truly, although both receivers felt they needed to catch them at the maximum point of the arc rather than just catching them (I try not to throw hammers so that the defender has a play). In both cases, the defenders didn't have any real play on the disc, but both receivers played it that way and dropped them. They are both my turnovers, but still frustrating.

Fortunately the D pulled this game out as they went on a number of runs. We ultimately won the game 16-14. We pulled at 15-14 and they stuffed and scored. I was more than ecstatic to not have to go back onto the field for double game point at 15-15.

I'm really tired right now since it is 12:30 (or 3:30 eastern time), so hopefully I will be able to add to this tomorrow.

Amusing anecdotes
* Jim made a joke about Andrew Lugsdin playing the Danny Clark role for the day when he saw him against the Dominican Republic.
* Drinking into the wee hours with the Canadian team that we had just beaten. Apparently it was BC day in this part of Canada and no liquor stores were open.
* Match challenging me to a shotgun right after the victory and me explaining to him that after a dehydrating event the esophagus shrinks and you have to drink/chug a lot of fluids to expand it again. At this point, I haven't taken his challenge.
* Watching numerous Family Guy episodes in our room that are stored on Paul Greff's laptop.
* Mootching beer and fun off the Shazam team that is right across the hall from us.
* Schmooing with Dan Fassina and abusing him about choosing to play with the Canadians.

WUGC 2008 - Day 1

After a 'brief' 8 year hiatus, here I am back at the World Championships. At least the Olympics version. I have to admit, I have missed it. While that was definitely one of the reasons that Jim and I put together the DoG masters team last fall, I'm not really sure we could have predicted ending up here now.

I flew into Seattle on Thursday and stayed with Brian Cameros and his family for a couple of nights. On Friday, I took Brian's 15 year old Mazda Miata (!) out I-90 and did a waterfall tour, seeing Snoqualmie Falls from various vantage points including going off path to get straight to the base of the falls and take some footage, then did a 1+ mile trek to see the upper and lower Twin Falls in Olallie State Park. All gorgeous falls, and a great way to spend the day except for the fact that Seattle was actually gorgeous blue skies and 45 minutes out west, it was cloudy and misty/raining most of the day. Oh well.

Saturday morning grabbed the 8:45 Greyhound bus out of Seattle with John Bar for Vancouver. While on line waiting to board, I see 3 people who look like frisbee players, and then it is obvious once I spot the Gaia bag. I introduce myself and they are with the German Open team. We talk for awhile. It's there first Worlds. After I do some counting, I realize that it is my 11th World Championships. 86, 88 (with the French team), 91-2, 95-6, 98-00, 02, 08. 1 hour later at the second stop, the bus had broken down and we had to wait for a replacement. Two hours later it gets there and we are on our way. Customs at the border is pretty straightforward, and then we are in Vancouver at maybe 3PM.

We grab a taxi to the dorms since we are too late for the opening ceremonies, check in, drop off our bags, and then head to Thunderbird stadium to catch the tail-end and then watch the showcase game (unfortunately Co-ed) between Great Britain and Canada. But mostly it is about the beer garden and catching up with people. Jens is there from Germany, as John and I predicted, I spend some time talking with the French masters team, ruing some more about how lame the French were that they couldn't send an Open team for the 3 straight WUGC. Drank some ciders, some beers, and then back to the room. At 7:30 I hit the captain's meeting, which as usual is phenomenally boring, though I'm not sure there is a way to make them interesting, except to prevent people from asking stupid questions. The nice thing about the meeting is that they had a bunch of beer for the captain's after, and barely anyone took any, so I was able to squirrel about 12 beers into my tournie schwag bag. That made up a little bit for the fact that they were charging for ALL the beer at the tournament. Still trying to figure out where my $350 in individual entrance fee went to, besides the $20-$40 in schwag.

Finally, it is Sunday morning and time for the games to begin. I'm rooming with John, Paul Greff, and Jim Parinella, who had gotten in at 1:30 that morning. We grab breakfast and then get a shuttle to our fields which are NOT close. It is a little pod of 2 fields about 25 minutes away on foot (UBC is a BIG campus). Our first round doesn't start until 10:30, so we watch the previous round. On our field it is Germany versus Venezuela in the Open division. Venezuela is doing very well, and at one point is up 12-10 with the disk on the upwind goal line before a lame turnover. Germany pulls the game out 15-13. Our first game is against Italy, who is maybe 20 strong. The other field has Canada versus New Zealand, and for the afternoon game, we will reverse opponents, playing New Zealand. Italy does not prove to be very strong, as they do not perform particularly well against our various defenses. We went on long enough runs that we put the offense out there on D lines for two different runs of two points. I got my first turnover out of the way, jacking a long backhand to Jim Olson that was a little too low. Otherwise we won out maybe 17-3. Canada had a tougher start with New Zealand, although they pulled away to maybe 17-9. After that we took the opportunity to scrimmage ourselves at the field for another half hour. Boy did O suck! At least it was a good reminder that we weren't nearly as good as we appeared during the Italy game...

With 2.5 hours still left before our game, it was off in search of food. We found the one food enclave in the entire campus and proceeded to wait for burritos in the slowest line I have ever seen. But the burrito was one of the best I ever had, with nice crispy chicken. We brought them back and watched the Australians dominate the Irish (Open) and a battle royal between Great Britain and Colombia. I was VERY impressed with the depth and skill of the Colombians. Unfortunately, the points were VERY long with lots of turnovers. At one point, there was a point that took over 30 minutes. GB ended up pulling away and winning the game, but Colombia definitely had their chances.

So now it is New Zealand. Nothing particularly memorable about this game (except for playing against a team that is over 20 hours away by plane). I chalked up 2 more turnovers, a long backhand to Jim that I put too much touch on and another long backhand to Steve Dugan that stayed too low. He got his hands on it, but definitely my turnover. So I'm now 0-3 on long backhands on the tournament so far. Wonderful. I did uncork a nice 40 yard hammer goal to Bim in the second game. We ended up winning 17-9. Over on the other field, the Canadians matched us again, winning 17-3, setting up a nice showcase match for tonight. After that we headed over to the showcase game to catch the Japanese women's team buzzsaw through the Canadians. And it wasn't as close as that.

So, at this point my biggest peeve is that there are no organized socializing (read, drinking) opportunities after 7:30 until Friday night's party. I have to figure that UBC is restricting it somehow, because otherwise the tournament is leaving a HUGE financial opportunity on the table. The whole point of worlds is to mingle with the other teams, and the showcase game with a beer garden isn't enough, especially as it closes down at 7:30 every night. We stopped by the players 'chill out lounge' and it was just a bunch of board games and stuff. Again, I'm wondering where my $350 went (don't forget, there is also a $1000 entry fee per team). Someone has to be making out like a bandit.

But tomorrow is another day... And it is going to be a long day, as we only have one game, and it is the showcase game against the Canadians at 5PM. Hopefully we'll find something interesting to do until then.