Here are some more pictures of our team, and I think they do a relatively good job of showing everyone’s personality — however bizarre that might be. I had talked about wanting to chat about each game, but the more I think about that, the less I really want to write summaries … I did that forever at PLU and I might have run out of steam, but I’ll give a brief overview.
SATURDAY: We came into the tourney as the #3 seed, and had seed #5, #9 and the #16 in our pool. Our first game was against the #9 seed, Mischief. They were a good team, and had some height and speed. It looked like they had some pick-ups from UCSD and some other bay area folks. We got out to an early lead and just maintained. The final was 15-10. We expected this team to give some of the other teams quite the run for their money. In fact, they were up on Persauder (#5 seed) for double game-point, but Persuader pulled it out at the hard cap to win by 1. It would have been a great upset, and would have taken some of the pressure off of us when we played Persuader. While that game was going on we played Swizzle. They came out of the NorCal section, but my understanding was that they received a bid to regionals after some other teams decided not to go… thus, swizzle was the last seed and expected to get worked. We won 15-1, but I’d have to say that Swizzle was one of the most fun teams to play against, and they were really good about spreading the disc around to their women as often as their men. And they won the party on saturday night! Our third game was against Persuader, the number 1 team from Utah. They went to nationals last year but were seeded 5th for this tourney because they hadn’t played any of the top 4 teams (Brass Monkey, Whoreshack, Shazam, Red Fish Blue Fish - respectively) this season. We knew they would be a hard team to face, and they had knocked out Shazam the year before. Coming off of such a close game with Mischief, we assumed they’d be tired and that we could roll through the game — not a chance. After a super hard fought game, we won 16-14. It was really close and Persuader was definitely in it to win it. We tightened up our rotation and pulled out the game. A lot of people got beaten up this game, namely tad and jimmy. Both were out for our final game of the day, a cross-over against Brass Monkey (#1). We won the toss but loss the first break, brass monkey went up 2-1, then 3-1… we answered and B.M. ran away with the half, 8-4. Going into the second half we just opened up the rotation, took our whipping, and went home to lick our wounds, 15-6. We know we could play Brass Monkey better, but we honestly thought it would be in the finals on sunday. In the other big cross-over game of the day, Whoreshack beat Red Fish Blue Fish, 15-12 in a way that everyone expected. The top 4 seeds seemed to be seeded correctly, and I would have never expected the final seeding to come out the way it did….
SUNDAY: So, the next morning, we played Solid Gold in the quarterfinals. We won convincingly, 15-5. Solid Gold is a good team, and will beat you if you’re not on your game, but we came out Sunday morning with a job to do. Seriously, the team seemed indestructable. Meanwhile, Do’h, the number 2 team from Seattle, BEATS Brass Monkey in the quarters, 15-12. A monumental upset. This knocks Brass Monkey out of semis and their only chance at a bid to nationals was through the backdoor. Then, shazam plays Whoreshack in the semis and we play out of our minds, winning comfortably, 14-11. Meanwhile, Do’h advances to Semi’s to lose against Red Fish Blue Fish, and Brass Monkey begins its fight back on top against Persuader (#5), winning 15-5. The games go on. We meet Red Fish Blue Fish in the finals, a super windy game which is RFBF’s favorite conditions. they run such a monster zone. But for every break they get, we seem to kick it into high gear and answer with a break of our own. we trade leads. The crowd hoots and hollers, and in the end, we pull off the win on a downwind drive, 13-12 at the cap (on double game point). The top two teams go to the Show automatically, and seeds stay as is… meanwhile, Whoreshack plays Brass Monkey in the game-to-go-to-the-game-to-go. A totally unexpected turn of events. Remember, everyone thought finals would be Brass Monkey versus Shazam, and Whoreshack would be playing RFBF in the backdoor… but the monkey ended up back there and worked Portland, 15-7… this was also the first time Whoreshack and Brass Monkey had ever played each other. It was rough, and my heart went out to Portland. They were a solid team. Then, brass monkey played their 8th game of the weekend against Do’h, again, in the game-to-go. We all stayed around to watch this match, not sure who we wanted to cheer on. Do’h had picked up some juniors women players from the Seattle area and seemed to have finally learned the trick of using them well. they went up early in the game. All of a sudden, D’oh was up 9-6, pulling downwind. Then, Brass Monkey turfs the first pass in the endzone. What! D’oh gets the disc on the goal line with a chance to go up 10-6, and pull downwind! A nice easy cut is set up, completely wide open, and James Evans (for Do’h) overthrows it!! I couldn’t believe it. Brass Monkey rallies their gift, and puts one in. And another. And another. Soon, the game is tied at 9’s. Both teams look tired. But they’re putting everything out there. 10’s. 11’s. D’oh starts looking in trouble, and they stop using their women effectively — just like old D’oh, boys hogging the plastic in a series of huckfest. Then brass monkey starts running away with it. There’s some tough calls and a lot of stuff goes to observers, but in the end, Brass Monkey wins 15-11, on a callahan score. It was exciting. Do’h put everything they had out there…. and almost walked away with the biggest upset in history (a 7th seed knocking out the 1st seed)!
That was the weekend. I guess that was more of a summary than anything else. Final seeding:
1. Shazam
2. RFBF
3. Brass Monkey
… and the rest is history…