July 23, 2012 by Charlie Eisenhood in News, Recap with 7 comments
Catch up on all the ultimate action over the weekend on Ultiworld. See who played well, who surprised everyone, and what it could mean for Nationals bid allocation.
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Terminus — Atlanta, GA [Sanctioned]
Club: No real surprises here as the hosts Chain Lightning defended their title, beating Washington, D.C.’s Truck Stop 15-10 in the finals after losing to them earlier 9-6 in pool play. Fatigue may have played a role, as Saturday’s power pool late games were postponed until early Sunday due to rain.
North Carolina’s Cash Crop played well, beating a solid Florida United team in quarters (14-9) before falling to Truck 15-10 in semis. Nashville’s Tanasi went 2-3, losing to Truck and Chain (twice).
This looked like something of an early Southeast Regionals preview (minus Ring of Fire, plus Truck) — will Tanasi or Cash Crop be able to snag the region a third bid to Nationals? It will be interesting to see them match up against some out of region competition later this season with bids on the line.
Mixed: Most of the Southeast’s top mixed teams played this weekend, including two 2011 Nationals squads — Bucket (Atlanta) and Sabre Corp (Tallahassee). But Southern Revival, a new team from Atlanta, made the biggest splash, making it to the finals before falling to Bucket 15-10.
Southern Revival had an tough up-and-down Saturday, going 2-2, but bounced back in bracket play, beating Nooga By Nature (Chattanooga) and Sabre Corp to make the finals.
Sabre Corp played well; they went 4-0 on Saturday including a win against Bucket, but faltered in the semis. Bucket’s only loss was to Sabre.
Women: Tabby Rosa (Florida) took down DeSoto (Nashville) in the finals.
Philly Invite — Philadelphia, PA [Mixed – Sanctioned]
Overhaul (Ann Arbor) came in as the top seed and handled their business, beating a surprising 7 Express (New York) on universe point in the finals, 11-10. Overhaul did lose once — on universe — to AMP (Philadelphia), a fellow 2011 Nationals team.
The 7th seed 7 Express went 4-1 in their pool and knocked off AMP in the semis, who went on to lose to the new Massachusetts team, Wild Card.
Termite’s Entourage (New Jersey) — a 2011 Nationals team — had a tough weekend, going 2-5.
There’s no question that the Northeast Region continues to be very strong in mixed — it could earn 4 or even 5 bids to Nationals. We’ll have more when we handicap the Mixed bids (see our thoughts on Open here).
Chowdafest — Charlestown, RI [Mixed – Sanctioned]
Slow White (Boston) breezed through the other big mixed tournament this weekend, not dropping a game and never really facing a challenge. Their closest game was in the finals, where they beat Regional rival Lionside 15-10. No other team scored more than 5 points against them.
AUDL
In the final week of the regular season of the AUDL, the Rhode Island Rampage fell to the league-leading Philadelphia Spinners, 29-20. The Bluegrass Revolution split their two road games, beating the Detroit Mechanix 22-20 but falling 19-17 to the Columbus Cranes.
The Connecticut Constitution v. Buffalo Hunters and Indianapolis Alleycats v. Rhode Island matchups were both cancelled.
In place of the Indy game, the Rampage hosted Boston’s elite club team Ironside in an exhibition match. The Rampage hung in there for the first quarter, but Ironside pulled away to win easily, 22-10.
Side note: one of the Rampage’s top players — Brandon “Muffin” Malacek — tweeted after the Rampage/Spinners game: “Was really great when [President] Josh Moore of @TheAUDL best scene was postgame huge bearhug given to [Rampage] owner Emerson Killmore. #nohardfeelings” Kilgore, along with Bryan Ricci, the owner of the Constitution, was sued by the league in June over a contractual issue.
The playoffs are set for the AUDL. In the Western Conference, the Alleycats will host the Revolution. In the East, the Rampage will travel to face the Spinners. The Constitution, despite the second best record in the East, are out after refusing to pay the league-imposed $20,000 fines.
NexGen
The Nex Gen tour kicked off on Friday with the college all-star team taking on Denver’s Johnny Bravo. Cue complaints about altitude. Bravo won 15-9. The team rebounded in yesterday’s game against Minneapolis’ Sub Zero and got the 15-10 victory. You can watch their games streaming live on their website.
