The stories readers clicked on the most.
December 30, 2021 by Steve Sullivan in Links with 0 comments
Today begins one of our favorite Ultiworld traditions: the annual Year In Review series. We will look back over the biggest stories, most popular articles, the “best of” the year, and more over the next couple weeks. We kick things off with a look at the 10 most popular articles — based on pageviews — from 2021.
10. 2021 Men’s Club Player Of The Year
For the first time in the decade of compiling this list, one of our awards posts made the Top 10 most-read, as we celebrated the success of Chris Kocher, Raphy Hayes, and John Stubbs in the abridged club season.
9. Positive COVID Test Rocks SFI West
While there was a lot of excitement among players as the sport picked up national-level competition this summer, a positive COVID case at an early-season club tournament forced the community to confront the realities of trying to return to play amidst an ongoing pandemic.
8. Stall 9: The Hammer Terrifies Rachel McAdams
In the depths of the pandemic hiatus, Ultiworld staffers took turns writing essays on random topics that only casually connected with the sport of ultimate. In what has become a surefire way to earn a spot on this annual list — writing about an ultimate-adjacent actual famous person — editor Mags Colvett delves into the psyche of why we care so much when real-life celebrities get somehow roped into our niche sport sphere.
7. 2021 December College Nationals to Be Held in Southern California
The 2021 College Championships are now receding in the rear-view mirror, but the announcement of their location back in May was cause for lots of excited anticipation.
6. Club Regionals 2021: Mega-Preview (Mixed)
It’s not often that event preview coverage draws a lot of traffic, but in a club season where so little was known about the competition heading into the Series after the abbreviated regular season, lots of people were apparently interested in our insight into the 2021 rosters and perceived strength of club mixed squads.
5. 2021 D-I College Preseason Power Rankings
It was a similar story for the fall college season, as readers were excited to dive back into college hype after nearly two years since we last checked in on the division.
4. 2021 WUGC Team Commitment Tracker
Back in January, when we still believed there was a chance that WUGC would take place in its rescheduled dates in late July, we set up a page to keep track of which countries were committed to attending and which had backed out. It turned out to be moot, but the page saw plenty of visitors from around the globe as we watched to see just how global the event might have been.
3. Davide’s Doctrines: Horizontal Stack
Speaking of international ultimate, long-time Italian star player and coach Davide Morri shared some of what he’s learned in his nearly quarter-century in the sport with instructional content on some basic offensive structures. Whether because of the content or beautiful feature layout or popularity of its author, the first installment on Horizontal Stacks proved to be one of our more popular posts of the year.
2. Senator-Elect Jon Ossoff, Club Champion Alisha Kramer Take Ultimate Experience To Washington
It’s rare for one of our own to reach the hallowed halls of Washington, so the election of Paideia alum and former player Jon Ossoff to the US Senate garnered a lot of attention within our community.
1. Hexagon, the Bestagon: A Look Inside the Hex Offense
Much to the chagrin of many ultimate traditionalists on both sides of the pond, a new-fangled offensive philosophy and structure has been spreading across the globe, with an in-depth exploration of its principles taking the top spot in our most-read list for 2021.
