This year's Canadian championships were full of surprises.
August 23, 2024 by Kelsey Hayden in Preview with 0 comments
The Canadian Ultimate Championships are over and while the weather may have changed the schedule to being a three day event rather than four, the rain did not put a damper on the excitement in Ottawa. The women’s division was conquered by Ottawa Stella, who have not won CUCs since 2008. The open division was topped by Ottawa Phoenix, who have not won CUCs since 2018. And the mixed division was taken by Toronto tobe!, a team in their first year of existence. Games were exciting, fields were wet, spirit was high, and it was a great weekend of Canadian ultimate.
Women’s Division
Every team in the women’s division got at least one W on the board. This speaks to the parity and excitement in the division, which featured several upsets and tight games. On day one, many people were shocked when no.10 Vancouver Drift beat no.2 Ottawa Stella 14-12 in pool play. No.7 Alberta Remix also gave no.3 Halifax Salty a scare that day, too, leading the entire game forcing Salty to break twice to win 15-14. Tournament no.1 seed Winnipeg Fusion started the weekend strong with no tight contests to win their pool, and no.4 Ottawa StellO had a similar experience to do the same.
Day two saw teams move into power pools and the excitement continued. A matchup between Fusion and Salty was a nail biter, where Salty pulled out late game heroics again to get the W and overtake the top seed. Alberta Remix also bested the top seed Fusion, putting the Winnipeg crew in a tough spot for their upcoming quarter final matchup. In the other top power pool, Stella beat both their masters counterpart StellO and their Ontario mates Toronto IncogniTO to grab the top spot in the pool despite their slip up against Drift on day one. Drift went 0-2 in the morning and was forced to play in a prequarter to maintain their position in the top eight, which they successfully did by beating Quebec Venus.
Day three was marked by a huge shift in the weather, with torrential rain in the morning, some breaks through the day, and then continued rain in the afternoon. Bad weather can sometimes lead to more variance and unpredictability in results, but most of the top seeds held on: Salty bested Drift, Stella beat Quebec Qub, Remix got the W against IncogniTO, and in the hottest match of the morning, StellO beat Fusion 12-10, putting the nail in the coffin for Winnipeg.
The semifinal round saw one tight match in Salty versus StellO and one blow out in Stella versus Remix. Salty stayed on theme with their weekend and made a late game run, from down 10-12 to winning 14-12, in large part thanks to the Herculean effort of Krystal Caldwell, who put up 4 goals and 4 assists in the match. In the other semi, Stella looked like they had reached their final form and steamrolled through Remix on their way to the final, with 19 Stella players on the stat board from that game alone.
With thunder forecasted for later in the day, the women’s final was pushed up and played mid-afternoon. This was the first final appearance for Halifax Salty in program history and the first for Ottawa Stella since 2018. The game started with the teams trading holds, but it wasn’t long before Stella jumped on the break train to take half 8-5. Salty got turns on the Stella O-line but could never get the pieces together to convert them into breaks and Stella continued to wear down Salty’s O-line, finishing the game with a 15-10 win. Despite the pouring rain, both teams celebrated historic seasons, with the crowd cheering extra loud for the hometown team. At a nearby field the other hometown sweethearts, Ottawa StellO won a tight match over Alberta Remix 14-12 for bronze.
Notable stat leaders from the weekend included Qub’s Lea Morneau with 34 points, StellO’s Jessie Brown and Melissa Dunbar, Agawta’s Paula Lester, and Salty’s Jennie Korus with 28 points a piece.
Open Division
Before the tournament began, it was conceivable that any of about the top 10 teams could make a run to the podium. While of course there were notable favorites, the parity in the division was overwhelming and exciting. While there were many close matchups but few upsets on day one – no.8 Halifax Red Circus and no.9 Toronto Grand Trunk both pushing no.1 Winnipeg Strike to win on universe, and no.12 Quebec Manic doing the same to no.4 Alberta Flatball Club Rumble. While ultimately all the top seeds held position, by the end of day one it was pretty clear that the prospect of upsets was alive and well.
The format for the open division mirrored the women’s division in that teams were moved into power pools on day 2. While there were again some close matchups, the top four seeds continued through unscathed, maintaining their positioning. Vancouver Blackfish and Durham Houndd went 0-2 in the morning and were relegated to the prequarter round to keep their top eight spots. Both managed to hold on in one point wins.
Day three was supposed to just be quarterfinals and semifinals with the final in a stadium on Sunday, but due to the deteriorating weather forecast, it was decided that the contingency plan would include all remaining games being played on Saturday. The first round was extremely wet and muddy, but that did not dampen any teams’ drive to win. While three of the four top seeds got the job done, AFC Rumble came crumbling down at the hands of Red Circus. It was a program-defining win for the small town east coast team – earning them their first ever CUC semifinal appearance. The team was led by veteran handler Kyle Chapman with three assists and two goals, but notably the team had 14 other players also on the stat board for the match.
Semifinals saw two relatively close games but neither were total nail biters. Ottawa Phoenix – while down 8-7 at half to General Strike – pulled things together early in the second half to get the 12-10 W. Montreal Mephisto moved like a well-oiled machine against Red Circus, and while the Halifax contingent made a push near the end, it was too little too late and Montreal got the job done winning 15-11. The result was a final matchup everyone predicted, and everyone was excited for.
Unfortunately the women’s and open finals happened at the same time – due to the weather – so hometown fans had to make the choice on who to support between their two competing squads. Those that chose the Phoenix-Mephisto match were treated to a spectacle of breaks and bids. Phoenix took an early lead, but Mephisto bounced back to take half 8-7. The second half saw mostly holds with one break a piece, leading to what everyone hopes for in a final: universe point. Montreal had the honor of starting on offense, but due to the most untimely drop, Phoenix was left with a short field and who else but Cam Harris punched in the goal to Logan Keilor. Phoenix earned their first CUC gold since 2018, Mephisto earned the programs first silver in a true CUC event since 2012, and Halifax Red Circus took home the bronze – not bad for the first time they ever cracked the top eight.
We’d be remiss to not mention the open division and overall tournament stat leader AFC Rumble’s Dave Hochholter who put up an incredible 50 assists and six goals. Yes, 50. Nearly as impressive, Houndds’s Zach Armstrong had 47 points, and Blackfish’s Austin Yen had 38.
Mixed Division
Is there anything more cliche in ultimate than calling the mixed division volatile? Maybe, maybe not, but we called this last week and it sure proved itself to be true. The mixed division was ripe with upsets, intrigue, and excitement. The podium saw multiple first-CUC teams and no team went undefeated.
Out of the gate in pool play, two of the top seeds held on to their top spots – no.1 Toronto Union and no.2 Winnipeg Pretty Boys and Handsome Girls – and the other two slipped – no.11 Vancouver T.T overtook no.3 Ottawa Crank for the top seed in Pool Y and no.13 Quebec Harfang bested no.4 BC Super Dumplings for the top spot in Pool Z. With 20 teams competing in the mixed division, the structure was different from women’s and open, with everyone but the top pool play finishers needing to compete in a prequarter matchup to earn their right to the bracket.
It was during this prequarter round, late on Friday afternoon under the hot Ottawa sun, that the true madness began. No.16 Quebec Quest avenged their self-proclaimed underseeding by beating the third overall seed Ottawa Crank in a 12-9 matchup. Brand new team no.8 Toronto tobe! took down a perennial contender in no.6 Kitchener-Waterloo Crash 13-10 to relegate them to the ninals bracket. First-time-CUC-attenders no.7 BC Royals dismantled provincial foe Super Dumplings to earn their bid to the bracket. And no.10 Quebec Laxx beat no.12 Ontario Danger Noodle by one goal for the final berth to the Saturday morning quarterfinals. While people predicted chaos, it’s unlikely anyone predicted that by Friday evening, three of the original top eight would have already fallen.
Following such a wild round it would be hard to imagine things could continue to be that exciting, but the Saturday morning quarterfinal round did not disappoint. The shift in weather signified the shift in tides in the mixed division, where all but the last two contenders fell in the quarterfinals. Laxx came out of the gates hot against Union, gathering a handful of breaks in the first half and only being broken once back. In a matchup of provincial foes, Quebec Harfang ended tournament darling Quebec Quest’s quest to the semifinals. Toronto tobe! took a commanding 10-5 lead in their quarterfinal and almost gave it away to PBHG but managed to hold on in a universe win. And another regional matchup saw Royals just barely squeak by T.T thanks to Colin Wu and Victor Tiet putting up seven and six points, respectively.
Similar to the women’s division, the semifinal round featured one close contest and one comfortable win. Harfang got the job done against Laxx, taking half 8-2 and never looking back to lock up a final berth, 15-8. On the other side of the bracket, things were more interesting with tobe! beating Royals by just two points. tobe! led the entire game – though Royals never let up – managing to jump on a break train before half to tie things at 8-8. But the Toronto defense was too much and BC could never quite get the lead.
While the path leading to the final was nothing but mayhem, the final match itself was fairly mundane. Toronto tobe! were clinical, stacking up break after break through the middle of the game. The Toronto squad leaned on their players’ big game experience from other divisions and won the gold in a commanding fashion 15-8. Through the weekend the team saw 9 players with double digit stat lines and every player on the stat board. This new team on the scene worked together through tough moments and peaked at the right time. On a nearby field, another first-time-CUC attendee in Royals beat Laxx 15-11 for the bronze.
With 36 assists and 18 goals, Parched’s Duncan Schulz was the stat leader for the mixed division, and with 8 assists and 20 goals, Super Dumpling’s Karie Holst was the stat leader for the women-matching players in the division.
