Monday was a provincial holiday here in BC, so Yuki and I went up to the fields to catch all the action.

It is now the 2nd day of full competition and it feels like all the games are higher intensity now that everyone has a couple of games under their belts.

Monday was also the start of the GUTS tournament and we went over to see how Bruno and some other Cdn teams made out. Unfortunately we missed Bruno's first games in the morning, but found him in one piece with no visible injuries. Some of his other teammates looked more worse for ware.... taped up hands where a disc had snapped back or pushed in a thumb....massive purple welts on some hands. Players are allowed to wear leather gloves with one layer of leather. Some players are donning bicycle or golf gloves...others a thicker gardening glove. Chinese Taipai seems to have taken this to the highest level with a lot of their members wearing thick-ass hunting gloves that look like they are more suited for handling birds of prey rather than a plastic disc.

We saw some Cdn buddies face off against the Japanese Red team. For those who aren't familiar with the concept, in GUTS teams line up about 20 yards from each other....5 on the line. A player on one team takes a running start and whips that disc as hard as he can at the other team. The defending team has to catch that disc somehow (and avoid losing an eye) What often happens is that the player who is hit by the disc tries to pop it up and then the other players either juggle it until someone can grab it with one hand, or make a dive to catch it before it hits the ground. It is really impressive when a player just one and grabs it out of the air...or "bags it". That is the sign of a real man that would make even Mike and Jason proud.

We then went over to catch some more Ulti action. Saw Rob and Team Hong Kong face off against a fiesty Columbian squad. Team Hong Knog played well, but lacked depth in skilled females compared with Columbia and this proved to be their weakness. Columbia also had more of a killer instict and played a more aggressive, less-spirited game and took the win 14-9 by the end of scheduled time.

We then headed over to watch the showcase game of the evening. Every day, the top level match of the day is played at the showcase field. Beer gardens, hot tubs and announced play! All the teams that are finished come out to watch. The match yesterday was Masters Canada vs USA. The USA team was made mostly up of D.O.G players who all made the switch from Open to Masters recently. World Champions in Open, now a bit older, but still with amazing speed and throwing accuracy. The Cdn team was a combination of players, mainly from GOAT in Toronto with some pick ups from Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal. The match was one of the best I have ever seen. Insane intensity, with Canada taking the half 9-6. It looked like it was all Canada, until the willey US veterans forced a few turnovers to bring the score to 10-10 and took the lead 12-11. From there the teams traded points and the US finally took the game at a soft cap 16-14. It was a fantastic exhibition of Ultimate to watch. A lot of these players have played off against each other many times in the past at UPA, or Nationals, and the Spirit was high as players from opposing teams hi-fived each other after great plays, and mingled and caught up with old opponents along the side lines. My highlight was when Jim Parnella (Ultimate God, who has written a few books on the history of Ultiate, and Ultiate tactics) came off after a long point and saw me with a full pint of honey-brown ale and asked for a swig of my brew.

To see those Ultimate Gods play such an intense level of play was awe-inspiring...and a bit intimidating as I head to Canadian Nationals in 2 weeks to represent BC in Masters.

(Right now as I type, Matt Kass and the Japan Masters are taking on the Masters USA team and down 9-6 at the half.)

Oh, and for those that want to sample the action, UltiVillage is WebCasting the Shocase Games live every day. The game is 17:00 Pacific time. Go to their website...it is just starting as I type this message. Go to http://www.ultivillage.com/index.php/uvtv/webcasts, register and check it out for yourself.

Oh, and Jason, did you let that episode 1 on blockstack TV load up and watch the end of it? The "Pimp my Disc" feature is fantastic!

The rest of it is a nice behind the scenes look at the tournament...interviews with the key people, really interesting stuff. They don't have the rights to play games unfortunately. UltiVillage has that right, but you can go to their website like I mentioned above and see the games LIVE....do it NOW!

B

Thanks for the write up again Brady.

I didn't know what GUTS was until like a few days ago. To speak frankly, it doesn't sound very Man-ly, sounds kind of ignant.

How about a game where you have 5 dudes on a line with a disc, and 1 dude runs in a line 20 yards away and parallel to that line of 5 dudes, and those 5 dudes have to try and nail the running dude with disc, preferably in the jimmy?

Jason
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Google Maps Japan now has street view -- my street here

p.s. 14 meters (not 20 yards)

The top U.S. player, Ryan Scott regularly throws at 140 km/hr -- that's less than half a second to react.

Neither of the Canadian Teams (I play on white) have won a match or a game yet - but both have had some close ones with the experienced US teams (21-19) and both nearly beat Chinese Taipei -- many iffy calls in our games would have made the difference and we consider it our first pair of wins. (final score was 22-20 and 24-22)

FYI GUTS matches are two games to 21 with the winner determined by the point total if games are split.

So far Japan (white), katan, the reigning world champs have yet to lose a game. The defeated the top U.S team (red) this afternoon.

Tomorrow we take on Team International (mostly the real Chinese Taipei Guts players that were not allowed to represent their country due to internal Taiwan disc association politics), Team Canada Red, and Ireland.

Ireland, Canada and one member of Team International have been practicing together these past few weeks to try and figure this game that is new to all of us.

BTW on the sunday episode of blockstack TV there's a shot of me throwing a warm up shot while Tim (pres. of the GPA) is explaining the game of GUTS. It's near the end of the webcast.

In other news, I managed to go watch Rob and Team Hong Kong get a couple points on the board and avoid the bagel vs. Team USA (the top seed and undefeated so far in mixed).

Check out blockstack.tv and click on Episode #3 from the tournament to see highlights from the Japan and UK Masters, and then and interview with the captain of Japan (translated by Matt K) and a player from the UK team. Interview with a player of Canada Mixed after beating Japan 17-16. Then an interview with player from Women's USA about facing Japan....and and interview with Jim Parinella from USA Masters after their epic battle against Canada Masters last night 16-14 last night. Other stuff there too. Check it out here