EUCF - Last Preview : Gentle + Live Scoring Online + Schedule

 

So the time has come. In less than 12 hours the European Ultimate Championship Finals will be starting in Bruges, Belgium.

Bruges has always been a magic place for me as it is the place where I was born and raised.

I used to run around on the fields that host the legendary Tom's Tourney and now the EUCF when I was only a few years (or months?) old and it always feels like coming home when playing there.

I'm sure this will be a magical weekend filled with the best Ultimate Europe has to offer.

A battle of the best I believe and I am so looking forward to being a part of it.

If you can't make it over to play or support your favourite teams there's always the SCORE REPORTER which will have live updating of all scores during the weekend.

Find your favourite team and show them some online support.

If you're looking for the SCHEDULE just click the link.

To all the belgian readers of this blog, please come over and support Gentle in any way you can.

It's the first time a belgian team enters this competition so some flags and some shouting might be all we could use :)

Good times coming up, great battles will be faught.

As mentioned above :

THEY MAKE PLANS, WE MAKE HISTORY.

Tomorrow 8.30 AM, better be ready.

EUCF 'Elite' Interview VI - 7SCHWABEN

Check out number 6 in the series of interviews with teams from the Elite Division of the upcoming European Ultimate Championship Finals in Bruges, tomorrow !
Briefly answering the questions below is Philipp, one of the captains of 7SCHWABEN !

 

Get Ho' : How has the preparation gone ?

Philipp : "Pretty good, we had many good moments as a team this year. Just to mention our runner-up to FAB at "windmill windup" and the win at EUCR."

Get Ho' : Do you think it's difficult that these finals happen at the end of sept/beginning of octobre?
Does it affect your team that this is after summer ?

Philipp : "Having these finals at the end of the season is great.
The disaster at nationals this year was pretty hard for the schwaben-team. from that point of view it is not good having EUCF after that. i hope two weeks are enough to think and talk about what went wrong..if we do that properly i'm sure we can capitalize on this situation.."

Get Ho' : Is the team in full force ?
Philipp : "Our team showed up full force all season long. compared to Lloret in 2010 we look much stronger"

Get Ho' : 7Schwaben sounds like it is relatively new to the EUCF compared to the other teams in the Elite division but you are probably not. How are you feeling having to play against the top teams in Europe ? We know you already gave FAB a hard time during the Windmill WIndup finals..... You feeling confident for a good EUCF ?

Philipp : "Winning EUCR felt amazing! But you're right. Making it to the elitepool is very special for us. We know that we have to play our best to give those teams a hard time.."

Get Ho' : Who do you believe might make it to the semis ? Any one who should be seen as top favourite ? Defending champs FAB ? What are your ambitions for this year ?

Philipp : "In the last years i always had a top favourite, but teams nobody talked about were crowned.."

Random Video - Layout Callahan

Not many moves in Ultimate are as cool as doing this. Boom !
Video (and many more) by Brodie Smith.

EUCF - Local National Newspaper Articles (In Dutch)

Check out these interviews (in Dutch) on the upcoming European Ultimate Championship Finals happening in Bruges tomorrow ! :

http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=FS3G7J5Q


http://www.demorgen.be/wca_digi/agenda_detail/102/605764/Frisbee-Champions-League.html

EUCF 'Elite' Interview V - CLAPHAM

Check out the 5th in the series of interviews with teams from the Elite Division of the upcoming European Ultimate Championship Finals (aka Champions League) in Bruges this weekend.
2007 Winners of the EUCF and a top-team in Europe for many years now : CLAPHAM ULTIMATE !
Here's the interview with one of the team captains Justin Foord :

Get Ho' : How has the preparation gone ? Did you play any tournaments or championships in preparation for the EUCF ? How bout nationals and Tour ?


Justin Foord : "Preparation this year has been noticeably better than previous years. Since the domestic season finished about a month ago, roughly 8 guys have been to the US to compete with GB against the top American teams and the rest of the guys have raised the bar with training at home.


We haven't played other tournaments apart from Tour and Nationals this year. We played 2 of the tours with half a squad as the other half was playing with GB which has been great for the other players who have had to step up and take on more dominant roles within the team."

Get Ho' : Do you think it's difficult that these finals happen at the end of sept/beginning of octobre ? Does it affect your team that this is after summer ?

Justin Foord : "Yes it is hard. We have been training hard since Euros last year so it's an incredibly long season. Our domestic season finished 6weeks ago so it's another 6 weeks that we have to continue training and stay focused on our European goal.


The disappointment from the last 3 years makes is a harsh but beneficial reminder that we have to stick at it and keep working hard."

Get Ho' : Is the team in full force ? Are all the key players there and in shape ? Any adjustments to the roster since last year's EUCF ? Any new/old "pick-ups" or new team members ?

Justin Foord : "Yep the team is in full force (except for Cian O'Morian who's had a long season captaining the Irish team). It's the strongest it's been since Basel in 07. Everyone's in really good shape with no major injuries. We have a few new recognisable faces who have been playing with us all year but no 'pick-ups'."

Get Ho' : Clapham has been a European powerhouse for many years now and always in top 5 since the beginning of EUCF in 2006. (2nd in 2006, 1st in 2007!,5th in 2008,3d in 2009,4th in 2010).
What is gonna make Clapam rise above this year and regain the title of best European team ? And do you have any idea why it's been 4 years since the victory ?

Justin Foord : "We've finished our last 3 seasons with disappointment in Europe. No one wants that feeling this year and it's been our season long goal to come away with Gold. Only a few select players in our current squad have tasted European Gold before and we've got a lot of hungry players.


After 2007 we had a lot of top class players leave to start families and go abroad. We've almost completely changed our squad and brought loads of new young athletic players who have been developing, learning and gaining experience over the last 3 years. We now have a great mix of experience and athleticism.


But take nothing away from all the other teams, the competition in Europe rises every year and it gets harder and harder to win a medal."

Get Ho' : What do you think about the level in Europe ? Has the level been rising over the last few years ? Does EUCF have anything to do with that ? How did the game change in the last few years ? Is there a shift in powerteams going on ?

Justin Foord : "The level is certainly rising, but more importantly, its becoming a lot more competitive. There's Freespeed and FAB from Switzerland, Viks and Skogs are always tough games and then Chevron are always strong. There's 6/7 teams that have a realistic chance of winning which makes it a really exciting tournament for everyone."

Get Ho' : Who would be your biggest opponents for the title ? Who do you believe might make it to the semis ? Any one who should be seen as top favourite ? Defending champs FAB ? What are your ambitions for this year ?

Justin Foord : "It's always hard to predict how these tourneys go but I would expect clapham and skogs to be In semis and I wouldnt be surprised to see FAB, Chevron on Freespeed up there. FAB are a great team with great players but as defending champions everyone will be out to get them this year.


From Claphams perspective, our ambitions are for Gold and any other result will be disappointing."

EUCF 'Elite' Interview IV - FLYING ANGELS BERN

Check out number 4 in the series of interviews with the Elite teams from the upcoming EUCF this weekend :
Title defending powerhouse from Switzerland : FLYING ANGELS BERN (aka FAB).
Here are some answers by team captain Lorenz.

Get Ho' : How has the preparation gone ? Did you play any special tournaments or championships in preparation for the EUCF ?


Lorenz : "Overall the preperation went well. We played Winterthur early this year, Amsterdam and EUCR with the focus on Bruges. Some of us got some more playing experience while playing for the national team at EUC and WCBU which they brought back to the team. But at the same time those players being off to play for the national team missed team practices. Therefore after WCBU the time was very short to prepare for EUCR and Swiss Nationals as team FAB. however, now we feel ready for Bruges!"

Get Ho' : Will the tight loss against your "rival"-friends from Freespeed at the Swiss Nationals affect your final preparation ? Or is it a little similar like last year where you also had a defeat against them at the EUCR qualification final ?

Lorenz : "It is similar to last year. It made us think even more about how we wonna play, how we wonna sub, etc. last year it helped us a lot. i hope this year too".

Get Ho' : Do you think it's difficult that these finals happen at the end of sept/beginning of octobre ? Does it affect your team that this is after summer ?

Lorenz : "To play Swiss nationals finals in between EUCR and EUCS was indeed not easy at all. Different things to focus on, different strategies and not a lot of time to recover. However, we knew about since the beginning of the season and planned on this schedule.
Next year the Swiss nationals (open and women) will take place before summer break. This will make the preperation easier."

Get Ho' : Is the team in full force ? Are all the key players there and in shape ? Any adjustments to the roster since last year's EUCF ? Any new/old "pick-ups" or new team members ?

Lorenz : "The team is in full force. We suffered from a couple of injuries early in the season but now everybody - with one notable exception - is back. There was some turnover in the team since last year. We also had some exciting pick ups. But i think its more important to say that we have the same core as last year with the young guns having one more season on their rips and beeing fired up to take over."

Get Ho' :  Am I correct to say you once played in the USA for a while ? Did this affect your game and the FAB way of playing ?

Lorenz : "True. I've played for Santa Barbara and for San Francisco for a season. First of all it was a lot of fun to go to the States to compete with the best. I had some of the best times of my life. I might have also brought some ideas about how to practice or play back home. But it wasen't just this what influenced FABs game. To have a good part of FAB players on the national team competing often on an international level, then having integrated some very experienced players to the team over the last couple of years and to learn from them, but also learning by trial and error with our own ideas during many tournaments made us stronger. All this helped us. i'd say it's the mix and the consistency of the team over the last years that formed the team the most."

Get Ho' : FAB has been a Swiss powerhouse for many years now with 13 national titles in 15 years, a 5th place at xEUCF in 2009 and the EUCF victory in 2010. What or who has made the Angels fly higher in Europe over the last few years ?

Lorenz : "As said above i think the consistency was very important. We had about ten players beeing on the team for more than ten years now. Then there's the single goal strategy: Play to win! This makes decisions about how to practice, workout, play, sub etc. easy. "

Get Ho' : What do you think about the level in Europe ? Has the level been rising over the last few years ? Does EUCF have anything to do with that ? How did the game change in the last few years ? Is there a shift in powerteams going on ?

Lorenz : "I can't tell if the general level was going up. Looking at the number of top teams I had a feeling there was some stagnation the last couple of years. But now it's very refreshing to see the Germans to come up with a young strong generation."

Get Ho' : Who would be your biggest opponents for the title ? Who do you believe might make it to the semis ? Any one who should be seen as top favourite ?

Lorenz : "Besides the usual suspects of the last couple of years - clapham, skogs - i see 7 Schwaben and Freespeed as potential semi finalists. We'll see."

Get Ho' : Anything else you would like to share with the Ultimate community ? Any thoughts or comments about the EUCF
Lorenz : "Looking forward seeing ya all in bruges - keep the spirit high!"

EUCF 'ELITE' Interview III : CHEVRON Action Flash

Here's number 3 in the series of interviews with the teams from the Elite Division at the upcoming EUCF (European Ultimate Championship Finals) in Bruges next weekend : CHEVRON ACTION FLASH.

 
This Manchester city based team has been the winner of the 2009 EUCF so they will definitely bring their A-game to Bruges. Check out the interview with Matt Beavan :

Get Ho': How has the preparation gone ?
Matt Beavan : "well, we have had a good season and played UKU Nationals as a preparation for this."

Get Ho':Do you think it's difficult that these finals happen at the end of sept/beginning of octobre ?
Matt Beavan : "no i think its a good time, it could be earlier but it is a good end to the season."
Does it affect your team that this is after summer ?
Matt Beavan : "some of them, we have had 6 major injuries this year, and after euros a lot of our team were tired, the slight gap has given us a chance to recover."

Get Ho':Is the team in full force ?
Matt Beavan : "no, due to injury, and getting friday off work, but sat and sunday we will have all the players that aren't injured there."

 Are all the key players there and in shape ?
Matt Beavan : "we are missing 3 gb mixed players, 1 gb open player and i gb master player!  all injured...everyone else should be good after a bit of a break."
Any adjustments to the roster since last year's EUCF ?
Matt Beavan : "yes big change, after 2010 world clubs year we had a 9 player turn around, as we are building towards world clubs 2014, a lot of young players joined and they are fantastic, for 7 of our team this will be there first eucf tournament."
 Any new/old "pick-ups" or new team members ?
Matt Beavan : "we dont tend to pick up players we prefer to develop our players and pick a squad for a whole season. the young players are the players to look out for, we have a gb junior and 5 that have just finished as gb juniors!"

Get Ho': Chevron has always been a UK powerhouse but only once managed to get a top 3 spot at EUCF with the victory in 2009. What are the ambitions this year ? What have been the biggest achievements of Chevron on the Euro scene?
Matt Beavan : "we are there to win it, we have only ever lost to either clapham or skogs in the knockout stages and reached the quarter finals every year we have entered.....i think thats pretty good!"

Get Ho':What do you think about the level in Europe?
Matt Beavan : "it is a good level and improving"
Has the level been rising over the last few years?
Matt Beavan : "it is always improving"
Does EUCF have anything to do with that?
Matt Beavan : "i think eucf does help and is great to have a top level european club tournament each year."
How did the game change in the last few years ?
Matt Beavan : "it is reaching the pace of the north american teams"
Is there a shift in powerteams going on?
Matt Beavan : "there could be, we hope to always be a power team, i think you need to look at the teams that are constantly in the top 8 and look at their players, we have a young team and hope to be dominate for the next four years, other teams may eb-and-flow a bit more due to players leaving?"

Get Ho':Who would be the biggest opponents for the title?
Matt Beavan : "i think for us it will always be clapham and skogs. but you have to respect every team".
Who do you believe might make it to the semis?
Matt Beavan : "other than ourselves, clapham skogs and FAB, although there are a lot of good teams".
Any one who should be seen as top favourite? Defending champs FAB?
Matt Beavan : "i think clapham are strong this year, FAB are always good as are skogs!"

Get Ho':  Anything else you would like to share with the Ultimate community ? Any thoughts or comments about the EUCF
Matt Beavan : "Eucf is a great event and should be supported by all the top teams".


Keep on reading, folks. Hope you like these interviews !
Oh, and one more thing cause I found this pretty amusing when I was searching for Chevron pictures online :

Tourney Announcement - Discolorful November (Hasselt,BE)

Check out this message by Sigi from Diabolic Heaven about their fun indoor tourney in Hasselt in November :

 

"Only one more week to register! Only a few spots left....

Diabolic Heaven presents: Discolorful November 2011


November….outside it’s cold…. Wind and rain hit you in the face. Your hands are tucked deep in your pockets searching for some warmth. The night is falling quickly, the puddles in the street carry your thoughts away to the good times you had playing Ultimate… without wind, without rain….
November….still a long time to go before you can play Ultimate in optimal conditions  again…or not?! 
DisColorful November brings you the joy of playing good Ultimate under the best conditions! 
Forget November’s greyness ! We will bring color into your dark fall. 
Indoor Ultimate as it should be! 

Make sure to check the website to see what fun we had last year!

16 Ultimate teams (open and coed) playing on 2 indoor Ultimate fields 
19 + 20/11/2011
Eburons Dome Tongeren, Belgium 
More info and registration on  http://discolorful11.diabolicheaven.be
You don't want to miss this tournament! 
Limited number of places, registration only open till 29/09/2011
Don't hesitate, just register....


Grts
Sigi
Diabolic Heaven"

Random Video - Wham-O Frisbee Game For IPhone

Wham-O, the registered trademark owner and producer of the "frisbee" made this little funny throwing game for your IPhone and Ipad.
Give me a shout if anybody played this before....

EUCF 'ELITE' Interview II : SILENCE

Here is number 2 in the series of interviews with the Elite teams who are going to play the European Ultimate Championship Finals (EUCF) in Bruges on 30/09 and 1-2/10 : SILENCE from Czech Republic. All questions answered by Carlos.

Get Ho’ : How has the preparation gone ? Did you play any tournaments or championships in preparation for the EUCF ?

Carlos : “Most of the players in Silence also play for the Czech national team, so the preparation was kind of mixed for both of these events - EUC and EUCS. We went to Hamburg, Tom's Tourney, Windmill in Amsterdam and have had regular practices before these events.“

Get Ho’ : Do you think it's difficult that these finals happen at the end of sept/beginning of octobre ? Does it affect your team that this is after summer ?

Carlos : “Well I think there is no other good option to have it at some different time. Maybe one or two weeks earlier, but it depends on other events - international or domestic. There are other events in summer like EUC, WCBU, in other years different big tournaments, so it influences this competition as well as domestic nationals and I can't really see other part of the season suitable for this tournament. It only affects our team in terms of length of the season, which is long, so people run out of money or have injuries.”

Get Ho’ : Is the team in full force ? Are all the key players there and in shape ? Any adjustments to the roster since last year's EUCF ? Any new/old "pick-ups" or new team members ?

Carlos : “We are not in full force and miss few key players. We have had actually problems to put the team together for this tournament, partly because of the injuries, partly because some people can't afford it due to the price.  So we will have less players than last year. “

Get Ho’ : Silence is relatively new to the EUCF compared to the other teams in the Elite division. What is your opinion about that and being seeded 7th ?

Carlos : “We are glad that we made it to the Elite division, but that was also because of the new structure of the competition. It would be nice to finish as we are seeded, which will be difficult as we are not going in full force. Our best result was 9th last year, so anything better than that will be success for us”.

Get Ho’ : What do you think about the level in Europe ? Has the level been rising over the last few years ? Does EUCF have anything to do with that ? How did the game change in the last few years ? Is there a shift in powerteams going on ?

Carlos : “I think the level of Ultimate is growing, but the question is if it is enough to be more competitive with the rest of the world. They are growing as well and if you look at the Worlds from last year, Europe didn't do that well. So I would say, it hasn't been growing big enough.“

Get Ho’ : Who would be the biggest opponents for the title ? Who do you believe might make it to the semis ? Any one who should be seen as top favourite ? Defending champs FAB ? What are your ambitions for this year ?

Carlos : “I wouldn't say that we are going for the title. We will try to do our best though. I think the favorites are as usual teams from GB - Clapham and Chevron, Swiss teams - FAB and Freespeed and Skogs. German teams can suprise as Germany played great at EUC in Maribor. We actually won against FAB last year at EUCF, so it would be nice to beat some of the Elite division teams this year too.“

Get Ho’ : Anything else you would like to share with the Ultimate community ? Any thoughts or comments about the EUCF?

Carlos : “I think the competition has still been finding its place among the European ultimate community. If you look at the USA Ultimate nationals, it is the major event for their teams, they focus on this and it is their priority, they adjust their plans to this event, but in Europe it is different. There are nationals in each country which takes place in different parts of the season, than there are big events like EUC, WBUC, WUGC, WUCC in summer, also there some traditional and popular tournaments every year, which means many event and it might not be easy for EUCS competition, as still kind of new thing, to be or become as important for teams as it might be or even should be.

EUCF could also be a bit less expensive tournament. I don't know how it is for other teams, but by experience from Czech teams, it is too much for some players. There is not much of a interest in organizing EUCF so in a way I understand why it costs this much. But it might be good for EUF to investigate if there are some ways how to put the price down or at least to offer some better price range, going from low price for very basic service to the top quality service if there are teams want to have it. It is not the key thing, but it might help.

And I guess it also needs more time. There is new structure and some changes this year, so we will see if that helps.“

Keep on reading ! 
Plenty more to come !

Burla Beach Cup (Viareggio,IT) - A 'Diabolic Heaven' Report

Check out a report of the infamous Burla Beach Cup which happened last weekend on the lovely beach of Viareggio, Italia.

Due to EUC and WCBU without the double title defending Team Too, but with a whole bunch of other high level enthousiastic teams fighting and playing for glory on the Italian beach.

Below is a report as written by Fery from Diabolic Heaven (Hasselt, BE) who made it to an excellent 5th place ! Picture above by Tom Honings, also from Diabolic.

"The tournament started very nice with lots of sun, beautiful Ultimate players and an excellent beach location. DH1 was in a fairly easy pool and won every game with some margin. Not bad for a team that plays with 3 girls in open division. We really enjoyed meeting and beating our compatriots form Bruges. Our second team DH2 somehow ended up in a quite difficult pool with amongst others an American team Alex & the Great.
These American guys were the revelation of the tournament. Alex parents payed for him and some of his friends to come to Europe to play a beach tournament. There were only six of them, so Gerrit form Gentle helped them out as a pick-up player. Not that they really needed any help, they crushed the competition. They only beat Zoccoli Misty by one point, but besides that I don’t think anybody really managed to hurt them.

Friday night party was in a gay bar called Priscilla. The cheap cocktails and U2-tribute band really got the party going.

Saturday was a little less hot, but nobody complained.

DH1 finally played the Americans Alex & the great. After being taunted by Gerrit for probably getting bageled we didn’t have any high expectations. By winning the 6 previous games we were certain to end up in the higher pool. We really couldn’t give them much of a competition. They just threw the disc anywhere they wanted and ran ridiculously fast to catch the disc. We were somewhat nervous for the game and only managed to score 2 points. Which strangely wasn’t that bad of a result as they beat a lot of teams 13-0 or 13-1.

In the meantime our second team played the other revelation of the open divison: Loltimate, a team of Danish girls. I’ve never seen a team that had that much fun playing Ultimate even though they lost every game and hardly even scored. But hey, they were hot Danish girls on a sunny beach with loads of male attention. Can’t blame them for being happy. And they partied hard!
But it reminded me again that maybe an all female team should be able to play in a coed divison instead of an open division…

 

After the hard games against the americans we met Inexpensive, a very experienced team with some younger very fast runners. We managed to put up more of a fight against inexpensive than against the Americans. But inexpensive deserved their victory.

 

We were going to play for places 5-8 the next morning. Which is not a shame for Diabolic in Open division and without some of our better players.

But first we had a party to attend!

This years theme was “Superheroes”. Imagine a superheroe and he/she was there.
Just in our team we had: 2 catwomen, a sexy mrs Incredible, Darth Vader, Goku, Rambo, Zeus, Hercule, Caesar, Aphrodite, Spoonverine, captain America, Spiderman and Little red riding hood J
The girls from Freezzzbeeezzz did their patriotic duty by exporting our  national pride: MegaMindy

Some other amazing costumes: Ghostbusters, a whole team of Supermario’s & Luigi’s, some ninja turtles,
Paul, the organizer really impressed everybody with his Jezus-costume, including a 2 meter high cross tied to his back.

The crazy Danish girls of Loltimate showed up in tight black clothing and a stocking over their head, hidden in large trashcans they stole at their camping. After inquiry they appeared to be ninjas.
At one point or another, most teams at the party had at least one person stuck in trash can.
This year nobody ended up in the pool, there were some angry looking security people guarding the pool.

On Sunday DH1 played against Frisbeast for places 7-8 or 5-6. Unfortunately they hadn’t enough players so they called in some pick up players. We still managed to beat them and were ready to play for 5^th or 6^th place. The weather started to get worse, there was some light rain and way more wind than the previous days.
We played against the funny drunk Brits from Mythago for the 5^th place. We hope they’re better when they’re sober, because we easily beat them. We did have a lot of laughs, especially with their CUP-a-saurus.

We we’re very happy with our 5^th place so we ordered a beer, some nice pasta and prepared to watch the finals.
In mixed division the final was Patatas Bravas (Barcelona) - ???
The weather started to worsen, there was some heavy rain and a lot of wind, but the brave ultimate players kept on playing, while we were enjoying a beer under an umbrella.
Patatas Bravas was ahead two points when an incredible storm broke loose. It was nearly impossible to score, the wind and the rain were just too hard. They had to hold the tents on the ground with dozens of people. If I recall it correctly Patatas Bravas received the trophy because they were ahead.

 

Everybody gathered around cozy in the restaurant, the friendly bartender offered a happy hour and put on some dancing music. The Danish girls started the party in the ‘shelter’. Besides the cold everybody was happy. Funny detail: this years players gift was a raincoat, but nearly nobody thought about bringing it to the beach on Sunday J

The open final : Alex & the Great vs Zoccoli Misty couldn’t be played because of the thunderstorms.
They were both awarded first place. (Alex & the Great beat Zoccoli misty earlier with one point, but we all know this dutch team is used to cold and wind)

 

Spirit of the game in open division was for Cut’n Move, in mixed division it was awarded to Rusty Bikes."

Random Video - Interview With Erik Doesburg From Sockeye

Check out this mini interview with Erik 'The Kraken' Doesburg, the Dutch player of Seattle Sockeye.
Don't forget to also check Skyd Magazine, who made this video and have a great archive on their website !

EUCF 'ELITE' Interview I : FREESPEED

 

So, as you may have guessed by the title of this blogpost I'm trying to do an interview with each team that's going to play in the Elite Division at EUCF 2011 (European Ultimate Championship Finals) in Bruges on 30/09/11 and 1-2/10/11.

First off is the reigning Swiss champion, bronze medalist of last year's EUCF in Lloret De Mar and definitely one of the teams to look out for : FREESPEED.

Have a look at this little interview with Tobias and Robin, 2 of the captains/coaches of Freespeed from Basel,Switzerland.

-Get Ho' : How has the preparation gone ? Which tournaments and championships have you  played as preparation for EUCF ?

Tobias and Robin : "There was no special preparation for EUCR & F. Since we play as a team the whole season, we played several International Tournaments. And of course, the title in the swiss championship gave us confidence for Brugge."

-Get Ho' : Do you think it's difficult that these finals happen at the end of sept/beginning of octobre?  Does it affect your team that this is after summer ?

Tobias and Robin : "Our national finals were just a few days ago, and we are prepared for this long season. The players that didn’t play in Maribor or Lignano also had a mid-season break of four weeks, so we think the energy should last until 2nd of Oct."

-Get Ho' : Is the team in full force ? Are all the key players there and in shape ? Any adjustments to the roster since last year's EUCF ? Any new/old "pick-ups" or new team members ?

Tobias and Robin : "Yes we are nearly in full force, one or two key players are missing. We tried to get the same Team as in 2010, but  we had to change one of our two pick up players."

-Get Ho' : Freespeed has been growing and getting better than ever in the last few years. A 3rd spot at EUCF last year and a fresh national championship. How will this affect your playing and what are the expectations for this year ? Can you do better than last year ?

Tobias and Robin : "Last year we had a magic EUCF. We hope to get the same groove like 2010 but it wont be easy to confirm the 3d place. Actually we would be pretty happy to enter the quarters."

-Get Ho' : What do you think about the level in Europe ? Has the level been rising over the last few years ? Does EUCF have anything to do with that ? How did the game change in the last few years ? Is there a shift in powerteams going on ?

Tobias and Robin : "Ultimate probably got better in Europe. But we assume that the development of All-Star-Teams won’t be a good thing for the high-level Ultimate in Europe on the long run. There are a few Teams like Clapham, where you could find a strong team over the past years and there will probably a good team in the next years. In other teams there is almost no will to get young (unexpierienced) players into the team. Those teams will probably face hard times in future.
The EUCF is in our oppinion the main reason for the development in Europes top Ultimate. It’s important to have an official season highlight where every team shows up as strong as possible".

-Get Ho' : Who would be the biggest opponents for the title ? Who do you believe might make it to the semis ? Any one who should be seen as top favourite ? Defending champs FAB ? 

 Tobias and Robin :  "As we already said, we do not expect to play in the final. We think Clapham will make it this year. Of course FAB, with their nice Pick-ups is strong as well, we lost against them in EUCR-final. "

Keep on reading ! Plenty more to come !

Spread the word.

See you in Bruges.

FREESPEED Swiss Champions 2011 !

 

A quick note to tell you that FREESPEED has won the Swiss Open Championships last weekend after beating the Flying Angels from Bern in wat seemed to be a very exciting final which ended in 17-16 !
I'm really looking forward to see how both teams will perform at the upcoming European Ultimate Championship Finals (also known as champions league) !

WCBU Video !

Erik Doesburg's Write-up About USA vs Europe

Check out this little write-up by Erik "The Kraken" Doesburg, the Dutch player of Seattle Sockeye, about some differences in Ultimate in USA vs Europe..
http://whatskrakken.blogspot.com/2011/09/usa-vs-europe.html

Keep on reading !

News : GENTLE Plays EUCF in Bruges !

Better pack your bags for a weekend of high level Ultimate, because GENTLE will be playing the European Ultimate Championship Finals due to a drop-out in the North region.

This news has officially been confirmed by the EUF (European Ultimate Federation).

So proud to be representing Belgium at this competition also known as the Champions League !
Hope the Belgian crowd will be present to show some support !

EUCF 2011 - All Teams Known !

Last weekend the last regional qualification tournament was played (EUCR-S) and so all teams are known for the European Ultimate Championship Finals (EUCF- also known as Champions League), happening in Bruges (BE) on 30/09 and 1-2/10/2011.

Teams Open-Elite division

1.EUCR-E : Silence (Prague, CZE)
2.EUCR-W : Clapham (London, GBR)
3.EUCR-W : Chevron Action Flash (Manchester, GBR)
4.EUCR-C : 7 Schwaben (Stuttgart, DEU)
5.EUCR-N : Viksjofors IF (Edsbyn, SWE)
6.EUCR-N : Skogs Ultimate (Goteborg, SWE)
7.EUCR-S : Flying Angels (Bern, CHE)
8.EUCR-S : Freespeed (Basel, CHE)

Teams Open-Challenger division


1.EUCR-E : Thebigez (Vienna, AUT)
2.EUCR-E : MorHo! (Bratislava, SVK)
3.EUCR-E : LOL (Budapest, HUN)
4.EUCR-W : Fire of London (London, GBR)
5.EUCR-W : Brighton Ultimate (Brighton, GBR)
6.EUCR-W : Fusion (Scotland, GBR)
7.EUCR-C : Heidees (Heidelberg, DEU)
8.EUCR-C : Bad Skid (Bad Rappenau, DEU)
9.EUCR-C : Ragnarok (Copenhagen, DNK)
10.EUCR-C : Cambocakes (Amsterdam, NLD)
11.EUCR-N : Helsinki Ultimate (Helsinki, FIN)
12.EUCR-N : Raging Seagulls DC (Goteborg, SWE)
13.EUCR-N : X
14.EUCR-S : Friselis (Versailles, FRA)
15.EUCR-S : Ultimate Vibration (Cergy, FRA)
16.EUCR-S : CUSB La Fotta (Bologna, ITA

Teams Ladies division


1.EUCR-E : Hot Beaches (Prague, CZE)
2.EUCR-E : Eyecatchers (Graz, AUT)
3.EUCR-W : Iceni (London, GBR)
4.EUCR-W : SYC (London, GBR)
5.EUCR-C : Woodchicas (Munchen, DEU)
6.EUCR-C : Heidees (Heidelberg, DEU)
7.EUCR-N : E6 (Goteborg, SWE)
8.EUCR-N : X
9.EUCR-S : Lotus (CHE)
10.EUCR-S : CUSB DDT (Bologna, ITA)

All info can be found at http://www.eucf11.be/ !

Belgian Ultimate Women's Outdoor Championship - BUWOC 16/10

A quick note to inform the Belgian ladies of the Belgian Ultimate Women's Outdoor Championships happening in Ghent on the 16th of octobre.

More info with Morlie,Lore,Nele (Gentle)
For the moment there are 5 (maybe 6) teams! :


1/ Gentle
2/ XL
3/ Jetset
4/ Freeschijn
5/ Braalter
(6/ Gentle 2)

The organisation hopes some more teams can attend...
If you like to play as a pick up let them know and maybe another team can be formed !

Random Video - Sockeye 2011 Introduction

Check out this cool Sockeye 2011 team and players introduction.
Works for me...

If you don't know who Sockeye is, take a look at there facebook page or just go check out their nice homepage.

BBC IV - Diabolic Heaven Take The Beach Cup !

Last weekend DIABOLIC HEAVEN (Hasselt,BE) won the Belgian Beach Cup and get to be called Kings of the Beach for at least one year !

The 4th edition of the BBC organised by Freezzzbeezzz and Slijpschijven in Zeebrugge was a little undermanned as 3 top teams (Gentle,Mooncatchers,Jetset) were playing the regionals at the same time  but still the level seemed pretty high and as I saw the scores it looked like there were a lot of tight games.

Congratulations to our friends from Hasselt for winning their first bigtime trophy in Belgium and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. I've seen Diabolic Heaven give each team a universe point game in the "open" indoor competition, win the second division of Tom's Tourney 2011, win the mixed title in the Belgian indoor competition 2011 and probably many many more things I forgot. Not to mention they have their very own beach arena to play Ultimate on each and every day of the summer !

Picture above : all participating players in the 3 Diabolic teams at BBC2011.

Also a big cheer to Slijpschijven for winning Spirit and of course last but not least to both organising teams.
Hope to be there next year !

All pictures by Fery (Diabolic Heaven) (merci é!)

Final ranking


1. Diabolic Heaven 1

2. Huyltimate

3. Slijpschijven 1

4. Freezzz Beezzz

5. Schijnwerpers

6. Gentle Fusedos

7. Diabolic Heaven 2

8. XLR8RS 2

9. Mooncatchers

10. Hazzzbeezzz

11. Freespect
12. B-Freezzz

13. Gentle Scuds
14. XLR8RS 1
15. Slijpschijven 2
16. Disco Duro
17. Skywalkers-ULB
18. Zeppelins
19. Diabolic Heaven 3

Spirit of the game
1. Slijpschijven 2 : 14,00

Random Video - Explosive D by NEXGEN

Check out this massive D from Matty from the NEXGEN Ultimate Tour.
"Not in my house!" Now here's a great example of letting your man know that you want the disc way more than he does.



If you still have no idea what NEXGEN is all about, check out the PREVIOUS POSTS or just click their own website.

EUC Regionals - Central Region - No Belgians..

Last weekend saw 4 belgian teams take part in the EUCR-C which is short for the European Ultimate Championships Regionals - Central region. This is a regional qualification tournament where the top 5 in open division and the top 2 in women's division is allowed to take part in the final weekend (EUCF,also known as Champions League) on 30/09 and 1-2/10.

What you have to know about this regional qualification tournament is this : This year's EUCF (final weekend) is happening in Bruges,Belgium for the very first time ever.

And as you can presume, we really really wanted a belgian team to be able to represent our country for the very first time at an EUCF (except for Mooncatchers who already played the xEUCF but that was due to the mixing of the 4-yearly European Ultimate Club Championships and the yearly European Ultimate Championship Finals-EUCF).

Guess what, unfortunately we didn't succeed in bringing home the qualification.

With four belgian teams (Gentle,Mooncatchers and Jetset in open division, Tabasco in women's division) none of us succeeded in getting that ever-so-desired 5th place for the qualification.
Gentle and Mooncatchers came out strong enough to make it into the quarter finals but Jetset (with a whole bunch of young and less-experienced Propellers and missing a few key players like Hakke and Peter) had some really hardfought games but were already eliminated in the poule plays just like Tabasco (which might somewhat look like a spin-off of MissB, the national ladies team, but just has all these ladies studying or working in Ghent).

Gentle and Mooncatchers made it an easy saturday night, going to bed quite early preparing for some history in the making. Gentle was looking to beat Ragnarok, against whom we lost by universe point last year at Windmill, and Mooncatchers was up for a battle against Bad Skid (a young team from Germany with so many talented players,who already kicked some Gentle-ass..).

Both quarter finals were lost by the belgians and so the top 4 was known. All we could do was win the 2 other games to make it to the 5th place. For Moon the qualification already stopped when they lost the next game against Cambocakes while Gentle played an amazingly beautiful, high level game against Feldrenner. Defeating these Germans we knew that the battle for the 5th place was on against our neighbours from the Netherlands : CamboCakes.

Gentle and Cambo have a little history in playing eachother at Tom's Tourney and Windmill Windup and these battles have already gone both ways a lot. Belgium-Holland has always been a classic matchup,even in football/soccer, and so the stakes were high for both teams.
Gentle came out really strong, taking the game in hands and being up 2-0. After that we started trading points and the intensity was very nice in this high-pace,high-level game with nice points from both sides.Gentle kept the early break and was up with one point the whole game until the Dutch had a late break to score 12-12. With a game to 15 us Belgians were getting some troubles getting open and this was mainly due to being undermanned. Fourteen Gentley's who had been playing all weekend in a hot sunny weather just couldn't quite cope with the Dutch pressure in D. As I've been told from people on the sideline you could see the intensity of the belgian cuts go down as the game progressed. The Dutch, who had a few more fit runners kept on putting a lot of pressure and won the game with 13-15.
Over and out for the Belgian dream to play the EUCF2011, but rest assured, the desire to come back stronger than ever is definitely there and it has been proven that the whole level of playing in Europe (and Belgium) is getting better than ever.

It's only a matter of time before we get to these competitions, but in the meantime I'm pretty sure Gentle and all other belgian teams will be practicing more and more to make our entries on the European scene.

But first of all : we will be enjoying a nice cold drink on the sidelines of the EUCF2011.

The teams from the Central Region who qualified are these :

Open Division :
1 7 Schwaben,Stuttgart
2 Heidees,Heidelberg
3 Bad Skid,Bad Rappenau
4 Ragnarok,Kopenhagen
5 Cambo Cakes,Amsterdam
6 Gentle,Ghent
7 Feldrenner,Mainz
8 Mooncatchers,Brussels
9 MUC,München
10 Hardfisch,Hamburg
12 Jet Set,Leuven
11 Frühsport 0,2,Köln

Ranking Women
1 Chicas,München
2 Heidees,Heidelberg
3 Primavera,Utrecht
4 Jinx,Berlin
5 Tabasco,Ghent

If you wanna know all the teams who already qualified for the EUCF2011 check out this link :
http://www.eucf11.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=10&Itemid=14
More info to come.

Keep on reading !

Upcoming Weekend - Belgian Beach Cup

All info at http://www.tomstourney.be/toms-frisbee-tournament/index.asp?RubriekId=49
Sounds like it's gonna be a different edition of the Belgian Beach Cup this year with Mooncatchers,Jetset and Gentle not being present (as they are all at the EUCR as mentioned before..) but still this will be a nice weekend to see who gets to be crowned Kings of the Beach 2011 !

Don't remember what last year was like or just wanna know what all the fuss is about ?
Check out these posts from previous years : http://gethorizontal.blogspot.com/search/label/BBC where Freezzzbeezzz (2010), Jetset (2009) and Mooncatchers (2008) took home the trophy.

Enjoy the beach ! It will probably be one of the last times this year on the sand...
Go Belgium !

Upcoming Weekend - EUCR-Central in Nurnberg,Germany

Tomorrow Nurnberg,Germany will be hosting the European Ultimate Championships Regionals for the central region of Europe.

Belgium,Denmark,Germany,Luxemburg and Netherlands will be battling it out to see who can join in the EUCF final weekend in Bruges,Belgium on 1,2 octobre.

http://www.eucf11.be/

Here's a little info on this weekend's tournament and qualifying format :

Open:

Germany: 8 Bids
Denmark: 3 Bids
Holland: 2 Bids
Belgium: 3 Bids
Luxembourg: 0 Bids
Women:
Germany: 3 Bids
Denmark: 2 Bids
Holland: 1 Bids
Belgium: 2 Bids
Luxembourg: 0 Bids

Central has been awarded 1 Open-Elite, 4 Open-Challanger and 2 Women bids for the 2011 EUCF.
Which means that in Open the top 5 can qualify and in ladies the top 2.

If you wanna see who already qualified in the other regions check out the fresh from the plate website :
http://www.eucf11.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=10&Itemid=14


Seems like a huge challenge to make a belgian team compete at the EUCF in our very own country.
Mooncatchers (2011 BE champions), Jetset (2011 BE vice-champions) and Gentle (2010 BE champions) and Tabasco (some sort of MissB-spin-off) will be trying their very best to get one of the hard-to-get spots.
But don't we all love challenges ?

EUC - "That Time When a Swedish Player Dropped It" (My 2 Cents & Thoughts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBzm1BTaidY 
Okay, this video has been spreading like a highly infectious disease on facebook with all sorts of comments about the "drop" at 13'45", and as you've probably all seen this I would like you to read on.
Note : the embedding possibility for blogs and website has also been removed.

First of all, the catch which is highly visible at 13min45sec is not a catch but a drop.
This unfortunately happened in the final of the European Ultimate Championships 2011 between Sweden and Great Britain in Maribor,Slovenia where Sweden took the gold medal after winning closely by 16-15.
There were a lot of people sitting around the field but only few had the right angle to judge that this catch wasn't really a catch.

The official rules quote this :
"12.1. A player “catches” the disc by demonstrating sustained control of a non-spinning disc.

12.2. If the player loses control of the disc due to subsequent contact with the ground or a team-mate or a legitimately positioned opposition player, the catch is deemed to have not occurred."

Seems pretty obvious that this is not a catch then, as the Swedish player lost control of the disc after making contact with the ground and then picked it up afterwards (as you can see in the picture/printscreen below)

Now, here's the point I'm trying to get at : There's no reason in starting a witch-hunt and blaming the Swedish for cheating. First of all : it was only one player who made this (very unacceptable) move. Does he need punishment ? Do the Swedes need to lose their European title ? No, they don't. Things like these probably have happened more than once before in our ever-so-spirited sport. I couldn't agree more that this is quite unacceptable and should never be done by anyone, in any game, but there's no point in blaming anyone are straight up calling them cheaters while sitting behind your own computer screen.

Secondly, and the reason I am posting this video (I didn't wanna be part of the hey-let's-trashtalk-the-swedish-online) is this and only this :

let it be an example for what not to do.

This video should be posted (as it already has) on different places not to humiliate this one person (doesn't even matter who he is or which country he comes from) but it seems like he made a very bad decision in a split second in a very tight game with high stakes. For all we know this might be this player's only chance in a lifetime to become European Champion and bad decisions get taken everywhere,by everybody at anytime.

It's probably one of the first times ever that a fake-catch like this in Ultimate has been videotaped so let's just learn a lesson from it and avoid others from doing the same.

In the end this should be the hardest lesson for the person in the video to learn, that cheating is not accepted in Ultimate even though we don't have any referees to make our decisions.

Question : if you would have seen exactly the same video from a HAT tournament with only 40 players participating in a little town in let's say Bachten-De-Kuupe in Belgium, where a bunch of Ultimate players get together to have fun times,in the first game of the day where the "scoring" team is down 3-13, would you have posted it on facebook ? I'm thinking no.

Does it matter ? It might.

Are we gonna get observers because of actions like these ? Highly possible in the future.

Do we have observers right now ? No, we don't.
Do we use video footage as evidence for cheating ? Never seen it before.
Are we gonna start using it ? Not anytime soon..

So use what we got, and keep reminding all players that

spirit should prevail at all times and at all costs.

I definitely wouldn't want to be exposed like this in a video where I just won a gold medal.

Think this guy doesn't want to be either, but he made a bad decision and it came back to bite him. It may have been ignorance about the rules ? Thinking that it is okay to pick up a disc you dropped after hitting the ground after a nice catch .... We don't know, and only he himself can give an honest answer.
Bad luck ? His own mistake.
What's done is done.

I can imagine some players being somewhat mad, or disgusted but there's no point in looking back now.

Here's a little excerpt of what the player himself had to say :

"I am man enough to stand for what I did in that moment in the game, but I am also man enough to admit that it was a mistake from my side.

Now I know after being explained and read the rules in detail, that it was not a catch, that it was according to Rule 14.1 & Rule 12.2 a drop/a turnover. If I have known it back then I am 100% sure that I would have act in a different way. Yes I also know that I that have played a long time at high level should know ALL the rules big and small, but I didn’t. And believe it or not, this was the first time I was in this scenario. It was never my intent to “cheat” or “cover something up” and I apologize if some of you think that I tried to do so and got offended about it.
I learn from the mistake, gain a lot of experience from it and hopefully all this will make me a better player in the future."

If you have any comments about this, please feel free to share your thoughts.

I'm curious how other people feel/think about this.