Best Tournament Ever

So when the WFDF gets around to it, I’ll be looking to nominate last weekend’s Badman’s Birthday Bash as the best tournament of the millennium, if not ever.

Ok, so we’re exaggerating slightly. But as we find ourselves back in the salt mines that we have to do to fund the plush amenities at stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog manor, its hard not to bottom out mood-wise after the highs of the weekend.

Badman’s Bash returned to the Lake Ainsley Recreation Centre, and while the grass wasn’t the lushest (but still very acceptable), all agreed that the combination of cabins next to the fields, beach next to the fields, lake next to the fields, pool next to the fields and partying on, around and next to the fields make it a great event. Props to Dan and aL for linemarking, and of course to Bads for his plover-removal service. While we’re at it – thanks to Jack for dragging the trailer and gear down and back.

A large number of folks trekked down from Brisbane and the Gold Coast (and insanely enough Townsville – you go Townsville kids!) and also up from Sydney and elsewhere around NNSW on the Friday night. And rather than the usual Ultimate tournament night before mellow drinks thing (broken only by a few of the hard core), Friday night pretty much saw everyone who was there up and about until the wee small hours (the larger of the small hours, actually).

For many on Friday night, it was time to have the facts of Badman’s Birthday Bash explained to them. This was not a win-at-all-costs-while-still-respecting-the-Spirit-of-the-Game-tournament. This was a have-fun-at-all-costs-while-respecting-the-limits-of-one’s-capacity-for-fun-tournament. And so it was. Two guys even came just to fish. The other fact to learn was that if you plugged your iPhone/pod/mpeg thingee into the music machine in an unauthorised manner, Bads would plug his music back in and hide your gadget and make you beg a bit and promise to never do it again before he’d tell you exactly where in the laundry cupboard he’s put it.

Saturday saw a large number of folks in attendance for the pulling of the names from the metaphorical hat, and a record six teams take the field in a full round robin of games to 9. Very sensible in the hot and slightly-tired-from-the-night-before-conditions. Full congratulations to the lamely-named Team Awesome, who were undefeated. If we recall correctly, Team Awesome would have taken on a depleted Trevor Goes to Badman’s in the final (which would have involved Tug of War rather than Ultimate), but everyone was too shagged. Its possible that Team Jeff took third place, Bad with Names fourth, Baby in a Blender fifth and ‘Ere We Go to the Jungle sixth. Corrections in the comments, please.

The day of six teams and two fields and games to 9 made for an innovative process for starting games. Essentially, as soon as you finished your game, you worked out who you were supposed to play next in the draw order, and then when you could find them, convince them to play and spot an empty field, then off you went. Yep, no worrying about the time and stuff. Many experienced tournament goers were unused to not having a TD urging them about getting started, but it worked out very well indeed. There was even the occasion of a ‘tactical hassle’, where teams battled to get their teams on the line (or something that looked like their team) and thus claim the field, while others were relegated to spectator status (which wasn’t so bad anyways).

The food was imported from the local pub and was once again great and easy. Having the cabins right there also meant an endless stream of cold beverages throughout the day. Props to Townsville Si for keeping it cool while performing a few odd jobs.

The end of play, dinner and the evenings’ socialising beautifully morphed from one to the other, as folks congregated under a tent here, in a cabin there, on the sand and in the lake. Many drinks were consumed to respond to thirsts generated through the day, all in a highly responsible manner. As Bads said, 10pm to 2am seemed to go in the blink of the eye, or perhaps a skip of the rope.

Sunday proceded in a stately manner, quiet suitable for those of us given to stateliness. JdR and Reece started off the day with some one-on-one Schtick, that slowly evolved into a very large game where keeping score was eventually forgotten about. Lunch brought pretty much everyone out, and then some casual Ultimate led the afternoon as folks slowly drifted away, like flowers in the breeze.

Talk for Badman’s Life, the University and Everything Birthday Bash 2010 is for each cabin to arrange its own theme and show off. We at the BUB are fully supportive of this, and have begun planning both strategy and tactics.

Thankfully, writing this blog post means that when the AFDA puts out its next call for nominations for Tournament of the Year, all we’ll have to do is send in the link.