Monday Night's All Right for Ulti - BUML Finals Wrap

So despite a bit of rain the fields had dried enough that the dreaded email from ARC hadn’t arrived and we here at the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion fired up the gold plated hovercraft and scooted down to the Annerley Fields to watch the conclusion of Brisbane Ultimate Mixed League Season 2 2010, taking along Young Son in his bright blue Dyspnoeics shirt to show some allegiance, or at least score some extra cuddles from Suze.

Of course, bringing along Young Son meant that your correspondence was only able to watch snatches of the games, but here’s how it seemed to go down.

Over on Field 5, Frisky Time (est. 2010 – Motto “What?”) took on the Kelvin Grove Cougars (est. 2009 – Motto “Run hard, huck fast, and eat the corpse”) for the Div 2B Final.

The match was fairly close, but the key to the game seemed to be that the full compliment of Cougars was available, fired up and on time, while the Frisky’s seemed to limp into the event with six on the line for the opening huck, and various injuries, contact lens issues and other lateness hampering their chances to rock. The Frisky’s fought hard but its seems the Cougars got up to claim the win – a great cap to what’s been an excellent season for the northsiders in red. I should also note that at one point Tim Johnson threw an outstandingly excellent hammer.

On Field 3, the Div 2A Final saw one of the most historied teams in the League, the Dyspnoeics (est. 2006 and along with Bermuda Triangle the only original teams still remaining in the League (Mellow Yellow and the Chimichangas formed a season later) – motto “Bet you can’t spell or say our name the same way twice”), take on one of the newest, the Discheads (est. 2010 – motto “Gimme Dischead ‘til I’m dead.”). The Discheads had a full turn out of fans thanks to their connections with the Heroes Drinking Club, who duly brought a keg of homebrew and all the supporting accompaniments including Carl's Dad (who went to school with Buzz) and Starky. As for the game itself, it was a close one with much heroics on both sides, before the Discheads got away with it for the win. Well done to both teams for entertaining the crowd.

Presentations for Division 2 were then held while the Division 1 Final commenced in the background. Medals and ribbons were provided, along with bottles of plonk as thanks for the Captains, and thanks also were extended to everyone who helped with the administration of the League, in particular Adilia Murabito and Chris Fox. Well done to the Griffith Go-Go's for taking out the Division 2 Spirit Prize. Pizza was served, and a few of us got the chance to personally thank John Coorey for his massive efforts over the year. Thank you, thank you, three times thank you John! Planning for 2011 is underway.

So on to the Division 1 Final between the tie-dye clad Wushi Finger Hold and the outrageously panted Chimichangas. We here in the mansion have seen reports this morning that Wushi were victorious – well done to them. Sadly for this correspondent, it was well past Young Son’s bedtime and we had to depart after watching only one dazzlingly brilliant point featuring Peta McNaughton.

And so Finals week rolls on, with our next stop at BPL on Thursday, and then the QUDA Bash on Sunday. But for Monday night ... see you next year!

BUML "Controversy" Coverage - Ending Games with Last Possession, Points Caps and Time Caps

Following on from yesterday's BPL "Controversy" Coverage post here on the Brisbane Ultimate Blog, and in the same spirit of 'controversy for the fun of it' not to genuinely bother anyone, let's consider the discomfort around BUML's use of a 'last possession rule' to complete its games.

At present, BUML games finish with 'last possession', which involves a League Director type blowing a whistle at time cap, and play continuing until the next change of possession (either from a score or a turnover).

The rule is arguably an effort at a half-way house between the ways games end under the formal rules of Ultimate (and the traditional variations), and the need of the League to finish its games pretty much on time to either allow for games following or to get the lights turned off. Let's go through these, as often people aren't clear on these issues anyways.

The WFDF rules of Ultimate, state: "4.2 A game is finished and won by the first team to score seventeen (17) goals." For practicality though, the following is also in there: "4.6 A variation of the basic strcture may be used to accommodate special competitons, number of players, age of players or available space."

A common variation under 4.6 applied by League and Tournament Directors is setting the Points Cap at a number other than 17 (usually 15 or 13).

The change is typically for timing reasons, although it may also be used in events where 'blowout' scores (eg 17-0) are anticipated, which are thought to be less enjoyable and thus better to be over quickly (eg ending at 13-0 is believed to be better than 17-0).

However, Points Caps can still result in overly-long games, which can cause havok when League and Tournament Directors are trying to coordinate to a schedule (either because of limits on field and light availability, and/or because they are managing a large number of consecutive games). Long games at tournaments may also raise safe play and fairness issues, should players be exhausted by a long game and then need to back up to play another game (and possibly against relatively fresh opponents). Hence, Time Caps may also be be applied should the Points Cap not be attained.

Time Caps have their own variations, generally with a central timer (either agreed by the teams themselves, or provided by the League or Tournament Director). Generally, time caps for higher level tournaments will be set at 70 to 100 minutes, although some more social events will use times around 45-70 minutes (generally to enable players to play several games against as many other players as possible).

Equally, there is then a lot of variation in terms of 'what happens at Time Cap'. Commonly at higher level tournaments, the rule used is along the lines of "Finish the point, add two to the highest score to establish the revised Points Cap." Sometimes in more social contexts this will be truncated to merely adding one to the highest score, or truncated even further to merely finishing the point.


Sometimes people get different ideas about Time Cap, and I'll use an example of something BUML Assistant League Director Chris Fox recently wrote to the players:

"One last point about "last possession" (This is my opinion only, and not that
of John or Adilia): I do not understand why people think it is strange that they
are not allowed to keep playing after game time has expired. Perhaps this is
just a Ultimate tradition? Correct me if I am wrong, but in every other sport I
can think of if you are down 1 point at the buzzer then you lose. There is never
any chance to tie up the game or play until someone scores after time has
expired. So I don't understand why Ultimate players expect to be able to do
this. Just my two cents."

I think Chris pulls out the important factors in people's confusion here (and their dislike of the 'last possession' rule), but let's tease them out more.

A common error for people confused by Time Cap is to compare to other sports. Something like soccer, for example, is predicated on there being an agreement that play will stop after precisely 90 minutes of play.

In contrast, Ultimate is predicated on the agreement that play will stop when a team has won - that is, scored the Points Cap.

In Ultimate, the addition of a Time Cap doesn't establish an absolute finishing time as in soccer - instead it establishes a modified Points Cap, one that is specific to that game.

I'll repeat that - in Ultimate, you win the game by achieving the Points Cap (not by scoring more than the opposition). A Time Cap merely modifies the Points Cap. When there's a Time Cap, you still win the game by achieving the Points Cap.

There are a bunch of reasons why this is, and it comes back to self-refereeing - Ultimate actively doesn't use whistles or referees, who in other sports provide independent timekeeping and declare one team the winner over the other.

Instead in Ultimate, we conclude games in a manner all players can agree on while still being players - when a Points Cap (modified or otherwise) is achieved.

The method of firstly finishing the point after Time Cap is called also allows a moment when teams can confer amongst themselves and with each other to confirm that Time Cap was called. In the heat of an Ultimate game, without a referee and whistle having dominance and control throughout, a whistle from a competiton director doesn't have the same weight.

The method of adding one or two to the score after the point has been finished has two functions. First, it provides some balance to the impact of wind and other weather conditions, which have a significant impact on Ultimate compared to other sports. Ultimate combats this by swapping ends at the end of each point and by the scorers returning the disc to the other team with the pull.

Second, it discourages unspirited time-wasting. In other sports where one team has gone ahead, but another team is coming back from behind, the leading team will look at the clock and waste time as much as possible. This happens less in Ultimate when a Time Cap merely modifies the Points Cap. The leading team still needs to strive towards the Points Cap at all times (yes, it can waste a bit of time to slow their opponents catching up, but not as much).

(Obviously, these situations also add a lot of extra excitement and drama to a game!)

Another way to look at it - if everyone is Ultimate is a referee, and you want play to stop at an agreed time as per something like soccer, then either everyone needs a watch on (that's synchronised with everyone elses), or you need a separate timer that is visible to all players all the time.

Anyway, leaving aside the world of rules philosphy and back to the realities of BUML, the 'last possession rule' isn't too bad. It is challenging practically in that it does require most players to be able to hear a whistle and for the League Director to be reliable in blowing it on time, but it does give people time to spread the word. A change in possession is more likely to happen sooner than a score, so that schedules can be kept to, and a change in possession does provide a moment when players can agree the game is over.

This has been a bit of a long warble and time is out in terms of cleaning it up a bit. But we hope its interesting and our readers have learned and thought about it a bit.

But we'd hate to see people thinking 'the whistle' as the natural way to finish an Ultimate game.

Westside Story

Ultimate makes the Westside News.

mXcellent

Scan by Michelle Davie. Click to embiggen.

So a few people saw the above on page five of last Wednesday's issue of Brisbane's mX (the free afternoon newspaper distributed to Brisbane city commuters).

As a few readers may know, where here at the Brisbane Ultimate Blog have many more ideas that we can get around too, but I figured we'd share the tale of this one for others to emulate.

So anyway, I catch the train and see the mX fairly regularly. Its colourful and I suspect fairly cheaply run (ie a lot of the material is taken from elsewhere - not just Sydney and Melbourne, but it feels very like the London mX I used to read), but also appears very interested in what it's readers have to say.

It was about a week before Nationals, and thinking about what their production timescales might be like (I figured they gathered local stuff a few days before printing, where other papers might have a daily or weekly timescale) I figured to do something.

So I dug around to find the editor's direct email address (tip here - always find the highest individual email address you can find for direct access - I think this gets better success than emailing a general email box and sent the following email on the Thursday the week before Nats:

Dear Editor,

I think its great that you've continued from day one to cover the local arts scene - plays, shows, music - on a daily basis.

It's great to have a Brisbane focus on what's on.

But how about a little love for the local sports scene? I'm not talking about the Broncos or Bulls - but sport that's happening at the same level and involving local people, particularly the alternative, quirky, interesting, off-the-radar stuff.

Here's an idea for you - the Brisbane Ultimate Frisbee Teams - Firestorm (mens) and Sultry (womens) are having their final scrimmaging session this Sunday 23/4 from 3pm at Dorrington Park in Ashgrove, before going off to the National titles in Coffs Harbour next week.

Send a photographer down - its colourful and energetic.

Give me a call if I can help.

But if Ultimate Frisbee isn't your go or this weekend's no good, I'd still like to see some local alternative sport in there, as well as the arts scene.

Keep up the good work.

Name
Phone Number

I'm sure you can see what I was getting at.

Anyway, it proved very successful as within 10 minutes of hitting 'send' the Editor phoned me asking to set up a photo shoot. I then talked to the photographer and talked about possible times and places.

Alas, they didn't do weekends, but with a bit of quick emailing we managed to line up a few Firestorm lads to meet at UQ around lunchtime on the Monday (I couldn't make it due to work, although plan b was to use the City Botanic gardens and whatever city workers we could get ahold of).

I made sure the photographer had a handful of mobile numbers for the boys and the lads had the photographer's numbers and there was a clear indicator of time and place via joint email.

A quick phone interview gave a journo some words to go with the picture (alas, I was unprepared and at work, but it turned out ok I hope - and I think Firestorm have forgiven me for the assumption that I'm one of them, and now made me honourary Firestorm Media Manager or something).

Anyway, the photography went well (well done lads!) and Wednesday afternoon there we were! Just in time to grab a handful of copies to take down to Nats for all.

We'll try to chase the photographer this week to see if we can copies of some of the other shots, and post them here and at quda.org for the duration.