Poll Thursday - Best of BUML, and Showing Your Appreciation

So here we are on Poll Thursday again (for the first time?).

Poll slightly serious is challenging, particularly for those who don't wish to take the obvious 'personal interest' approach. Which BUML Division is the best Division? Of course, once you get over the answer of "my division of course!", the question then becomes "Well, what makes a good division?". The closeness of the competition? The comradery between teams? The coordinated diversity - eg different coloured shirts? The sense of being in a division together?

Poll slightly silly is a big one. Its the end of the Final at Nationals, the biggest game ever. You see an opportunity to score, you throw .... and its a fkn awful piece of swill. "OMG!" your brain says to your hand "WTF are you doing?" Hand just says, "Hey man, I played the option you wanted ... just like last night with that person you picked up at the bar." Groin pipes up, "And it was fabbo ..." Anyway, as that conversation continues in that brief second, your team-mate somehow catches it, scores, and wins Nationals. What do you do next?

Poll Pollery, Poll Pollery, Poll Poll Pollree

Well, we've been focusing a lot on reader-interaction in recent times here at the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion, in a blatently obvious attempt at retaining our numbers in the face of the BPL-Blog onslaught. What next, page 3 girls (guys?). Nah, we're sure you've all seen Nugget with his shirt off before. But let's follow up on some of our recent polls:

Well, the surprise in this one of course is the success of Cider. Cider is enjoying a boom in Australia at present, which makes it surprising it gets even two votes, Ultimate players being traditionally contrarians in all things. The 'tears of Jack Allan' polled well also, and thanks for the comment at the field from someone who shall remain nameless that "they're rather taste Jack's blood". Some sort of Twilight thing, I guess.

Speaking of drinks and moody angst:

Yes, this poll was clearly loaded towards our favourite Cola, Salv.

Jokes aside, let us turn out heads towards some of the serious stuff, like Ultimate, the most deadly serious game of all!

This was our biggest pulling poll of the year so far, and while there were some fans for all teams, its clear the big three this season (in terms of self-promotion, at least) are Bermuda Triangle, the Discheads, and What the Huck?

Several things stunned us about the Division 3 poll. None of the Yeast have found this blog as yet. Stacking the donkey vote with Griffith teams only delivered a few extra votes. And Marcus seems to be able to vote multiple times.

Clearly, They Love Us on the Gold Coast. And rightly too.

Sure, AdsB reckons there's a need for a dedicated BPL blog. We here at the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion have obviously made it look easy. But look at the 'competitors' over on the right there that we've outlasted (and the ones still there only JUST survived the recent cull).

Why has this blog above all other continued? Clever ideas like asking who's going to win this season of BPL of course!

Yep, nothing pulls in the punters like polls, especially those checking the web from their waterproof smartphone while they're waiting on the board for the next set to roll in like the Slamtowners. Of course, what surprised was the interest in the Northside Cobras.

What do you think? Will Slamtown win this season?

Meanwhile, here's a tip if you decide to Ro-Sham-Bo for something with someone from Brisbane Ultimate ...
Yep - they won't be going for scissors! Not quite sure why that is. But once again, the Brisbane Ultimate Blog is providing YOU, yes YOU, with something useful to improve your understanding of the game and general on-field performance!

New Poll

The insanity which became Sam Simmons is upon me, as evidenced by this exquisite photo of me sucking back a lovely coconut!

A new poll is up (how exciting!) so dance on over to the left side of your screen and vote for who you think will be MVP. Tell us why you have voted that way by commenting on this thread! Although my stats tell me that today is going off, you, my friends, feel invisible!

Is You Can't Be Arsed Watching TV Tonight ...

... here's the massive Ultimate Canada Magazine to check out.

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1s7d6/UltimateCanadaMagazi/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl

Or you could vote in our new poll over there ... which is best? Townsville? Gold Coast? Cairns? Or Bowen (??)?

Comment on the Poll

...lines are now open

Brisbane Ultimate Blog Readers Tip the Winners of the Draft ... or Not?

Alright, so this has turned out to be one of the more difficult polls to assess.

Does Brisbane Ultimate have a chip on its shoulder? Don’t we trust anyone?

Somehow, 53% of those polled reckoned that the Draft (the short break from BPL League) will be won by “Those Cheating Bastards.”

Now yes, this is the funniest option on the poll. But still, only 11% of people thoughts the best team would win (the same number as those who thought "the team that knocked out my team"! And only 15% thought that their team would win!! And in a strangely un-Aussie outlook, the rank outsiders barely rated a mention with 7%.

So does Brisbane Ultimate have a concern that there are a lot of cheaters out there?

2007 Queensland Club of the Year

You'll have to forgive me for another long and wordy post, but here's the info backing up the 2007 Queensland Club of the Year.
*Update – now edited with further Halibut results*
The objective was to recognise the growth of ongoing clubs in Queensland and Northern NSW – both in terms of doing well at tournaments, but also in terms of just getting themselves to tournaments in the first place. So not just looking at who won, but being able to compare the clubs on a somewhat objective scale, and possibly motivate people from year to year in getting to more tournaments and invoking a club identity more often.

Before we get into the results, here were the ground rules:

Qualifying Elements
1. Clubs must play two tournaments, or have travelled over 700km for one tournament.
2. Club must be majority Qld or NNSW players.
3. Players may play for multiple clubs through the year, but only one club per event.
4. Clubs may accrue additional points via multiple teams in the same event.
5. A tournament must have at least four teams to be included, and be by open invitation/qualification (hence, NUFL not included, as only certain clubs can compete).

Determining Points
1. Points are given for placing in relation to the size of the tournament. Last place gets 100 points, each placing above that gets 100 points, but to 10 teams.
2. If there are more than 10 teams, the maximum points are 1000, and the points per placing distributed down to 100 points for last.
3. Spirit points are given as 20 points per team at the tournament - so for example, winning spirit at a 8 team tournament is 160 points.
4. There is a travel bonus to recognise that getting a team a distance takes more effort. 50km-700km is 100 points, 700-1400km is 200 points, more than 1400km is 300 points
5. Bonus points up to 100 for miscellaneous at the discretion of the award organiser.

So how'd Queensland's Clubs do in 2007? Lets go in reverse order, and hope that my math is roughly right:

10th on 735 points – GU-nit (Gold Coast Griffith Mixed)
Sprang onto the scene this year under the leadership of crazy Stef Rapazzo and got themselves to Halibut (15th of 16* for 160 points), Lovefest (equal 5th of 6 for 150 points) and AUGs (18th of 20 for 200 points). Travelling up to Brisbane twice got two lots of 100 travel points, plus an extra 25 points for the ridiculously good outfits at the Halibut party.


8th 9th on 780 points – Concrete Donkey (Townsville Mixed)
Concrete Donkey quality for getting themselves together and down from Townsville (so 200 travel points for that) to play, and play well at that (8th of 16* is 580 points). Down from Shoot To Kill's 1112 points of 2006.

7th 8th on 960 points – Thor (Townsville/Byron Bay Open)
Did a lot of travel (to Brisbane for Regionals (200 points) and then to Melbourne for Nationals (300 points), and had a great time, although results on paper (2nd of 4 at Regionals for 300 points, then 15th of 16 at Nationals for 160 points) held them steady.

9th on 750 points7th on 990 points - The Pass (Byron Bay Mixed)
Byron have really amped up their profile this year, with the Pass getting to both Halibut (13th of 16* for 280 points 9th of 16 for 520 points) and Lovefest (equal 5th of 6 for 150 points), and picking up Spirit at Lovefest (120 points). Two lots of travel bonus there too (200 points). Seeing some of the Byron players at BPL and as part of Thor's Nationals campaign was great too, as was Badman's Birthday Bash at Lennox Heads in November. For future reference, I have been informed that the Pass is a famous surf spot. There you go. Oh yeah, and it looks like the Byron region will be sending more Juniors to the World's selection camp in January than all of Queensland put together, so more to come!

6th on 1030 points – QUTies (QUT Mixed)
Up from 680 points in 2006, QUTies picked up well with a good result at AUGs (11th of 20 for 530 points) and Lovefest (3rd of 6 for 400 points). Travel to the Gold Coast gets another 100 points. QUTies being one of the dominant YUFL teams is one of the reasons we should try to work out a way to integrate points for Leagues into this Club of the Year thing.

5th on 1380 points – Firestorm (Brisbane Open)
Two teams at Regionals (Firestorm 1st of 4 for 400 points and Firefighters 3rd of 4 for 200 points), was followed by 8th at Nationals (for 580 points) and the Melbourne travel bonus of 200 points.

4th on 1480 points – Sultry (Brisbane Women's)
A second great year for Sultry and up from 1280 points in 2006. Two teams at Nationals coming in at 9th (520 points) and 10th (460 points) of 16, plus two teams times 200 travel points for getting to Melbourne, and 100 discretionary points for the one day event at Regionals, all gave a big score.

3rd on 1640 points – Lounge Lizards (Brisbane Mixed)
A big second year for the Lizards, taking two teams to Halibut (6th of 16* for 700 points, and 14th for 220 points), one to Lovefest (4th of 6 for 300 points) and 21st at Mixed Nats for 220 points, plus the travel bonus to Sydney (200 points).

2nd on 1700 points – Bootius Maximus (Brisbane Mixed)
Probably Queensland's best known club thanks to a fantastic 2006 campaign (where it would've been club of the year with a huge 2991 points), Bootius scored again with a maximum 1000 points for winning Mixed Nationals (in Sydney so a further 200 travel points), plus 500 points for coming 2nd of 6 at Lovefest.

1st on 2040 points – UQ Lovers (Brisbane Mixed)
Won AUGs for 1000 points, plus 100 points for travelling to the Gold Coast. Won Lovefest for 600 points. 12th of 16* at Halibut for a further 340 points and the Club of the Year 2007 title. Well done!

Final thoughts – I am sure people will see different ways to weight the points, but I can say I made my best estimate for rewarding turning up, travelling and playing well, and then ran the team results through it. I was pleased to find total points that seemed about right, and that certainly gave Clubs some encouragement for 2008! Good luck to you all, and as usual, comments and corrections welcome.

*Most Halibut results are estimates – final results have yet to be confirmed – however these results do not appear likely to influence placings a lot?
*Edit – well, the fine folk of the Pass emailed me to say they came in 9th at Halibut rather than my poor guess of 13th – while slides them up the rankings to 7th. Fixed now!

The Masses Have Spoken

So my use of the new poll feature (on the right) has generated its first result.


Four people prefer Griffith Uni Nathan for Northern Regionals 2008, and three prefer Kalinga Park.

And just so you know that polls here at Brisbane Ultimate Blog are the REAL DEAL, I rang Griffith Uni this morning to make a tentative booking. Conveniently, the call for bids for hosting regionals also came out this week, so we're on track.

Like I've said below, I'm keen to make Northern Regionals 2008 a great part of our calendar, and getting fields sorted early is always a great way to start.