Discos Calientes Preview

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Pool A

A1. Brown Chicken Brown Cow (1)

A2. Night Train (4)

A3. Classy (6)

A4. Humboldt (8)

Pool B

B1. LA Metro (2)

B2. Brass Monkey (3)

B3. BAG (5)

B4. Bidwell* Nuts (7)

courtesy: upa.org

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The current weather forecast for Chico, CA this weekend is: high of 94 with approximately 30-40% humidity. So actually this isn't that bad compared to last year, although Chico hit 103 yesterday.

Discos Calientes is a tournament I haven't really been looking forward to in that it calls for teams to deal with extreme elements such as heat, UV-index, and insects. That aside, the tournament vibe is very awesome in that you can jump into a 65 degree river after playing and/or visit the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company across the street from the fields. The rankings listed above were posted by Fetch, the tournament TD and are no-way finalized. I just know that I won't have time later in the week to write this up so I'm going to take care of it now with the information I've got.

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Brown Chicken is ranked #1 for this tournament (no surprise) and look to continue proving that putting together a team the week before a tournament from an assortment of in-region and out of region players works. In theory, such a strategy should bring chemistry problems and/or unfamiliarity between teammates, but Calle has done it well and put together teams that are not only more talented then most in the region, but also can quickly gel together and flow seamlessly. They bring a more limited roster to Chico, but which team isn't. It's about the half-way point in the season and I'm sure many teams are stuck with injuries and/or mid-summer wedding obligations. =)

Brass Monkey is back! I was very surprised at this and thought that it was a misprint in that "SF-Rush" was supposed to be slotted at the 3-seed. However I was wrong as it was brought to my attention that this was a Brass Monkey reunion type team. We played Brass last year at CalStates (W:15-12), but outside several handlers and women, I don't know very much about this team. Should be a strong team since they've played together for all those years in the Bay Area but who knows. I know several ex-Brass players have moved onto other teams so numbers could possibly be an issue.

Night Train brings a good balance of handlers + cutters to the table. Through watching them at this year's Calstates or playing them last year at Labor Day, they don't have the huge superstars that a "big market" area would yield, but they are definitely a team with veteran leadership and great fundamentals.

BAG is a team I would love to play for if I had returned home to the Bay Area. The "Bay Area Gangsters," or formerly the "Black Actor's Guild," are mostly comprised of current or recently graduated college students from schools like Davis, Cal, SF State, that rely heavily on handler movement and/or a huge jack into the end zone. They've got a lot of great cutters that also can handle and played relatively well at Stanford with wins over GNT, Rush, and Dutch Rudder. They're a young team, but they have a lot of potential for upsets. I see them breaking seed and more.

Seeds 6-9 are Classy, Bidwell Nuts, and Humboldt. I don't know too much about these teams other then the fact that they cannot be underestimated. Humboldt has a great program up there and they consistently bring very good athletes to the pitch. Classy gave us a good game at Calstates, mounting a run in the early second half to keep it close before we pulled to a 15-9 win. They've got plenty of height and cutters, I just feel that their handling core isn't as strong as other teams in this pool.

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The tournament has been set up so that the Mixed-division is split into two groups; the top 8 in one group, and the rest of the field in the other group. There is also an Open Division with the following pools:

Pool A

A1. Condors (1)

A2. End Phase (4)

A3. Army of Darkness (5)

A4. Buddies (7)

A5. The Pirate Bay (10)

Pool B

B1. Strike Slip (2)

B2. Monster (3)

B3. SCUC (6)

B4. Seduction (8)

B5. Club Sac (9)

This is looking to be a pretty good field for an open division tournament with the tournament debut of the new-look Condors as well as LA Monster. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like YR has now become "End-Phase," but were called "Sharky" at CalStates. Weird... but the game to watch for the open division seems to be between Condors and Strike Slip, or the latter vs. the new YR team. Look for Santa Cruz (SCUM) to give the top teams trouble. In terms of prediction, it's a toss up for me. I'd like to see Strike Slip take the tournament, with the talent they have, this tournament is theirs to lose.

My blog mostly deals with the mixed division, but if you want a look at the open division, more specifically a look-in with LA's top open team, Strike-Slip, hit up my friend DOT's blog for their tournament previews and wraps.

Once the actual pools and rankings are out, I will update. Till then.

-Hammie