Club Trouble in Vegas 2010

"Five years, no deaths, some arrests"


top: StraightJacket, Allen, KG, Jerry, Matt Hennessey, Steve, Box, Biclops, Soren, Jamison, Brandon
bottom: Bob, Hammie, Danny Walters.


Roster:

• Andrew Chao (UCLA, TFT)
• Mike "Bob" Liu (LPC, Strike-Slip)
• Matt Hennessey (Wake Forest, Monster)
• Soren Viuf (Chapman, OCD)
• Ed "Biclops" Melo (UCLA, LA Monster)
• Brandon Gerstle (Cal Poly Pomona)
• Allen Lai (UCI, Strike-Slip)
• Mike Ng (UCI, LA Monster)
• Jerry Yang (UCI, Strike-Slip)
• Steven Lowe (UCI, LA Monster)
• Andrew "Box" McRae (UCI, LA Monster)
• Jamison Gorin (UCI)
• Danny Walters (UCI, LA Monster)
• Hammie Chen (UCI, LA Metro)

Club Trouble in Vegas 2010 was hyped up to be an awesome 16-team tournament on the normal concrete fields at the Soccer Complex. However; because of the heavens opening up the past entire week, those fields were underwater and Cultimate had to rush to secure a turf-field complex several days before the tournament and send out an email offering refunds to teams that decided to drop. It was a big change in the tournament format for both the Open and Mixed division, and our team also debated not going. However; after several players decided not to travel to Vegas with us, the remaining 12 players decided that we would reprioritize the trip and that it would not be a trip to play ultimate with gambling on the side... but a trip to Vegas, with a bit of Ultimate on the side.

The new tournament site was able to only field 4 full-fields on the turf, meaning that there were 20+ teams trying to play on 4 fields. Consequently, the entire open division was moved to SUNDAY while the Mixed division played the all games up to semi-finals on Saturday, with some pools starting play near 3:00pm. Although it was unconventional, it worked, and it worked even better for us because we knew we wouldn't be playing on Saturday so Friday night was now open for business. IF we made it to Vegas on Friday of course...

We left at 6:30pm from Irvine, CA, the second group left around 8:30pm. In short... our car didn't make it to the Rio parking lot until 2:00am the next morning, and the second car didn't make it in until the next morning around 10:00am. The 15-N was shut down through the mountain pass however our car had made it through the cutoff... so although the highway was technically closed, we were in it and had to get through it at a slow, painful crawl. Let's just say... after hour 3 of stopped traffic, the goose was set loose in our car to alleviate the pain. The car that left Irvine 2 hours before missed the highway pass cutoff by 1/2 a mile and spent the night in Baker... at a very shady motel that issued a "Snake Spotted... please close doors," advisory. Not a good start, and some cars almost debated ditching the tournament in all. Good thing they didn't.

We made it to Vegas finally, met up with some friends and spent the time at the Rio hanging out, drinking, and gambling. It was near 3:00am and it was too late to hit up the strip and by then we were all too worn out to try. It was a nice night knowing we didn't have to wake up the next morning at 7:00 to go to the fields. The entire team slept soundly taht night and the next morning we ventured to the fields to check out the new pools/ schedule as well as watch ultimate in general. The weather was brisk and in the 40's... but it was sunny and there was very little wind. Great weather for ultimate.

We spent all of Saturday hanging out, gambling, watching/heckling ultimate at the fields. Nightcap saw more Vegas shenanigans, gambling, hitting up the buffet, and also going to the Cultimate party. One perk of the trip was that Cultimate got every ultimate player on the VIP list for Studio 54 at the MGM Grand, meaning we didn't have to wait in line AND we got in for free. So there were hella people in the club and we didn't get back to the Rio hotel until near 2 or 3 am. Ears buzzing/ringing... we knew we kindof did ourselves in by staying out late, knowing that we had an early 9:00am start.

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Sunday
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Here was our pool:

G1: Gunslingers (Boston, MA)
G2: GOP (Carelton College Alum)
G3: Feed the Geese (Toronto, Canada)
G4: City Wok (Irvine, CA)
G5: OHM (Minnesota Alumni)

We had a game at 9:00am, a bye, and then three straight games. We played first against the Gunslingers from Boston who also had Squid alum Venga. After trading the first two points, we rushed them with our defense and janky H-stack and ran away with the win 11-3.

The same happened against GOP. We traded the first couple but then started dominating on defense to win 11-3. This game was won with our pulls. Allen and 808 were consistently putting the disc on the back corner of the end zone causing problems for their handlers as well as forcing them into throwing two callahans, and one near-callahan barring a terrible "I could have leaped 4 feet in the air to get that but you foul'd me" foul call. We were confident, we were playing well but we were in for a reality check against OHM from Minnesota.

They caught us off guard. We were forcing backhand the majority of the day but these guys had great throws and were running harder than we were. They went up I believe 6-2 before we had to claw ourselves back into it. We eventually lost 9-7 to a very solid team on Hard-cap. A difference this game was that our pulls were not falling in at all, giving the teams a healthy yardage boost in addition to the opportunity to run a set play which they beat us deep with repeatedly.

We won the 4th game 11-7-ish I believe and at that point knew that we no longer controlled whether or not we would make the finals. We took a team photo, started milling around but then after checking with the TD's, I found out that GOP had beaten OHM and because of point differential, we had advanced to the finals. Field One, 2:00pm, City Wok from Irvine, CA vs. Ice Holes, aka Wisconsin Hodag Alumni. Oh boy....

The mood on our sideline was kindof anxious. Some of us figured we'd just "score a couple points, go get sushi buffet and go home." The team we were facing was led by a Callahan award winner. They had guys that dominated in the college game. They were big names and it was easy to fall into the "star struck" mentality in the Ultimate game. I think many of us vastly underestimated how good of a team WE were. But we all knew that this game would be the toughest of the weekend... and for some of us, the toughest game we've every played.

We started on defense... pulling down wind and after a nice stop from Slowe on Muffin, he got the bookends and scored deep. Right away, we were up a break, pulling upwind. Not bad at all. Some of us got the feeling that the Hodags were expecting an easier game than we gave them, but there was this calm fierceness that our team exemplified that resulted in calm and collected offense, and controlled chaos on defense. We were converting on their turns, generating turns, and found ourselves up 6-3 at half. Of note was some spectacular play from Allen and Bobby who out of everyone had the most open division experience and had come to play. Credit to the Hodags. They played very well and put a lot of defensive pressure on our offense and we had to work very hard against our matchups to even get open. It was so much fun... and no discredit to mixed... the work ethic and intensity level of this game was something that made me miss playing Open division.

Wisco made a bit of a run to bring it to 9-8 with Hard Cap coming on soon. We were on offense... going slightly up wind and it was the first point of the day where an actual line was called. On the line... Biclops, Hammie, Bobby, Matt Hennessey, Jerry, KG, and Allen (?). They had been running zone on our handlers for the first 5 throws so as the pull came down, Biclops, Kg, and myself worked it around the handles for 5-6 throws and as they transitioned, hit them hard. We swung up field to a wide open Jerry who saw Matt Hennesey, who was a deep, burning his guy who was still in the midst of transitioning to man defense. He hucked it and it was not a throw we knew was a sure thing. Matt was running really hard and the rest of us all held our breath as we watched the disc sink lower... lower... lower... and then it was caught with about 5 inches to spare. No lay out... just a calm catch by one of our new additions to the team. We had done it. With a 10-8 victory... we had just WON vegas. We rushed the field and congratulated each other before shaking hands with the Hodags, who played very well as well and gave us the best game of the weekend. They were very disciplined in their play, and their players were all very talented, athletic, and experienced. Great play.

With the win, we won free chipotle dinner, and a Champions banner that the team graciously allowed me to keep. The uknown team from an unknown city (Irvine+LA), had just won Vegas. It was one of the best feelings to have organized this team and to see us gel in a way that brought us the title. Everyone contributed to the effort and I can say that had we lost any one person on this team, we would not have done what we had done. I am proud of this team, and have my sights set on submitting a bid to Fool's Fest in late March.

Frorida is now 2-0 in tournament wins... 11-1 overall in our one year history. Props to the Irvine crew for anchoring the team, and a big thanks to the LA guys that joined our team. We could not have done it without you all.


And last but not least...

opposing sideline: "They're backing everyone! They're backing!"

Biclops: "Duh... we're all short and asian!"

observer: "The guy with the red socks [brandon] is running and getting open but he keeps on getting looked off...

observer's friend: "Maybe it's cuz he's white.... the other white dude isn't getting the disc either..."

"KICK SAM OFF! KICK SAM OFF!"
"Get- Box - Laid!! Get - Box - Laid!!"


Till next time,
-Hammie #10

Leiout 2010

update coming soon

Run through the disc!

photo credit: Daniel Tjoe

chuck is a beast

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♫~Gonna find my baby gonna hold her tight gonna grab some afternoon delight...~♫

Sky Hammers in Flight, Afternoon Delight. (6-3 overall. A2 Division Champions!)

-update soon

hammie #10

Santa Barbara Qualifier Summary

This past weekend, I traveled to UCSB to coach the new B-team from UC Irvine. Of the 15 players , most were new to the game while a handful of players were 2nd or 3rd year handlers who had played with UCI the past couple seasons. As a first time coach, I didn't know what to expect from the team as we only had 2 full practices before this tournament.

Overall it was a very fun but challenging endeavor. I have captained teams before and tried to make necessary adjustments, but the most difficult part was figuring out the best way to communicate positive adjustments to the team and through the captains. I believe that yes although I am a coach, that most of the tweaking and motivating comes from the captains who did a top-notch job at leading through example. The captaining core of Scott Lem, Travis Lee, and Adam Silver surpassed my expectations and there were many times where Steve and I wouldn't have to say anything during a time-out or post-game because the three of them, including Perry covered it all eloquently and succinctly.

In addition to gaining valuable experience through game-time experience, the members of the team also had a lot of fun off the field and most felt like it was the most fun tournament they had played in at UCI. (Woo hoo!). Things that I want to continue to work on are situation adjustments, or non-adjustments, reading overall team attitude, and to maintain professionalism and respect for my players as well as those on the other team. I don't want to be the "bad guy' coach that relies on discipline to get my players to do what I want to do. I'd rather have the guys do things on their own motivation while showing me the same respect that I show to them.

This will be a huge learning experience for me and after one weekend of coaching, I'm already viewing Ultimate in a different light.

In other results, NightLife-A (UCI), rolled their way to the finals only to be taken out by Chico State 12-14. I hear that it was a very heated game with many calls and what not, but despite being a very disappointing result, I felt like NightLife played very well and show a lot of potential to grow during the course of the year.

On the women's side, the big surpise was San Diego State. The 6-seed overall going into the qualifier, they rolled off big wins over UCLA-Y (13-3), Stanford-B (13-5), and Davis-B (13-2). They also won over a very suspicious UCSB-"B" 14-8, only to lose in the finals to Sonoma State. They seem to have a stable but ever-growing program that has shown recent success on top of a very good year last year. I'm sure having my buddy Spencer Barr coaching them has something to do with the recent and sustained success. Although they missed the SB Invitational by a couple of points, look for them to make some noise at College Trouble in Vegas and then in a very difficult women's section and region.

update: Women's division winners Sonoma State has chosen not to accept the free bid to SB Invite. SDSU will now be going. Congrats! [updated 1:30pm]


5 days of work... and then LEI-OUT 2010, Santa Monica Beach, CA.


Till next time,
-Hammie #10

January 2010

This will probably be the busiest month for me... in terms of just weekend activities and "ultimate" related business. Here's a rundown as to what I'm up to this month.







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January 9th-10th
Santa Barbara Qualifier, Goleta, CA


This year I have the honor of coaching the UC Irvine-B team. This is my first coaching gig and quite honestly, despite being excited for the opportunity, I am also pretty nervous and anxious for the upcoming season. I have never coached anything related to Ultimate before, and I feel like I still have so much to learn and understand myself and fall short in adequately teaching these young college players the strategies and skills neccessary to become successful ultimate players. We had our first B-team practice this past monday and I felt like it was a success and the kids are excited. I guess since I am coaching now, you faithful readers will now be treated to new posts discussing strategies, failures, and successes. It will be an exciting tournament that will hopefully give the kids a lot of experience. On top of that, I'll get to see my jie and my SB friends =).


January 16-17th
Lei-Out, Santa Monica, CA






The biggest beach tournament west of the Mississippi, this tournament is gonna be off the hook. This year I am playing on a team called, "Sky Hammers in Flight, Afternoon Delight," organized by my club teammates Jeff Chai and Karen Ko. My team features ballers from LA Metro as well as many others from the surrounding area and Santa Barbara. Typically I don't like playing beach, but playing beach league up in LA made me a believer and I feel like my quick give-go offensive style bodes well on the sand. I think we're in the A-bracket... but I'm hoping for just sunshine, seeing a lot of friends, and a great weekend of disc. People from all over the country are flying in for this shindig and this year should be one of the biggest turnouts in the tournament's history.


(www.leiout.com)


January 23-24th
Club Trouble in Vegas, Las Vegas, NV




Now this is the tournament I've been waiting since November '09 for. Trouble in Vegas is one of the craziest, outrageous, and memorable tournaments I've been a part of. I have only been to the past two College TIV's, and this will be my first trip to Club TIV. I had the honor of putting together a team for this tournament and I am excited to see how my team will fare against the high level of competition. Back in April of '09, my friend box, also the TD for the Irvine Invitational, needed a 16th team for the tournament and asked me to organize a community team. I recruited several alumni from UCI, UCLA, and surrounding schools to make a team that flew under the team name "Frorida" (Too asian to be "Florida"). We had matching custom hand made jerseys and despite a terse warning from the TD NOT to win the tournament, we just had to and trounced LPC 15-7 in the finals.



So the same crew is back... but this time with the addition of other players from Orange County and Los Angeles. We are flying under the name "City Wok" and even gained a corporate sponsorship from City Wok Restaurants to help cover costs for our jerseys. Our competition is tough with the likes of Wisconsin, ISU, Colorado, and GOP Alumni playing in our division. Here is our current roster, with College and current club team:

• Samuel "Hammie" Chen (UCI, LA Metro)
• Steven Lowe (UCI, LA Monster)
• Jerry Yang (UCI, Strike-Slip)
• Allen Lai (UCI, Strike-Slip)
• Matt Khosh (UCI)
• Jamison Gorin (UCI)
• Brandon Gerstle (Cal Poly Pomona)
• Andrew "Straight-Jacket" Chao (UCLA, TFT)
• Ed "Biclops" Melo (UCLA, LA Monster)
• Danny Walters (UCI, LA Monster)
• Simon Margolis (Cal Poly Pomona, LA Metro)
• Matt Hennessy (Wake Forest, LA Monster)
• Barrs Lang (Notre Dame, LA Metro)
• Andy Curtis (Cal Poly Pomona, LA Metro)
• Scott Mahr (Claremont, LA Metro)
• Andrew "Box" McRae (UCI, LA Monster)

A lot of people from the LA/SD area will be traveling to Vegas this weekend... and I know that it will be one for the ages. We are looking to place well in this tournament and I feel like we have the personnel to do so. Vegas here we come!

(http://cultimate.com/tivclub2010)


January 31, 2010
UPA Coaching Clinic, Malibu, CA

Attending a coaching clinic in Malibu at Pepperdine University. The course will be taught by none other than Alex Korb, whom I respect a lot as a player and especially as a coach. I'm excited to learn as much as I can and hopefully my experience will be beneficial to the program at UCI.


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January is PACKED! And I am so looking forward to it. Great start to 2010. =)

-hammie #10

Beware-Ho the Sombrero 2010

I flew home on New Years Day for a family event that lasted all for two hours on Saturday. It was pretty nice to see the family and all, but after being home for a week before during the Christmas holiday, it was kind of weird to be back so soon. However; because of my quick weekend home, it gave me the opportunity to play at Beware-Ho, a local hat tournament that has been going on since the 90's despite changing TD's once or twice. This year it was at the Hayward Adult School, hosted by the guys at LPC.

Hat tournaments are always a blast. People sign up and "rate" themselves on a pre-determined scale, and the TD's sort out the teams so that an even number of skill levels are on each team. Typically, one would usually find oneself on a team with an entire group of strangers sans maybe one or two other players.

The team I was on was a conglomeration of players with playing credentials from all over the country. We had players from Ug-mo and Pie Queen's (Cal), Rutgers, Pepperdine, Sonoma State, and even players who had played club with the likes of Chain Lightning, and End Phase. Overall on paper, it looked good but as most hat tournaments go, it comes down to overall team chemistry rather than just talent.

In the end, our team finished up at 3-3, winning the Beer Bracket soundly with a win over Sai, Nguyen, Diesel, and StraightJacket's team. There were many great players at the tournament, and although all I had to go off were the jerseys representing their respective teams, it was an array of very high level talent.

Beware-Ho was actually my first tournament ever as an ultimate player way back in 2002. I was a sophomore in high school with no idea how to flick or pivot, in a huge tournament that was rainy and muddy. I will always hold a special place for Beware-Ho, which is why I always try to make an effort to attend. Sure the tournament has gotten smaller since the YR guys had taken over, but it is still going strong and I sincerely hope that everyone gets a chance to play in it one day. Bay Area ultimate is a whole different beast than Southern Cal. It was great to be home playing again and seeing familiar faces on and off the field.

Scott Roeder(UCI) goes up for a disc against Albert Tsai(Rutgers).

missed it...

but Hooray for Coed!

Team "Falidew!" 3-3. FIVALS winners

photos by: Christine Laszlo

http://christinelaszlo.zenfolio.com/p219050529

till next time,

hammie #10