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