Emerald City Classic 2010 Preview

The pools went up on the USA Ultimate score reporter earlier this week, and by most standards, it was a bit wonky to say the least. I am unsure whether this will be the final format for a 13-team field, but generally the seedings are a bit suspect and I am unsure as to whether the seeding was done on purpose, or if the TD's threw darts at team names on the wall to determine #'s 1-13. Well anyway, I'll be going on what they have up currently.

Pool A
1. AIR
2. Barrio
3. Dogfight
4. Polar Bears

Pool B
1. CTR
2. LA Metro
3. Slow White
4. Ranier Rapture

Pool C
1. District 5
2. FunK
3. Mischief
4. Swagger
5. Psychoplastique

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With 3 of the top 5 seeds from the Bay Area, it'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Personally I believe several teams are ridiculously under-seeded (Mischief, Barrio, Polar Bears), not to mention Nationals contenders Psychoplastique. ECC has always been THE tournament I've wanted to attend in club. Being a young player, I would see the ultivillage tapes of the top teams in the nation competing it out in a "pre-nationals" tournament that would feature... like I said, National-caliber teams. A good example would be to look at the Open side of the tournament.

The mixed division doesn't have the star power the Open or Women's divisions have, but with 5 teams that have participated in Nationals within the past several years, (Metro, Mischief, Psychoplastique, Swagger/Doh', Barrio), there will be plenty of good play. Seeding is still a bit weird for me... as they do not reflect the way teams have been playing in the past several tournaments.

If you look at CalStates and Revolutions, it simply does not fit. Polar Bears won the tournament going 6-0 and they're seeded last in their pool. AIR posted losses to Mischief and FunK and sits on top of the field. It's trends like this that have me questioning the validity of the pools/rankings, but hey... it's still early in the season and who knows how good these teams actually are. The two teams from the East Coast, District 5 and Slow White are looking good. District 5 has only lost once in the past month or so, to perennial Nationals team, AMP from Phily. Slow White has only lost twice all season... both to District 5... so these teams show great strengths early on. Mischief has two losses all season, to District 5 and Slow White. Interesting huh? It'll be pretty neat to see all these Regional powerhouses go at it in Seattle.

We could talk about seeding/rankings all morning... why someone is underseeded, why someone is overseeded, but at the end of the day, it's all proven on the field. We're out of the "pre-season" now and working into the heart of the season. It's ECC, then Labor Day, and then the all important Series. We'll be posting score updates and tournament shenanigans here.

Wish us luck. Hopefully we can make Southern California proud.

-hammie #10