What an epic nationals! We came in seeded 8th overall, the 2nd seed in the pool of death. We had the overall 1 seed (Amp), a severely-underseeded Blackbird, and Ambiguously Grey - a team that finished 6th last year after starting out in the bottom half. Rockford, IL was very windy on Thurs and Fri, so the games were very upwind-downwind.
Our first game against Blackbird was super-close the whole way. Our D got many chances to score upwind, but we couldn’t convert any of them. Blackbird broke us twice in the first half, and was sitting pretty with the lead. In the second half, we started playing some of our stronger throwers on D, and finally got the upwind break, then the downwind break. The cap went on, and we were pulling upwind on universe point. Miraculously, we got the D and worked it all the way upwind to score the break and pull out the win 12-11.
After this amazing win, we kept rolling. We crushed AG 11-6 in a very windy second game, then faced off against Amp to earn the bye into quarters. This is the game I had been looking forward to. Amp was the 1 seed, but we had beaten them before and knew they were not invincible. We started out really strong, scoring the first 3 points. Then we quickly gave up a few breaks to let Amp close, before breaking to take half 8-6. In the second half, we broke twice more, taking the win 12-9. They showed our game on Ultiworld, which was really cool for my family. Even the Germans got to watch me play.
Winning out on Thurs earned us a bye into quarters, and the right to play only one game a day until we lost. It also put Amp on the other side of the bracket, together with Drag'n Thrust, Slow White, and Mixtape (who lost to Mischief). This means we had the easiest road to finals of any of the other teams. In quarters, we stomped Noise 15-7, sending us to semis (my first time playing in semis). There, we faced a tough Mischief team. The wind died down, but we still made a lot of mistakes (dropping the very first pull, throwing several miscued dumps, etc). We also had several great plays (including a Callahan from John G). The game was very close throughout. We started down, clawed back to take half 8-7, went down 8-9, then scored 3 breaks in a row to basically seal the deal. We ended up winning 14-11, and making the big game - finals against Slow White.
Slow is definitely the team I wanted to play against in the finals. They were very good all around, but we had proven we could beat them if we played well. I also have a lot of friends on that team, so playing against them is always fun. We started off the way we always do - by giving up a few breaks. Slow broke us 3 times in a row. We regrouped and a few points later, broke them 3 times back. They broke again at 6-5, we broke at 7-6 to take half 8-6. Being a second-half team, we were knew we had them right where we wanted them. However, tight subbing really drained our stars, and we started making mistakes. They broke us at 8-7, then again at 9s to take the lead. Finally, up 12-11, they broke us 3 times to win it 15-11. In retrospect, we definitely had the ability to win that game and I wish we had played it a bit differently. On the other hand, what’s done is done, and I’m still very happy with the outcome. I played well all weekend, improving throughout. I played my best game in the finals, throwing two assists (one a half-field breakside huck). If someone had told me on Thursday that we were gonna take 2nd place, I would have been psyched. Losing in the finals stings, but that was the only sad part of an otherwise incredible nationals.
Final stat line: 0 goals, 3 assists (2 in the finals), 1 D, 1 turnover (against Blackbird).
