This past weekend saw the first action of the 2008 UPA Club Championship Series. All across the country teams were competing to move on to the next round of the Championship Series: Regionals. In most cases, contenders for the tops spots in Sarasota glided through their section. Ozone (East Coast), Slow White (East New England), Johnny Bravo (Rocky Mountain), Condors (Souther California), and Riot (Washington/British Columbia) all made short work of their weekend.

In some Sections, though, there were match-ups that previewed possible qualifying games at Regionals and elimination games at Nationals.

Brute Squad vs. Lady Godiva

Brute Squad and Lady Godiva met in the finals of the East New England Section with both teams missing several key players. The game was fairly close the whole way through, with Brute Squad getting a couple of breaks late in the first half, and then Godiva closing the gap again early in the second half. Brute tried a few different D’s, but the lack of wind made man D the preferred choice. Godiva showed a few different looks as well, including a loose 1-3-3 and a clam. The game was good spirited and both teams are looking forward to a Regionals re-match. The final score was 13-10, Brute Squad.

— Peri Kulshan of Boston’s Brute Squad

Jam vs. Revolver

The first half of the game was very tight, with several defensive breaks for both teams. Jam was able to break to take half with a one point advantage. The second half saw Jam capitalizing on a few dropped discs and solid defensive plays to pull away and finish the game 15-10.

Revolver had a solid strategy for offense and defense, and stuck to that strategy for most of the game. Utilizing their quick handlers, they exercised a lot of patience in working the disc down in 10-20 yard chunks. Defensively, pressure on the dump resets was definitely a focus for them, which resulted in several defensive blocks or errant throws.

Jam threw a lot of different looks at Revolver defensively, mixing in different zone looks despite the lack of wind. On offense Jam utilized a mix of deep throws, winning several discs in the air, and patient “small ball” offense.

— Jeff Eastham-Anderson of San Francisco’s Jam

Fury vs. Zeitgeist

Fury, having just beaten a college team (a combo of many bay area colleges) came into this game pretty fresh. However, they were missing a number of players—Sprout, Jody, Alex Snyder, Gwen, and Alicia Barr. Their first game against Slackjaw was not much of a test (they won 15-4), and neither game lasted to cap by a fair margin.

On the other hand, Slackjaw came to Sectionals with one thing on their mind: beat Zeitgeist. After a long, hard-fought battle Zeitgeist won and had to play almost immediately. This was probably what made the difference in the de facto finals; Fury went up 3-0 before Zeitgeist scored a point, then up 5-2 before Zeitgeist got back into the game.

The lack of wind didn’t prevent either team from playing zone, with Fury working in a new three-man cup zone, and Zeitgeist playing a fairly standard three-man cup as well. The zone D seemed to work well for Zeitgeist, with Fury throwing uncharacteristic turnovers, allowing some fairly easy fast-break points from the Zeitgeist D. Capitalizing well, Zeitgeist takes half up 8-7.

The second half saw more zone, with (we have this on video and counted) one point of Zeitgeist offense scoring after 70 passes (71 if you count catching the pull). However, the offense couldn’t keep that up all game, and Fury’s O started clicking more smoothly, leading to a hard-capped 13-11 Fury win.

Northwest Regionals should prove to be exciting with so much parity between the high level teams. Much of who makes it to Nationals could come down to how many teams attend (and its influence on the pools).

— Kath Ratcliff of the Bay Area’s Zeitgeist

Sockeye vs. Furious George

Sectionals, for the top teams, is a chance to work out some kinks, play with new strategies, and avoid injuries at all costs. In those Sections with two top teams, the Final can be a kid-gloves pushing match—both teams want to win, but nobody wants to give full effort. The outcomes aren’t Win>Loss, instead it can be Win-without-effort>>Win-with-effort>Loss-without-effort>>Loss-with-effort. Since bids to Regionals, especially in the NW, are easy to come by it makes sense to withhold full effort.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the WA/BC section. In NorCal, Jam and Revolver have a deep-seeded rivalry and haven’t played each other much this year, so this tournament was about flexing a little. Similarly, though maybe more dramatic, Rhino/Thompson High was probably a bit more passionate of a final game in the Oregon Section. Thompson is a very skilled collection of players that have years of elite experience but don’t want to practice week-in and week-out. Rhino is significantly younger, with only 3 healthy returners from the Rhino team at Nationals last year.

Furious and Sockeye have already seen each other in peak form (at Worlds, Team Canada vs. Team USA was primarily the same people). Sectionals, with nothing on the line, was an expectedly different feel. Mike Grant and Kirk Savage were not in attendance, as was the case with several Sockeye players. Furious worked in several new international pickups, like Abra (a D-handler with the Dingoes) and a tall, talented Swedish player who is filling in the John Hassell O-cutter role.

Both teams scored easily to start the game, with Furious scoring in fewer passes on each point. It wasn’t until 4-4 that a Furious huck went a bit too far for the first break. Furious scored on O and then immediately got the break back after a Sockeye drop. Ray Illian pulled down a fantastic catch-block on a huck that set-up a second break for the Fish, and at half it was 8-6 Sockeye. Sockeye mixed in zone in the second half to pull away by a very slim margin in the second half.

Furious rotated players equally and got everyone experience and accumulated no major injuries. Sockeye lost three players to injury, none of which is likely to keep those players out of Regionals, but which will all hamper training. As the likely #1 and #2 seeds at Regionals with no difference in path difficulty, who is to say who really won this Sectional tournament?

— Ben Wiggins of Seattle’s Sockeye

Over the next two weeks, we’ll see the remaining teams from across continent vie for their spots at Regionals. It will be interesting to see if there will be any upsets along the way.