Great weather today for the Northwest; just about 60 degrees, a thrower’s wind (8-ish MPH, just enough to allow only good throwers to hit the endzone from anywhere, but not enough to make them shy), and very little rain.

Did the 15:3 format scare anyone? With the possibility of a 4-game day, all four top seeds crushed in the first games, all about 15-8. Usually, someone overlooks a lower seeds and get themselves in a tense or tight game, but this time all four top seeds came out of the blocks ready.

Semifinals featured two very familiar matchups in Revolver/Jam and Furious/Sockeye. The second of these was a high-turnover game, with lots of long points and few clean offensive plays. Both teams used big defenders against the other team’s smaller handlers, and neither team tried zone more than once.

Revolver beat their rivals to advance to Nationals, and the finals with Sockeye was a very tight affair. In the end, after two hours, there was only a pair of overthrown hucks to separate the teams and allow Sockeye to pull out a close one.

Jam versus Furious was the obvious main event, with two of the world’s top teams in a game-to-go. Jam took an early lead, 7-5, but Furious started throwing to Lugsdin deep and around the endzone to bring it back to 13-13 with the advantage. (It’s only in games like these, with little wind, where you realize late in the game how glad you are that you chose offense…or how sorry you are that you lost the flip. Until we start using non-rally scoring, that advantage will always be there).

Jam needed a break, and made a couple of really gutsy throws (a Bruss hammer to Boo, in particular, from the backhand sideline to the far cover) just to stay in striking distance. A first-throw mishuck should have killed them, but they tempted Furious into a blady huck of their own. Jam squandered a chance to get the break they needed on a low huck, but at 14-14 they scrambled to cover the endzone after a huck, forcing an additional dump swing that was mishandled at the far sideline. Greg Husak immediately found Jeff Eastham on a looping long forehand, and two lefty backhands later they had their crucial D-point.

Furious, running the same Lugsdin/Grant/Seraglia/Pottinger/Hibbert/Ortiz line out, hucked from the forehand sideline to Grant. Last point; the Jam combination of Saunkeah/Watson/Remucal/Steets gives them a lot of deep options, and Justin Safdie is on as well to cap what has likely been his most complete tournament since joining Jam. Four throws into the point, Bart bursts free down the forehand sideline for a low out throw, and no one but Bart is going to catch it. 16-15, Jam going to Florida, and Furious is out of the show for the first time this decade.