Finally, the playoffs.

With games not starting til 1pm, almost the entire tournament was in attendance to watch the afternoon and evening playoffs. We started out against Mamoots, a very strong team from Bogota. Scoring early is a priority, obviously, in 50 minute games, and both teams were a bit nervous to start out. We forced 4 turnovers on the first point, but couldn’t cash in, and Mamoots hit a long strike to Nando (a quick receiver who led the Colombian Juniors way back in Boston). Nando would go on to take several Ds from us, and score 5 of Mamoots’ 7 goals.

Mamoots, like their Bogota counterparts Oso, are very good when moving forward. The dishy is a widespread tool for setting up huck looks, and as long as the cutters are not terribly distant, all options are available. Timing changes once a dump is forced backwards….Colombian teams, typically worried about long throws, often poach off of the dump. By adding some pressure on handlers, especially those in the middle of the field, we were able to get them moving backwards and have their handlers breathing a bit harder than they wanted to.

We end up on the good side of the pull for double-game point, and are patient in moving the disc down the field to take a great game, 8-7.

Semifinals: Vs Euphoria, another strong Bogota team.
The short of it is that we lost, to a team that played very well. Euphoria is a lot like our team; every player can handle the disc, making for some attractive offense. On this day, however, their best two players played great games, and the Mapache-led offense was tough to stop. Choco hit several amazing hucks; I counted 4 throws that I was glad to see him throw, and he hit 4/4. At least we lost to a team that played very, very well. For our part, we felt the pressure of a short game and, like the Mamoots game, would have loved to play it out to 90-120 minutes to see who really was the strongest on that day. Great game by both teams, and with a very high level of spirit.

Both Colombia and Venezuela came home from Worlds in Vancouver with very low Spirit ratings. I think that, on one hand, the Colombians need to demand great spirit of themselves in their own National games. This will be hard to do without some type of recourse and/or ramifications for poor behavior (currently there are none). I will say this, though: I played against European teams, Japan and North American teams at worlds…and I’d rather play against Colombia than many of those teams. I am sure that European teams rate each other’s sportsmanship, in general, more highly than they rate that of the South Americans…but how much of this is differences in how the game is played, and how much is actual behavior? Having been part of clashing-game-images in battles with other North American teams (see: differences in interpretations of the travel rule, Sockeye and Furious) I think that this has less to do with cheating and more to do with significant differences in how the game actually IS. This isn’t a sportsmanship thing, it’s a culture thing, at least to an extent.

Ok, that said….how many Colombians do you think had a rulebook with them at this tournament? It’s a trick question…because the rules are not available in Spanish. Imagine what US Ultimate would look like if there were no rulebooks available, in any form? ‘House’ rules exist, players are reluctant to make calls for fear of massive and irreconcilable arguments (because there is no written authority to go to), and the average young player is 100% dependent on the wisdom of older players to learn the rules.

I (and many others) believe this is totally unacceptable. Translation of the rules into every language is not practical, but for those languages that are dominant, a good translation should be a priority. WFDF takes money from every member country…what percentage of those dues from Spanish-speaking countries would it take to create a decent translation. Either the UPA or WFDF is going to translate their rules into Spanish first…and whoever does will be the dominant form of the rules in South America, as there is a ravenous appetite for hard information.