Earlier today the three-day tournament in the midst of the World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan wrapped up with the United States victorious over Japan, who they lost to earlier in the day in pool play, in the Gold Medal Game 13-6. Australia defeated Canada 13-8 for the Bronze Medal, and Great Britain beat out Chinese Tapei for fifth place.

FINAL STANDING
1. United States (5-1)
2. Japan (4-2)
3. Australia (4-2)
4. Canada (3-3)
5. Great Britain (2-4)
6. Chinese Tapei (0-6)

LINKS ABOUT TOWN
Official UPA Write-ups — UPA Board Member and podcaster extraordinaire Josh Seamon gave us great daily write-ups from the World Games.

UPA Twitter — A great moment-by-moment account of Team USA’s time in Taiwan, with point-by-point updates of every game.

UPA YouTube Channel — As of this writing they have full games of Team USA against Canada and Great Britain, with surely more to come. There’s also a mix of other miscellany.

UPA Flickr Feed — A fantastic collection of photos of Team USA’s trip to Taiwan.

As a sidenote, allow me to commend the UPA for their first-rate coverage of the World Games. Big ups to Josh, Meredith, and the rest of the team for keeping us up-to-date Stateside.

WFDF Tournament Statistics — WFDF provides full tournament stats for goals thrown and caught, broken down my gender as well.

Scobel Wiggins Photography — The incomparable Scobel Wiggins provides us shots of the actions. Some of our favorites below.

PHOTOS

AND, FINALLY…
Last week we received this note from Mike Mullen, Seattle youth Ultimate guru.

A big thank you to Team USA players and coach (Adam Simon, Beau Kittredge, Chelsea Putnam, Liz Duffy, Sam Chatterton-Kirchmeier, Alicia White, Dylan Tunnell, and Coach Greg Connelly) for stopping by for two hours to coach, play, and interact with the campers and counselors at the Central & South Seattle HS Ultimate Day Camp on July 2.

Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps , DiscNW, and Seattle Parks and Recreation teamed up to run the four day gratis day camp to help jumpstart high school single gender programs in south Seattle. The camp was staffed by two paid leads and equipment provided by Seattle Youth Ultimate Camps, the fields and use of the community center was donated by Seattle Parks, DiscNW donated organizational and liability support, and a number of college players and HS 11th and 12th graders volunteered as counselors. Thanks to everyone involved for helping use serve the 25 girls and 35 boys who attended the camp.

Congratulations to Team USA on their Gold Medal, and a big congrats to Huddle authors Gwen Ambler, Chelsea Putnam, and Seth Wiggins!

Potlatch will be in full effect this weekend in Redmond, Washington, and I just wanted to say that I hope everyone has a great time, and that I hope more than a few people get a layout block on Ben.

I, unfortunately, will not be making it out this year. Sad, I know.

If you have a chance to, say hi to and thank a Huddle author. Their time and commitment to writing for the site makes it what it is. And if you have any ideas or input for the site, you can find Ben somewhere at the field. He’s the billy-goat looking one. With glasses.

Also, as we mentioned in our feature this week on Race In Ultimate, Downtown Brown will be opening up their circle to everyone for the very first time this year. Find the brown players wearing the orange, yellow, and brown, and say hi.

Lastly, check out this story from KUOW (NPR in Seattle). On The Conversation, Ross Reynolds interviews Bunny Bartram, DiscNW executive director about Potlatch. Near the end, in a moment that makes me proud, Bunny talks about “the coolest thing he ever saw at Potlatch:”

Well, last year there was team called Man Powered Submarine, and they in fact made a man powered submarine. And while it didn’t actually go under the water, they did in fact carry it eight miles down the trail to the park site to play at the tournament.

AWOOOGAH! So good luck to my team Man Powered Submarine, good luck to defending champs DropCop (née DropBull, née DropBear), and everyone have a great time. Wish I were there.

UPDATE
Ben here. A couple of notes on this year’s Potlatch:

1. This is probably the most competitive Potlatch ever, with Team USA/Canada, Jewbilation and Downtown Brown at full strength and with competitive rosters, a returning champ, a huge Seattle All-Star team called Wedding Party Diaper Sniper, not to mention Vagabonds from Oregon.

2. Man Powered Submarine versus Squid Squad. Showcase. Or not? Shhhhh…

3. DropCop, returning champs, is on a mission to save partying from those that do it poorly. To Protect and Serve Drinks. To make sure Potlatch happens again.

4. There have been Potlatch related parties starting last Friday, and tons of Potlatch related events in the last two or three days. Seattle always seems to be a little crazy, this is no exception (maybe the crazyiest I have ever felt it).

5. Last time the fourth fell on a Potlatch night was the year of the Flashflight Game in the midst of a fireworks show. That was a night that is still seered into my retinas (PS No fireworks on the field, please! As per Potlatch rules).

6. Potlatch is going to a no-under-18 model this year. For liability reasons? Too bad, but probably for the best. They are taking up a collection to benefit Seattle Youth Ultimate.

This year’s version of ECC is being helmed by Ben Wiggins, my partner in crime on The Huddle, and me. As things progress and we get closer to the tournament, we’ll have more and more updates and information here to fill you in. And, hopefully, once tournament time comes we’ll have plenty of live updates from the fields.

For now though, you can whet your world’s-best-tournament-appetite at the official Emerald City Classic website. There is info about tournament travel, sponsors, and schedules, and we have recently updated the near-finalized list of teams, save one Mixed team TBD and the questionable availability of a Scandinavian team.

A few months back Ben and I were interviewed by Mark Earley of the Irish Flying Disc Association for their every-so-often newsletter.

Check it out in PDF format. Pages 43-46. (3.6MB File).

The roster of the British Worlds Team has been announced.

Aura Mackenzie
Issy Burke
Janey Holmes
Jenna Thompson
Katey Forth
Maria Cahill
Sophie Watson
Sue Pioli
Adam Holt
Dan ‘Colonel’ Furnell
Dave Pichler
Christian ‘Wigsy’ Nistri
Marc ‘Britney’ Guilbert
Matthew Beavan
Matt ‘Bob’ Hims
Peter ‘Rodders’ Wright
Sion ‘Brummie’ Scone

The UK Team is the fifth of six teams we’ve heard about and announced. If anyone has news regarding the final country competing, Taipei (the host country), let us know. info [at] the-huddle [dot] org. Thanks.

Also worth a look are the 2009 WFDF Ultimate Rules which will be in effect this summer in Taipei.

Thanks for the tip Gambler.