USA Ultimate

The clearly dominant team in Pool A was Chain Lightning. Chain came into the tournament missing four players to the U-23 World Championships (Elliott Erickson, Byron Liu, John Stubbs and Christian Olsen), yet they played like a team with a full roster. They beat top-seeded Machine by capitalizing on turns and punching the disc in on every opportunity. Both Russell Snow and Jolian Dahl were defensive monsters throughout the weekend. At the mercy of the weather and an overnight rain delay, Machine’s second loss came to Johnny Bravo. With the game tied at 11-11 on Saturday, lightning and rain caused the teams to pack up for the day only to resume play on Sunday morning on universe point. Johnny Bravo took advantage of a non-warmed-up Machine and stole the game. Despite Machine’s disappointing weekend, 6’6" cutter George Hughes-Strange had a breakout tournament. His dominance as a deep player was clear, but he showed surprising disc skills throughout the weekend and gave Machine a huge boost. He should be relevant throughout the rest of Machine’s season.

Third-seeded Rhino had a disappointing pool play performance. Despite a strong presence from 2013 Callahan Award winner Dylan Freechild, Rhino’s only victory came on universe point against the winless Sub Zero. Boost broke through their original sixth seed and displayed excellent on-field chemistry. Unlike every other team in Pool A, this was not Boost’s first tournament of the year, which surely helped develop that chemistry, giving them a slight edge over many of their competitors. The teams that finished in the third through sixth spots in this pool all played close games against one another, and victories came by small margins. For instance, all but one of Sub Zero’s losses came by three or fewer points. With practice and a little more time, these teams could easily compete with the tournament’s dominant teams.

PoNY gave New Yorkers a reason to be proud. Outscoring their opponents by a point differential of +18 in pool play, the pool’s original bottom seed took the competition by surprise while relying on an astonishingly well-tuned deep game. On any break opportunities, they would simply dump-swing until a cutter was open deep. More often than not, their hucks were pinpoint accurate. Their break efficiency combined with an athletic defensive roster allowed them to pick apart most teams. Perhaps PoNY’s most impressive pool play victory was over Sockeye. The win came right on the heels of a Sockeye trouncing of Madison Club to the tune of 13-5 that left the team with an extra hour of downtime. The Seattle team started out flat after their hour-long break and could not recover after PoNY broke multiple times in the first half.  Following their loss to PoNY, Sockeye was able to regroup and win out the rest of the weekend, finishing second in Pool B and third overall.

Given their 2012 Nationals performance and initial seeding, GOAT had a disappointing weekend, only winning three games. They were unable to defend their ranking as Pool B’s top seed as other teams were simply more consistent. Truck Stop, the only team to beat PoNY, broke seed and had a successful weekend with their only losses coming to Sockeye and GOAT. While Madison Club lost all of their pool play games, they are a team that should not be underestimated. All but one of their losses was by three or fewer points, showing they can still hang with the big guys.

Final Standings

1.   PoNY

2.   Chain Lightning

3.   Sockeye

4.   Machine

5.   Johnny Bravo

6.   GOAT

7.   Truck Stop

8.   Boost Mobile

9.   Rhino

10. Furious George

11. Sub Zero

12. Madison Club

Thoughts and Takeaways

The majority of the teams at Terminus did not have full rosters.  Whether due to the U-23 Championships, World Games or other miscellaneous reasons, most were not at full strength. This does not take away from anyone’s victories, but simply demonstrates that many teams will likely improve greatly in future tournaments.

PoNY’s ability to retain possession of the disc looked more like that of a club team playing at Nationals than one at the beginning of their season. If they continue to improve throughout the season, PoNY will be a force to be reckoned with this year. Their enthusiasm mirrored a much more experienced team as well; they won the Spirit of the Game award at the end of the tournament.

The top three finishers at this tournament separated themselves from the other contenders by a significant margin. With the lone exception of their game against PoNY, Sockeye absolutely dominated opponents this weekend. Chain also ended the weekend with only one loss, which came in the finals on universe point. These three will try to continue their dominance as the season progresses, especially as they enter competition against top teams absent in Atlanta, most notably San Francisco Revolver, Boston Ironside, Austin Doublewide and Raleigh Ring of Fire.