So, today begins the third day of games with a games against Amp. For some reason, Amp has always been a big Mischief competitor. I can't help but wonder if it's because Amp uses Drupal as their website platform.

I crack me up.

The weather is, of course, sucky. And, honestly, the players aren't much better. Since I stopped playing this season, I've tried very hard (VERY VERY hard) to stay emotionally uninvested in the games. Sure, I'll cheer when Mischief scores, and I'll gasp when someone goes down, but when a foul call is made or a bad calll is made, I say nothing. I'm not playing, it's not my call.

And let me tell you, as anyone who's played with me in the last 15 years knows, my not saying something is a HUGE deal.

I ALWAYS know what's going on and am ALWAYS right.

ALWAYS.

Except when I'm not.

Yeah.

This game was way hard to keep my mouth shut with the horrible mutterings and mean spirited heckles coming out of both teams. My "Yeah, Right" muttered loud enough for few people to hear unleashed anger from Doyle that subsequently unleashed a fury from me.

I don't like that person when she comes out. Unfortunately, I was unable to find ANYWHERE on the field where I could both get away from the spite and see the field well enough to take stats.

Had I thought about it, I would have put my ear plugs in.

quarters vs amp
wind bad. cold.
0-1
1-1
1-2
2-2
2-3
3-3
3-4
WAIT WAIT WAIT doyle can heckle, but I can't? wtf?
3-5 amp up 2 breaks
no, make that 3
3-6
so tell me, how can amp suck so badly, requiring the play in game, then play like this? do they have only two speeds off and vs-mischief?
there is no place on this field I can stand without becoming annoyed and frustrated with the negative b.s. talk on the sidelines from both t
4-6
that was "from both teams."
from amp "yes, I knocked here down, but I didn't foul her."
"why do you keep calling foul?" "why do you keep fouling me?"
5-7 on giz to kyle layout grab
6-7 dano to em
mark to kyle - did he toe the field? one amp guy says yes, one says no. disc comes back
wind dies when they have disc. OF COURSE.
6-8
6-9 after half
7-9
8-9
9-9
10-9
11-9 on kyle to doyle
h.b. adam
adam to kyle blade, 12-9
softcap on
7 turns so far
maybe 13-9 several injuries and calls, including mark with the injury
yep 13-9 chucky to adam

Around here is when Lyndsay asked me if I wanted to go in. We were up four points and the softcap went on a good ten minutes ago. We need to score only one more point, why not go in.

Oh, was I tortured by that question.

I had brought my cleats.

I wanted to go in.

I so wanted to go in.

Instead, I turned to Lyndsay and said, "There is no hard cap in this game. You have to win it outright. I don't feel comfortable going in knowing that."

She looked at me, turned and walked away.

We needed to put the universe line in and finish the game.

We didn't.

ours is the only quarters still going
13-10
no hard cap in this game, since its not a placement game. this could be our undoing, given how relaxed the team is right now
13-11
gah. this point is killing me.
oh god 13-12
14-12 andy to mark

And yet won anyway.

Our last game of the day was against Shazam.

That FY-YAR from yesterday? Yeah, not here today. Too many unforced errors and luck not going our way. Shazam set the pace of the game and controlled it. We never calmed down from the frenzied pace they set. At Regionals it took a misthrown disc to break us out of the frenzy last time. Will was sick so we didn't have his poor aim today.

semis against shazam in 1 hour
semis against shazam starting now. flycoons vs alpha cobra squadron in the other one
0-0
the wind which has been dead for the last hour, chooses to gush now.
heh.
0-1
1-1
2-1
2-2
3-3
some shazam person was ranting on the sideline about the violation calls. leventhal's response? "this seems to really upset you..."
"... is there something we can do for you?"
4-3
4-4
unfortunate power dump for 30+ yards. they score. 4-5
4-6 on drop
time out mischief
double teaming zone is no match for andy pickett and gizmo 5-6
5-8
5-9 after half
5-10
6-10
yeah I give up. this team is giving heart attacks.
wtf. the observer called the score before the catch
6-11
shazam double teaming, we're not calling it
timeout shaz, 17 yards from goalline
6-12
okay this freaking sucks. where is the mischief of yesterday?
hi kris.
7-12 dano blade to nick
8-12 kyle flick to adam b
point from hell
still going
shaz time out
still going
kyle to leventhal toeing the line 9-12
9-13
I don't think I could play at this level again. way too much stress
paul on goal line to nick 10-13
11-13
11-14
shit.
11-15
crap.

Last week, Kris and I were talking about the number of games teams play at Nationals. The most you can play is nine, if you need to play pre-quarters game. You'd play three the first day (everyone does), three the second day (if you play the pre-quarters game, otherwise you play two), two the second day (quarters and semis) and one the last day (finals). The least you can play is seven if you lose in the semis and didn't need to play the pre-quarters game.

I guess we had a light tournament this time.

What I'm really trying to say is, "GO FLYCOONS!"

Last night, as I was sitting in the villa, the weather outside not particularly interesting (not cold, but not Florida hot, and continued windy), I continued to work on my valiant attempt at stats taking. I was inputting some of the game data in hopes I could actually trust the program to work tomorrow, when a teammate came into the villa and sat down next to me.

He sat on the chair arm and asked what I was working on, since I wasn't outside at the beach with the rest of the team. I sat up and leaned forward to show him what I was working on, how the input mechanism worked, and what I was changing, when he leaned into me for a better angle to the laptop screen.

Except it wasn't just a let-me-see lean. It was more than that.

It was a "hey, I like you" sort of lean, where you can't really admit the attraction, because if you admit the attraction, then all sorts of other emotions come tumbling out behind the admission and one if not both of you are left standing there, feeling quite a bit uncomfortable.

Except for when one or both of you don't.

When, instead, the other person leans back, because that person is attracted, too, and won't ever admit it, either.

I miss the touch of others. Not in a sexual way, but in a hey, I'm still here, I'm still alive, I'm warm, you're warm sort of way. In college, hugs were fine, shoulder rubs were common, there wasn't anything necessarily romantic or promising per se about walking arm-in-arm with a friend. Ultimate has some of that, sure, but less so with the elite teams, and way less so the less you know your teammates. One of my teammates jumped up and yelled at me when I went to rub his shoulders two years ago. I think that's the last time I initiated shoulder rubs for more than a fly-by without being specifically asked to start rubbing.

But I miss it. I miss the warm touch of others.

Sure, I get Kris.

Yet, I still don't get enough of him, either.

Well, we started today first in our power pool, because we beat Barrio yesterday. They're in the pool with a loss, even though they had the best point differential of the three teams that went 2-1.

Our first game is against D'oh, who is also from the Northwest Region. All four of the Northwest Region teams are in the power pools, which just means we're all in the top eight after yesterday, nothing too earth shattering there. D'oh finished fourth from our region and might have beaten the team earlier in the season, I don't know (it would have been at Spawnfest, which I didn't go to this year).

warmed up, first games against Regionals matchup D'oh
misch 3 doh 0 on kyle to ryan, high wind
zone d not so effective, works anyway 4-0
chucky catches int, hucks 68 yards to adam brown for score 5-0

So, at this point, D'oh calls a timeout. In this timeout, the captain sca-REAMS at his team, "THIS TEAM CHOKES! This team is known for choking. They ALWAYS choke. We just need to be sure we're in it when they do. So keep fighting, keep running, keep playing hard. We have this."

Now, there are moments when I think the world of Mischief. These are moments when the team is On. Fire. FI-IRE! There are times, of course, when the team isn't in the game. The difference between these two states can be felt. It's a tangible sensation that I'm unable to fully describe.

I do, however, recognize when it's there.

And it was there when D'oh called a timeout. It was there when their captain tried to rally the troops.

It was there as the team was handily defeated.

5-1
two throw score, defenders screaming at teammates, "I didn't hear an up call! I didn't hear an up call!" 6-1
wind pretty bad, similar to tandem game in 2006, if not worse
doh calls time out without any, turns the disc, we can't capitalize, turn back, they score 6-2
hard to stay unemotional in a snippy game
time out misch on goal line after 4 turns in point already
6-3 on 9 turn over point. wind kicking up.
6-4 on dump turn near endzone
7-4 on andy huck to em
long discussion on foul call
9 turns in this point, all four of ours were wind blades. we somehow take half 8-4
ugly point. chippy calls. huck and play d strategy is only one with a chance. 10-6
wind so bad, pull doesn't make it past 30 yards, they score one throw 10-7
emily layout catch huck, throws score to mark 11-7
12-8
13-8
14-8 "I feel like they just put in their second line." mark
15-8
next game against puppet regime starts at 12:15 easterm / 9:15 pacific, puppet lost to barrio
pool records so far: misch 2-0 / bario 1-1 / puppet 1-1 / d'oh 0-2

The sad thing about this game is that we had a chance to be King Makers. If we had played them second and had already won the upcoming game agains Puppet Regime, winning or losing to D'oh would have been irrelevant in the standings. We would have been 2-0, with a head-to-head win against Barrio, ensuring our first place position in the pool.

We could, however, help D'oh into third place with a win. Since they had a head to head against the other team, they'd be third in the pool and wouldn't have to play the game into the quarters.

And Northwest would have all four teams in the Quarter Finals. With a night's rest, there would be a non-zero chance at having an all Northwest Semis.

It would have been spectacular.

Except we haven't played Puppet yet. And couldn't risk two losses.

Besides, who wants to lose to a team that thinks we just choke?

Yeah.

Right.

So, our last game of the second day, against Puppet Regime.

huddle before puppet game.
hey look! we have observers! yay!
dano to andy layout 1-0
wind is REALLY bad.
1-1
paul to em 2-1
2-2
time out misch
andy to dano 3-2
we're having problems leaving discussions on the field. 3-3
7-5
last point had 14 turnovers
8-5 misch takes half
8-6
9-6
9-7
10-7 on lauout endzone dump block by pickett
lauout? sheesh.
10-8
there's been only one upwind score this game
11-8
doyle sky for 2nd upwind score this game 12-8
doyle layout grab for score 13-8
kyle sucking, subbed out for wes
and wes is injured by an opponent landing on him
13-9
14-9
uh, line judge? watch the lines, please.
14-10 downwind
dano to giz 15-10
3-0 in our power pools, done playing for the day.

Less Manifest Destiny in this game, but a good game none-the-less. The game would have been nicer if the observers could actually observe.

If you get close enough, you can still take good (though still not great) pictures even with a small camera.