Vegas Day 3

Wind.

Not to be found in Leverone. Somewhat kept out of Scully-Fahey. Not to be found in that 2 v. 2 ultimate video game Uptown has.

Plenty of it in Vegas.

Yes, day 3 of our Las Vegas adventure featured some wind. Nay, lots. And on the fields we played on, it was pretty much blowing right from one end zone to the other, meaning that every break was basically worth two (because you got the score upwind on D, then pulled to the other team, who you could most likely break as you were going downwind.)

(Disclaimer - it's getting late. These won't be too long.)

We started the day off with UC-Irvine, continuing our steady assault on the California public university system. They really should not have been able to hang with us, but the wind was an equalizer, to a point. From what I recall of this game, we broke them on and off to go up early, and they played a lot of deep looks that got gobbled up by our last backs. Nothing too extraordinary about this one, except for the fact that we managed to break against their zone going upwind to win the game, and the fact that we unveiled the clam, which forced some serious turns. 11 - 9, according to score reporter, but I do not remember it being that close.

Then came GDub - a solid MetroEast team, they've taken the third place in a two bid region a few years running now. I'll be honest, I didn't think we would win this one, but we played gritty as hell and really came at them harder than they could handle not once but twice. This was because after going up a couple of breaks, we gave up 4 breaks without getting one of our own, leading into halftime. In the second half, though, we punished them. We scored 5 breaks, 3 upwind (including the game winner) to take the game 13 - 10, a really satisfying win against a known team after the near misses of the day before. Once again, we gobbled up the deep swill (hi Nate!) and confounded them with our clam.

Last game of the day/tournament came against Western Washington Dirt, and we played some good Dartmouth ultimate. The wind had died down, but a long bye had left some of us decleated and unable to play. We opened up the subbing and still played right with these guys, even starting off the game with an upwind break. Dirt might be the most polished team we beat at Vegas, and they have some serious players, but we still gutted this win out on two excellent final points. There were a plethora of turns, but our handlers adjusted to the conditions as the game went on and moved the disc around on their short throws extremely effectively and safely. Dartmouth thus won the 25th place bracket by going 3-0 on day 3, which for me is more satisfying than making the braket above and losing all your games to earn 24th.

Ultimately, we played some sweet teams. UgMo, Mamabird, and CUT are all top tier teams, while aTm, Smaug, Chicago, Western and GDub are all at the level slightly below them. No teams from the Northeast, no B teams, and a team that was psyched even when they lost made for an extremely successful weekend.

Win-Loss: 4 - 5
Aces Won: 5
Asians in the top 3 of the Poker Tourney: 2
Ridiculous Nate Raines scoobers: 1 (in game, at least)
Players who ate that gross pizza: 5 or 6

Right. Pain Train, baby.