Easterns, Living Live Ultimate, WUL Week 2
More like Easter-ns, get it? Do you get it? Because it was on Easter. Do you get it?
Announcements
This week: Live sports! Easterns! Emotional self-reflection! WUL Week 2! And more!
Putting these bigger and better editions together is a lot work, and any way you can support means the world to me. Whether it’s being here reading, leaving a like or comment, sharing the Breakside with someone else, or even pledging your support, thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy.
A Brief Guide on How and Why to Attend Live Ultimate as a Fan
For someone who loves the sport of ultimate as much as I do and puts as much energy and time into it as I do, it’s hard to understate how complicated my relationship with the sport is. At the same time, having difficult experiences in a sport is certainly not unique, and while my baggage is my own, I know plenty of other people carry a lot with them whenever they play, coach, or watch a game. With that being said, I cannot recommend enough that more people show up to live ultimate outside of their regular capacity as a player or a coach. No matter how smooth or rocky your relationship with ultimate is.
This last weekend, one of the biggest men’s D1 college tournaments of the season, Easterns, was basically right in my backyard. So I went. After one or two times out coaching a youth rec league, it was my first real step back in the sport since leaving Davenport.
Originally, this piece looked more like some of the coverage on Ultiworld. And I still want to get to some of the Xs and Os, the funniest and best moments from the weekend, and more. But after thinking about so many wonderful people I saw this weekend, our conversations, my conversations with Penny Wu, and my most recent yet-to-be-released interview (stay tuned! Subscribe!) I realized there was a bigger picture on my mind.
The optimal time to arrive is 10-15 minutes before the first round. The lovely thing about Truist Sports Park is that you go down a hill overlooking the fields to get to the complex. When you arrive at that time, you see a million little moments, each all-consuming to the people they’re happening to, taking place all at once. These are the types of moments that make playing college ultimate, or any team sport, so special. Teammates compete and push each other as they finish warmups, dapping each other up, joking and laughing, and getting ready to compete. Each team finds its own spot for its snacks, water, and shade and takes care of its last pieces of business before huddling up. Then you see 20 teams all work to ground and center themselves simultaneously. Little snippets of their mentality, goals, and hype slip out of their circle and to the ears of those of us watching. For a few minutes, you get a genuine sense of what being on each team would be like.
When you go as a fan, you also get to meet new friends and catch up with old ones. Some people playing for one of the teams competing, and some watching like you. You bond by connecting over what you see happen in the game as a fan or what you saw them do on the field. This is by far the best part about attending live ultimate.
One of the hardest things about my time in the sport has been going through large stretches where it felt like no one believed in my ability to succeed. Going to Easterns, I saw a whole team’s worth of players from all over the country who had been my teammates or opponents at one point. Not to mention a small coaching staff’s worth of people, too. It was a reminder of a lot of the hard moments but of so many wonderful ones as well. Moments from iterations of teams now lost to the past, but whose memory stirred up a sense of belief in myself I had perhaps lost to the past too.
In all honesty, my biggest feeling leaving Easterns was gratitude for the experiences and people who have shaped my time in ultimate. For the people I met for the first time or friends from high school, I got to catch up with. For people offering support to me personally in response to coming home despite all that baggage, to people genuinely invested in the Breakside succeeding, and offering advice and support for that as well.
It was a reminder of what makes ultimate special. And as corny as that may sound, it’s something I need more often than I admit to myself. I like to think I’ve moved past a lot of my baggage with the sport, but seeing so many people from the times when things were bad is hard, too, as well as being wonderful. I often catch myself entertaining fantasy worlds where nothing bad* ever happened during my time in the sport. Or living in various what-ifs (which is kind of hard not to do when watching the two teams you could have chosen to play for instead of the one you did.) I hold on to regret and certain grudges more than I should, and I know it shapes some of my knee-jerk reactions to certain people or initiatives taking place in ultimate more than it should. Sometimes, even unfairly so. Seeing so many people, teams, and moments I wish I could have had or just miss having now that I’m not playing is really hard. But it’s good too. It helps me appreciate all the good I was privileged enough to experience and what’s right in front of me—both at the tournament, and other opportunities in the sport.
For example, numerous times this weekend, I saw someone miss a play they thought they should have made and scream “FUCK” loud enough to hear in the parking lot, spike their hat in frustration, or do both at the same time. And I laughed. Because, well, it’s funny. But simultaneously, there is something deeply intimate about seeing that from the outside. And special, too. Because every time a teammate would be there to pick them up, calm them down, or just offer a high-five in solidarity. And that’s what you occasionally miss when you’re not seeing games live. You don’t see the conversations that continue on the sidelines after those moments. You don’t hear the sideline roar when that player comes up big later in the game or the weekend. You don’t see the growth of these players and people in real-time the same way you do when you’re there.
So yeah, we should all go to live ultimate together more often.
Yes, there are all the obvious benefits to the sport's long-term growth that higher in-person attendance would make possible. And yes, there are certain things “the powers that be” could do about it. And yes, I’m sure that’s something you’ll hear me write and rant about later, either in this edition or another. But for now, and in the spirit of challenging myself to examine how I think about ultimate, I’ll leave this section with this thought: We should all go to more tournaments because they are special moments that we all deserve to experience.
Welcome to another edition of the Breakside.
*Just to be clear, bad refers to out-of-the-ordinary bad, not just losing a game or something lol
Easterns Overall Thoughts
The Observer Conundrum
Three games. That’s how many games per round were observed. Six observers were there this weekend, a staggeringly small number for one of the biggest regular-season tournaments of the year, yet simultaneously infinitely more than 99% of the tournaments throughout the college divisions have. In my opinion, a great way to grow the sport’s overall infrastructure and make it more appealing to the IOC, sponsors, “big legitimacy” (look, idk either, okay?), or whoever is to get serious about the percentage of games at high levels of each division that are observed.
I conducted a brief experiment this weekend while pondering this long-standing issue of an observer shortage. And the results were impressive. Over 20 people said they’d be observers if their USAU membership were comped. That seems like a small price for injecting new blood into the program. Not to mention that data is from a sample size of <50 people. Imagine what marketing based on that premise would yield!
But the second problem is that it’s early April, and we’ve already missed all but one Observer Clinic scheduled for all of 2024. It would really rule if clinics were more publicized and plentiful to make being an observer (and ultimate volunteer work in general) more accessible. Before I get carried away on another rant, though, let’s call it there.
North Carolina Darkside vs. Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur, a Closer Look
Maybe the single game I paid the most attention to throughout the weekend was one of the biggest upsets. Pitt knocking off UNC in quarters sent the number one overall ranked team in the division to an early exit.
The game itself was fascinating. UNC’s offense started off disjointed, falling behind 2-0 after missing on hucks, and they never looked quite in sync throughout. Pitt, meanwhile, had great energy on and off the field throughout (something UNC also lacked) and managed to keep the pressure high throughout the game and not fold under UNC’s late attempts to come back. The game's story was UNC’s inability to score break opportunities, only breaking once in the entire game on a one-throw possession they picked up on the Pitt goal line. They weren’t exceptional at forcing turnovers and didn’t have a real answer for Henry Ing (not sure anyone does, though), but they had their opportunities. They must have turned it over in the red zone three or four times with their D-Line. I asked myself why they didn’t just sub their D-Line for their O-Line on a timeout. Then I realized I’d been watching too much semi-pro.
Looking at the bigger picture, though, this game offers an interesting case study in team building and seasonal goals. For consensus top 10s teams whose aspirations are to win a national championship (even if one is deemed more likely than the other to do so), what do you get for winning Easterns? It’s the last weekend of regular season play, but you are the auto-bid holder for your region. Heavy favorites to go to nationals out of their regions are not playing for extra bids. No, it’s your last opportunity to face that competition you’ll see on days two and three in May. And that’s where the team philosophies in this game differed.
Even as they remained down multiple breaks deeper and deeper into the second half, UNC remained committed to rotating through the vast majority of their roster. By my best estimation, they rotated at least 14-17, maybe even 20 guys, through their D-Lines alone. They refused to get caught up in winning the game and tournament at the cost to their long-term development. Long-term, even beyond this year or the next. And in fairness, it was to their direct detriment in this game. Tighter lines may have forced more turnovers and generated more breaks (I think they only broke once the whole game, and Pitt did at least three times, possibly four). And so they lost, still got to play two more high-level, national-bracket caliber teams, and won their next games.
Meanwhile, I’m not sure Pitt played even that many people throughout the game. They went all-in to secure a win on which they could hang their hats in the weeks of practices and regional postseason play. Taking down the number-one-ranked team in the country is always a worthy endeavor. But, they got blown out in the next game by UMass for their troubles. Predictably, I might add
Overall, what does each team get from this game? Well, UNC gets another taste of adversity before trying to defend back-to-back-to-back national titles, which is probably a very good thing. Pitt gets a huge win for their confidence and self-belief, proving to themselves and the division that they can beat anyone if they’re on their game. The rest of the division sees the path to the top as just a little wider open than in years past. It should be an exciting run-in to the finish line this season.
Offenses and Defenses in Vogue
I had a great conversation with Alex Rubin about the sport, its coverage, and the copycat nature of college ultimate. Speaking of that copycat nature, here are two of the most popular sets in the division I saw this weekend.
Split stack off the pull, and even sometimes after a turnover
Maybe the best example you can go watch of this offense being run is the UNC Pleiades O-Line from 2022-23 lining up in this off the pull nearly every time, but this was just as ubiquitous for teams like Cal Poly SLO, UNC Darkside, and more. The basic premise is that two handlers will stay back around the disc, one side of the field will feature a side stack of two, and the other a side stack of three.
What makes this effective is the flexibility of the offense. Most teams run this with their two most dynamic downfield players isolated in the two-person stack, and their best hybrid will be at the back of the three-person.
The go-to look on the two-person side can be a “twist” play with the back person cutting under and the shallow cutter going deep. If the mark forces away from that side of the field and towards the three-person side, teams will run a flood play. This was the most common action run in a long field I saw run this weekend. And I only saw the throw not be thrown, let alone completed, once. In the flood play, the two cutters closest to the disc will flood the middle of the field, and the back person will come straight under for an easy 10-15 yards and get the offense in flow. (See image one.)
An alternative setup also used effectively is stacking your two isolated cutters horizontally and keeping your other three in a side stack. This gives the offense more flexibility with what cuts the isolated players can run and keeps the flood motion viable. (See image two.)
The final variation I saw was one or two teams occasionally setting up in a full five-person side stack and running almost a two-part delayed flood. First, they flooded two players across the field to create that split stack formation. Then they could run any of the previous motions talked about, even easier because the defense was now defending something they were not prepared for mentally. (See image three.)
While most good teams are smart enough to poach from different parts of the field to disrupt looks to the isolated two cutters effectively, very few teams were able to put pressure on that second option flood play. Whichever team can play weak-side defense disciplined enough to be ready for that flood will be able to put these offenses in a lot of trouble.
Cal/Diamond Zone
The Cal/diamond zone is all the rage now, after Ursa Major has used it to incredible lengths to stifle some high-powered teams on their way to back-to-back nationals appearances and even a run to the quarters back in 2022. It’s now being adopted as a change-up on defense for many high-level teams. Here’s how it looks in the center of the field and towards the sidelines:
Player one marks flat in the center of the field. As soon as the disc swings, they force it to the nearest sideline. Players two, three, and four make up the back part of the diamond, functioning as a wall beyond the mark. Their job is to prevent upfield piercing throws that will move the disc past the diamond and force it further to the outside. Player four has some additional playmaking responsibilities on shorter, over-the-top throws. Depending on the team, players two and three have different trapping responsibilities. Some teams will almost match up one of their diamond members on the nearest reset, while the rest of the diamond uses basically a three-person cup. Others will make a larger, four-person cup and force teams to throw over them and let their back end make a play.
The responsibilities for the wings (players five and six) and deep deep (player seven) are pretty standard. Still, because the diamond forces the offense to be so wide and leaves a bit of a gap behind that first layer, they have a lot of ground to cover and communication to do if they want to do it properly. Aross the weekend, zone defense, especially this one, was very effective. I think the best way to attack the diamond is to have your non-center handlers attack up and through the cup from the force side (if there is a force side). This will either get your team the disc with forward momentum and a numbers advantage by moving past players 1-3 or will have the whole diamond collapse on that handler opening up and throwing lanes behind them.
The #LiveUltimate Legitimate Moment of the Week sponsored by no one
(This could be your segment to sponsor, though!) Email me!
I did tweet about this as it happened, so if you follow me there, you may know what’s coming. But for those of you who had better things to do this weekend, buckle up for the first-ever #LiveUltimate Legitimate Moment of the Week (LLMW).
First, an honorable mention goes to my good friend Daniel Ferriter’s visionary throw and catch of a goal called off by virtue of an unjust world. But now, let me set the scene.
Round three on Saturday is coming to a close. One game remains unfinished in the back left of Truist Sports Park. A 1-1 Tufts squad plays a 0-1 Wisconsin in a must-win game. Tufts and Wisconsin are in a tough pool with Pittsburgh and Georgia (both eventual semifinalists, by the way.) And since they’ve both already lost, they must start rattling off wins and upsets fast to make the bracket. Per some intrepid reporting by yours truly (conversations on the sideline with some ex-teammates who are at Tufts,) Tufts was in the middle of a three or four-goal comeback, now down just one goal and looking to tie the game.
By the time I arrive, it will probably be 12:20 at the earliest. The next round starts at 12:30. I’ve watched at least three other games end in that same round already, caught up with a couple of friends playing for different teams, and this game is still going. Tufts ends up scoring to the game on a contentiously discussed call that is given their way after a long discussion. Universe point. And the beginning of your #LiveUltimate Legitimate Moment of the Week.
Wisconsin receives to start universe point. They are working upwind and connect on some tightly contested unders. Then they have a player break free deep. The disc goes up, and on a less windy day, maybe Wisconsin runs it out for a score, and that’s that. But the wind forces the huck to start to die, and the Tufts defender finds the receiver’s body (before making a play on the disc) and makes a very physical and athletic play to break up a pass that would’ve set Wisconsin up about 15 yards away from ending the game. Foul called on the reception.
Obviously, there are no observers here. From what the sideline can make out, the core of the discussion is to what extent the physical play on defense constituted playing the disc. This seemed like a reasonable discussion because the defender did find the receiver's body and then found the disc. The two players discuss for a while and ultimately decide that the call will be retracted. The Tufts player begins to call that out, and the Wisconsin player interrupts him to tell him something else, but then the call is retracted.
And then, on literally the next throw, Tufts throws a backhand to the forehand side that a crosswind gust eats up and tosses the disc into the air. There’s a huge pileup, the disc is blocked, a Wisconsin player ends up on the ground, and a Tufts receiver calls a foul. What happens next is almost like a Renaissance painting coming to life. So many different things were happening simultaneously, but here’s a brief summary. Keep in mind that a critical foul discussion is taking place simultaneously with everything else.
The kid on the ground is bleeding from his mouth. The sideline thinks he’s lost a tooth because he’s talking with a comical lisp, but that notion is dispelled.
One of his Wisconsin teammates runs onto the field to check on him, removes his shirt, and offers it to clean up the blood.
His other teammates wisely prevent him from doing this, and a minute or two later, a real first aid kit is brought from the sideline.
12:30 hits, and so does the air horn. It’s the next round! Happy New Year! No one kissed each other to celebrate this, though.
A couple of people who did notice that we had entered the next round: the coaches, the two observers who were observing the next round of games, and the next two teams playing who had to finish their warmups on the sidelines as the other games that round kicked off.
It’s probably been close to five minutes of discussion and injury attention by this time. “This is the worst game ever” is uttered by a member of the Wisconsin sideline. In an unsurprising turn of events, the disc returns to the thrower.
Both coaching staffs are in a discussion on the sideline about how long over the game has gone. They think they’ve made a mistake with the timing and application of the cap rules. Honestly, they probably did.
In what was genuinely a shocking turn of events, however, both coaching staffs stepped onto the field right after the disc was tapped back in and stopped play again. This is universe point, in case you forgot.
The coaches let everyone know how far the game has gone. Tufts players on the sideline are worried this means they’re going to end the game with a loss since they were trailing for most of the second half. Someone unironically asks if this means the game is a tie.
The coaches leave the field to let the game continue. I do not know why they went out there if they weren't going to do anything; it was another two minutes of time wasted.
Tufts goes down the field and mercifully scores. No one is very happy.
If that’s not a #LiveUltimate Legitimate Moment, I don’t know what is.
WUL Week 2 - the Southwest sends their regards
It was a big weekend in the WUL once again as interconference play concluded with a three-game sweep by the Southwest Conference of the Northwest. Bay Area and Arizona each notched wins over Seattle and Utah, respectively, while in the week’s only matchup of 1-0 teams, San Diego got the best of Colorado in a back-and-forth game. The stats are out (with an interesting correction to red zone conversion percentages, which renders some of last week’s writing moot,) so here’s the week by the numbers.
28-8
There are many things that contribute to an eight-point loss like the one Seattle endured at the hands of Bay Area. But giving up 28 break opportunities to just eight generated of your own pretty much seals it right there. It doesn’t help that Bay Area converted eight breaks which means that the Tempest would’ve had to be perfect on offense after forcing a turn from the Falcons’ O-Line to stay in the game.
78.5%
That is the completion percentage the Utah Wild managed against the Arizona Sidewinders this weekend. And when paired with the 82.3% mark the Sidewinders put up, it paints a pretty clear picture of the brutally windy conditions each team dealt with. In a very windy, field-poistion-oriented slog, the Sidewinders connected just a little more consistently and in more critical spots to get the home win. No team had finished a game with less 80% of their passes completed before this. Not even Seattle getting blown out by Bay Area.
18-10
Same story, different game. San Diego fored eight extra break opportunities and converted on three extra compared to Colorado on their way to a comeback win. Gotta get the turnovers you need and take care of the disc in crunch time and Colorado didn’t do that as well as San Diego did. Interestingly, the Super Bloom’s red zone efficiency was almost ten points lower than the Alpenglow’s despite completing nearly 75 more passes. If you think that’s because they probably had more scoring success on hucks, check out the receiving performances mentioned below and then come back to collect your prize.
Players of the week by game score:
Once again, game score is my own metric to measure individual player impact on a game. Here is more about how it’s calculated and what it is. In unsurprising news, the air raids from Han Chen and Kaela Helton will continue until morale improves. Buckle up for conference play.
San Diego Super Bloom 05 Kaela Helton - 18.142
Hey, great win in week one, Colorado. I hope you guys don’t mind matching up with the Terminator herself for week two. Oh, you do mind? Too bad. Helton put up the second-best game score of week one, with five turnovers. How would that look if she played with perfect efficiency? Well, it would look like this: What do 3G/4A/1B/0T and 250+ throwing yards and 150+ receiving yards equal? The fourth-best game score ever recorded. Truly unstoppable.
Bay Area Falcons 25 Han Chen - 17.696
Someone else I’d expect to be here often moving forward. Chen also suffered from a slightly less efficient performance last week, which kept her out of the top three, but this week was a different story. In the Falcons’ statement win over the Tempest, Chen again dominated. A 52/56 throwing performance for 350+ throwing yards and nearly 550 total yards and 3G/5A/0B/2T performance powered the biggest result of this young WUL season.
San Diego Super Bloom 46 Dena Elimelech - 12.496
Another San Diego star you’d expect to be up on this list quite often, Elimelech was absolutely electric in the deep space. She put up the best receiver performance of the season by 95 yards and (teammate Kristen Pojunis is second this season, also from this game.) Oh, and her 373 receiving yards was the most receiving yards in a game recorded in WUL history. Her 2G/3A/2B/3T 500+ yard performance shows how much she does for this team. And in case you were worried, Pojunis, the third of the Super Bloom's “big three,” just missed out on this spot to her teammate. The stars are shining bright in San Diego.
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This newsletter aims to tackle the gap in present coverage of ultimate as a sport. Commentary, analysis, and community are some of the guiding ideals behind the Breakside.
About the Author
My name is Noam Gumerman (he/him). I am from Chapel Hill, NC, and studied Journalism and American Studies at Brandeis University. I am a journalist by trade and have been playing ultimate for over half my life. I love nothing more than combining those two interests. Contact me for discussions, feedback, story suggestions, and more on Twitter (@noamgum) or email (noamgumerman@gmail.com).
One comment on the observer shortage, some tournaments end up not having an observer budget. For example, one of the upcoming regionals has a budget of $400 for observers (and isn't in a major ultimate hub). That doesn't even cover one flight, so there will be no observers at that event. TD wants to keep costs down, so observer budget is one of the first to get cut.
If tournaments don't put a budget, observers can't show up. It is tiring to get paid $0 to lose a weekend to work for others. And most observers are declining working tournaments at a loss.