Southeast Regionals Day One Recap
First impressions of an exciting day of play!
Announcements:
There is lots of exciting new content coming your way! Check out this post for the full rundown. The Breakside also now offers the option to upgrade your subscription to a paid version if you’d like to financially support my work or travel. Check out the new Twitter account for updates and live coverage!
Thank you all, as always, for reading. Please share this with anyone else who may enjoy it, and remember to subscribe!
It was a thrilling day of games in Bermuda Run for the first half of Regionals weekend. Everything is still to play for on day two, but many teams have been fully eliminated, and we have three games to go set for tomorrow morning all ready. In mixed: ‘Shine (Nashville) and Space Force (Huntsville) will play for the regional title at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow and the first bid. Meanwhile, in the men’s division, Ring of Fire (Raleigh) and Florida Untied (Ocala) will play in one semifinal, while Raleigh-Durham United (Raleigh, Durham) and Chain Lightning (Atlanta) will play in the other at 9:00 a.m. to determine the two teams who will play for the regional title and the first two bids to nationals from the division. Here’s a quick recap from the day.
Women’s, Men’s Divisions Largely as Expected
It was a solid day for the favorites in the women’s and men’s regionals. On the women’s side, Phoenix (Raleigh) took care of business today, going 4-0, winning their games by a combined score of 52-10. It’s hard to overstate how shocking it would be should they lose at any point tomorrow. Ozone (Atlanta) went undefeated in the other pool, also convincingly, via a combined score of 44-13 across three games. Both teams have quarterfinals and semifinals to get through before they meet.
On the men’s side, things were a little less straightforward, but only a little. The top four seeds all made it to the semifinals, undefeated, other than the seeding crossovers they played against each other, in which Ring took down RDU and Chain took down Untied in games that lacked intensity due to their relative irrelevance and lack of stakes. Both Chain and Ring were pushed to within two by Boneyard (Triangle) the defending Master’s World Champions, who are prepping for their title defense interestingly, while baNC (Charlotte) nearly took down Florida, and Cash Crop 2 (Chapel Hill) played RDU close, both in prequarters. Keep an eye out for those teams to make a run to the game to go.
Wonderful, Magical, Beautiful Chaos (But Not Really?)
Mixed was what everyone around the complex was most excited for this weekend, and it immediately delivered. Roma Ultima (Atlanta) and FlyTrap (Wilmington) played an incredible universe point game in the first round of the day. Despite losing, FlyTrap is halfway to an improbable backdoor run winning three straight out of the six they need to win the backdoor bracket including a win over #4 seed Pyro (Hunstville) ending their nationals hopes.
In round two, thanks to their poor performances at Sectionals and seeding quirks, bid earners Toro (Durham) and Space Force (Hunstville) faced off in a tightly contested game. The loser would need to win five games in a row to keep their bid, and Space Force showed up when it mattered, leading the whole way and snuffing out any momentum Toro tried to generate. Toro won their next two, including a universe point elimination game over Roma featuring a call that stirred up the sidelines on universe, which I could not see because I was walking up to the game and there were a lot of people in my way. Sorry for being unable to provide further context.
Here’s how things stand at the end of the day. The two teams in the regional final are ‘Shine and Space Force, as mentioned. ‘Shine was pushed by Murmur (Athens) in their semifinal, winning 13-12 in a game where Murmur absolutely had the opportunities available to win the game had they been more efficient. Murmur and Toro will face off tomorrow morning in the backdoor bracket, each team needing to win three games in a row to make nationals. Space Force handled Storm (Charlotte) in the other semifinal easily, and Storm will meet FlyTrap on the other side of the backdoor bracket.
One thing to note: at minimum, the loser of tomorrow’s final will have one less game of wear and tear on their bodies than the team that faces them in the game to go, possibly two less if Toro or Flytrap make it. That’s something to be aware of when heading into day two.
Rapid Fire Thoughts and Highlights
A lot happened today. There is too much to go into detail about if I want to get something out tonight, but here are some highlights that we can dig more into later next week when we have time for a full debrief:
Someone threw up next to me in a trash can before round one even started.
Clipped pools are lame, especially when you already have 16 teams for a tournament.
Watching World Games talent in person is better than advertised
Every game should be observed at regionals because we all make awful calls sometimes.
We are laughably far away from an appropriately staffed and funded observer program.
Speaking of, Mitch Dengler had to break up a fight during a non-observed game that he just happened to be near on his bye round! We need more observers badly!
Also, it’s incredibly hard to follow what is happening at the tournament when there are no scoreboards on the fields and no live updates on the website. It should be the baseline to have scoreboards on the fields for regionals.
In-person ultimate is the best ultimate, and a packed sideline is the best place to watch a game.
Go to tournaments where you know people! It is so special and important to remember the community you have built through this sport and an amazing opportunity to deepen old connections and forge new ones.
That’s all for me from day one! You can follow me here for live updates during the games to go tomorrow, and I’ll be back soon with tomorrow’s recap!
About The Breakside
If you enjoyed my writing, please consider leaving a like or comment, subscribing, or sharing it with a friend. There is now a paid subscription option to support the journalism I do. Please consider helping out in that way too if you are willing and able.
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/@breaksideulti now too!) or email (noamgumerman@gmail.com).