OUC Preview/Thoughts

Ontario Ultimate Championships shall be held in Kingston this weekend and I shall be there to live stream the event.  It’s exciting as there shall be five divisions competing for a limited number of spots to CUC.  With the seedings and schedule available it’s time to look at how tough this weekend shall be in each of the divisions.

Let’s start quickly with the Junior divisions.  The Junior Women’s division shall have OverDrive (GTA) vs Wicked (Ottawa) with two games on Saturday to decide who is the top seed going into CUC; both should make it.  On the Open side things are a different story with three teams competing for two spots [please see correction below].  Capital Punishment (Ottawa), OverDrive (GTA), and High Octane (GTA) get two games each in a quick three game round robin.  High Octane is the #3 seed going in but the Juniors Divisions are notoriously unsteady and there is a good outside chance that they can knockout OverDrive or CP to make it.

Quick Update on Junior Open:  Ultimate Canada has corrected a misconception on my part.  Ontario had 3 bids, but High Octane declined their bid.  The Championship will not affect who heads to CUC but will certainly have plenty of pride on the line.

Moving onto Open we have 7 teams for 4 bids.  The seeding is as follows:

  1. Phoenix
  2. Maverick
  3. Grand Trunk
  4. Too Bad
  5. Firebird
  6. Goose
  7. ROY

 

With a straight round robin running over Saturday and Sunday before heading into the tough games on Sunday afternoon teams face a tall order.  Consistency will be a major issue for Maverick and Too Bad.  I believe that this should be a strong year for Grand Trunk with them taking the second seed. Firebird has an outside chance of knocking Maverick or Too Bad out and those games in particular shall require particular focus by all teams.  All said and done it’s probably going to be the top four that head to CUC.  As a final note, both Goose and ROY are development teams and while ROY has defeated Firebird in the past I anticipate it’ll be much tougher this time around.  Nonetheless, it would be quite the statement if ROY finished fifth.  The first Open match will feature Phoenix vs Maverick at 1345.

Onto Women’s!  Once again Ontario will send a strong contingent of Women’s teams but they’ll have to fight for the three bids to CUC.  The seeding is as follows:

  1. PPF
  2. Stella A
  3. Lotus
  4. Terra
  5. Lily
  6. Stella B

 

Like in the Open division the top three teams are very strong and it will be hard for Lily or Stella B to upset them.  Terra is already heading to CUC  in the Women’s Masters division but compete in the Women’s division at OUC.  This means that the pressure is off the top three teams and it should be a fairly straightforward task for them to finish in a spot that gets them to CUC.  That said, Terra is a strong and exciting team and they’ll be featured in our 1200-1330 game on Saturday.  For PPF this is an important event as they need to get a high seed for Nationals and they need to prove that they can play consistently through a championship.  Lotus is both a development team and a Nationals team; an interesting statement for them.  Having been one of the strongest teams throughout Canada they have lost ladies to Capitals and now to Union.  That hasn’t dampened their fire and they have always shown the ability to take on much stronger teams and win.  Lotus has and will continue to be a thorn in PPF’s and Stella’s side.  Stella will challenge PPF at 1015 on Saturday.

Finally, to the largest and most watched division:  Mixed!  Seedings are:

  1. Union
  2. NoBS
  3. GLIDE
  4. BLeD
  5. Whiplash
  6. BFC
  7. Smoke
  8. Surge
  9. Quick & Dirty
  10. Legen-Dairy
  11. Yarrr
  12. Zen
  13. TWO
  14. Big Fish
  15. Default

With five bids available there’s quite a few possibilities as to who can make it.  The seeding above has fallen close to my latest prediction with possibly Surge placed below their potential.  I’ve written previously about this division and won’t rehash it other than to say that it’s going to be amongst the most exciting at OUC.  The first live streamed game will be that of NoBS vs Quick and Dirty at 0830 on Saturday.  If seedings are not upset then the 1530 game will feature GLIDE vs BFC.  With the crossovers on Saturday afternoon there is huge pressure right through the two days on all teams.  It’s still wide open.

In any case, I look forward to seeing you all online on the weekend.

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