Ontario Junior Regionals 2015

As of today there are 43 Juniors teams registered for CUC 2015. Consider, for a moment, the efforts of coaches, volunteers, players, and parents across the country that are dedicated enough that 43 teams are in the series. Ontario, alone, has 3 Women’s teams and 6 Open teams competing this weekend in Port Hope (schedule).

Junior Women’s

In order of seed: TORO (Toronto), Wicked (Ottawa), and Nightfury (Durham Region) shall play a one round robin with the top two moving onto Winnipeg in August. While TORO and Wicked are the favourites the one round format favors Nightfury. In particular the 2nd round game between Wicked and Nightfury should be close. Wicked shall have time to warmup but won’t be in game ready mode unlike Nightfury who shall be coming off of a game with TORO. If Nightfury is able to win their second game then the final game between TORO and Wicked would come down to a point differential should Wicked win. That said, TORO is a championship team and you’d be hard pressed to expect anything other than a 2-0 weekend from them.

Games to watch: 1045 game on Sunday between Wicked and Nightfury the most critical game for all teams. If Nightfury wins then the 1230 game between TORO and Wicked becomes the decider.

Junior Open

With 6 teams competing for 3 bids the Open division plays out over two days with round robins and cross over games on the first. The second day heads directly into quarter finals leading up to the finals at 1400. The teams competing for the 3 bids are:

  1. TORO (Toronto)
  2. Uproar (Toronto)
  3. Ignite (Ottawa)
  4. STUD (Durham Region)
  5. OTT (Ottawa)
  6. Havoc (Toronto)

The top 4 teams come from 3 different programs (editors note: originally this said 4 programs, both TORO and Uproar are a part of the Elites Ultimate System along with Havoc) and should be extremely competitive throughout the tournament. The two Toronto programs are seeded at the top and it appears they are destined to meet in the finals. No doubt they’ll meet again at CUC should they make it there. Ignite and STUD are looking to mix things up and spoil an all Toronto finals. The differences between the programs has narrowed in the past few years and this tournament is a test for all of them. Unfortunately one of the four will be unable to move on (unless an extra bid opens up) which leads us to the possibilities.

Should one of TORO or Uproar stumble then they’ll be in the game to go at which point they’re the clear favourite for 3rd place. In the unlikely event that both stumble on Sunday then both Ignite and STUD will go through to the finals. However, the most likely outcome is that we’ll see Ignite vs STUD playing in the game to go (3rd place) with Ignite the favourite. Ultimate, though, is full of uncertainty and with the programs closer than ever the results are too close to call. What is clear is that both teams shall hold their destiny in their own hands.

For OTT and Havoc they’ll get to play two great days of Ultimate and have the chance to improve. One thing they need to keep in mind is that you get better by playing against those better than yourself. I hope that they relish the opportunity and focus on the game and that nothing is guaranteed.

Games to watch: 3rd place match at 1400 on Sunday. This is the game to go. If you want to get a look at a team that shall be in the top 4 at CUC then the finals one field over is also worth a look. The A2 vs B2 game at 1415 on Saturday is likely a preview of the 3rd place match.

A thought

Ontario has a total of 5 bids to CUC 2015. British Columbia has a total of 10 bids to CUC 2015. The last CUC was held in Ontario with 3 strength bids earned by BC in Open vs 2 by Ontario. Ontario has a nearly 3 times the population of BC, 13.6 million vs 4.6 million. This is clearly an issue that Ontario needs to understand and address.

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