Why Not?

This week I'm going to road-trip up to Redmond. Normally, I would think it's crazy to travel three states to go to a tournament where I'm not even going to play. However, Potlatch is my favorite tournament ever. I've never been to Kaimana, Paganello, Poultry Days, Nationals, or Worlds, but until I do (and maybe even after I do), Potlatch will stay #1.

Potlatch is best of every thing that I love about ultimate - the best athletes, the best parties, the best silliness, and some of my best friends. It's a great feeling of escape from everything. For three days, the fields become your home. The festival atmosphere and quality of competition has had me playing some of the best ultimate I've ever played in the past. You roll out of your tent in the morning, and you're standing right on the fields. Play. Float down the river. Party. Repeat.

Unfortunately, this year, worlds fall on the same weekend so spectating highest level games might not be quite as good, but I don't think I'll mind too much. It might be nice to be able to walk around and watch some different games a little more than I've been able to in the past. Maybe I won't be as tired by the end as I have in the past. Last year, it took me about a week to recover.

I'm looking forward to the drive up just as much as the tourney itself, too. We're going to leave on Tuesday and take our time, and see some of the sights along the way. We're going to spend most of a day at Scout's cabin in the woods doing outdoorsy kind of things like fishing and hiking. I fully expect this next week to be awesome.

Summertime

I haven't played any ultimate since February. It's the longest stretch I've gone since I started playing in winter of 2005, and it's going to keep going until September at least. For the first time in a very long time, I really miss playing the game just for the sake of the game. Up until now, my motivations have been centered around team goals or personal goals. Now that the college season is over, I realize that I'm starting to kind of forget what playing is like. I can't visualize situations or plays as readily as I used to, and it's strange.

I really miss playing for the sake of exercising, too. I realize now that I'm much less productive and happy when I'm not getting regular workouts. I don't sleep as well at night and I generally feel unhealthier. I've gone from crutches to now walking in my walking boot, and next week I think I'm going to start PT again. I can tell already that it will be hard to not push myself to be more active than my doctor wants me to be. I find that once I break a self imposed barrier in rehab, like walking instead of crutching, there's no going back. I'm worried about what playing will be like and what I'll be able to do after being a couch potato for 5 months.

During other times in my life, if things were going badly or if I was unemployed and bumming around, I could always turn to ultimate or working out as something constant I could rely on while other things in my life changed. Right now, though, I'm just a bum.

I've been watching a huge amount of sports on TV and ultimate videos online. When I'm watching the world cup, or the NBA finals, I'm constantly thinking about how what I'm seeing applies to ultimate. I think watching Smaug for the better part of a season from the sidelines might be a good thing for me in the end, because I feel like I got a more objective, slightly removed perspective on the game. In the end though, I think about ultimate entirely too much and I miss it a lot.

Media Coverage of Ultimate

I find it very interesting that the last video that I posted, Luke Johnson's own footage of finals, was sent DMCA takedown notice by CBS Sports. I haven't taken copyright yet, so I don't have a fully informed opinion about this, but my impression is that copyright laws only protect your coverage of an event, not the game itself.

If Luke had posted the Go211 stream itself on Vimeo, that would clearly be an infringement of their copyright, but the video that he posted was entirely filmed and edited by him. I'd like to see what the contract between CBS and the USAU looks like, but it seems to me that Luke's video is his own property.

From about 2 minutes of Googling the subject, I found this case:

National Basketball Ass'n v. Motorola, Inc. 105 F.3d 841 C.A.2 (N.Y.) 1997
As noted, recorded broadcasts of NBA games-as opposed to the games themselves-are now entitled to copyright protection. The Copyright Act was amended in 1976 specifically to insure that simultaneously-recorded transmissions of live performances and sporting events would meet the Act's requirement that the original work of authorship be “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). Accordingly, Section 101 of the Act, containing definitions, was amended to read:

A work consisting of sounds, images, or both, that are being transmitted, is “fixed” for purposes of this title if a fixation of the work is being made simultaneously with its transmission.

17 U.S.C. § 101. Congress specifically had sporting events in mind:

[T]he bill seeks to resolve, through the definition of “fixation” in section 101, the status of live broadcasts-sports, news coverage, live performances of music, etc.-that are reaching the public in unfixed form but that are simultaneously being recorded.

H.R. No. 94-1476 at 52, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5665. The House Report also makes clear that it is the broadcast, not the underlying game, that is the subject of copyright protection. In explaining how game broadcasts meet the Act's requirement that the subject matter be an “original work[ ] of authorship,” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a), the House Report stated:

When a football game is being covered by four television cameras, with a director guiding the activities of the four cameramen and choosing which of their electronic images are sent out to the public and in what order, there is little doubt that what the cameramen and the director are doing constitutes “authorship.”

Now, I haven't researched the subject, nor am I qualifed to be giving any legal advice, so please understand that this is just speculation.

If the USAU didn't want anyone else filming finals, they should have prevented people from doing so at the event. Did they post notices on the admission tickets that filming was not allowed?

More importantly, does USA Ultimate really want to prevent ultimate players from sharing and enjoying material from ultimate games that they've created themselves? I know USAU wants to become a more "legitimate sports organization," but at the same time we have to accept that media coverage in ultimate right now is overwhelmingly provided by the players themselves. The video that Luke made is excellent promotion for the sport, and in many ways more enjoyable for experienced players to watch than the professional coverage because Luke knows what he's doing and there doesn't have to be announcers explaining every rule of the game.

Maybe it's not appropriate to blame USAU for this. It might be that it was just some guy in an anti-piracy department cubicle sending a take-down notice for what he believed to be CBS property. I assume that USAU sold (how much is that actually worth?) the exclusive rights to film and broadcast the finals, so they're protecting themselves by not wanting other people to have video up. In the future, it seems they'll either have to go more open or more restricted with access to events that they plan on televising. My guess is, things will become more restrictive.

It's just another small step towards taking the sport of ultimate away from the players in an effort to become a "real sport."

Is that what we want?

Nationals

Carleton vs Florida - 2010 USAU College Finals from luke johnson on Vimeo.

There's a great video of nationals finals on vimeo (thanks to Luke Johnson) in high def and with all the arguing edited out. It's about 1000x more watchable than the live stream on Monday.

Carleton seems dedicated to slowing the game down and playing fundamental ultimate. Florida takes the huck look whenever it's there, and sometimes when it's not. They get away with this because they're playing incredible defense and Carleton can't seem to get much decent flow against them. Maybe it would have been dumb for Carleton to throw more aggressively, or maybe they just didn't have the players to match up with Florida's in the deep game. The first time I watched the finals, I felt like the outcome was somehow erroneous or unexpected. Watching it again with more clarity and continuity, Florida was the better team for the conditions and should usually win this game.

Florida has an amazing amount of athleticism, and Brodie really is the most dominant player in ultimate, although I don't regret not voting for him for Callahan after watching this game. My first thought on watching the game was that Carleton didn't adjust well enough to stop Florida's style of play, but upon watching the game again it seems like they were doing nearly everything they could. He was just unstoppable.

If we were doing a draft of college players to club teams (how sweet would that be?) I suppose Brodie would have to go #1 overall, but I would have concerns about melding his playing style into a team that isn't completely tailored to him. I really hope he decides to play club because I'd like to see how his skills translate to a higher level of play.

An Observation

I found this email in my inbox today. Actually, I never realized that. Thanks, Warehouse:

To: Me, Danger

If you take out the Oettin in vector's name, you get the name of the other person included in this email.

Potential applications include vector being able to proclaim that "Danger is my outer name".

Thanks,

WH

Callahan Videos

Eli Friedman for Callahan 2010 from Oregon Ultimate on Vimeo.

I love the Callahan propaganda videos that come out at this time of year. A good one can swing the election. If you know of any other good ones, please pass them along to me!

Regionals Write-Up

Coming out of this college series is the best I've felt about any team's performance that I've been a part of. Strike-Slip made the game-to-go this year, but that was exactly what were expected to do so it wasn't as fun as it was grueling.

We went into the weekend as the 7 seed. The tourney was a huge bracket, so we would very quickly be playing in important games. Shockingly, the weather was great. Maybe 65 degrees and light wind. It worked to our benefit.

Saturday:

Game 1 - Colorado College

This game was supposed to be easy, and it was. They seemed decent enough, but they had serious problems with our box and zone looks. They also dropped it a lot. I think we took half 8-1. They scored a few more in the second half, but we won pretty easily 15-(not very much).



Game 2 - Long Beach

Long Beach was only playing 10 guys, so it was bad luck catching them this early in the tournament. They took half by a break or two. At about 9-7, we called a time-out and the team got fired up to make a last ditch effort to make a comeback. We started gaining momentum with a couple breaks. Thor had a huge layout D on a bad dump throw. We brought the game to 10-10 universe, with them receiving. We got the disc a couple times (once on a 50 yard hammer look) but they punched it in on a sky from Jake. Flood did a good job trying to contain him, and there were some spectacular plays in the air, but in the end it wasn't enough. Uni, Bogo, Marcos, and Mike all played great in this game as well.

Game 3 - Air Force

The guys were down after our universe point loss with LB, and I think we all assumed that we were going to walk through this game. And we should have. But we let them hang around, down only a few points. They scored a few breaks and started acting like the shirtless pilots in the volleyball scene in Top Gun. Going up wind, someone put up a janky, floaty huck and Spectre had a huge sky for the score.

During soft cap, we received on O to end the game. Arby hucked to Curse wide open on the goal line, and the coaches called for a time-out. During the timeout, the other coach insisted that we had called 2 already in that half. He was right. Turnover. Before we knew it, it was universe point with us receiving on O. We worked it downwind calmly and put it in for the score, but not with some serious sweating. We almost ended our season against Air Force. I don't even want to consider what that would have been like.

Game 4 - Arizona

We started off with a few breaks. And then a few more, until we had taken half 8-1. Arizona is a better team than that, and I don't know if they were just tired or what, but they really rolled over in the first half. Their best player, the tall blonde guy, was going crazy in their huddle. They came out of half and went on a run, but they were too far down. We started trading until hard cap, 12-6. The team was tired after playing all day at altitude. Thor also hurt his knee pretty badly skying the balls off the blonde guy after he came down and got landed on. Despite our "big roster," we ended up playing on Sunday with only about 14 or 15 able bodied players, and it definitely hurt our chances.

Saturday night we went to HoHut, Ft. Collins best (only) AYCE mongolian bbq place. It was actually pretty good, and perfect for a big hungry team. After the Lakers game, the coaches and injured people went out to check out the local Brew/pub. It was a fun night.

Sunday

UCSD

We came out fired up quoting this guy. We felt like we had nothing to lose, and because of that I think we went into this game with the right attitude. They gave us a bunch of turnovers, and our D-line was taking good huck looks when we had them. They took half 8-7, but I was feeling really good about the attitudes both teams were playing with. They threw their box, which has always given us trouble in the past. We struggled for a point, but the second point we shredded right through it and did the same on each subsequent point. My main memory from the end of the game is Avatar getting a huge layout D on Kattan and the macking the disc squarely off his chest. We received the disc on universe, and slowly marched it down through their zone for an easy score. 12-11. This win really felt good. To my knowledge, UCLA has never beaten UCSD before in the series and I don't think they ever saw it coming.

SDSU

SDSU had beaten us pretty squarely the last 2 or 3 times we played them, but we were riding high off our win against the squids. I think the altitude made the games a little more turn heavy because peoples hucks were misfiring and we were getting more chances for breaks than we normally would. We sat on a nice 2 point lead for most of the game, until the end. We called a couple of time outs late in the game to help run out the clock, and SDSU took issue with it. However, we played completely within the rules and the game was observed, so I really don't feel too bad about it. They scored the last point after hard cap blew, but the game was over, 10-9.

UCSB - 2nd Place Game

Tide was coming off a blow-out loss in finals to Colorado, 15-5. They were very strategic about resting for the game they could actually win, I think, and it worked out for them. We came out hot and went up 2 breaks to start the game, but the fatigue from the weekend started to catch up with us. It also got fairly windy in this game, and it hurt our hucking game and benefited their more fundamental style. However, I don't think they would have won had it not been for stellar play from Max and Tim. Those two destroyed us like they have every time we've played them this year. Once they got up a couple points, they held on and never let us back in the game. We were running out of gas pretty quickly by this point. Pagoda, Thor, and Spectre were not playing by this point, too, which also really hurt us. We were running 14-15 guys and were looking pretty ragged. Huge props to Curse for working his ass off all Sunday though. He was our best and most consistent cutter, and favorite target for Arby's hucks. He also skied the balls off a Tide guy on an upwind floater near the sideline.

UCSD - 3rd/4th Place Game

It really didn't look coming into this game. They were up and throwing, and our guys collapsed on the side line. They broke us twice before we got on the board, 3-1. The whole first half we looked like we were just ready to give up. Forge was skying the balls off of everyone, and we just didnt have the energy to put up much of a fight. They took half 8-3.

During our huddle, we reminded everyone that this was likely the last game that our seniors would ever play with Smaug, and that there was no reason not to give every last ounce of effort we had. We we're the team that was not supposed to be there, and we should just play to enjoy our last half of ultimate of the year. We came out looking revitalized in the second half and got a bunch of breaks to bring it closer. I think at one point I think it was 11-9ish, and we were bringing all the momentum. Unfortunately, we ran into the soft cap and they calmed down and played "the most boring point of ultimate of their lives" to put in the final point.

A lot of guys came up huge for us in this game, when our stars were running fumes. Syntax came in and looked great running the offense. Attica had an amazing goal line layout D on two guys that were standing about 5 feet apart. In the end, we were just too tired to take advantage of the position that we had put ourselves in. I hate to speculate, but if we had had Pagoda, Spectre, Thor and me playing, who knows what would have happened.

Still, we earned the highest finish in the history of Smaug, and made it to 2 games to go. The end of year circle was amazing, and there were more than a few happy tears from the guys that were finishing their years on Smaug. I hope the young guys can take the experience of this weekend and realize what it will take to make the jump from a high placing team at regionals to a team that will go to nationals. We had wins this year over Stanford, Davis, Victoria, Florida, SDSU, and UCSD. On the other hand, we had some losses to some teams that we probably shouldn't have lost to. It seemed like everyone on our team peaked individually this weekend. Going through our roster, I don't think there's anyone who I can point to and say that this weekend was not the best I've ever seen them play (except guys coming off long-term injuries. I may have seen them a few steps faster).

I'd like to think that a lot of our younger guys, especially the guys that have never gone through a season on the A team, saw this weekend how amazing ultimate can be. The high that you get from winning big games after a full season of working towards that goal is incomparable. Now that they've had a taste, hopefully they'll keep working so Smaug can have that feeling again next year.