Apologies for missing Day 3 everyone, the lack of recap is by no means a reflection of the electricity and drama of the day’s play. I was just busy. Today, I’m not! So we’ll do a sort of fusion of results from the last few days, which has seen the conclusion of pool play and the beginning of the bracket.
Some real highs and a couple of lows for Team Australia over the last two days, as final pool and bracket placings were determined. Still, we’ve seen some really exciting results and some truly incredible moments from our teams in green and gold. In this article, we’ll do a wrap up of each team’s progress and take a wider look at each of the divisions so far.
As always, if you want to look at the cold hard data and stats yourself, visit this page on the tournament website. Some live streams are available through Ultiworld’s YouTube, but for the full cartel you’ll need a subscription. Tournament packages start from $16.99, you can see the full schedule here.
Mixed
The mixed division is a dynamic, fast moving beast. At the conclusion of Day 4, pool play, crossovers, and pre-quarters are now complete, and the full bracket positions are locked in. Perhaps unsurprisingly, USA Mixed look a cut above the field this year, having dominated their power pool and winning multiple games by 10-point margins. Canada did the same in their crossovers, so it’s looking like something special will be needed to disrupt the North American power dynamic in the quarters.
One great story from the division is Chinese Taipei, who after narrowly losing their opening pool play games have had to re-enter the bracket through a big pre-quarter win. They play a fun, fast brand of ultimate and (more often than you think) throw no look scoobers for completed goals. Having stolen the 8 seed off Finland, Chinese Taipei will play the USA. I wish them a sincere good luck. Great Britain Mixed have overcome some demons from the last few cycles, and have a quarterfinal rematch against their old friends Japan (who they beat in pool play 15-13). This match up, and also our friends New Zealand taking on Singapore, will be the most exciting quarter finals in the mixed division.
Bluebottles
The Bluebottles have had a bit of a rollercoaster this tournament, and the last few days have been no exception. After being moved into a crossover pool with Chinese Taipei, Colombia and Hong Kong, the Bottles were tasked with finishing in the top two teams to progress to a pre-quarter. And that they did, with a tight loss to Chinese Taipei, a commanding victory over Colombia on the stream, and, at long last, a universe point that went in their favour against Hong Kong.
The highlight of their crossover games came against Colombia, on the livestream. Spoilers ahead. After trading to 5’s, the ‘fabled Bottles break train left the station,’ and went on a run to end all runs. Eight points on the trot, everything loud and energetic and clicking into place for the Bluebottles. Hannah Phillips and James Wu put in tireless, thankless defence, and Shannon Carpenter and Alex Sanah were calm and collected on every O point. Special mention must be made of Abdul Siddique, King Abdul, who put in such a dominant performance (eight assists, four of which came on consecutive points, yes you read that right) that Ultiworld made a highlight reel of him.
This win meant it was a do-or-die game with Hong Kong. The blustery conditions led to some scrappy, zoney, suffocating ultimate, with a lot of turnovers either way. Though Hong Kong broke twice in a row to take half 8-7, it was a tight and tense contest for the most part. Starting on O on universe point, the Bottles dumped and swung their way down the field, before a high stall boost to the endzone from Eva Strachan found the ever reliable hands of Tash Langsdon. Electric.
Through to the pre-quarters by a single point, the Bottles found themselves facing off against a pretty high octane New Zealand side. Kent and Lucas Wilcock put in a shift for the Kiwis, carrying a lot of the offensive flow duties. Though the Bottles kept pace to 6-6, this New Zealand team has been finding its groove throughout the tournament, and went on a pretty rampaging run to close out the game 14-8. We wish them a hearty good luck against Singapore!
Though they unfortunately have an ever-growing injury list, the Bluebottles will be looking forward to playing with fun and freedom in their final few games of the tournament. They face off with China today, and will be seeing either Sweden or Colombia in the next game. Go Bluebottles!
Women’s
With pool play now done and dusted, it’s clear to see that Pool A and Pool B have been two very different kettles of fish. While Australia has been battling through something like a Pool of Death with heaps of big and angry fish swimming around, Pool B has been a bizarre and seemingly logicless back and forth of huge scorelines. GB are a good example, having lost 15-2 to pool leaders Japan, beaten 2nd place Italy 14-9, and then losing to 6th placed Singapore on universe. I can’t heads or tails of it.
As we head into the bracket, it’ll be interesting to see how the two pools crossover. The Germany and Italy match up will be an interesting one to watch, with Ava Mueller currently sitting well clear as the stat leader of the division, throwing an average of over 6 goals a game. While Canada have been looking strong, you should never discount a Colombian Women’s team, who have shown time and time again their ability to perform under pressure.
Stingrays
The Stingrays rounded out pool play with a walloping win over China on the stream (watch for free on YouTube), a tough loss to Canada, and a morale boosting win over New Zealand.
There were no shortage of standout moments in the game against China once they found their groove. After a few long and arduous points to start, the Stingrays started to really click offensively, scoring nine, yes nine, points in a row to finish the contest 15-4. The full roster gets involved, with a real quick pick-up-and-play style that often punished the Chinese. Definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already - although we should give a trigger warning: Ultiworld zoomed in on the New Zealand flag at one point. And also they did a shot of the Stingray’s huddle through some people’s legs. Hm.
On Day 4, Australia knew they needed to beat Canada by four to win out in a three-way tie (with Germany being the third). A tough ask. Though they stayed competitive through the first half, Canada is a team that’s vibing and rolling right now, and went on two critical runs of breaks that the Stingrays had no answer for. They had to back up against New Zealand in the afternoon, which had become a kind of unofficial, must-win pre-quarter. The Stingrays were able to hold all but twice, and punched in five big breaks throughout the course of the game to book a ticket to the quarters.
After finishing fourth in the pool, there’s no denying that Australia are drawing one of the toughest quarterfinal matchups. Japan have looked fierce over in Pool B, though as mentioned it’s hard to get a read on the quality of their opposition. As we’ve been saying throughout the tournament, the Stingrays are a vibe-based team that’s getting no shortage of break opportunities, and this is a very lethal combination. For superstar, mentally resilient, high energy teams like the Stingrays, there’s something about the big stakes of a knockout game that can make everything click together. Quarters are the perfect time to convert potential into wins, to turn energy into unstoppable momentum.
The Stingrays will be playing Japan live and on the stream at 10 pm AEST. Is there ANYWHERE you’d rather be? Find out how to do that from our friends (we’re friends again) at Ultiworld.
Let’s go Stingrays!
Opens
Oof. Jeez. Goodness me. It has been a tense and electric few days of Ultimate over in the Opens division, with Pool B in particular producing some absolute nail biters on Day 4. Pool A’s final rankings seem pretty fair, with Great Britain pulling the Belgian short straw for their quarter final. There’s no doubt that Italy and Japan, and Canada and Germany, will be close and extremely hard fought quarter finals.
The final placings in Pool B came down to the very last point of the very last game, with a universe point finish between New Zealand and Ireland that some are saying was the Game of the Tournament so far. Time cap sounded just as New Zealand scored their 14th point, who were up by a fairly comfortable 14-10 margin. Ireland hold and then break back via a jump ball to their ‘7 foot behemoth of a man,’ and then break again on the next point through the same technique. By this point, other games have finished, and the sidelines are packed. Same seven are going back to back for both teams. Ireland gets another break after some combination of a New Zealand brain implosion and tough windy conditions, and take it to universe. Despite Ireland getting the turn on another wayward, wind-affected swing, New Zealand get one of the biggest, cleanest, wrong-side layout D’s that many spectators had ever seen. They calmly punch it in to win 15-14.
And we must say thank you to our brothers across the ditch, because without this critical point, the Goeys would have been knocked out of the bracket on a head-to-head with the Netherlands.
You can watch this double game point and the Goey’s double game point against Belgium in the one video I saw on Reddit.
Goannas
Like the Stingrays, the Goannas wound up fourth in their pool. They finished off pool play with a commanding win over New Zealand, a loss to Japan, and then a bizarre, gut-wrenching universe point loss to Belgium.
Though little is known about the first two games beyond what the cold hard data tells us, it seems the Wollongong boys had a great game against Japan. Jono Keyes, Callum Faulkner and Coby Ryan led the stats for the game, combining for most of the Aussie’s goals. In the New Zealand Game, James Frenchy French, Noah Moss and Leon Ngo each bagged two goals a piece, and based on no information at all I reckon they would have been screamers.
In bizarre scenes in the final game of pool play (that at the time of writing, though not for much longer, you can watch on Ulti.TV’s Instagram story), a Belgium boy was so happy with the deep block that he clearly and undeniably caught that he spiked it on his head and ran off up the field. Just to be clear, he was on D, caught the disc, and then celebrated the block by throwing the disc into his own face and letting it hit the ground. In what world is this not a double turnover, or at the very least, cause for major rebuke on the internet.
Despite this, the Goannas took the Kings of Pool B, the Real Deal, Not To Be Underestimated Belgium to universe point. Though the Belgians had already guaranteed a first place finish, the Aussies needed the W to feel safe in the top 4 (since they couldn’t possibly have known anything about New Zealand’s universe point heroics other than all the screaming they could hear). It was a game of, self-inflicted head spikes notwithstanding, civil back and forth, with only two breaks per team.
No matter, draw wise. The Goeys remain fourth, and have a big match up with the USA in their quarterfinal on Day 5. Hopefully pushing Belgium to universe shows the Goeys how lethal and threatening they can be when they play with pride and energy, and convert their breaks. If they treasure the disc, and tap into that rich Goeys history of noise, athleticism and self-belief, I think they can do something truly special against the Americans.
Tune in at MIDNIGHT AEST (go on) to see the Aussies take on the USA in a quarterfinal. Find more info on how to do that here.
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Thank you so much to my spies in the field, Tom Kinsella, Lucy Deller and Tiernan Somers for giving me the inside scoop. And also Dennis Tran for telling me things I already knew but in a really exciting way.