(Monster brings it in)In trying to come up with a way to end last post's build up to Monster's scrimmage against Tundra, I came up with "Can the Beast beat the landscape?" What the heck kind of way is that to hype it up? So I decided to go to the source, Andy Milne, one of Tundra's tri-captains the reasoning behind the naming decision:
Juan: "So, Andy, why Tundra?"
Andy: "I don't know. It sounded good? We're cold? Like Canada?"
Juan: "The problem is, I can't even say it's the beast versus the mountain. It's a plain. Like, flat land. That's not intimidating unless you have a fear of open spaces. And really, you're not scaring anyone because your opponent demographic is about being comfortable in open spaces."
Andy: "It still sounds good."
Juan: "I really can't argue that."
That dialogue only shows a fraction of the bad blood and enmity that exists between two of the three teams vying for the title of "Toronto's Top Co-Ed Team", something that will be fostered throughout the season as they will share the practice field. Will someone spike the other's team's water bottles with HGH? Will a guitar get smashed over someone's head? Who's to say? All I know is that on Thursday, May 23rd, the first round of Canadian Ultimate's version of the Hatfields and the McCoys took place.
(It was so windy two of Tundra's women were almost blown over)Scrimmage
It was a windy afternoon at York Mills Collegiate Institute, and Monster tried to look at it as an oppotunity to practice under less than ideal conditions. We did our standard warm-up routine, then proceed to Throw-for-Scores upwind. The throws, both backhands and forehands, were not pretty at first, but our completion percentage steadily started increasing. We kept putting more and more spin on our discs, while keeping throws low. They weren't full field hucks, but they were the types of throws that we would be using to break a zone upwind. After that, we scaled back to break-force 45s and our throws looked better over shorter distances. Our biggest problem was maintaining focus and always ready for the continuation throws that followed.
After the drills, Peyton and Shimmy met on the sidelines and decided to play a game to 17. We divided into upwind and downwind lines to best reflect the strengths of individual players, and sent our downwinders out to receive at the start of the game. The line flowed very quickly and used the backing wind to complete crisp passes for a score. The truest test would be the upwind line's ability to score against a fierce headwind. Tundra sent the pull deep into the Monster endzone and sent a cup screaming down the field in an obvious zone scenario. Shimmy was the vocal leader in the cup, setting up a strong mark and always harrying any throwing lanes. The upwind handlers used a patient dump and swing to loosen the cup, then began attacking the ever-widening holes between the three Tundra players. Once the first set of passes got through the cup, Monster quickly flowed up the sideline for a score. The first two scores set the tone for the game, as Monster reeled off several more points by setting tough zone D to quick transition scores. Tundra scored a downwinder, and the teams started to trade more points until Tundra scored an upwinder of their own to bring the game to a timed half time. Tundra's two main highlights were Frogger's handblock of Peyton (to avenge a second effort catch by Peyton earlier in the game) and numerous attempts by Tundra to kill Chinh with throws that were too high or too low. The universe got its revenge on Frogger by rolling his ankle, and Peyton warned anyone attempting to handblock him that he was protected by powers beyond our imagination.
(Evidence of the Espionage!)During half time, Hilary brought out his miniature field to show us how Tundra was attempting to break our zone defenses. He attributed their offenses to the old Roy Zone Breaker play, with mid cutters extending the hammer stoppers to the sidelines then having a third using the newly
created hole to get a deeper pass up field. Hilary's knowledge of Roy's play came from his time on the team with Tundra's three captains. A woman affiliated with Tundra was seen hovering behind the Monster huddle taking pictures of the miniature field. She was let off with a warning, but tensions are high after similar incidents took place with the NFL's"Spygate" scandal.
Peyton and Shimmy met after half time and agreed to reset the score and play until it got dark. Monster worked on transition defenses, resulting in several blown plays and some miscommunication. Even in these mistakes, it was good to see some of the issues take place outside of a tournament so that the team would have time to work on them. The biggest key was making the most of our time on the line to determine our plays, identify positioning and get ready for the point in general. Sometimes, Monster would talk too much, a fact that will be held against us at tournaments.
Conclusion
Overall, it was a great opportunity to play against a competitive touring team and focus on the concepts we'd worked on in practices. There is something inspiring playing against a different team that allows us to amp up our intensity. While it wasn't at a tournament level (it's difficult to
do it after work and when you know most of the other team), it was a good break from internal practices and gave us more to build upon. We know that Tundra was missing some players, so we look forward to playing against a great team from our city.
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