Hong Kong Tournament

Hong Kong was fun. The place we stayed was fairly dirty and gross in
the outside hallways, but then you entered into another locked
hallway which was clean and simple, and then into your room. We
planned 3 per room. There were two single beds, and the room was
barely bigger than those beds. There was a small amount of floor
space with a shower stall in between. This was the bathroom, it was
about the same size as Devons and my shower in Ashland. There was a
squat toilet on the floor of that stall, which was the drain also,
and there was a sink in there was well. You could pee while showering
and brushing your teeth. Many bathrooms in China do not have a shower
stall or bath tub, there will just be a shower head and the room is
mostly tile with a drain at the bottom. You just hope the floor is
angled properly.

The next day we played 4 or 5 games, lost them all, got beat pretty
bad in all but one, we could have won but we didn't. My team was all
brand new or extremely inexperienced women, a group of 5 people that
we picked up from some random region in China that hadn't played but
knew us some how and came out for the tournament, and a few Beijing
guys who I had met at pickup. So including myself, 3 all around good
players and 2 guys who could hang. For the record, I was invited to
play for Flaming Mao, the A team from Beijing, but since it was a
coed tournament and there were a lot of men already, I decided to
play for the B team so that I could get as much playing time as I
wanted.

There is not much to say about the first day except that we got beat
pretty badly sometimes, mounted a good comeback one time, and hung
with a lousy team that we should have beat. Oh yeah and on the 2nd
point of the first game when we first received a pull, I dropped the
pull in the endzone, right in front of the Beijing A team.

Our team organizer named us Beijing Draught ahead of time, I don't
know why. But our cheers before we took the field always involved
drinking, like "2 beers one water" "3 beers one water" etc and "beer
at halftime"

We played a horizontal stack with 3 handlers, I handled with the
other good male, the third one alternated cutting/handling until he
hurt his wrist halfway through the day. He was out for the weekend.
We had trouble getting first cuts and had to swing a lot and go no
where, but thats understandable since all of our cutters were
learning ultimate that day. The guys from rural China were all
athletic, and mainly one guy was the best and had the best field
sense, so I made a point to talk to him constantly, telling him that
he should always be the first cut and that it was always on him to
make things happen. So once he learned not to drop the disc he was
extremely valuable. He ended up making the tournament MVP line. The
other new males improved as well.

So on Sunday we played another 3 games, against teams we had already
played. We started with the harder teams that spanked us, and this
time we took both of them to either a hard or soft cap within 2 or 3
points. So those were semi frustrating losses, but our first game we
made our goal to score 3 points because we only scored 2 the day
before, and we ended up scoring 4 points in a row to take half and
making it to 10 but losing. Our final game was against the team we
should have beaten the day before. I expected to win, we did a 2 line
system, 2 points per line. I felt my line was better and we were
perfect for our first four points, while the other line didn't score.
So I said lets score quickly, I'll huck to the MVP. Then we can stay
on for 3 points and stay perfect with our 1 point lead. So of course
we received the pull and I dropped the pass our other handler threw
to me right off the bat, no one was on me. And the point after that,
right after we got the pull I got the disc and the girl handling with
me called for it and she was open and I went to throw it and saw her
woman burst forward, and I ended up throwing a half aborted throw
into the ground. I let loose a string of obscenities expressing how
upset I was with myself and we promptly got scored on. So I dug us
into a 2 point hole that we couldn't get out of. A hard cap was
called and I was confused at the end because we scored after the hard
cap to come within one, but they said the game was over after that.
However if I hadn't have been there, I wouldn't have scored the
previous 2 points before my fowl ups and not hucked both a flick and
backhand for scores to our future MVP for the first two points.

So my playing experience that game was extremely frustrating on an
personal level, normally frustrating for the other games. But when
you handle you mess up. During one game when I stepped out to cut a
lot, I was on fire and we moved a lot. However it was also very fun,
the team I was with was very easygoing and fun to play with.

Flaming Mao, the A team, played in an exciting semifinal against
Singapore and won, and then played an exciting final against
Shanghai, but lost in a close finish. The level of play was extremely
high, a few young athletes who seemed to be fresh out of high level
college teams, and some slightly older men, one guy on Beijing has
played in Nationals with a Seattle club Shizam. Both teams' women
were very athletic, two Beijing girls were laying out everywhere and
getting hurt and then getting back up and laying out again. I have
also learned that asian women make great ultimate players, they are
usually quite athletic and aggressive, I saw one lady from Singapore
sprint with one of our fast guys down the field. That girl also
spiked the disc in one of Shanghai's more annoying and aggressive
players' face after scoring on him.

Overall it was a fun weekend, my team won best spirit, maybe because
of our beer related cheers while scoring 2-4 points per game on
Saturday.

I don't know if Beijing is going to any more tournaments, but I might
try to plan my travels in the spring around the Asian tournament
schedule. I met enough people from each city to join a team if need be.