The 2008 CanAm!

Monteal, Quebec - The Beast of Footbag. Of course, this pic is from their winter event. However, I think it best represents what I'm talkin bout. Don't you?

Or should I say Chaos/Quebecois?  How about Queos?  And by that I mean… we have 4 Chaos representatives attending this event and each of them is teaming with a Quebecois!!!  What!?  Yes, it’s true.  Chaos #3, PT Lovern, and Emmanual Bouchard.  Chaos #4, Johnny Leys, and Robert Lavigne.  Chaos #7, Tuan Vu, and Samuel Cloutier.  Chaos #25 Jeremy Mirken, and Yves Archambault.  Four USA teaming up with four Quebecois.  Four Chaos teaming up with four AQF.  Arch rivals we are but I guess the love runs deeper than our desire to kick each other’s asses!  It’s a close call though, honestly. 

I’ve often said that if you consider yourself a net player you must venture into the heart of The Beast.  You must face it in it’s home.  Not just the best of The Beast but also the breadth of The Beast.  And the only tournament you are guaranteed the full onslaught of The Beast that is AQF is… Montreal!  Have you been?

This weekend is The 2008 Pro Kicker Montreal Footbag Championships!

The 2008 NPR Open And Shut

Scott Mag Hughes - First Class Footbag Hall of Fame

An all Chaos CONSOLATION!  WTF!

I may get some @#$*! from my teammates for saying so but credit must go where credit is due.  We went into the lair of our arch rivals ready to take whatever we wanted.  It’s been done before.  Not this time.  NPR - Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold.  From our perspective, this ~ahem~ healthy ~ahem~ rivalry just got a little ~ahem~ healthier.

Chris Siebert and David Bernard didn’t lose a set all weekend and won two close games in a well played and very entertaining Championship match over Ken Shults and Steve Dusablon.  I believe it was 16-14, 15-13.  They took their semi-final match over Eric and Jack 16-14, 15-8.  Chris and The Dr played more consistently than anyone in the field with stretches of CRUSH to take charge at just the right moments all weekend long.

On the other side of the bracket in semi-final no. 2 Kenny Shults and Steve Dusablon were pretty convincing taking out this weekend’s Chaos B, Tuan and Jeremy, in 2 sets.  The score was something like 15-6, 15-8.  Tuan and Jeremy showed flashes of their potential in other matches but Kenny and Steve didn’t give them any room to get going.

In singles, Kenny Shults sliced through the field like, well… sorry bout this but it’s true… a hot knife through warm butter.  Someone should check, but I don’t think enough points were scored against Shults the entire weekend to equal a single game loss.  He dominated - completely.  Mag Hughes was the head judge for my singles semi-final match against Chris Siebert and just prior to the start of the match he wanted to confirm with us what we were playing for(I think he thought it may have been a quarter-final).  Anyway, knowing Kenny had already beaten David Bernard to advance to the final I answered, “we’re playing for 2nd”.  Conan went on to beat me 20-18(nice game guys), 15-5(nice game Chris) and in hindsight I just may be happier with 3rd than 2nd. 

For the record, Dave Bernard and I will actually both get points for 4th place since we mutually agreed to scratch our bronze metal match.  No need to warm up for doubles after it’s over, eh? 

Other highlights?  It’s the weekend of legends, right?  I mentioned so many of the greats a couple posts back and I’m sure I missed some and I’m sorry for that.  But honestly, it’s hard to keep track in the fatherland of footbag.  What I’d like to do here is focus on just one as I conclude this post.  Mag Hughes.  Mag spent the entire weekend at the event donating his time and sharing his good spirit.  He wasn’t in shape to play yet since he’s recovering very nicely from cancer surgery.  He performed the duties of head judge for several matches and apparently won a fair amount of money betting… against me - wtf?!  hehe All the best to the great Mag Hughes for a continued strong recovery!

Many thanks as always to the hosts, organizers, and directors of the event.  The US Open always makes for a great weekend.  Special thanks to Chris Siebert, Red Husted, and of course… Kendall “Don’t Call Me Director” Kick who are the driving force behind The US Open Footbag Championships.

US Open 2008 - Goin To The Show

It’s showtime!  Semis are set with Chaos facing NPR in both Semi-final matches.

Chaos #25, aka Jeremy Mirken, and Chaos #7, aka Tuan Vu, face Steve Dusablon and Kenny Shults in one Semi-final and Chaos #5, Eric Wulff, and Chaos #2, Jack Harris face Chris Siebert and Dave Bernard, aka Dr Fly High, in the other.

In singles Eric will face Conan, aka Chris Siebert, while Kenny, I have 132 world titles, Shults looks to ground Fly High Dave Bernard!

The match of the day featured Chaos and Memphis.  We took out the Memphis boys - Bi-atch!    It was the final match of the day, winner going to the Semi-finals with most other competitors watching and waging.  Only friendly bets of course, on the line were things like judging assignments and cupcakes.  Anyway, Jeremy and Tuan were not in their happy place while the Memphis boys, Ben and Walt, clearly were to start the match.  Memphis, showing no southern hospitality what so ever, dominated in game one 15-6 and then jumped out to a commanding lead in game 2, 8-3.  Then Chaos began to find their groove.  It was a dramatic finish to the 2nd game with Tuan and Jeremy defending 6 match points before taking it 17-15.  Game 3 was a close fought battle as well with Jeremy and Tuan pulling it out 15-12.  Thanx to all 4 those guys for providing the early evening entertainment.  The rest of the netters, long since finished with their work for the day, much appreciated it !

Oh, and thanks for the cupcakes Chaos!

The question for today, shall the prophecy of an all Chaos final at the US Open be fulfilled?

It's Opening Day At The US Open 2008

News of the event so far… David Robinson!  Of course, this is the tournament of legends but we haven’t seen David at a tournament in, well… according to Shults, and I quote… “a long long time”.

David was one of my footbag heroes in the late 80’s and early 90’s… and not just because he’s a great guy and a tremendous player.  He’s also one of the select few shorter than I.    I mentioned this to Shults last night and he was like… really?  Well, from Kenny’s perspective all us short guys are the same.

Anyway, I digress.

The Memphis boys are here with an old guy too .  Ken Hamric is a regular on the tour now.  Shults is teaming with Steve Dusablon and Chris Siebert is teaming up with Dr Fly high.  Robinson and Hammer!  Disco Ninja and Air Jer, EJ and Sage representing SC, Eric and Jack - aka Chaos 5 to the 2!

There are others I’m missing surely and I apologize for that.  I haven’t had my tea yet, so please give me a break.  Ok, it’s off to the site for… singles?  Whah?

Happy US Open!

IFPA Net Rankings - 2007, July Thru 2008, June

Hey folks, below are links to all the current World Rankings for Open Net players.  Be aware, it takes many volunteer hours to process and publish this data and we’re constantly working to improve the system for accuracy and efficiency.  Many thx go to Grischa Tellenbach and others in helping process the data.  We’re confident the data is accurate but it’s surely not perfect.  When you find discrepancies please contact us and we’ll fix it asap.

Now, for your enjoyment or torture, see how you measure up.  :D

Current World Rankings:

doubles current: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3gNn61SN9fbFs5xN3tqoYQ
singles current: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3gNn61SN9faNn_pgcf2BWw
singles women current: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3gNn61SN9fa8-ywYHQ4law
doubles women current: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3gNn61SN9fbuZELCLwYtBQ
mixed current: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p3gNn61SN9fbIcPcEpPNdIQ

Green Cup 2008 Championship Match Stats!

Flo's brinin it. I'd bet it was dug though. Check out the stats! Also, click the pic to see Jack Harris' photos from final's day at The 2008 Green Cup. They're pretty killer pics. Thanks Jack - aka Chaos #2!

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while but been just too busy.  Chris Young compiled some SICK stats from the great final match at this year’s Green Cup.  I’m simply copying and pasting his own words and stats here.  Thanks Chris!  And damn - nice work to the final Two!

Note on format.  Errors are unforced errors.  Over all is first a ratio (so .92 is 92% success)
the second parenthetical number is the overall rating discounting serves.

Overs is a count of times the bag was sent over the net that was not a spike and was not on
the third hit.  The parenthetical number afterwards are the number of opportunities that could
have been hit over.

Spikes, the first number is successful spikes, the 2nd parenthetical number the number of attempts.

Serves first shows the number of serves attempted, the 2nd ratio shows the percentage in.

Serves received first shows the number of serves received and then the ratio of receptions
successfully fielded.

Digs shows the number of digs executed successfully by the player.

Spikes dug shows first the number of spikes executed by the player that were successfully dug and
then the ratio of spikes executed by the player that were dug (e.g. .36 means 36% of spikes successfully
hit by the player were dug by the defending side).

Game 1:
---------
Player: Flo
Contacts: 106 Errors: 8 Overall: 0.92 (0.94)
Sets: 13 Overs: 1 (52) Spikes: 28 (33)
Serves: 18 (0.83) Serves received: 18 (0.94)
Digs: 9 Spikes dug: 10(0.36)

Player: Patti
Contacts: 98 Errors: 4 Overall: 0.96 (0.95)
Sets: 31 Overs: 5 (63) Spikes: 10 (14)
Serves: 21 (1.00) Serves received: 17 (0.94)
Digs: 7 Spikes dug: 4(0.40)

Player: Manu
Contacts: 97 Errors: 9 Overall: 0.91 (0.90)
Sets: 18 Overs: 1 (50) Spikes: 20 (26)
Serves: 18 (0.94) Serves received: 19 (0.95)
Digs: 6 Spikes dug: 11(0.55)

Player: PT
Contacts: 97 Errors: 5 Overall: 0.95 (0.96)
Sets: 23 Overs: 3 (53) Spikes: 19 (21)
Serves: 20 (0.90) Serves received: 17 (1.00)
Digs: 8 Spikes dug: 5(0.26)

Game 2:
----------
Player: Patti
Contacts: 80 Errors: 6 Overall: 0.93 (0.94)
Sets: 29 Overs: 0 (47) Spikes: 12 (13)
Serves: 15 (0.87) Serves received: 17 (0.94)
Digs: 1 Spikes dug: 6(0.50)

Player: Flo
Contacts: 99 Errors: 13 Overall: 0.87 (0.86)
Sets: 13 Overs: 3 (42) Spikes: 25 (31)
Serves: 19 (0.89) Serves received: 19 (0.95)
Digs: 6 Spikes dug: 11(0.44)

Player: Manu
Contacts: 82 Errors: 7 Overall: 0.91 (0.90)
Sets: 12 Overs: 7 (39) Spikes: 16 (20)
Serves: 20 (0.95) Serves received: 14 (0.93)
Digs: 10 Spikes dug: 4(0.25)

Player: PT
Contacts: 74 Errors: 6 Overall: 0.92 (0.93)
Sets: 20 Overs: 1 (38) Spikes: 11 (12)
Serves: 19 (0.89) Serves received: 16 (0.88)
Digs: 7 Spikes dug: 3(0.27)

Game 3:
--------
Player: Patti
Contacts: 106 Errors: 6 Overall: 0.94 (0.94)
Sets: 29 Overs: 3 (66) Spikes: 15 (19)
Serves: 19 (0.95) Serves received: 19 (1.00)
Digs: 11 Spikes dug: 5(0.33)

Player: Flo
Contacts: 117 Errors: 11 Overall: 0.91 (0.96)
Sets: 19 Overs: 6 (54) Spikes: 27 (31)
Serves: 25 (0.72) Serves received: 20 (1.00)
Digs: 9 Spikes dug: 6(0.22)

Player: Manu
Contacts: 90 Errors: 5 Overall: 0.94 (0.94)
Sets: 17 Overs: 5 (39) Spikes: 26 (26)
Serves: 20 (0.95) Serves received: 21 (1.00)
Digs: 5 Spikes dug: 15(0.58)

Player: PT
Contacts: 88 Errors: 7 Overall: 0.92 (0.92)
Sets: 25 Overs: 2 (42) Spikes: 17 (18)
Serves: 22 (0.91) Serves received: 15 (0.87)
Digs: 6 Spikes dug: 5(0.29)

3 Games Combined:
-----------------
Player: Patti
Contacts: 284 Errors: 16 Overall: 0.94 (0.94)
Sets: 89 (46% of Patti’s controlled hits were sets)
Overs: 8 (4.2% of Patti’s hits were unintended overs)
Spikes: 37 (80% successfully hit)
Serves: 55 (94.5% in) Serves received: 53 (96.2% fielded)
Digs: 19 (10.8% of Patti’s contacts were digs, serve/reception discounted)
Spikes dug: 15(41% of Patti’s spikes were dug)

Player: Flo
Contacts: 322 Errors: 32 Overall: 0.90 (0.923)
Sets: 45 (25%)
Overs: 10 (5.6%)
Spikes: 80 (84%)
Serves: 62 (80.6%) Serves received: 57 (96.5%)
Digs: 24 (11.8%) Spikes dug: 27 (34%)

Player: Manu
Contacts: 269 Errors: 21 Overall: .92 (0.915)
Sets: 47 (32%)
Overs: 13 (8.7%)
Spikes: 62 (86%)
Serves: 58 (94.8%) Serves received: 54 (96.3%)
Digs: 21 (13.4%) Spikes dug: 30 (48%)

Player: PT
Contacts: 259 Errors: 18 Overall: 0.93 (0.939)
Sets: 68 (45%)
Overs: 6 (4%)
Spikes: 47 (92%)
Serves: 61 (90.2%) Serves received: 48 (91.7%)
Digs: 21 (14%) Spikes dug: 13(28%)