Chaos in the ISTAF Takraw Super Series in Palembang, Indonesia!

Back in July 2011 the USA sent a team to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to play against the best teams in the world at the ISTAF Sepak Takraw World Cup.  They managed to finish in the top 12, securing a spot in the elite ISTAF Super Series.  In the fall of 2011, PT, Jeremy and Jack of Chaos were invited to play on the USA team in the Super Series event in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.  We trained hard with USA team captain Tony Ontam, only to have the event canceled at the last minute.  The invitation was extended for the three of us to play in the next Super Series event in Palembang, Indonesia.  Unfortunately PT had a scheduling conflict, but Jack and Jeremy accepted and plowed ahead with the training schedule. 

It’s now down to the wire: The tournament runs February 23-26.  Ranked literally at the bottom of the field (and comprising the only non-Asian team in the top 12), we have an extremely tough tournament ahead of us.  This is compounded by the fact that with no substitute players we have no room for injuries.  Nonetheless, we are extremely honored to get a chance to play against the best and intend to leave it all on the court in Palembang.  Thanks to Tony for believing in us and spending the time to coach and encourage us to play our best.  Thanks also to PT and the rest of the Chaos footbag crew for sacrificing gym time to support team USA. 

Current ISTAF Rankings:
1. Thailand
2. Malaysia
3. Indonesia
4. Burma (Myanmar)
5. Korea
6. Singapore
7. Phillipines
8. India
9. Japan
10. Brunei
11. Laos
12. USA

For more information, check out:
ISTAF—International Sepak Takraw Federation
Takraw USA

The 2010 World Footbag Championships

More than you’d ever need to know as a player or spectator is right here.  Errrr, or can be accessed via the links in ‘What’s Up’ above (see World Championships | WFC General Net Schedule | WFC - Everything Net).

Want to see your seed?  What pool are you in?  Who are you playing in your opening match?  It’s all there - for Sunday morning anyway.

Sunday, August 1st is Opening Day at the 31st running of The World Championships of Footbag.  At least 150 players representing 10 countries or more have arrived in Northern California and are prepared for 7 Days of competition which kicks off, sorry , Sunday morning at 9am with the first round of Open Singles Net.

What’s it all about?  If you don’t know footbag… well… it’s hard to describe in words.  Hmm, an amalgamation of martial arts and volleyball with your feet?  If you’re familiar with a sport called Takraw, it’s similar but played as doubles or singles instead of 3 per side, and the ball is much smaller.  Matches are generally the best of 3 games to 11 or 15.

Footbag?  Yes… footbag.  I know :(.

It can only best be described with visuals so embedded below is a highlight video from The Green Cup in 2008, a footbag tournament hosted by Team Chaos from the Bay Area.

All the Open players/teams are now seeded and the pools and brackets are drawn up.  We’ll try to update the status of the net competition here daily.  The ‘WFC - Everything Net’ link(s) should be useful and mostly up to date throughout the week.

Follow yourself or your favorite players, get event locations, match times, contact information, etc.

The featured matches happen on Thursday and Friday in the evening, and Saturday.

South American Killers -- SURA 2009

Here, finally, is some video footage of SURA 2009 in Bogota, Colombia.

The future of footbag net is in South America!
I encourage everyone to think about attending SURA 2010 in Caracas, Venezuela.  Venezuela is home to some of the world’s finest beaches and coral reefs, as well as the world’s tallest waterfall.  Venezuela would like to remind you that they win a disproportionate number of beauty pageants, too.  Early December, warm and dry, is an ideal time of year to visit…

Chaos Approved
In 2007 PT, Eric and Patti attended the 1st South American Footbag Championships in Medellin, Colombia.  Their mission: To develop a relationship with the growing footbag net scene in South America.  They provided coaching and participated in various exhibitions to promote the sport, but did not compete because of the wide disparity in skill levels.

In 2008, Jack and Jeremy of Chaos joined Yves Archambault of Pro-Kicker to continue that mission in San Cristobal, Venezuela.  This time, perhaps prematurely, the norteamericanos entered the tournament.  The energy and style of the South American players was easy to appreciate, however, there was too much focus on offense--with plenty of injuries and fouls--and not enough on basics and defense.  That said, a few of the players could legitimately have competed internationally at the open level.

This past December, Jeremy and Jack returned for the 3rd South American Footbag Championships in Bogota, Colombia.  Things have changed.  Several of the South American players are now clearly ready for international competition (you will get to meet a few of them at the 31st IFPA World Championships in Oakland), however, most of these guys are quite young, and though their fortunes may rise with Venezuela’s and Colombia’s, for now it is prohibitively expensive for them to travel abroad.  In the short term, the goal is to get enough North American and European players to attend next year’s tournament to raise SURA 2010 to level 3.  Think about it…

Chaos at Finals of The World Championships - Streaming Live

World Championships streaming live!  PT, Manu VS Patti and Flo - 10am start time.  I’m watchin em warm up right now.

Later this morning, about 10am, Chaos #3, PT Lovern - Oakland, CA, and his partner Emmanuel Bouchard - Montreal Quebec, will meet Florian Goetze, Frankfurt DE, and his partner Patrick Schrickel, Chaos #8, in the Championships Match for the Open Doubles title.

These two teams met at the finals of the 2008 Green Cup and it was an epic match going the distance and more with Florian and Patrick taking the title.  Many folks have been eagerly anticipating a rematch, not least of all of all these 4 guys.  Today we will have it and in the most dramatic of settings.  Flo and Patrick are from Germany - Flo from Frankfurt and Patti from Berlin.  Patrick moved to the US 2 years ago and is a member of Team Chaos now.  So, they are looking for their 2nd 3rd World Championship overall and second on German soil.

Emmanuel and PT are looking to defend their World Championship and this is the team they want to challenge for it.

2009 Akishpere Highlights: Bring it Down!

This video is courtesy Martin Chartand! It is fast and furious a good representation of what the final was like. He also edited the entire match coming soon.

For The Green Cup - 1a

Chaos #3 (PT Lovern) and Emmanuel Bouchard (Oakland, CA and Montreal, QE respectively) VS JF Lemiux and Benjamin Rochon (both from Montreal, QE) in the Open Doubles Championship Match at The Green Cup presented by Chaos Footbag, 2009 edition.