The Semis are Set!

JF Lemieux attempts a block on the toe reverse of Mr Chaos #4, aka John Leys

The Quarterfinals had some upsets for sure. There was some crazy action especially on the Singles side.

Here are the results:

Singles

Manu (Quebec) over Tuomas Karki (Finland)
Johnny over Oskari (Finland)
Matti (Finland) over Flo (Germany)
JF (Quebec) over Andi (Germany)

Semis are

Manu VS Johnny
JF VS Matti

Doubles Net:

Flo and Patti (Germany) over Frank and Luc (Quebec)
PT and Manu over Tuomas and Jesse (Finland)
Matti and Oskari (Finland) over Jakko and Jani (Finland)
JF and Gilles (Quebec) over Eric and Johnny

Doubles Semis:

Patti/Flo VS Gilles/JF
PT/Manu VS Oskari/Matti

Other notes: Tuan and Jeremy got 16th, Tuan is also the Master of Disaster in both Singles and Doubles, and of course Air Jer is still on PROBATION, but damn proud of it. 

Taking Care Of Business

Ok, it was a shaky start and we’ve had a couple scares but Chaos is taking care of business so far.  PT and Manu, Chaos #3 and #27, the #2 seed here, haven’t broken a sweat yet in their run to the quarterfinals in open doubles.  All doubles matches are games to 15 from here on out.

John and Eric, Chaos #4 and 5, pulled the #5 seed, and won their pool.  Out of the pool they were immediately challenged by Slovanian A, Ales and Jaka, in the round of 16 going to game 3 and winning in dramatic fashion 11-9 on a dig by Eric off the net scrappy diving save by Johnny somehow dribbling it over the net - for the win!  4-11, 11-6, 11-9.  John and Eric face Montreal A, Gilles and JF, today at 11:30 to see who goes to the semifinals - “The Show”.

Chaos #25 and #7, Jeremy and Tuan, seeded 13 are out of the title run but playing strong and aiming for 9th.

Johnny Leys is the final US player in the running for the singles championship and in the quarterfinals.  Johnny!!

The feel good story of the event so far is team Finland.  They’ve been threatening for years now and starting to break through the last 2 having their first semifinalist 2 years ago in singles and a 3rd place finish in doubles and singles last year.  Well, we’re looking at 3 Fins in the quarters in singles and another 3 Fin teams, that means 6 , in the doubles quarters.  The Fins are deep.

As usual, it’s hard trying to find time to post but maybe I can squeeze in some more detailed results and shenanigans at some point before this week is out.

Black Monday

Sorry, details not be disclosed here.

What's Beijing Got On Us?

Allot more people, allot more money, allot more fireworks, kites, athletes… you name it.  But they ain’t go no footbag yo!  The 2008 World Footbag Championships in Praha, Czech Republic Opening Day in 3!  If you care, check here for updates, assuming we actually do have internet access from our flat as promised.

There is a net seeding discussion on the footbag forum and the seeding committee will post final seeding for at least Monday’s events here on Sunday night.

Seeding Discussion - Net - World Footbag Championships 2008

Let the debate begin.  Check out the forum at footbag.org for a discussion on seeding at this year’s World Championships.

http://www.footbag.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=38483#38483

From Air Jer to Air Jere in 1 weekend

Chaos#25, formerly known as ‘Air Jer’ invaded Finland this weekend and made his way to the open singles semifinals (where we won’t mention that he got his ass handed to him by Matti Pohjola).

Initially seeded 10th of 24 players, Jer won his pool by squeaking out a victory over his doubles partner Timo Vorne and beating two other players. #25 went on to win two more matches before losing to the number 1 and 3 seeds. With his impressive performance, the Finns have agreed to bestow upon him his finnish name, Jere Mirkennen. In other news, Air Jere was dubbed a “Super American” by Sasha Smirnov, with at least a 1.5 multiplier of awesomeness over the typical American. In doubles, Chaos #25 and his partner, Timo, were unable to capitalize on several match points and ultimately lost in the quarterfinals, securing 5th place in consolation.

Final impressions: the Finns are pretty good English speakers, they make funny English wise-cracks, and they know how to run a fun event. Mixed doubles and open doubles were run entirely on Saturday, and open singles was run on Sunday. No events started earlier than 11AM on either day, which was great considering the amount of alcoholic fluid imbibed by players during the prior evenings. Matti Pohjola got to the finals of all 3 events at his own tournament and won 2 of them. Jani Markannen is an excellent singles player and can definitely give Manu a run for his money in Prague this year. And yes, Oskari Forsten can his a fast roll-spike, as well as 20 other types of spikes. Helsinki and Turku were awesome places to visit. I hope I will be able to return next Summer.