NE Mixed Regionals (Part 1)
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Loading ...(I’ll leave commentary on the other divisions to those who saw more than I; Ballometrics had games for most of the time I was in Devens. Check U Catch and Josh Mullen.)
I’ll try and give impressions by order of finish:
Slow White (1): Had an easy time of it, cruising into the finals where they defeated Bashing Pinatas. I didn’t actually get to see them play, as they wrapped things up pretty early on, but based off of our run-in at sectionals I’d point to their dominant women and some quick, aggressive (and effective) handlers as the pillars that make their offense stand above the rest. No other team in the Northeast can match up with their women.
Quiet Coyote (2): Took the second bid, getting revenge on Bashing Pinatas after a universe-point dropped pull made for an anticlimatic finish at the end of semis on Saturday. The rap on them all season has pegged them as talented but inconsistent; we gave them a close game in semifinals in what was probably our best game of the weekend. More than any other team I played against (in the Northeast at least), Quiet strikes me as a good capital-T Team, with solid fundamentals across the board and pretty coherent strategy. They have a fair bit of youth, which I imagine is tied somewhat to their inconsistency. (I’m also imagining that some refined cheering–that is to say, any cheering, but especially coyote howls or playing up the “quiet” component, would help with this. But as one of their players pointed out, I’m just some guy in a skirt. I’m from a “different world.”)
Bashing Pinatas (3): The skinny on this team this year had them with very solid guys, but lacking in women as they lost their top players to the newly-formed Bent (who made a hell of a showing through the first half against Brute in the backdoor game-to-go, by the way–I think it was up to 6-6 or so when I left). The guys certainly seemed to shoulder the bulk offensive load in the back-backdoor (side door? basement stairs?) game against Enough Monkeys and all of their zone sets. Hard for me to gauge their true talents from that game though, as the Monkeys were quite the Cinderella just to get to the 3rd place game, and in fact probably had close to zero motivation to win at that point.
That should one of your dedicated posts: catching the pull. Right before misha dropped it, jyd, QCs other handler, turned to him and said, "misha, you better catch it."
sam rosenthal is the best pull catcher i have ever seen. it truly is an art how he gets his body behind everything and just absorbs whatever knifing, wobbling, bouncing, etc pull that comes his way.
Teams that don't routinely catch the pull, especially in windy / wet weather makes it much harder for the offensive flow to get started.
-josh