Last night, as I was sitting in the villa, the weather outside not particularly interesting (not cold, but not Florida hot, and continued windy), I continued to work on my valiant attempt at stats taking. I was inputting some of the game data in hopes I could actually trust the program to work tomorrow, when a teammate came into the villa and sat down next to me.

He sat on the chair arm and asked what I was working on, since I wasn't outside at the beach with the rest of the team. I sat up and leaned forward to show him what I was working on, how the input mechanism worked, and what I was changing, when he leaned into me for a better angle to the laptop screen.

Except it wasn't just a let-me-see lean. It was more than that.

It was a "hey, I like you" sort of lean, where you can't really admit the attraction, because if you admit the attraction, then all sorts of other emotions come tumbling out behind the admission and one if not both of you are left standing there, feeling quite a bit uncomfortable.

Except for when one or both of you don't.

When, instead, the other person leans back, because that person is attracted, too, and won't ever admit it, either.

I miss the touch of others. Not in a sexual way, but in a hey, I'm still here, I'm still alive, I'm warm, you're warm sort of way. In college, hugs were fine, shoulder rubs were common, there wasn't anything necessarily romantic or promising per se about walking arm-in-arm with a friend. Ultimate has some of that, sure, but less so with the elite teams, and way less so the less you know your teammates. One of my teammates jumped up and yelled at me when I went to rub his shoulders two years ago. I think that's the last time I initiated shoulder rubs for more than a fly-by without being specifically asked to start rubbing.

But I miss it. I miss the warm touch of others.

Sure, I get Kris.

Yet, I still don't get enough of him, either.

Well, we started today first in our power pool, because we beat Barrio yesterday. They're in the pool with a loss, even though they had the best point differential of the three teams that went 2-1.

Our first game is against D'oh, who is also from the Northwest Region. All four of the Northwest Region teams are in the power pools, which just means we're all in the top eight after yesterday, nothing too earth shattering there. D'oh finished fourth from our region and might have beaten the team earlier in the season, I don't know (it would have been at Spawnfest, which I didn't go to this year).

warmed up, first games against Regionals matchup D'oh
misch 3 doh 0 on kyle to ryan, high wind
zone d not so effective, works anyway 4-0
chucky catches int, hucks 68 yards to adam brown for score 5-0

So, at this point, D'oh calls a timeout. In this timeout, the captain sca-REAMS at his team, "THIS TEAM CHOKES! This team is known for choking. They ALWAYS choke. We just need to be sure we're in it when they do. So keep fighting, keep running, keep playing hard. We have this."

Now, there are moments when I think the world of Mischief. These are moments when the team is On. Fire. FI-IRE! There are times, of course, when the team isn't in the game. The difference between these two states can be felt. It's a tangible sensation that I'm unable to fully describe.

I do, however, recognize when it's there.

And it was there when D'oh called a timeout. It was there when their captain tried to rally the troops.

It was there as the team was handily defeated.

5-1
two throw score, defenders screaming at teammates, "I didn't hear an up call! I didn't hear an up call!" 6-1
wind pretty bad, similar to tandem game in 2006, if not worse
doh calls time out without any, turns the disc, we can't capitalize, turn back, they score 6-2
hard to stay unemotional in a snippy game
time out misch on goal line after 4 turns in point already
6-3 on 9 turn over point. wind kicking up.
6-4 on dump turn near endzone
7-4 on andy huck to em
long discussion on foul call
9 turns in this point, all four of ours were wind blades. we somehow take half 8-4
ugly point. chippy calls. huck and play d strategy is only one with a chance. 10-6
wind so bad, pull doesn't make it past 30 yards, they score one throw 10-7
emily layout catch huck, throws score to mark 11-7
12-8
13-8
14-8 "I feel like they just put in their second line." mark
15-8
next game against puppet regime starts at 12:15 easterm / 9:15 pacific, puppet lost to barrio
pool records so far: misch 2-0 / bario 1-1 / puppet 1-1 / d'oh 0-2

The sad thing about this game is that we had a chance to be King Makers. If we had played them second and had already won the upcoming game agains Puppet Regime, winning or losing to D'oh would have been irrelevant in the standings. We would have been 2-0, with a head-to-head win against Barrio, ensuring our first place position in the pool.

We could, however, help D'oh into third place with a win. Since they had a head to head against the other team, they'd be third in the pool and wouldn't have to play the game into the quarters.

And Northwest would have all four teams in the Quarter Finals. With a night's rest, there would be a non-zero chance at having an all Northwest Semis.

It would have been spectacular.

Except we haven't played Puppet yet. And couldn't risk two losses.

Besides, who wants to lose to a team that thinks we just choke?

Yeah.

Right.

So, our last game of the second day, against Puppet Regime.

huddle before puppet game.
hey look! we have observers! yay!
dano to andy layout 1-0
wind is REALLY bad.
1-1
paul to em 2-1
2-2
time out misch
andy to dano 3-2
we're having problems leaving discussions on the field. 3-3
7-5
last point had 14 turnovers
8-5 misch takes half
8-6
9-6
9-7
10-7 on lauout endzone dump block by pickett
lauout? sheesh.
10-8
there's been only one upwind score this game
11-8
doyle sky for 2nd upwind score this game 12-8
doyle layout grab for score 13-8
kyle sucking, subbed out for wes
and wes is injured by an opponent landing on him
13-9
14-9
uh, line judge? watch the lines, please.
14-10 downwind
dano to giz 15-10
3-0 in our power pools, done playing for the day.

Less Manifest Destiny in this game, but a good game none-the-less. The game would have been nicer if the observers could actually observe.

If you get close enough, you can still take good (though still not great) pictures even with a small camera.

At the beginning of the day, we came into the tournament seated number one of sixteen teams. At the end of the day, we're still seated number one, but we managed to keep that spot in a strange point differential, head to head, power pool format way.

I tried to run pounds for taking stats in the first game. I made sure I had a new binary. I made sure I had lots of battery juice. I made sure I had the team name in and ready to go.

What I didn't do, however, is make sure the undo function was working properly. After three points and two incomplete undos, I switched away from the computer and back to the paper notebook for keeping stats. I'm a little annoyed that the program didn't work, this being the last opportunity this season to actually get it working right, but I'm also not-so-secretly relieved to have a paper trail on the actions. Of course, I'd rather have a video of all of the games, but I can't find anyone willing to give up five days to help me out with this stuff.

Maybe a clone IS the way to go.

I spent most of the day bundled up under four layers of clothing, and still cold. At one point, LT, in his jersey, shorts and sweat pouring down his face, looked over at me and asked, "How can you stand all of that? Aren't you hot?" I immediately answered back, "Actually, I have a fever. I'm pretty cold right now." I wished I had brought more clothing to the fields.

So, we lost our first game to Chewbacca Defense 13-15, having been up 8-4 at the half (my commentary from my twitter posts, which I kept up to date fairly well today):

mischief 0 v chewbacca defense 0
mis 3 chew 2
mis 5 chew 2
misch 5 chew 3
misch 7 chew 3
misch time out
misch takes half 8-4

wow, the only warm spot here is in the porta-potty

misch 8 chew 5
misch 9 chew 6
misch 9 chew 7
wind picked up a LOT misch 10 chew 8 on 4 turnovers

wind, the sport's great equalizer misch 10 chew 9 on wind aided turns

misch 11 chew 10
I hate this wind. misch 12 chew 11

misch 12 chew 12 on more wind aided turns. no, this isn't painful to watch, why do you ask?

fuck. misch 12 chew 13

andy comes in, easiest score we've had. misch 13 chew 13, chew still up the break

misch 13 chew 14
misch 13 chew 15

As Mark says, "Sometimes you take the easy road, sometimes you take the hard road. We're taking the hard one."

We then won our game 15-4 against Cougars, who were the last seed in our pool:

game against cougars

misch 4 cougars 0
misch 7 cougars 0

cougars [call time out with] no t.oouts remaining

misch 7 coug 1

wind picks up, has no effect on misch O, as Andy is in. misch takes half 8-1

da da da da da da 10 minute half, no action da da da da da da

misch 8 coug 2
misch 9 coug 3
misch 9 coug 3 on crappy foul contest
misch 10 coug 3 on nick to paul breakmark, layout grab
misch 12 coug 3 on drive that included 3 layout grabs
misch 13 coug 4
misch 14 coug 4

too much damned talk on the sidelines about point differential. misch 15 coug 4

Our last game of the day was against Barrio, who, like Chewbacca this morning, beat us in the first game of the day last year at Nationals. We needed to win this game to be in the power pools for tomorrow. We needed to win this game by more than three points to win the pool outright.

If we won the game, we would be both first in the powerpools going in tomorrow (as we could lose on point differential, but still have the head-to-head win for a record of 1-0 going in) and have redemption on the team for last year's loss.

We won 15-13, in a bitter, unpleasant game with observers who both don't know the rules and ruled against us in every call (which, could be valid, except for the "don't know the rules" part).

My twitter stream in reverse order, since I don't want to bother inverting it:

team in power pools with 1-0 record

13-12
kyle huck, mark pulls defender off, goes up too early, disc floats over both into gizmo's happy hands

bar takes too much time to pull? lose a time out

12-12
gizmo brutal catch from chucky to take it 12-11

sunya turn, gizmo block, foul called by mark, fresh with disc

11-11, game to 13, softcap on
11-10 on adam leventhal to adam brown

on a throw that she couldn't see because she was running the wrong way, she called pick after realizing her woman caught the score.
liz penny sucks

softcap horn should go on any moment
fresh to andy toe in layout for 10-10
bar guy laid out kicking chucky in head
9-10

doyle callahan for 9-9

8-9 kyle to giz from giz block
7-9 emily to paul
6-9 after half

half time la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
barrio takes half 6-8, observers called in on previous point. down by only one break

6-7
4-7

misch 4 bar 6 on a 13 turnovers point
long point 7 turns so far. bar calls last t.o. in half

3-6
zone d failed 2-6
2-5
1-5

I give. this is too painful to watch. misch 1 bar 4
misch 1 bar 3

heads up the collective butt. misch 0 bar 3
misch 0 barrio 2
misch 0 bar 1 on 6 turn over point

timeout mischief in first point

So, we're 1-0 in tomorrow's power pool play, even though we're second in our pool, having 0 on point differential (won by 2, lost by 2). Barrio is first in our pool, but goes into tomorrow's power pools with the loss to us.

Yeah. We're number one! Uh, sorta.