RIP
Boston Invite
As final preparation prior to the World Championships in Prague, RIP (once again) took the road to Devens, MA to participate in the prestigious Boston Invitational. The pre-ranking on Saturday morning placed RIP in 6th place of 8 teams behind AMP, Slow White, District 5 and Mischief for a round-robin format tournament.
The weekend started strong against Slow White. Compared to the Mixed Easterns tournament at the beginning of June, Slow White was now represented by one team. RIP started well with this first challenge and took the half 8-7. After a disputed second half, Slow White forced a Universe point – the 4th for RIP in its past 6 games – and took the victory 14-13.
RIP next faced Mischief (San Francisco, California), a strong team that won the UPA championships in 2006. Contrary to what we would expect, Mischief doesn’t inhabit the chill California style. The match was filled with unpleasant discussions during which Kirsten Niles (RIP Capt) was forced to bring the rule book onto the field. The presence of observers would have been much appreciated. After letting Mischief take the half 5-8, RIP came back from behind to reach yet another universe point. Despite this effort, Mischief won the match 11-10.
The third match of the afternoon put RIP against District 5 (New Haven, Connecticut). After two highly emotional games, RIP could not generate enough momentum to beat this new talented and athletic team. RIP lost 13-9.
To conclude the first day of competition, RIP confronted Ballometrics (Boston, MA). After a victory against Ballometrics in the quarter-finals at Mixed Easterns, RIP entered the match with confidence and took the lead 8-6. It was a physical match during which Yan Bouchard was literally tackled by one of their smaller players. This hit gave energy to RIP. Unfortunately, history repeated itself and RIP was faced with a 3rd universe point (7th in the last 9 games) and Ballometrics took the game 11-10.
After a good night of sleep at the Marriot next to the fields, RIP started the Sunday morning with style by winning their first match 15-10 against Gun Tottin Teddy Bears (New York, NY). This was followed by a match against Mogwai (Portland, ME) where RIP let the game slide between their fingers 15-7.
The final match of the weekend was against AMP (Philadelphia, PA), a team that will participate at Worlds in Prague next week. This match had a high level of intensity with many spectacular moments on defense by both teams who were battling fatigue following the 6 previous matches. RIP managed to hold onto an advantage leading up to yet another universe point. This time, RIP managed to break the curse and won the match 13-12 to head onto the road to Prague with a victory.
Despite a record of 2-5, this weekend was a positive experience for RIP. The new recruits Janick St-Cyr, Éric Désrosiers, Olivier Lacombe, Emily Sangster and Julie Beaulac really showed a true confidence on the field. Julie Beaulac especially was a force to be reckoned with on defense. The defense of Andrew “Danger” Batchelor surely became a nightmare for the opposing handlers. The offense was led by the precise throws of Yan Bouchard and the explosive running of Hugo Lefrançois. Other remarkable moments of the weekend: the first point of Yves “GU” Beaulieu in his RIP uniform and the birth (in Montreal) of Livia Desmarais.
RIP in Boston
During the weekend of June 5-6, RIP took the road of Devens, Massachusetts in the suburbs of Boston for the Mixed Easterns tournament. Armed with new uniforms, the brainchild of a collaboration between RIP’s strategic committee and the VC designers, RIP was ready to face the competition.
The first two games on Saturday against Zojirushi (Brooklyn, NY) and Kung Fu Grip (Rochester, NY) went off without any difficulty. The O line was scoring and the D line was generating turnovers. RIP won both games by a score of 15-9 and 15-5.
Under the midday sun and scorching heat, RIP started its third game of the tourney against Slow White-Y (Boston, MA). Slow White, still in try-outs, was split into two squads for the weekend. This was a very close game in which the experience of Slow White’s veteran was matched with the speed of RIP. After letting go of a late game lead, RIP lost on Universe point by a score of 14-15. With this loss, RIP had to play a cross-over game against the winner of Pool C, ONYX’s (Québec, QC) pool.
Following a two hour bye, RIP faced Mogwai (Portland, Maine), which had defeated ONYX by a score of 15-7. RIP got the word that Mogwai played this unusual zone defense (rabbit + 3-men wall + man-to-man on popper + 1 deep). By playing a disciplined offense and through the excellent popping of Alexandre Montpetit, RIP won the first half. However, RIP faced a strong opposition in the second half and had to play a second Universe point. Mogwai won the game 13-12.
On Sunday morning, RIP woke up with the 8th seed and facing Ballometrics (Boston, MA) in the Round of 16. In a physical game, RIP easily defeated Ballometrics 12-6 thereby clearing the way for the highly anticipated game against ONYX in the quarter finals.
After months of indoor training and playing against each other in the CQU4, the table was set for the first meeting between the two Québec powerhouses. Both teams started the game with great intensity, but also with quite a bit of nervousness. The first point of the game was marked by multiple turnovers by both teams. ONYX played a very tight defensive game with a combination of Hardest and Push marks, which put a lot of pressure on RIP. Quebec City grabbed an early 4-1 lead and never looked back. This victory by ONYX will serve as great motivation for RIP as it prepares for one last tournament before the World Championship, the Boston Invite on June 26-27.
For its last game of the weekend, RIP faced another World-bound team, Quiet Coyote (Boston, MA) for 5th place. During the first half, RIP and Quiet Coyote traded points with only one break on each side. RIP took the first half 8-7. With a 11-9 lead, RIP was pulling when lightning forced both teams to find shelter just before the soft cap. This was a gift for Quiet Coyote, which was playing with a small line-up and the same seven players on their O-line. After the break, RIP quickly jumped to a 13-9 lead, but was again unable to punch in the final point. Quiet won the game 14-13.
Overall, this past weekend was mentally challenging for RIP. We are however very pleased with the team cohesion and the conditioning of our players. Our objectives for the last month before Worlds are very clear: raise the intensity to avoid the late-game come-back from the opposing team.
Montréal shines in Philadelphia
RIP, Montreal’s competitive mixed team, played last week-end in its first tournament of the season. For this event, the team travelled to Philadelphia to participate in the Bell Crack Coed Classic. This renowned tournament hosted 40 coed teams with some of the best the USA and was held at the beautiful fields of the Brandywine Polo Club.
RIPsters, pre-ranked 6th overall, started pool play as the second favorite behind Smartwhores, a team they met and won against in 2009. There was wind, sun and a great day to come!
- Match 1: Win 15-6 against Hustlers
- Match 2: Win 13-12 against Smartwhores on a well battled Universe point
- With a 3-0 record, RIP’s day was over since the first team of each pool had no cross-over game. After 3 games of 2 hours each under a hot sun, this was a welcome break!
First game on Sunday was against AMP, another team going to Worlds in July. RIP arrived well rested and started the game strong, leading 8-0 after the first half, nothing less!
- Quarter final – Win 15-8 against AMP
- Semi final – Win 14-11 against Gun Totin Teddy Bears (aka Bashing Pinatas)
- Final – Lost 15-6 against Denoiret (made up of mostly players from Mephisto and Storm) who were undefeated through the whole tournament
Congratulations to Denoiret for the win. They showed incredible stamina and energy despite a reduced line-up. Their zone defense created a lot of turnovers and, with all the skills on that team, they capitalized on almost each occasion.
We would also like to wish a quick return to Christian Monette, a RIP player who got injured Saturday on a dive. Get healty soon Chris...
Congratulations RIP, Congratulations Denoiret, Congratulations Montréal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello fellow ultimate players~
RIP, a mixed competitive team, would like to invite all ultimate players for its tryouts for the 2010 season! Tryouts for the at least 12 available places, will be held on Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 19:45 – 21:15 and Sunday, March 14, 2010 from 19:00 – 21:00 at complex Bois de Boulogne in Laval (Directions: http://www.ultimatemontreal.ca/en/node/290).
Please bring a white, black and red shirt, cleats, water and a disc. In addition, to pay for the fields, please bring either $15.00 per night or $25.00 for both evenings.
If you want to attend, please go to the following link and fill this short questionnaire to help us plan the tryouts: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHY4S2FZenhiY21fV... For more information, please contact us at: ripcaptains@gmail.com.
See you on the field, RIP Captains (Yan Bouchard, Kirsten Niles, JF Paul)
