[TFDA] [Kudzu Classic 08] Tourney Write-up (Bickett Deals Bears Loss for 08 Kudzu Laurels)

Christian Schwoerke schwoerkec at yahoo.com
Wed May 28 10:23:31 EDT 2008


Bickett Poker Deals Bears First Loss to Win 11th Annual Carolina Kudzu Coed Classic

Raleigh, NC  Sunday, May 25.  

Bickett Poker put on a virtuoso show of 2-pointers to take the lead and hold on to win the 11th
Annual Carolina Kudzu Coed Classic.  With arguably the largest roster of all teams participating,
Bickett Poker played games within games on their way to the tourney finals.  Bickett Poker’s theme
was poker itself, and team captain Kris Bass had his teammates attired in tawdry casino garb for
playing both on the field and at the poker table, which was set up on the sidelines.  With nearly
25 players rotating in and out of both poker and ultimate games, Bickett was able to keep its
finals-playing horses well rested.

The tourney began on a dank note the previous Saturday morning with a light rain having already
fallen pre-dawn.  By the time teams were assembling at 9:30am, the skies were beginning to show
some blue.  Winds continued to pick up through the day, and the sky turned into an expanse of pure
azure, with nary a cloud to be seen, all the while with temperatures that never rose about 72
degrees.

There were twenty-one teams participating in this year’s edition of the Kudzu Classic, with 11
teams from the Triangle and 10 from points beyond, including DC, VA, OH, MD, SC, and elsewhere in
NC.  The teams, their initial seed, and their origin appear below.  

Initial Seeding and Participating Teams

1.  Bickett Poker, Triangle
2.  Bears, Triangle
3.  Oliolly, Triangle
4.  Blolio, Triangle
5.  7eleven, Triangle
6.  Too Much Mustard, Triangle
7.  TAU, Winston-Salem, NC
8.  El Diablo, Triangle
9.  Axis, Charlottesville, VA
10.  Angry Beavers, Greenville
11.  Epic, Columbia, SC
12.  Ramshackle, Triangle
13.  BAD Influence, Arlington, VA
14.  Eye of the Tiger, Triangle
15.  CHUF, Triangle
16.  Team Pillion Party, Maryland
17.  Boone Shakalaka, Boone, NC
18.  Off Constantly, Tidewater, VA
19.  Nekkid, DC area
20.  Clean Plate Club, Asheville, NC
21.  Disco on Fire, Columbus, OH

Saturday Pool Play Results

Pool play proceeded without incident as each pool had five teams, except for Pool A, which had six
teams and was headed up by Bickett Poker.  Pool A decided they’d prefer to play to 15 (as were all
of the other pools), which made for a long day, with 5 successive games for each of Pool A’s
teams.  

That seeding is a crapshoot at a mixed tourney was borne out as Blolio in Pool D sank all the way
to #5 in that pool with an 0-4 record and Too Much Mustard upset #1 Oliolly in Pool C.  Results in
pools A and B had some position changes, but none affecting the 1 and 2 seeds in either pool. 
Disco on Fire, seeded last in Pool A, rose two notches to take #4, while in Pool B, high schoolers
CHUF (Chapel Hill High School) overtook the Angry Beavers to become #3 in that pool.

Complete pool play results follow.

Pool A
Bickett Poker  5-0
El Diablo  4-1
Axis  3-2
Disco on Fire  2-3
Boone Shakalaka  1-4
Team Pillion Party  0-5

Pool B
Bears  4-0
TAU  3-1
CHUF  2-2
Angry Beavers  1-3
OFFConstantly 0-4

Pool C
Too Much Mustard  4-0
Oliolly   3-1
Eye of the Tiger  2-2
Epic  1-3
Nekkid  0-4

Pool D
7eleven  4-0
BAD Influence  3-1
Ramshackle  2-2
Clean Plate Club  1-3
Blolio  0-4

The day ended on a high note for everyone as they finished games and began to hover around the
kegs of beer that appeared in the final round.  Additionally each team was provided five large
pizzas, and their appreciation was noted as stacks of empty boxes sat alongside trashcans
throughout the field complex.  Bickett Poker had brought a grill and that team supplemented its
pizza with a variety of grillables; they continued to play poker and hang out till dark overtook
the fields at 8:45.

Sunday’s play was logistically difficult, as there were only four rounds and nine fields to
accommodate 21 teams.  All eight fields were in use during the first three rounds on Sunday, with
every team getting a chance to play at least two games.  The only unfortunate exception was that
the #1s from each pool had only a single shot at playing, if they lost their A-Div quarters game. 
This did occur in two instances, with hard-fought games taking out 7Eleven and Too Much Mustard,
both of whom could have made semis with a different quarters matchup.

C-Division Modified Double Elimination

The C-Division comprised the last two teams in Pool A and the last teams in the other pools.  All
games were again first to 15, with the tourney’s signature rules: 2-point x-gender hucks,
alternating gender pulls, and 4/3 offense dictates gender ratios.  Blolio, which had begun
Saturday perched atop Pool D had a four-game row to hoe if it was to win the C-Division. 
Fortunately, Boone Shakalaka made it a bit easier on Blolio and conceded in the final round,
letting the results from their earlier matchup in Round 2 stand in for the Finals.

Round 1
Team Pillion over Off Constantly  11-8
Blolio over Nekkid  15-4

Round 2
Blolio over Boone Shakalaka  15-8
Off Constantly over Nekkid  15-9

Round 3
Boone Shakalaka over Team Pillion  14-4
Blolio over Off Constantly  14-11

Finals
Blolio & Boone Shakalaka let results from Round 2 stand (17th and 18th)

B-Division

This division entailed playing out some placement games to determine how teams finished in the 10,
11, 12, and 13th place.  This was due to the field constraints, with an initial set of quarters
games taking place among the #4 teams from each pool while the #3 teams in each were vying in the
A-Division pre-quarters.

A hard fought first half saw Greenville’s Angry Beavers maintain a two-point lead, with the score
shifting from 3-1 to 5-3 to 7-5.  At this point Asheville’s Clean Plate Club fought back to tie it
at 7s, but the surge could not hold and the Beavers took half 8-7.  In the second half, the
Beavers wrested control of the game with a couple of two pointers, also stepping up their defense
to quell any attempt by Clean Plate Club to get a rally going.  Final score, 15-8, with the Angry
Beavers on top.

The B-division placement games gave teams a second chance at getting some glory after first or
second round losses.  Both of the semis placement games took their toll and were largely pyrrhic,
with both victorious squads too pooped to continue.  CHUF, in particular, had exhausted itself on
a comeback victory against Epic, where, when the cap was signaled, behind 10-12, they got their
11th point, then a two-pointer to take the game, 13-12.  Eye of the Tiger and CHUF agreed to
roshambo, with Eye of the Tiger throwing a victorious rock to place themselves, respectively, 11
and 12 in the tourney’s mix of 21 teams.  

Quarters
Clean Plate Club over Disco on Fire  14-10
Angry Beavers over Epic  15-8
Ramshackle over CHUF  15-9
Eye of the Tiger over BAD Influence  15-12

Semis
Clean Plate Club over Ramshackle 13-11
Angry Beavers over BAD Influence  15-8

Finals
Angry Beavers over Clean Plate Club  15-8 (9th and 10th)

Semis (placement)
Eye of the Tiger over Disco on Fire  14-10
CHUF over Epic  13-12

Finals (placement)
Eye of the Tiger over CHUF (rosham victory)  (11th and 12th)

A-Division

Pre-quarters

The A-div bracket play began with pre-quarters, a chance for the #3s in each of the pools to gain
a foothold in the tourney’s top 8.  Axis, from Pool A, was the only team to make the leap, beating
Pool D’s #2 BAD Influence 15-7.  It should be noted that this was not officially “Axis of
C-ville,” since it was a skeleton of that crew fleshed out with supplemental players.

TAU over Eye of the Tiger 15-9
Oliolly over CHUF 15-6
Axis over BAD Influence 15-7
El Diablo over Ramshackle 15-9

Quarters

Lower seeds had already played a game, which can work to either sufficiently warm a team up or
wear it out, and the higher seeds in these games were only just starting to play, which has its
own set of good/bad options.  In any case, Axis and Oliolly fell to the higher seeds, while TAU
and El Diablo defied the odds and exhaustion to upset 7Eleven and Too Much Mustard, respectively. 
(Axis and Oliolly ventured off after their games to play a consolation match on an unused 9th
field, with Oliolly edging Axis 15-14.)
 
TAU over 7Eleven  15-13
Bickett Poker over Oliolly  15-5
Bears over Axis  15-5
El Diablo over Too Much Mustard  16-12

Semis

Each of the semis had teams playing their third game of the day, and it was probably this fact
that gave the higher seeds the edge, especially in the Bears-Diablo game, where it came down to
universe point.  In that particular game, Alan Hoyle’s Bears came out strong in the first half,
taking it 8-4, but it was in the second half that Tim Lupo’s El Diablo squad was able to mount a
comeback, tying the score at 13 and 14.  The older Bears squad was able to prevail over the
younger Diablo bunch, which included Nick Poore, Mike Jolley, and Stephen Poulos.  

In the other semis game, Bickett Poker continued to sub freely and keep its squad fresh,
eventually simply wearing out TAU (Triad Area Ultimate), whose chief players Jimmy Holtzman, Tammy
Moose, Lauren Tompson, and Charlie Kroger were unable to re-charge.

Bickett Poker over TAU  15-8
Bears over El Diablo  15-14

Finals

This game saw Bickett Poker focus its rotation down to a solid 10 players (largely Ring and
BackHoe standouts), with some additionally guest spots filled by those who’d been with the squad
throughout the two days of sideline poker playing.  The Bears also narrowed its men’s rotation a
bit, but the women continued to rotate fully throughout the game.

Becky LeDonne came out hucking in the first point of the game, sending one long to Taylor Pope for
Bickett’s first score, 2-0.  Later in the first half, Jared Inselmann sent one long to Sarah
Morrison for another 2-point bump, giving them a 5-2 lead.  Eventually the half played out with
the Bears unable to get any traction, 9-5 in favor of Bickett Poker.

The second half had the Bears pull off a 5-0 run, all with singleton scores to put them up, 10-9. 
Bickett then answered with its own run, 5-0, to make it 14-10, with one of those scores being
another two-pointer from LeDonne, a shot to Mick Ribault.  The Bears followed with a string of 3
singletons, but this was still one shy of Bickett’s 14.  Bickett ran off two more, the Bears
answered with one, then Bickett, after several attempts, put in the final goal for a 17-14
victory.

(to read linescore below, set browser to monospace font)

Bickett  2     3 5   6 7   8   9           10 11 12 14         15 16   17
Bears      1 2      3    4  5   6 7 8 9 10            11 12 13      14

Bickett Poker over Bears  17-14 (1st and 2nd)

Some of the notables on Bickett:  Becky LeDonne, Beth Stagner, Katy Cagle, Rachel Gross, Joanna
Vidales, Nicole Chauvigne, Liz Willets, Tuba Bensonjaja, Kris Bass, Mick Ribault, Brian Lang,
Victor Maneilly, Jared Inselmann, Taylor Pope, and Pat McNally.

Some of the Bear notables: Amy Morrison, Jenny Rogers, Jenny Cornejo, Frannie Goodrich, Beth
Gifford, Jen Weaver, Lindsay Chutas, Thuy Brooks, Hayden Sewell, Sandy Hartwiger, Kenny Marcus,
Augie Kreivenas, Tim Brooks, Mike Kelly, Jeff Faulkner, Motts Mueller, Raju Prasad, Sam Carroll,
and TJ Cawley.

Pictures from the Tourney

Lane Wigley:  

http://homepage.mac.com/lanewigley/Kudzu_Finals_08/
http://homepage.mac.com/lanewigley/Kudzu_Blolio/

Samuel Adams:

http://www.scadams.com/galleries/disk/kz08/0524/index.html
http://www.scadams.com/galleries/disk/kz08/0525/index.html

Thanks 

Trey Askew: beer and pizza!
Steve Frame: gathering cones at end of Sunday
Lauren Crissman: alerting the TD to the existence of the 21st team, Disco on Fire
Dwayne Purper: registration payment site & database
MaryMolly Taylor: website




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