Clubhouse Chatter: Elite-Select Challenge is USAU’s best idea

Why does the Eurovision Song Contest offer so much excitement every year?

August 21, 2024, 6:47 p.m. Edward Stephens in summary with comments

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Elite-Select Challenge is USAU’s best idea

As a pure fan of the club season, I never thought I would come to this conclusion, but that’s the way it is.

As a player, I’m a (small d) democrat: regional league level for the club, and otherwise I like to play spontaneously, in the local league, in one-off tournaments, as a high-level goalkeeper, as a low-level goalkeeper, as a mini-player without sports clothes, whatever. If there’s a puck and some space to run around, I’m in, and anyone who wants to join is as welcome as a ray of sunshine in winter.

But as a reporter, opinion maker, and follower of Club Ultimate, I am a complete elitist. For better or worse, what I care about most is the pursuit of greatness in our sport. I want to see the best players on the best teams compete against the other best teams. Give me Fury and Brute Squad. Give me Truck Stop from the 2020s and Revolver from the 2010s. Give me all of Molly Brown and Ring of Fire’s semifinal appearances over the years. Give me the decade of Drag’n Thrust, AMP, Mixtape. Give me the year-in, year-out excellence of Robyn Fennig, Chris Kocher, and Khalif El-Salaam. Give me more international superstars spending the summer in North America. Give me serious challenges that fall just short, wannabe dynasties, and teams that suddenly pull it all together to heat up for four days in October. In short, give me Saturday and Sunday at Nationals and all the parts of the regular season leading up to them.

And yet I can’t help but be drawn to the spectacle and drama of the elite Select Challenge. Each year brings a new batch of excitement – from last-ditch efforts to prove one’s mettle to renewed declarations of postseason intent to memorable collapses. With superpowered programs typically sitting out, it’s also the perfect place for rising stars to stand out among the brightest lights. Last year, Fort Collins was put to shame. Its nearly perfect regular season ended with a glimpse of its title future, DiG rose from a sideline outside of Nationals to a contender, Ozone and Condors busted their chances, and there were early glimpses of what high school senior Chloe Hakimi could do at the highest level. It was popcorn stuff.

The 2024 edition last weekend in Indianapolis lived up to all of those expectations. There was a dazzling performance from Riot, who are trying to regain their former heights that have been out of reach in recent years, and their fellow men’s division members Sockeye, who almost made a tremendous comeback after their weak finish in 2023 by relying heavily on the region’s youth. There was ironclad performance from the heavyweights of the mixed division, Drag’n Thrust (with the clear goal of getting back into a championship match) and Mixtape (who surged into the realm of strength offerings after a lackluster early season like Ali, who came on strong in the late rounds of the Rumble in the Jungle). There was an unprepared Chain Lightning, who barely pulled themselves out of the fray with a bid still intact, their performance on Saturday was the kind of train wreck that can light up the crowds with electric glee. In the process, Doublewide’s rising star Xavier Fuzat showed the Nationals field that he has become a force to be reckoned with, with both his constant open cuts and X-arm celebrations. And there was heartbreak, too: Dark Sky, Vault, Rally and Blueprint all went into the tournament with every intention of losing – and lost. As a result, their Nationals hopes are now in serious jeopardy.

It’s not always the best ultimate you’ll ever see – especially when crosswinds come through – but it’s popcorn stuff. And all of that exists because USAU made the brilliant decision at the start of the TCT era to not only require competition between teams at the national and regional level, but to make that kind of cross-pollination the sole basis of a tournament. Clubs with illustrious histories like Drag’n Thrust, Riot, and Furious George have to prove they still have what it takes to stay ahead of the vast majority of teams that historically sit below them in the pyramid. It’s the ultimate go-it-or-shut-your-mouth event.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the mixed doubles, which was chaotic even by the division’s standards. What could have been a dull event given the lack of (expected) top competition in the spots leading up to the semifinals was instead a showcase for the division’s ambitions. In a field that included representatives from every region of the country, only one of 16 teams failed to score multiple wins over the weekend.¹. Shocking surprises were the order of the day. Bidhawks waited with bated breath for an update from frisbee-rankings.com on both Saturday and Sunday nights, because even the direct impact (not to mention second- and third-order silliness) of the day’s results on the algorithmic picture was too complicated to hazard a guess.

When a rating system keeps people on their toes, you know you’re doing something right. Kudos to the think tank that came up with the Elite Select Challenge, USAU’s best idea.