Who else is missing jamming and blasting out the carbons?! The Tiny Room Challenge was amazing. Thanks to Daniel O’Neill, crew, & competitors for making it happen, you entertained many of us for hours. Daniel rocked it as the commentator! Congrats to Pablo Azul & Juliana Korver for taking home the gold.
We have a recent inductee in the Freestyle Hall of Fame, Skippy Jammer, with us today. Skippy had most of his firsts in Modesto, California, which is known as the city on the way to where you’re going. Skippy started playing Frisbee in high school and in 1976 after going to a tournament and seeing others play, the Modesto Mutants were born. Skippy talks about some of his unique moves that had even more unique names. After some success in his first competition in Santa Barbara, he was hooked for life. He recalls joining the Chico State Freestyle scene in the late 1970’s, and meeting “fearless” Larry Imperiale.
Thanks again to all our supporters! It is especially meaningful during these uncertain times.
Day 1 is in the books! There were so many amazing moves and a lot of creativity in both the tricks and in the use of indoor space. Congratulations to all the players and special thanks to Daniel and all the staff for putting on this event. But, it’s not ver yet! Here are links to the top 8 brackets.
The record holder for most coop world titles, Larry Imperiale, joins us today.
In 1975 Larry attended Chico State University, where he was first introduced to all Frisbee sports. His curiosity was peaked as he started playing catch in the parking lot of his apartment building. The Quad on campus attracted lots of players that started to experiment, not knowing there was a freestyle community that had already formed. Larry recalls acquiring the bronze card, which Randy remembers too. The Chico Airheads make a statement in a big tournament in 1979 that really opened their freestyle life. Larry talks about Skippy Jammer and how meeting him changed his life.
Tiny Room Battle Challenge will take place online on April 25 & 26 @ 12p EDT. Being online means that competitors will be performing from their own living room, or any tiny room, while signed into a zoom session. Judges, hosts, and coordinators will also be logged in to run the show and the whole thing will be broadcast on FrisbeeGuru for audience enjoyment.
The rules are as follows. 56 open competitors and 8 women’s competitors have will face off in a single elimination battle, with the winners moving onto the next round. This continues in a bracket system until one open competitor and one women’s competitor is crowned the winner. In the opening round, there will be 3 battles. After each battle, judges choose a winner and the first to win two battles moves on. In the next round, there are 5 battles, then 7, and so on. During each battle a player has no more than 10 seconds to perform their tricks, though they may stop early.
There are 5 judges scoring each battle; Tommy Leitner, Mehrdad Hosseinian, James Wiseman, Ayal Benin, and Fabio Sana. This panel is a whose-who of Freestyle Frisbee. Hosting is Daniel O’Neill with co-host Freddy Finer. Helping with the tech side and co-ordination are myself (Jake Gauthier) and Ryan Young.
With that out of the way, let’s take a quick peek at the brackets. First up, women’s:
As you can see, it’s quite a field. Juliana is the woman’s and mixed pairs title holder for FPAW 2019. 3 of the competitors were in WUG last year. To round it off, there’s strong representation from Medellin, Columbia. This should be interesting as there’s top talent and some unknowns that could surprise us.
The open bracket is stacked. 56 competitors spanning the globe and styles of play. They range from top players in the world to some who rarely travel to competition yet have incredibly deep games. Here, again we may be surprised at what we see, with players pulling off upsets and bringing skills that we never knew existed.
I just want to give a special thank you to Daniel O’Neill for pulling this together. Given the situation of canceled events and not being able to gather jam together, this event is an opportunity for us all to connect and share in the sport and pass time that we love. Check out the facebook page to learn more. Tune in to watch here.
Below is a photo from Lori, taken durning a rehearsal session today.
At first glance, City vs City, being an online event, would seem to be a good outlet for Freestyle Frisbee competition during this time of social distancing. However, social distancing means even teams can not congregate together. As such, it not possible to safely host the competition. In order to do our part in helping battle the spread of COVID-19 virus, City vs City 2020 has been officially postponed. Exactly if/when the competition will be resumed is unknown at this point, but we have every intention of continuing to host this event. Stay tuned and we’ll post updates as soon as we know more.
In the meantime, if you’re jonesing for some Freestyle Frisbee competition, checkout the Tiny Room Battle Challenge. We’ll have more on that in an upcoming post.
Daniel shares his secret dietary advantage. We get to hear about some of Daniel’s favorite routines and how he fondly remembers creating the Rhapsody in Blue routine with Randy. Daniel has a new move up his sleeve and plans to perfect it in the near future. Can he do it? We will follow up with him to see if he was successful. Also find out what is Daniel’s favorite kitchen utensil is and how he would use it in regards to a freestyle move.
City vs City battle with NYC vs Rovereto will not happen on March 28th and will be rescheduled for a later date. Also Jake and randy will take a couple month break from Shootin the Frizbreeze with new episodes and interviews released after the City vs City battle between Rome & Bologna on April 18.
The second City vs City competition featured Warsaw Poland vs. Berlin Germany occurred on Saturday February 29th, 2020. The format for the competition was five rounds of 1 vs 1 in which a player was selected from each team to play against each other. Whoever wins the round wins one point for their team. Following the five 1 vs. 1 competitions is a Pairs round where two players perform for 2 minutes; the winning team wins 2 points for their team. That round is followed by the Co-op round where teams of three players compete against each other, and that winning team wins 3 points for their team. The first team to win 6 points wins the round and advances to the semi-finals. If the score is tied after the five 1 vs 1, pairs and Co-op rounds, a sudden death round of 1 vs 1 will determine the final champion.
The judges are Hall of Fame inductees: Bill Wright, Larry Imperiale, and Steve Hubbard. Other staff was Jake Gauthier (Broadcast Director), Lori Daniels (Host), Skippy Jammer (Co-Host) and Randy Silvey (Judging Director).
Berlin Germany Team:
Graf Mordi
Fabian Dinklage
Freddie “Spinner” Finner
Phillip “German PK” Kruger
Stefan Dunkel
Warsaw Poland Team:
Kuba Radwanski
Mateusz Gajewski
Konrad Patris
Kuba Opaluch
Tymek Wrotek
Round One 1 vs. 1: Tymek Wrotek (Warsaw) vs. Fabian Dinklage (Berlin)
Tymek goes first for Warsaw with a series conservative under the leg passes then loses the disc when it pops off his nail on an inside pull. Advantage Berlin. Fabian answered with some under the leg passes followed by a Skidout to a swoop. Then a set to a spinning Barrel catch. Point Berlin.
Berlin 1 Warsaw 0
Round Two 1 vs. 1: Stefan Dunkel (Berlin) vs. Konrad Patris (Warsaw)
Stefan shows a variety of skills with under the leg passes, some lower body holds. Then swoop, back side kick into a series of rolls and sets punctuated by a mini-Vacation. Advantage Berlin. Konrad responds with some under the leg passes into a tipping combination. He then does a series of brushes and rolls into a standing Flamingo. Berlin takes the point with a split decision by the judges.
Berlin 2 Warsaw 0.
Round Three 1 vs. 1: Philip Kruger (Berlin) vs. Mateausz Gajewski (Warsaw)
Philip starts off with a behind the legs Cove Pull into a consecutive Juice Pull that pops off of his nail. Advantage Warsaw. Mateausz receives a counter throw and goes into a short tipping combination followed by a Skidout. He then drops the disc on a difficult behind the back turnover. Warsaw takes the point:
Berlin 2 Warsaw 1
Round Four 1 vs. 1: Kuba Opaluch (Warsaw) vs. Freddie Finner (Berlin)
Kuba goes first, taking a Counter throw going into a short Tipping series. Then he drops the front side Gitis off of a chest roll set. Advantage Berlin. Freddie does a couple of multiple spin under the leg takes, then sets for a double spinning Under the Back Leg Catch. Berlin takes the point.
Berlin 3 Warsaw 1
Round 5 1 vs. 1: Graf Mordi (Berlin) vs. Kuba Radwanski (Warsaw)
Graf Mordi goes first with a couple of lower leg holds followed by a perfectly executed spinning Flamingitis. Advantage Berlin. Kuba answers with a couple of inverted hold passes into a series of back side kicks ending with an Under the Leg Catch. Berlin takes the final 1 vs. 1 point in a split decision.
Berlin 4 Warsaw 1
Pairs: Fabian Dinklage and Freddie Finner (Berlin) vs. Kuba Opaluch and Tymek Wrotek (Warsaw).
Fabian and Freddie were partners at FPAW Seattle and proceed with some tight choreography doing some fairly straight forward co-ops. Then they performed a series of Speedflow catches perfectly. Fabian covers from a sloppy set, then passes to Freddie for a perfect Bad Attitude catch. At the end of their two minutes they open up their game a bit, catching Gitis, Upside Down Spinning Scarecrow, then the feed ends with 15 seconds to go. Advantage Berlin. Warsaw comes out showing strong energy with some dynamic movement passing the disc back and forth, catching Gitis, then suffer through a few errors with some untimely drops. They are unable to find their initial groove, giving the round to Berlin who wins the Match and the Game.
Berlin 6 Warsaw 1.
Co-op: Graf Mordi, Philip Kruger and Stefan Dunkel (Berlin) vs. Kuba Radwansi, Konrad Patris and Mateusz Gajewski (Warsaw).
Berlin comes out first fresh off of winning the Game vs. Warsaw. They begin their three minutes with some Counter Spin simple passes. Graf begins to push the difficulty envelope a bit. His team mates follow but they don’t quite have their groove yet. The feed gets cut-off with 1:20 left in their routine. Advantage Warsaw. Warsaw starts off with some controlled passes with the disc starting to hit the ground a bit too often. Super Rad rightens his team’s ship a bit with a nice series and a few solid catches. Mateusz shows some skill deep into their routine. Konrad and Kuba both finish strong with a decent team effort. Berlin takes the round with a split decision.
Berlin 9 Warsaw 1
Individual Scoring: Berlin
Fabian Dinklage 2 Points
Stefan Dunkel 2 Points
Freddie Finner 2 Points
Graf Mordi 2 Points
Philip Kruger 1 Point
Patrick gives an update on some of the Toronto players and the Frisbee scene from the 80’s, which was hot at the time. He fills in some gaps to bring us up to speed. Toronto showed up well in the World Championships in 1995. There were very few players though, and Patrick was worried about totally losing the sport. However, about 6 years ago, new players showed up, and people are playing every day now. Patrick talks about the Frisbeetarians at Trinity Bellwoods Park. How about a hat tournament in Toronto? Would you come?
Bill Wright recently visited Jake & Lori in Hawaii, bearing some special gifts. Randy gives some context. You can view and purchase these discs on wrightlife.com, and the proceeds help raise money for the FPA.
We have some exciting guests coming soon: “Crazy” John Brooks, Larry Imperiale, Skippy Jammer, and one of Randy’s all time heroes, Krae Van Sickle.
First and Foremost, our thoughts go out to Doug Korns and his wife, Jeanne. We are all rooting for you Doug, and we need you back out on the field.
Randy reports back on his month in Medellin and the incredible jam scene. He breaks it into layers of experience to explain it all and uses some interesting analogies. Jake and Randy dissect and discuss while comparing the Medellin jam scene to others. Randy shares his pleasant surprise about meeting a great player that had not participated in the tournament. Who is coming to Jammers? Traveling allows you realize it is a big, small, world, and Frisbee continues to be a connector.
Congratulations to Medellin for kicking off the first City vs. City with a win! The next City vs. City, is February 29th, at 11am,PST, Warsaw vs. Berlin, who are the reigning champions.
City vs City Recap
Medellin vs. Toronto
January 25th 2020
Format: Five 1 vs 1 battles followed by a Pairs vs Pairs (worth two points) then a Co-Op (three points)
The first City vs City competition of 2020 featured Medellin, Colombia vs Toronto, Canada on January 25th. The format for the competition was five rounds of 1 vs 1. A player was selected from each team to play against each other. Whoever wins the round wins one point for their team. Following the five 1 vs. 1 competitions is a Pairs round where to players perform for 2 minutes. The winning team wins 2 points for their team. That round is followed by the Co-op round where teams of three players compete against each other. That winning team wins 3 points for their team. The first team to win 6 points wins the round and advances to the semi-finals. If the score is tied after the five 1 vs 1, pairs and Co-op rounds, a sudden death round of 1 vs 1 will determine the final champion.
The judges are Hall of Fam inductees Bill Wright, Larry Imperiale and Steve Hubbard. Other staff was Jake Gauthier (Broadcast Director), Lori Daniels (Host), Skippy Jammer (Co-Host) and Randy Silvey (Judging Director).
Round One 1 vs 1: Santiago Sepulveda (Med) defeated Brian McIlwain (Tor)
Brian started things off with a nice inside against the spin crank then did an under the leg set to a straight forward catch that popped out of his hand. Advantage Medellin. Santiago countered with a nice Bad Attitude freeze then a long tipping combo. He set the disc for a nice Bad Attitude catch but the disc also popped out of his hand. Medellin takes the dual.
SCORE: Medellin 1 Toronto 0
Round Two 1 vs 1: Patrick Chartrand (Tor) defeated Monica Correa (Med)
History was made in the next match up. For the very first time a woman competes in a match. Monica Correa throws down a nice combo, showing her skills. Patrick responds with smooth control, winning the matchup for Toronto.
SCORE: Medellin 1 Toronto 1
Round Three 1 vs 1: Brett Schramek (Tor) defeated Pablo Azul (Med)
Brett the Jet leads off with an against the spin behind the back crank to a go set into a huge gitis. Advantage Toronto. Pablo takes upside down Counter spin, turns it over, sets for a matching huge gitis catch but the disc pops out of his hand. Toronto takes the matchup.
SCORE: Toronto 2 Medellin 1
Round Four 1 vs 1: Juan Piercing (Med) defeated Jon Soles (Tor)
Jonny tips the disc a couple of times then tries to take the disc under his leg. But the disc hits his leg before he can get started. Advantage Medellin. Juan takes the counter throw, does a couple of passes then executes a somersault delay move, tips then sets the disc for a basic invert catch that also pops out of his hand. But it was more than enough to take the match.
Toronto 2 Medellin 2
Round Five 1 vs. 1: Jolan Canrinus (Tor) defeated Andres Rivera (Med)
Andres looks fired up to pull off a big move. He does a basic move, then a figure 4 delay freeze. He tilts the disc and sets if for an inside pull that ends up on the dirt. Advantage Toronto. Jolan comes up with some nice pulls and rejuvenations followed by another rev up and an outside kick then sets the disc for a perfectly executed spinning under the leg catch. Toronto retakes the lead. This result also ensures that the match will either be decided in the Co-op round for Toronto, or Medellin has to take the Co-op round to force Overtime.
Toronto 3 Medellin 2
Round Six 2 vs. 2: Jon Soles/Jolan Canrinus (Tor) defeated Pablo Azul/Juan Piercing (Med)
Now the match moves into the Pairs round. Toronto comes out first. Jonny and Jolan display some intricate and accurate passing. Their co-ops are quick and punchy, constantly moving and using space. They’re also catching almost everything. They have 25 co-ops/quick catches with only 4 drops. A solid round for the original freestyle city jammers. Advantage Toronto. The Medellin jammers bring out Pablo and Juan who show great skill by turning the disc over, brushing counter and effectively passing the disc. They have longer combos and end up with 9 Co-ops and only 3 drops. A close round taken by the Canadians. Now The Colombian’s must take the Co-op round to force overtime.
Round Seven 3 vs. 3: Andres Rivera/Monica Correa/Santiago Sepulveda defeated Patrick Chartrand/Brett Schramek/Brian McIlwain. The Canadians come out first with the veterans Patrick and Brian setting the stage for the young shredder Brett the Jet. They execute well and show a strong variety of moves with 20 exchanges and only 4 drops. Things look good for the the team from the Great White North. And now the Colombian’s know what they have to do. It is uncertain if it was a strategic move or if it was the plan all along. But they come out with a ‘shred-or-die’ mentality. They start off with a double disc co-op featuring Monica. Then Andres catches fire executing a double spinning barrel catch. On the next co-op the disc is set for his big catch. He levitates for an instant, twists and catches a crash-and-burn phlaud. There’s more gitis, a big flying Bad Attitude, and more gitis. Then Andres sets the disc for the final catch, an elevated Flamingitosis which he completely nails. What a round. Game on. And now onto Overtime.
Overtime: Andres Rivera defeated Jon Soles
Talk about excitement! A one-on-one dual to decide the Match. Andres leads off with some nice control moves, rolling, brushing, stalling. He sets for a spinning under the leg catch which he misses. A slight edge to Toronto. Jonny Soles does some nice pulls, rerevs, kicks and rolls. Then he sets the disc for the big ending catch which he also misses. Now it’s in the hands of the judges. They confer and decide the content of Andres longer moves were the difference. But by the narrowest of margins.
Final Score: Medellin 6 Toronto 5
Individual scoring:
Medellin:
Santiago Sepulveda 2 points
Andres Rivera 2 Points
Juan Piercing 1 Point
Monica Correa 1 Point
Toronto:
Jolan Canrinus 2 Points
Patrick Chartrand 1 Point
Brett Schramek 1 Point
Jon Soles 1 Point
Who else is missing jamming and blasting out the carbons?! The Tiny Room Challenge was amazing. Thanks to Daniel O’Neill, crew, & competitors for making it happen, you entertained many of us for hours. Daniel rocked it as the commentator! Congrats to Pablo Azul & Juliana Korver for taking home the gold.
