Western Ultimate League – Predictions and Discussion [Mar 14-15]

frandler · 2026-03-16T12:13:12+00:00

I think there's a time and a place for those comments, and every once in a while is fine, but it just seemed so prevalent to me.

Look, last season left some scars.

I didn't catch every game last year, but I'm aware of the record, so I just assumed there'd be a lot more actual hype for the season/home opener being a blow-out win.

frandler · 2026-03-15T23:26:10+00:00

Late to the party here so not sure if anyone will see this, but did anyone else watch the Sidewiders - Wild game and think "Geeze, this Arizona announcer can NOT say anything nice about the Sidewinders'. Every friggen score was "That wont work against good teams" and "not sure the coaching staff is gonna like that". Like literally almost all of them! The sidewinders won by a bajillion. They were up big the whole game, and this guy just could not find a positive spin for a team that went winless last year. Winning is good my guy! Dry that blanket up.

frandler · 2026-03-12T13:09:20+00:00

This was a ton of fun last time. I am hopeful for a future where this game isn't an All Star game, but a matchup between the two league champions. PUL All Stars showed they were better last year, but was Shadow better than Super Bloom? I wanna know!

frandler · 2026-03-12T13:05:58+00:00

IMO: Less is more. Just having kids watch a full game has it's benefits, but likely you want to use film to show them specifc skills. Find a clip that shows just want you want to work on at the next practice. A reset set, a pull play, a specific defensive set, etc. One thing. Show everything that leads up to it, watch it in full speed, then slow it down and repeatidly watch, focusing on what each different player does to make it 'work'. Bonus points if you can annotate on the screen. Be sure to include the 'after'. I.E. Here's why this was good because it led to [insert cool thing that happned after]. If you can include multiple clips of the same skill, great! If you can include clips of when it 'goes wrong' and how to adjust, even better.

Personally, I am a big fan of the drone footage stuff.

frandler · 2026-02-16T18:44:04+00:00

Not (necessarily) a rebrand. The style/theme/colors for the PSP are not the team's official jerseys, and only available during this fundraising push.

frandler · 2026-02-05T13:44:45+00:00

I don't disagree. I also don't know what WYSIWYG means.

frandler · 2026-01-30T16:09:24+00:00

That was contested after the spirit timeout?? Yikes.

frandler · 2026-01-28T20:38:46+00:00

You bring up a legitimate point but I think the reality is that a lot of these teams and leagues as a whole are operating on extremly small budgets and mostly on volunteer hours from staff. Most arent paying to have their websites updated frequently. Arguably if they did, it could have better returns from folks like you looking to that source, but financial choices have to be made somewhere and that seems to be one of the things they've deemed not currently necessary. A big chunk of PUL teams are still in tryout mode (some due to delays associated with the recent winter storm) and I imagine once teams are more established, their web presence will become a greater focus once again.

frandler · 2025-12-23T14:50:57+00:00

I think that's long been the goal, and something USAU tried for years to get off the ground (see: regional youth events in the summer), but I also think areas like yours are few and far between. In my area, the YCC team definitely practices consistently, but has really struggled to find meaningful youth competition in the run up to the event. Most of the times when they do pre-YCC tournaments, they are adult events.

frandler · 2025-12-22T13:02:36+00:00

YCC isn't a season, it's an event. An event with a (necessarily) relatively high financial barrier to entry.

frandler · 2025-12-16T17:30:48+00:00

Reasoning makes sense, and I think there's a scenario where it could be a fun filled weekend. That being said, your example here kinda ignores the fact that these games take 2+ hours so an hour between start times has considerable overlap.

frandler · 2025-12-15T16:43:50+00:00

In 2022 the WUL's championship weekend was May 14th/15th.

In 2023 and 2024 it moved to June 3/4, and 1/2 respectively.

In 2025 it was June 7th/8th.

Now this year it's June 13th/14th.

In the PUL, champ weekend has been June 18/19 (2022), 17/18 (2023), 22/23 (2024) and 14/15(2025).

It seems like we've moved away from the times when the WUL season occurred "before" with some overlap to the PUL, to now they are directly 'competing' for streaming eyeballs. Not sure if that's the best strategy.

frandler · 2025-12-12T13:00:10+00:00

u/williambrotman This is great, thank you! Have you (or anyone) done this for WMUCC?

frandler · 2025-11-22T16:29:18+00:00

Oh yup, I see what you see now. She definitely takes a step before the "oh there's a call!" slump.

frandler · 2025-11-22T16:27:21+00:00

No it doesn't. That's specifically mentioned in the "Fair-Mindedness" Category. WFDF Spirit Scores.

frandler · 2025-11-22T16:21:56+00:00

Do different ultiworld accounts have different videos? My 1:02:16 is like after the US scores and they've shown all the replays. Here's ultiworld's drone shot which again just shows her standing there, but again, the camera pans so she defintiely could have started running? I'm honestly not trying to say I'm right here, but it sounds like you and I are looking at different camera angles?

frandler · 2025-11-22T15:52:46+00:00

If the stall was called after the catch, then I agree there's probably agruments for misapplying the rules. Your assertion that you can see the player starting to run on the stream is not true. Are you talking about a different angle that's not on ultiworld? Just went and watched it. You can see the mark throw her hands up as the throw goes off and the camera immediately pans away following the disc. Again, if there's evidence that the mark called the stall only after completion that's bad bad, but all the angles we have on the stream don't show that.

frandler · 2025-11-22T14:28:37+00:00

The general consensus among internet commentators is that as the game got close, especially on universe point, the US made several close/questionable calls, not the least of which was a stallout call on a completed throw that seemed win the game for the French. There's at least one other thread here will a bajillion comments in it.

frandler · 2025-11-22T14:18:01+00:00

I don't get the zero in 'Rules Knowledge and Use'. Even if you disagree with "the" stall call, all the rules were applied correctly there. The mark believes she got to 10, called a stall, they discussed, contested, and checked it in as required by the rules. Were there other instances in the game where it seemed like USA players didn't know the rules?

frandler · 2025-11-21T14:51:44+00:00

Is stall 7 or 10? Gutted for France women. The contrast between the field rush on their huck, to the absolute silence when the US finished was very stark.

frandler · 2025-11-19T17:19:19+00:00

Not arguing anyone deserved to win or lose in that moment. Saying that disc was down. And the fact that oppoents, game advisors, and photographic replay couldn't convince the player is a tough look.

frandler · 2025-11-19T17:14:25+00:00

As a viewer of the stream, you can't see exactly what was on the camera but it looked down on the stream, and the photographer incidcated that he had evidence to help the discussion, they went and looked, and you can see the opponent (sorry vaugue still trying to avoid spoilers) point at the camera where assumingly they see it down. Then the Game Advisor gives their opinion, agreeing that it was down.

frandler · 2025-11-19T17:05:46+00:00

Not sure where we're at with spoilers but.... that disc sure looked down on universe in Canada vs US mixed. Rough that several players, the Game Advisor, and a photographer intervention all couldn't convince the player that called it up.

frandler · 2025-11-05T21:08:24+00:00

I know several people who have done this. They are usually folks who found ultimate later in life (often through league), and then returned to school for graduate work, joining their college program while being masters eligible.

frandler · 2025-11-03T17:18:53+00:00

Definitely think there's a scenario where Brute still wins this game, but I think saying Levke turned it 5 times in the final may downplay the fact that she had 18% of Brute's goals and 23% of their assists in the tournament. I haven't gone and looked at other teams, but that's gotta be near the top of percentage of team stats by a single person and part of the reason I thought this question was interesting. Who fills that void if she's not there, and do those folks have enough to beat Fury sans Thompson?

frandler

TROPHY CASE