Chennai Heat 2013 Feedback

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Welcome to the feedback post. Before you proceed, let me warn you that this post is going to be extremely long. Read only if you have time, patience and a sense of responsibility to make India Ultimate better.

Before I begin my criticism, I would like to take a moment to thank every person who was involved in the preparation and execution of Chennai Heat 2013. Its not just the tournament directors, committee members, party organisers or the list of volunteers but everyone else who whose names we did not hear in the “thank you list”. Being close to the organizers of the event, I know that they ran into many problems with sponsorship, especially in the 11^th hour. They had to make some decisions which did give them a bit of headache. Nevertheless, they rolled up their sleeves and worked harder to make the event successful.

Feedback begins. The next few paragraphs are my thoughts. After that, the consolidated feedback follows.

Every tournament in India should have a dedicated team to organize the event. The TD or TD’s, other members and volunteers should not be working for the tournament and playing for a team. It just doesn’t work that way. There have been many instances in the past and also in CH13 where people did not know who the volunteers were or who was keeping time or any damn thing for that matter. This is mainly because players want to run the event and play for their team. Consider this idea – going forward, give the tournament organization to a club. Let them organize the event. They don’t get to play but they get to keep a good percentage of the profits from the tournament. If this is not an option, then you HAVE to create a team that will not play.

We need to have a place called GAME CENTRAL during the tournament. This should be the official desk for all matters related to the tournament. This desk should be manned by volunteers throughout the duration of the tournament. All communications should go from here and every query should be answered from here.

Okay, we divided the tournament feedback into many sections and this is what we have.

Communications

By and large, all communication was done through Facebook which according to many is not the preferred option. The tournament website was hardly used for any form of communication.

Schedule and changes were all communicated within a span of less than 1 week to the tournament. This is totally unacceptable and should be taken seriously by all tournament directors. Going forward, schedules and pools should be released atleast 2 weeks before the tournament.

For urgent and important updates, a smarter form of communication such as SMS or phone calls should be used. The idea is to ensure that players or captains get the message.

Registrations

Registration details should be communicated well in advance. Teams should be instructed to pay to an account number before arriving for the tournament. Only registered teams (read paid money) should be considered for scheduling.

Competition

Every player is attending the tournament for a great experience on the field and I think that the competition format affected many teams.

Seeding and groupings were not effective at all. Sometimes looked very biased and beneficial to some teams. Its not UPAI’s responsibility to manage the seeding but the organizers of Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi (these are the biggest tournaments in India right now), should sit together and come up with a standard ranking system which works for all tournaments.

The number of teams should have been restricted considering that it gets too hot after 9.30am. Many teams did not have games at 9.30am or 3.30pm and some teams had many games at these times. This may not be a bias but the scheduling is sometimes insensitive. By reducing the number of teams, the game time per team could have been significantly increased. Having 3 pick-up teams and not counting scores against them is just ridiculous. Period.

Playing a kid because you don’t have women or you have lesser number of women IS NOT ACCEPTABLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. I thought the rules had clearly mentioned this and hence I don’t understand why this issue came up in the feedback. Whichever team did this, I am sorry guys, you are not fit to play a tournament. This is such a dispirited act. I cannot accept any BS explanation in this regard.

Everywhere I have played, the teams have 2 time-outs during the entire game and generally time-outs are not given during the last 5 mins or so. And what was this floating time-out I heard about? Who comes up with these ridiculous rules? Apparently time-outs ran for 2-3 minutes. This is why we need assigned volunteers for every game. These volunteers should be responsible to conduct the game, keep time and manage other administrative tasks. We cannot ask someone on the sideline to manage time because no one else did.

Spirit captain and WFDF accreditation was a great move and has been well appreciated by all teams but the organizers should also consider having observers for certain games. People standing in the sidelines have no authority to give opinions. Also the playing teams should ask them to please shut up.

Fields

The fields were not in the best form. Many teams had complaints about glass pieces and stones. Organisers should look to allocate some money to run the sand sifters before the tournament.

Many spectators were very close to the sidelines. Going forward, it may be good to have two lines at a 3 meter separation just to keep the crowd away.

Facilities

All teams were happy with the availability of water, ice, physio and first aid although some teams did not know that the physio was around. Portable toilets would have been a boon for the women.

Merchandise reaching the fields on the last day was such a bad idea. Efforts should have been made to get it on the first day. This all ties up to ensuring that registration is done atleast 2 weeks before the tournament so that the organizers can get everything sorted out much earlier.

For CH2014, we definitely need to provide sunscreen.

Food

This is where the organizers scored a lot. Bananas were good. The next step is hydration fluids. The tie-up with CFG for discount food coupons was an awesome idea. We need more!

Social

No concerns about the party as well. Everyone loved the party for the atmosphere and food. Although a few think that the price was slightly on the higher side, I still think it was a fab effort from the party organizers.

Travel and Acco

Apart from parking problems which are strictly not in our hands there was nothing much.

Overall

Chennai Heat 2013 gets an overall score of 7.8 on 10 which is very good. Can we say that people have been very generous with their scores? Haha. I am not undermining the efforts taken by the organizers but we have a long way to go.

Why do we still have to play 7 on 7 when the international standard for beach ultimate is 5 on 5 with a 3-2 ratio? Choosing this option would give us more fields and shorter games. The number of games per team would increase as well. Sooner, we will be able to have Open and Mixed divisions if we choose 5 on 5. On the other side, with soaring temperatures in the south, next year’s Heat may definitely need a supply of sand socks.

Chennai Heat 2013 - Predictions

The cat is out of the bag now. You should get a better version of the above picture on the tournament facebook page.

First look comments - I am not sure what even distribution of seeding means. Also, there needs to be a mention of what benchmarks have been used to come up with the seeding. In my opinion, every team needs a ranking before the tournament and after the tournament. The criteria for allocating teams is sensible but can be contested for logic.

When you look at the pools, the results of pool-play just stand out in front of you without any reason for a second look.

All the teams against A1-F1 respectively are going to top their pools comfortably. The only pool games that would be worth a watch for the spectators are Flywild vs DoD and Spinergy vs Falcons. I must mention that the games between 3 and 4 numbered teams in all pools would be interesting in a way that you can never predict the outcome.

If we have 3 pools at the end of pool-play, then Gold pool will have Stall7, Flywild, L2F, Spinergy, Blitz, Airborne. Now that's 6 done with 2 more slots remaining. DoD has a very good chance of making the 7th spot. The last spot will be a fight between Chakraa and Falcons. I would give that last spot to Chakraa because of the home advantage they have but still be doubtful about the points difference they can make with the other teams in their pool. Which gives Falcons a good chance to make it to Gold. Fringe Flickers are capable of throwing a surprise but they have never done that yet so I wouldn't place my bets on them.

With a minimum of 4 Chennai teams in Gold pool, there will be enough pressure on the other teams to even get to semi-finals. L2F has not been very successful on beach for a very long time. Spinergy has reached semis but crumpled as well. L2F and Spinergy have a good chance to move up in Gold if they play teams like Airborne, DoD, Chakraa and Falcons. Blitz, Flywild and Stall7 are going to give a menacing blow to anyone playing against them. I am not sure if Blitz still has a problem with their women ratio but if that's sorted out, then there is no stopping them at all. This also means that if neither of these three teams meet in the first round of Gold, then there is only spot left in the semis between 5 other teams.

In the end, the finals of Chennai Heat 2013 will be a repeat of the last year. With no doubt, Stall7 will win this edition of the Heat making it three in a row - a record that any other team can only dream of achieving on beach.

Flywild and Blitz are great teams as well and deserve credit for being fantastic teams, but they have a panic / choke button hidden somewhere. When they see their opponents score, they switch on automatically and its only downhill from there.

Like it or not, its going to be a Chennai domination all through.

Chennai Heat 2013 - Pools teaser

Excessive hullabaloo from my side over the last few days and many facebook posts by others did give a wake up call to the organizers of Chennai Heat 2013 to bring out that piece of classified information - The Seedings. I was so irritated that at some point I was even thinking of getting someone from WikiLeaks to help me break into the TD's mailbox.

UPAI - this one is for you guys to address in upcoming tournaments. 23 teams had registered for Chennai Heat by 12th Sep or something. Why does it take TD's such a long time to release information about pools? Pools for tournaments are definitely independent of schedules. I understand that it may take time to fix the fields and the slots but the pools can come out within 10 days of registration. We definitely need a booklet called Tournament Guidelines and I will author that. Mind it.

So, here are the pools. Well, not really. I am not supposed to reveal anything until the TD announces the same. I had a sneak peak into what is going to come out and here is what I have to say.

It looks like there will be 6 pools with 4 teams in each. In effect, three games before you step onto the next stage. I would have preferred a bigger pool which also means that you get to face-off against many more competitive teams but in this case, you will be moved to your comfort zone on day 2. From then on, it becomes a smart play for many teams, especially the ones that just missed the bus for the gold pool - to keep their head above the water and maintain the lead against the smaller teams.

Anyways, the predictions are still to come by. Ciao until then.

Germany - Part 5

Now this is when it starts to get slightly boring for me as I have already written 4 parts to this vacation and it just doesn't seem to end! I do have to complete what I started.. So literally, the next HALF of our vacation is going to be compressed in one single post.

From Berlin, we took an early morning train to Dresden. Walked around the city for like 30 mins and then took a bus from there to Praha - back to small towns with cobbled streets. Prague was extremely crowded. Tourists all over the place. We did the usual old town and clock tower on day one and castle the next day. Took some photos around Charles Bridge and then boarded the night bus to Vienna.

The bus company - Student Agency, was awesome. They had in-bus entertainment with movies and TV shows. The staff also offered hot chocolate / coffee. But in exchange, dropped us at a random place in Vienna at 4.30am. So we checked into a hotel for like half a day, got some sleep and walked around the city. It was all the same now - city center, palaces, museums and cathedrals. We changed our objectives - Sachertorte and Viennese coffee! We planned our tour in the city around these.

Quite bored with Vienna, we decided to head to Bratislava the next day. This city was a huge surprise for us. It was a dead city. We could literally count the number of people on a Saturday mid-day! In less than 2 hours, we decided to head back. We reached Schonbrunn palace that afternoon, had a look around and then it was time to catch the bus to Munich.

Day one - we did the free tour. It was awesome. Our tour guide, Blake, was a quarter-back with the Munich Cowboys. He did a fantastic job. After the tour, I headed towards the BMW Museum. Came back in the evening and then met Blake for a Beer Tour! That finished around 11pm. The next morning we had the Disney Castle tour with Blake again. Rain played spoilsport but overall it was still good. The next day we spent a few hours at the Deutsches Museum - one of the best technical museums in the world. Sadly, due to lack of funds, most of their exhibits are in German. After a point we got bored and walked out.

Next stop was Freiburg - capital of the Black Forest. We got there by night and decided to head to Triberg the next day. Spent the day hiking up the waterfall - wasn't any great at all but apparently this place is a big attraction. Then tried the original black forest cake.

The next day, our stop was Heidelberg - the most beautiful place after Berlin. This university town is famous for its one mile long shopping road. Whatever time was left between walking out of shoe shops was used to see parts of the old town.

With Heidelberg done, our tour was coming to a close. We took the train to Frankfurt, spent the next day walking around the city and boarded the flight back. I could have detailed this post a bit more but its just taking a lot of time. Hopefully the photos will have a better story!

Germany - Part 4

We reached Berlin by later afternoon. Finding the hotel with the maps and directions I had, was slightly tough but we managed and checked into Meininger at Senefelderplatz.

Almost a month back, I had booked for a free guided tour of the German Parliament - Reichstag scheduled at 8.30pm for about 90 mins. We put our bags, showered and quickly left. We took a bus numbered 100, apparently the only bus which takes you through all major attractions (other than the hop-on-hop-off). We did one round on that bus and then got off at Reichstag. The tour was well organized and the guide gave us very deep insights and stories about the building, its architecture, and impact from the war.

The next day we had a huge debate rather a fight about whether we should do a free walking tour or not. We decided to do a walking tour. We were told that there would be a pickup at 10am from our hotel. We were ready by 9.30 but apparently that 10am pickup was to just collect people from different hotels and make bring them to the Brandenburg gate. The tour was going to start only at 11am. I realized it was an utter waste of time and we wanted to cover a lot in a single day. The walking tour was just going to be Berlin highlights. So we ditched the tour and started off on our own. We took the train to the Berlin Ostbahnof to see the section of the wall that was still intact. From there we reached the Judisches Museum. This museum had everything about Jews right from history, evolution whatever to concentration camps until 1945. We spent many hours at the Museum and then walked towards Checkpoint Charlie - the crossing between east and west. There was an exhibition about the wall very close to the checkpoint. More about that in the photos. Next destination was the Topography of Terror. This place was a treasure trove of information about the book burning, arrests, holocaust, hatred and the cold war. The day almost got over and we managed to make a quick visit to the Berlin Wall Memorial.

The next day was the highlight of our vacation. The tour of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This camp was a model camp. SS officers got training in this camp before being deputed elsewhere. The location of the camp was at the end of one of the train lines and the camp was very close to residential areas which meant that everyone living there could see camp prisoners being walked to the camp. If you don't plan to visit Dachau near Munich or Auschwitz near Krakow, then this place is a must. I have enough photos that divulge the details of the camp. On our way back we were talking to our guide on the train about various things - India, culture, yoga, travel etc and then our conversation was interrupted by a lady who was sitting on the other side. We started talking to her and realized that she was very much around when the wall was built. Her family later moved to the US and she started working with the UN. She is now retired and lives in Berlin. Towards the end, she told us that her mother was in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. We were speechless after that.

The rest of the evening was spent repenting not continuing on the train with the lady. But then, there was also this thought that we should not be triggering such sensitive conversations with someone we just met on the train.

There was so much to see and learn in Berlin that just 3 days was absolutely not enough. We vowed to come back here.

Germany - Part 3

I realized that I didn't talk much about the Rhine river cruise. KD is one of the many companies that organizes the river cruise and with these guys you can use the German rail pass as well. They may not have the best of the facilities but its still good. The rive cruise goes through many small yet beautiful cities like Rudesheim, Bacharach, St Goar etc. You can also get off at any town in between and catch the local train to the next station if you wish. The trains also run along the river side. By being on the train you don't miss a lot. You definitely save a lot of time. And it does make a lot of sense to get off and take a train because after the first hour, the cruise does get boring.

With Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Cologne, and Bonn done, it was time to head towards the town where the wedding was happening. The wedding was the primary reason for our Germany visit. Let me warn you ahead of time that this section may not be of great interest to many of you as its not about travel and sightseeing.

Bad Driburg was the town we had to reach. We left Cologne on 9th mid-day, made at least 2 changes on the train and then took a bus to reach the town. We were the only non-germans in many of those sections we traveled. I am sure a lot of locals would have been surprised or even suspicious seeing us backpacking through some truly German locations.

Bad Driburg is a recovery town (popular for thermal spas) for old aged people. From my first line you can see where this would go. The moment we got off the railway station, the first sign I noticed was about a hospital. And the hospital was actually next door to the railway station, which sort of gave us a peek into what we could expect here. Nevertheless, we were here just for the wedding.

We checked-in to our hotel and walked to the other side of town (about 1km) to where the church was. Had a quick look around the area and also met the bride, groom and their family for a few minutes while they were in rehearsal. The same day evening, we had a small dinner with family and friends. The next day was the wedding. It was a Protestant-Catholic wedding and pretty much every word of it was in German. Altogether a different experience - my first church wedding outside India. Very different from our kind of weddings. There were only about 100 guests in all, including family. Every minute of the wedding was carefully planned by the bride and the groom. The after wedding party was at a spa-hotel that was right opposite the church. We just walked, clicked a few pictures and had some wine/juice.

The bride's family had something for us next. They gave us postcards for us to write wishes for the couple. These postcards were then tied to a gas balloon and let off into the air. A balloon would land someday in the garden of someone's house. The recipient if enthusiastic enough, would post the card back to the couple. The couple gets to know how far the balloons traveled. We got to know that in one such wedding, the balloons went as far as Denmark!

It was time for dinner. We got seated in a particular table. Seating was all pre-decided. Dinner was served with a series of presentations/wishes in between. This was exactly where the family and friends put enormous effort to make the event hilarious and interesting. Both families worked extremely hard in their own capacities to put up pictures and events from the past to tell us many stories about couple and their journey until the wedding. Just like the Hollywood movies! They also had small games and quizzes for the couple through which everyone got to know the couple better. Friends groups from work and university also had similar presentations. There was a photo booth to take pictures and these pictures would go into a scrap book. You also had the opportunity to write wishes for the couple on that book. There was a live band and a DJ. When all of this got over, it was roughly 5am in the morning. I didn't stay that long. I took off around three.

Got up that Sunday (the 11th), packed our bags and took the train towards what was going to be the best city of our trip - Berlin!

Germany - Part 2

Like most of Western Europe, Germany is quite easy to get around and people do speak English and don't take offense like the French.

Frankfurt was our first stop. Our hotel was in Sachsenhausen, which was part of the city's old town (by the way, almost every city in Germany has an old town which is called Aldstadt). It was a very vibrant location with many beer gardens and noisy people.

Germans know a few things better than most of their European friends, besides automobiles and engineering I mean - and that's potatoes and beer. We had some of the best potato based food and beers all through the trip.

Textorstrasse in the same part of town has a few restaurants that serve some of the best apple wine (apfelwein). These restaurants are more popular with the locals and hence not many tourists are there, which was good in a way too. Summer festivals were happening all over town and we got a chance to mingle with the locals. We spent a few hours in a suburb called Bornheim (this place survived the war). This side of the city is famous for small cafes and restaurants along the streets with hardly any space for cars to get around.

We did a day trip to Stuttgart - the home of Porsche and Mercedes Benz. We managed to see the Porsche Museum and understand Bernoulli's principle, also walked around the town center a bit.

Our next stop was Mainz. Trains are amazing in Germany - very efficient. All stations have a full timetable printed and made available in every platform indicating all arrivals and departures for the day. Many intercity trains also have the train route printed as a catalogue for the passengers to view. This also lists the connections available at every station the train stopped.

We had to walk a lot from the Mainz Hbf (Hbf is short for Hauptbahnof i.e Main train station) to the departure point for the Rhine river cruise. We walked the wrong way for quite a bit and hence ended up missing the first boat. The next boat was in an hour. We got in and found a nice spot. As the cruise began I noticed that there were hardly any young couples around. Everyone was 60 plus. Looks like river cruises are not popular among the active. Well, who would want to sit in a boat and see castles from the water! We got off at the last stop Boppard and took a train to Koblenz. Then another train to Cologne.

We spent 3 nights in Cologne. The cruise to Cologne almost took a full day. The next day was spent in Bonn visiting the Arithmeum, University, and the House of Beethoven. On the last day, we visited the most famous cathedral, chocolate museum, some of the 12 other cathedrals, the padlock bridge and spent the evening at a local brew house. Cologne is famous for Kolsch beer.

Germany - Part 1

So our 3 week holiday (rather exploration) of Germany started in the first week of August, 2nd to be more precise.

Since our decision to travel was made quite late, the cheapest tickets we could get was around 1550 AUD return with Air China.

So we boarded the flight in Melbourne. The first surprise came when we checked in and they told us that we had to collect our bags in Shanghai (that was our stop-over) and then re-check the bags in for the next leg. That was understandable as we had a stop-over of more than 12 hrs.

Shanghai Pudong was quite an experience. We got there and we got no instructions from the airline staff about what we needed to do. We ended up straight at immigration. My wife decided to request for a transit visa so that we could explore the possibility of getting to the city for the night rather than being stuck at the airport hotel. After some struggle with a limited English speaking officer, we got an authorization. We collected our bags and then walked out.

One tourist agent on the way out offered to help us with hotel accommodation. After looking at a few hotels, we decided to get one for around 50 USD for one night, including airport transfers. We paid the guy and then got out of the airport and were waiting for the cab. One of the guys walked us out and was waiting for the cab with us.

Shanghai is full of smokers. Everyone around us was smoking non-stop. The air around us was horrible and it was a very hot evening. We were just waiting there. We tried speaking to the guy who came with us about the cab. Obviously he spoke only Mandarin and we were still clueless. Finally, a vehicle arrived. It was worse than the Maruti Omni but a larger version.

We got in and the guy drove for about 10 mins. Around the Pudong airport, the roads are all four lane and I noticed a few highways as well. Our van driver was not following any traffic regulations. He was driving in the middle of two lanes and did not stop at many traffic lights. Now that's something I have prior experience for sure.

Just off these massive roadways are small ghettoes, a perfect example of income distribution, and that was where our hotel was. The lane was deserted and no street lights in many sections. It was slightly scary. We checked into the hotel and decided to get some food.

The nearest place was a cross-section with a few street shops. Not a single word of English. There was a lady making stir-fried noodles. Our pictionary and dumb-c skills helped us a bit and we got ourselves a good and cheap dinner for like 30 RMB. Not bad. We walked back, slept well and got back to the airport on time the next day.

On the return is when we decided that we should never fly through China again. Thankfully, our bags were checked-in directly to Melbourne. We got off at Beijing and we had only a 4 hour transit. We had to do a proper immigration  and security check because our next flight to Melbourne was a local flight going through Shanghai. It took a lot of trouble and queuing up. Then in Shanghai, we were asked to leave the aircraft and do another round of security checks and what not. We finally got back on the same aircraft. I was reminded of my super easy connections and efficient transfers in Singapore and KL. So much trouble for deciding to fly low-cost. And let's not even talk about the food. Asian Hindu Vegetarian gets stir fried veggies and rice! Their in-flight food options are so inflexible that even getting an extra piece of bread roll takes atleast 30 minutes. And one of the flight attendants told me that they don't have extra butter!

That's part 1 for you and there is more to come during this week.

Raanjhanaa

Raanjhanaa is a movie that revolves around the life of a self-centred Zoya, played by Sonam Kapoor. The movie is not about a demented stalker, not about slitting wrists for love, not about politics and not about inter-caste weddings.

Dhanush's first Hindi movie has been doing well and doesn't require my approval. In a lot of places, he does remind us of his previous movies. There is a bit of 3, Kadhal Kondaen and perhaps a few more. Dialog delivery suffers but his acting and emotions make up for the flaws. When the producers released the trailer, they obviously showed the highlights of his hindi speaking skills and the tamil audience were slightly spellbound. That feeling slips away when we get into the mood of the movie.

Zoya is the centerpiece of this movie. Its her intentions (I am unsure if I can use the word selfish to describe her intentions), that drives the so-called protagonist Kundan to do whatever he does in the film. Love is just another emotion in the movie. In fact, Zoya's silence and vengeance are the deeper aspects of the movie that tend to stand out during the second half. 

So men, here are the rules simply put. Even in small towns, your silly pranks and smiles will not work. Get ahead and get smart. Women need more than blood. They want you to be educated and ambitious. What Kundan does in the second half of the movie is unbelievable and absolute nonsense. Its a directorial flaw. And Zoya does get a bit emotional towards the end for Kundan but it was too late.

Nevertheless, the colors in the movie are brilliant. Music heightens your spirits to a completely new level. Raanjhana is best understood when you see it from the eyes of Zoya.

USHA BUO 2013 - Predictions

With the seedings out, its now time to have a quick look at the pools and the games that follow. Here it is

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C
Learning to Fly	Stall 7	Spinergy
Blitzkrieg	Chakraa	DoD
Storm Chasers	Airborne Chicken Pox	Cat Dogs
Shurikens	Falcons	Fly Wild
Dishqiya	Dhokla Biryani	Fringe Flickers
Blue Rays	Discreed	Flying Spirits
Spin Doctors	Discotech	Airborne Small Pox
Airbenders	Air Traffic Control	Spin Offs

With 8 teams in every pool, it is going to be a lot of games per team before they get divided into Gold, Silver and Fun (that's how the organizers decided to call the last pool). The first two days of pool games is not going to be easy at all and I am sure we will be in for a few surprises.

If things go by the way my brain is thinking right now, here is what we can expect from every pool.

Pool A will be topped by Learning to Fly (nothing different. Same team, maybe a few new additions. They should sail through, especially considering its grass and they have been quite consistent on grass). It will be a good fight for Storm Chasers with Shurikens in the same pool (if the people I used to know  in Shurikens are still around I mean). If they get their act together, then team Blitz has a chance too. Dishqiya is a good contender as well considering that they have worked together as team for sometime now.

Pool B will be topped by Stall 7 (but for a few X-Men characters missing from their roster, the college team has come a long way and should sustain their run), followed by a good fight for the next few places between the following teams: Airborne Chicken Pox (guessing this is their A team as there is a small pox somewhere down the line. Airborne performed well at Kodai when I was there and at the Heat last year. They should do well this time around too);  Falcons (the young boys of Bangalore give most of the teams a hard time) and Chakraa (a team that I know closely and has been doing reasonably well)

Pool C will be topped by Fly Wild (runner up at Chennai Heat. These guys should be on fire this time around), followed by Spinergy and DoD. Cat Dogs are going to have a tough time in this pool with 3 other strong teams.

The Gold Pool would probably look like this, in no particular order or ranking

Learning to Fly

Stall 7

Fly Wild

Spinergy

Storm Chasers (the design of Pool A makes it easy for them)

There will be a sort of scramble for the next 3 places. An educated guess would be DoD, Airborne Chicken Pox and Chakraa, but we cannot leave out the Falcons who have the capability to create an upset. Watch out for the games these teams play as they could go either ways. Interesting that out of the five teams mentioned above, three are in one pool. Which sort of gives DoD an easy entry to the Gold Pool unless the Cat Dogs throw a surprise party. I decided to leave Blitz out of this equation because their performance hasn't been consistent beyond Chennai Heat.

As there is not much information about the Gold Pool match-ups, in the end its mostly going to be a final between Stall 7 and Learning to Fly and I am expecting the host team to continue their winning streak.

PS: These are completely my thoughts from the information I have. I will be only happy if more rabbits are pulled out of the hats.

USHA BUO 2013 - Seedings Analysis

The seeding of teams and pools for USHA BUO 2013 was just released today. The organizers Arjun Lall, Satish Raj and Abhishek Srinivas have done a good job in getting out the information for the tournament. We'll come to that soon.

A quick look at the seedings (Don't mind the font. Silly excel troubles)

1	Learning To Fly	9	Cat Dogs	17	Discreed
2	Stall7	10	Fly Wild	18	Blue Rays
3	Spinergy	11	Falcons	19	Spin Doctors
4	DoD	12	Shurikens	20	Discotech
5	Chakraa	13	Dishqiya	21	Airborne Small Pox
6	Blitzkrieg	14	Dhokla Biryani	22	Spin Offs
7	Storm Chasers	15	Fringe Flickers	23	Air Traffic Control
8	Airborne Chicken Pox	16	Flying Spirits	24	Airbenders

So we have the usual suspects on the top (see the first column 1 to 8)

DoD seems to have moved up. They have been doing quite well as a team and we expect them to do well this time too.

Blitzkrieg at 6 was something not expected, considering that they have not been a consistent performer (atleast from what I know).

Storm Chasers Mumbai at 7 - also a good team but not quite sure if they can be up there.

Airborne at 8 - definitely a hardworking team and I think they entered the Gold pool last time in Chennai Heat if I am not wrong.

CatDog from Delhi (guessing its the original Stray Dogs), Flywild, Falcons and Shurikens have all been pushed to the next 8. Quite a shock.

All three teams (above) are definitely at a seeding that is contestable. I am not getting to the point of asking why they are where they are. TD's have the ultimate call. We still don't have a strict process of maintaining rankings in India Ultimate. And not all teams have participated in all tournaments. They end up doing a mix and match as and when required.

For now, seeding seems to be okay. Watch out for the next post about pools and predictions.

Singam 2

The original Singam was a treat to watch. An emotional yet strong police officer story with all the commercial ingredients to make it a perfect Tamil entertainer. Singam 2 is not quite there. Too many characters, bad music and not so great villains make this movie longer and boring.

Singam 2 shows a quick recap of Singam before leading into its theme, just to let you know that they are following the original track that was laid (which also means that we have to provide screen space for all the characters from the old film - what a pity). Tamil cinema still hasn't reached a stage where they can do something like a James Bond franchise with unrelated movies and yet do fantastic at the box office. I am sure we have the capability but many directors still are hung up on song and dance.

So what's new! An item number with Angadi Theru Anjali, local and international baddies, Hansika, and Santhanam.

Singam 2 is all about Suriya. If at any point you removed all the surrounding characters (esp family, love, and comedy), the movie would still make sense. And if the director had made any attempt to remove a few of those characters, the movie would have been slightly better too.

Hansika as an infatuated school-girl adds just color to the Tuticorin backdrop. Santhanam's sequences are not very enjoyable but his mockery of scenes and dialogues from the first movie are definitely a treat. Three villains and one of them calling himself the King of the Indian Ocean (absolutely ridiculous), I definitely think that Prakash Raj did a much better job in the first movie. Rahman does a good job in playing his part as one of the bad guys.

The movie takes us to all sorts of places. Starting from Tuticorin to Chennai, Kerala and then South Africa as well. Scenes are quick and short but predictable and weak.

Don't even get me started about the music. In this one, DSP fails to make your feet tap. After the first song, you are convinced that the first movie's soundtrack was worth every minute of your ear.

I find it very difficult to continue this review because of the confusion the screenplay creates by having so many scenes. In the end, all I can remember is Suriya finding a way to ensure that every bad guy is out of business. Beyond that everything about Singam 2 is waste of time. Having said that, a theme to just oust baddies is quite horrible because that's been the premise of Tamil Cinema for generations. So director Hari doesn't churn out anything interesting.

Going at this rate, actors like Suriya, Vijay and Vikram will become a forgotten trio if they don't invest their time and talent in working on meaningful scripts.

Wimbledon 2013 Day One

I just noticed that my previous post was around the Australian Open and the opening day at Wimbledon has prompted me to write another one. Looking back at what happened yesterday, I am sure that the British media and every sports broadcaster around the world is wondering what just happened!

The king of clay was reduced to a pauper on grass. A shocking round one disaster! This is not new for Nadal as he had a similar experience with Lukas Rosol but this happening in the first round with a person who just ran over Novak in the semis and lifted the cup at Roland Garros roughly about 2-3 weeks back came in as quite a shock.

The next shock was Errani. She was almost like a queen of clay when she reached that semi-final in Roland Garros. Then came an unknown Puig from Puerto Rico who gave her the run of her life perhaps. Puig is not a consistent player. She did take the first set easily but literally struggled through the second one when Errani pulled herself up a bit. Nevertheless, it was too late for Errani because Puig was already up 5-1.

Roger cruised through his game with Victor. He must have walked into the court with this big worry at the back of his mind about meeting Nadal in the 4th round but now that's out of the way!

The biggest shock for me was Hewitt. At 32, the 2002 Wimbledon Champion was on fire. He played a fantastic round one against Wawrinka (a Roland Garros quarter finalist and the guy who made Novak shit bricks in Melbourne). I guess these Wawrinka moments are quite short-lived and Hewitt's consistency helped him get through.

Mladenovic from France showed up like the next Anna Kournikova but then she was up against Maria. The first set was very tight. On the second, Maria picked up pace and sailed through.

And I totally forgot about our Drama Queen Victoria Azarenka. I am sure all of us can remember what she did from the semi final against Sloane Stephens in Melbourne this year. That was definitely unwarranted. In London, she sort of slipped and fell down, ended up hurting her knees. I am not sure if the fall was really bad but I did notice that Vika was really out of shape. She looked slightly overweight and unfit. Buckle up Vika, you need to get back your house in order.

The Scary Round Four

Stanisla Wawrinka - a name unheard of, until yesterday night has become the talk of the tennis world today. And this has sparked me to write a post.

Yesterday, at the Australian Open 2013 Men's Singles Round 4, he gave Novak Djokovic a run for everything - money, title, fame, name and most importantly - the game. While I sat through the five hour battle that Novak fought, to defend his campaign to the quarter finals; I realized what havoc Stan had created.

Novak lost the first set 1-6 in rapid 25 minutes. No one expected this from a world number one. He was down on the second set as well but then managed to win it 7-5 in about an hour. The third set was reasonably comfortable when Novak won at 6-4 spending only 45 mins. While everyone believed that Novak had to get the fourth set, he lost it at 6-7. He did put up a very good fight because Stan got it only after 68 mins. The fifth and final set lasted a nasty 104 mins. In the end Novak survived.

Was Novak overconfident? He probably was in the beginning. He would have never expected a 15th seed player to shock him out of his wits in the first set. Stan served 16 aces against Novak's 7; but it was not just about the aces. Novak struggled to keep up with the serves in general.

Stan kept Novak on his feet all through the 5 sets. Stan was literally dictating the game. You would expect it to be the other way around, but that hardly happened. I still remember a few points where Stan moved a few feet to swing the ball and Novak was running like a dog all over the baseline to make the return. Moreover, Stan's backhand's became a nightmare for Novak.

Towards the end of the ordeal, Novak managed to pull himself up a bit more than Stan, which gave Novak a slight advantage and a ticket to the quarter finals.

What helped Novak all through was his fitness. He could not bring his A-game because Stan quashed it right from the start. Years and years of playing competitive tennis, esp the 5 setters, gave Novak the edge he needed to last that long. Stan developed a minor hamstring injury during the game which definitely made him slow in the last 2-3 sets. Despite that, Stan took the 4th set. But his injury started playing up. The last set was a clear indicator when Stan moved less and relied on serves and backhands. Nevertheless, Novak was nowhere close to making an advantage of this.

At the end of the day, it was Stan's mistakes that made Novak win. And clearly, those mistakes were not forced on him by Novak. If Stan was even 10% more fit than what he was in the 5th set, Novak would have had to re-schedule his return ticket.