What Went Down At: University Mixed Indoor Nationals (UXIN)

Main Writers: Hazard, GeeGee
Editor: Ali Other Contributors: AreYouShawN, Giulia, H.Christou, JonnyArthur95, Hillmaniaa

This was another discussion held immediately after a tournament. Originally meant for showgame.co.uk, but sadly never saw the light of day. Many thanks to all the contributors and editors involved at any point in this piece. I hope you still enjoy it, even if it's a bit late.

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hazard
With all of Indoor Regionals out of the way, only one tournament remained in 2016 - University Mixed Indoor Nationals (UXIN). This was a two division tournament (20 teams in Division 1, 16 in Division 2) held on a hard court surface, at the Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton.

With the first GB-wide championship up for grabs, teams were sure to be fighting hard for honour, glory and ideally a trophy or two.

You can find the Show Game’s preview articles for the weekend here:
Division 1: http://showgame.co.uk/2016/11/university-ultimate-2016-mixed-indoor-nationals-div-1.html

Or look up all the results here: https://goo.gl/eqjlfM
And difference in seedings can be found thanks to user HippieSpider on reddit: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lOHHeKidorOISbOexPnew-iiLZEQqCLovHYt5N1AbRI/edit#gid=1338424976

Extra videos: Warwick vs Glasgow (semi final) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3ZzrP0-CPY
Loughborough vs Oxford (pool game) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZeX22pCm9Q

That said, let’s get straight onto the tournament! We’ll start with myself moderating Div 1, and then geegee taking over for Div 2.

Div 1 Results
1. Glasgow
2. Leeds
3. Birmingham
4. Warwick
5. Manchester
6. Strathclyde
7. Edinburgh
8. Exeter
----
9. Oxford
10. Loughborough

Div 1 Predictions
1. Glasgow
2. Loughborough
3. Manchester
4. Leeds
5. Edinburgh
6. Oxford
7. Birmingham
8. UEA
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9. Sussex
10. Exeter


Additional predictions:
Scotland to get two teams into the top 5,
Birmingham not to win.
Loughborough 2 to win some games
Sussex to be a wildcard and upset the seedings.

Alright, let’s get straight into it by discussing Scotland. While I technically didn’t get the first prediction right, Scottish teams finishing 1st, 6th and 7th is about as close as I could have got without actually nailing it. Especially considering St. Andrew’s dropping out (despite qualifying 2nd in the region). Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Particularly on Glasgow’s performance as new Mixed Indoor Champions (the final of which you can find here - https://www.facebook.com/kimberley.marsh95/videos/vb.1317743209/10211387362702601/?type=2&theater&notif_t=live_video&notif_id=1480262600043942)
areyoushaw (Strathclyde alum)
I was very impressed and happy with Scotland’s performance. Especially since many of us not at Wolverhampton could watch the final on Kimberley March's live stream on Facebook.

hazard (Oxford)
hinthint - more people should film and share livestreams!

h.christou (Dundee)   
I was backing Glasgow to do well, to win it was quite impressive. Looking at the quarter final match ups there were loads of tight games which could had gone either way, which was probably the first time in a few years we've had that.

areyoushaw    
Strathclyde only beat Aberdeen on universe at regionals so I expected Aberdeen to do well in Div 2. And they won it!

h.christou    
Strong performances all round, three teams in the top 8 and Aberdeen won Div 2.

hillmaniaa (Loughborough 1)
Edinburgh lost in universe point in our pre-quarter, . It was a fantastic game. They played 3 women from the start, and you could tell how experienced they all were compared to a young, raw athletic Loughborough team. So much composure on the disc and ultimately that's what worked for them. The highlight of my weekend was making them switch to playing 3 guys for (according to one of the Glasgow guys) the first time! It definitely felt like a quarter final or better, if we had to not make top 8, that was the best way to do it haha.

hazard
A shout out to Strathclyde here too, who were one of 2 teams to defy my predictions in making the top 10.

I was chatting to Glasgow captain Axel Ahmala, who was fairly confident of getting all three Scottish teams in the top four before the quarter final games.

h.christou    
With regards to Scottish history at mixed, Dundee have been 2nd in 4* of the last 6 Mixed Nationals (Indoors & Outdoors), only losing to UBU. I think now that their golden generation is over it has opened it up for Scotland to finally win it.
*we finished 3rd at the last Outdoor Mixed Nationals, beat Glasgow in final game but finished behind them in 3rd due to Swiss Draw so I don't count that...

But even then, Glasgow pushed us hard at regionals each year and did well at Nationals too.

hazard    
Glasgow came 4th last year at UXIN (and Heriot-Watt 5th), to highlight the strength of the region. There's a reason they were favourites coming in. The combination of athleticism, high-level experience, and depth present in the squad is what won it for them in the end, I think.
 
I'm going to leave the final thought on the strength of the region to the Glasgow twitter feed. Fairly confident about a 1 vs 8 seeding game (not quarter, as they claim), they asked Edinburgh whether they could claim victory and both have a lie-in. Edinburgh then decided to take them to sudden death.

FarFlung Ultimate @GUSAUltimate
@RoShamUltimate can we have a lie in and agree that we win the quarter? Regionals repeats are boring...

hazard  
So, let's discuss those teams that caused the upset in the actual quarter finals: Birmingham and Warwick.
  
Now, I predicted Birmingham would fall from grace this tournament. While I was technically correct on this one, it was only by the narrowest of margins. A loss against Leeds in the semi final was Birmingham's first loss in official Mixed tournaments in 3 and a half years. And remains their only one.

My underprediction of Birmingham also led me to underpredict the team they beat at Regionals - Warwick. One of two teams I didn't have in my top ten, they took a lot of joy in making me look like a fool and making the top 4.
  
When I played Birmingham, I did indeed see the same strong women from years prior - Helen Roberts, Grace Owen - and a couple more rising stars too. But the guys, while not as strong as previous years, were still certainly a force to be reckoned with.

ali (Warwick 1)
I'm surprised they didn't call three girls more often actually! They barely did in their game against us, as far as I remember.

hazard    
They didn't against us, possibly because we took the initiative to do so first and then went up. But from the looks of things, we weren't alone.

UBSport Ultimate @unibhamultimate
No one appreciates our clearly deliberate attempt to comeback to win every game this weekend. Still happy with 3rd #stopATingUs
  
Did they look stronger at Nationals than they did Regionals ali?

ali    
I wouldn't say stronger, no. They still tore through our zone, but there were potentially more unforced errors. Things are different in the Alan Higgs though. I think their style of play is better suited to bigger pitches

hazard    
Alright then. So, onto Warwick. I clearly wasn't alone in not noticing them, as last year's EMO captain rightly pointed out after the preview:

John E Corke @NonCronk
@WarwickUltimate It is obscene that your 1sts aren't predicted top 10 this weekend in @TheShowGame. Go smash it!

ali    
Darn right.

hazard    
So, what happened this weekend for you then?

ali    
Obviously Warwick Bears are super pleased about how we did! Our pre-tournament training was a bit shaky but we really pulled it together at the weekend, using everyone and being very smart and clinical. All credit to Glasgow for beating us by such a large margin, they revealed in the spirit circle that they'd watched our Regional final against Birmingham to work out our tactics and shut them down and they did exactly that! Obviously we're a bit disappointed not to have had our revenge on Birmingham in the 3v4, had we been able to eradicate some unforced drops and throwaways it might have been a different game.

hazard    
On the other hand, it might lead to the Birmingham account unblocking the Warwick twitter feed after Bears beat them at Men's.

Warwick Bears @WarwickUltimate
K https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyMt8MPW8AAaF1S.jpg
  
As a contrast for the support within Regions, I just want to mention the love I found between Loughborough and Leeds. Both teams were a joy to play against in the Leeds-Loughborough-Oxford three way tie during the pool stages (all three teams drew with each other).

Despite the tightness and Loughborough coming bottom by goal difference against the 4th and 5th placed teams, the sideline they produced for Leeds was huge (and somewhat deafening when I was watching the semi-final between Leeds and Loughborough)

hillmaniaa    
Leeds looked so strong having Rob ‘Cracker’ White back, him and Nick Peters were ridiculous. They also looked like they were enjoying the way they were playing; credit to Leeds for getting the best out of their own players.
  
We've got a lot of love for Leeds this year, we are just constantly pushing each other at every tournament so far! Players that we knew of last year have become our friends this year, going to Nationals having two other teams to sideline (alongside our 2s) was great, being able to support the team that was your main rival at Regionals was brilliant too. Feels like a relationship that'll last a few years with the players both teams retain.

hazard    
Speaking of two teams, this seems like a good point to transition to one of my other predictions:
Loughborough 2 did indeed beat two teams this weekend, one of whom ended up in the top 8! @hillmania, can you briefly give us a rundown on the weekend for the two teams?

hillmaniaa    
Loughborough 1 started off pretty good, we couldn't play our no-dump vert because we couldn't get traction on the pitches and so had to switch to 3-1-1 early on, affected us mentally that we didn't have another way of playing. We were really happy with how we played overall, came out unlucky in the 3 way draw and against an Edinburgh team that brought so much heat from the first point in our pre-quarter, we ended up on the wrong side of universe. Our team is very young (excluding Walsh obviously), we've got a lot to improve on, and yet we still know that we could've challenged every team in the top 8. Excited for the future.

hazard    
The lack of traction on the pitches was really noticeable actually. A lot of teams ended up struggling.

ali    
As regards the venue: had those floors ever been swept? They were so slippery! It made it really hard to play D, people were falling over everywhere. Lack of cones didn't particularly bother me, what did bother me was that the end zones were different sizes and the brick marks were inconsistent as well.
  
Not ideal, basically.

hillmaniaa
Loughborough 2 had similar difficulties in adjusting, they played brilliantly and beating Strathclyde in the groups just shows how well they can play. We had two girls that have only really known what frisbee is for 2 months. Again, a young team with many years of Uni Ultimate left. Very proud captain.

hazard
I'm now going to claim this point to be allowed a small paragraph about my own team. And not just to point out the error UEA very kindly/not at all mockingly pointed out when we accidentally called them UAE.

https://twitter.com/AyeAyeUltimate/status/802834539999625216
@OxUniUltimate Well done on beating the United Arab Emirates! Any chance of some discounted petrol for our journey home? #ultimatepower

As someone who has played a lot of weekends of Frisbee, I was very happy to give up this one to play with and support my Oxford teammates. To give you an idea how close our weekend was - if draws were allowed, we would have drawn 4 games in all, and lost none (despite not being in top 8). After a three-way tie in the pool, we lost so narrowly to Birmingham and Exeter, before winning the rest to end up with the non-existent plate trophy. Such a good weekend, we made up for the loss of SYC player Christine Moore in our hearts with lots of phone calls, and on pitch with great Ultimate. All the top teams were so good, and a joy to play against!
  
Speaking of how close the weekend was, let's move on to the final prediction: Sussex as a wild card (getting the Div 1 spot due to St. Andrew’s dropping out).

They came into this tournament seeded 20th/20. They ended up being the team that pushed Glasgow (the victors) the closest to defeat. Some would argue having technically beaten them in the pool stage (certainly with the Sussex twitter feed claiming so).

Sussex Mohawks @MohawksUltimate
Congratulations @GUSAUltimate  on winning Mixed Nats maybe next year you'll be able to beat a Div 2 team
  
They ended up 11th, after facing a strong Manchester team (in addition to Glasgow) in their pool, and Leeds in their crossover into the top 8.

jonnyarthur95    
Certainly became a pool of death didn't it! And how different could the overall table have looked if Glasgow hadn't been saved by the highly controversial final possession rule.
  
AshleyYeo being available this weekend was obviously a huge boost to the team and captain Chun Lee is pleased with the weekend’s performance and reckons we can beat anyone at outdoors having followed our Mohawk tradition of minimal indoor practice this term.

hazard    
Not injuring Vicki James probably helped you too.

jonnyarthur95    
Losing Vicki at Regionals is what I say dropped us to Div 2 in the first place. Having someone who can seemingly break any mark at any time is pretty helpful.

hazard    
Well, I'm not 100% on this part of the rules, but from what I can work out it looks like the South East did well enough to keep the extra bid this year.
 
The bottom 3 (teams in danger of losing region bids) were:
18. Bristol (South West)
19. Loughborough 2 (Yorkshire + East Midlands)
20. Cardiff (Wales and West Midlands)

South West only had two bids, so that means two bids were up for grabs by high finishing teams at Div 1. As it happens, it looks like the Y+EM region grabbed the spot right back, and that Scotland reclaimed the bid lost by late drop outs.

A special shout out here to Cardiff by the way. Unfortunate circumstance meant they only had two fit women for the tournament. Regardless, they played through to the end and came very close to a couple scalps. They also ended up with the spirit trophy too.

Alright, unless anyone has anything else to add, I think that closes the Division 1 discussion. Very well done to Glasgow again for taking home the title, and thanks to all teams for a fantastic and close tournament.
hazard    
***Picture of Aberdeen could be used here as a breaker between discussions - https://www.instagram.com/p/BNUyFDnANlB/?taken-by=assortedbiscuit  ***
Instagram photo by Joshua Baillie
See this Instagram photo by @assortedbiscuit • 79 likes (45KB)

geegee (Surrey)       
Welcome everyone to the University Mixed Indoor Nationals 2016 Division 2 review! Here we have a number of our Show Game contributors, hopefully from across both divisions alike, discussing last weekend’s results.

This year Div 2 consisted of 16 university teams from across the UK, including some last minute additions after a number of dropouts, competing in Wolverhampton alongside Div 1. Both divisions at the same venue made an incredible atmosphere for a Nationals event, with the balconies often littered with teams cheering their region on. Below are the final standings according to the most recently updated schedule.

Final Standings:
1.    Aberdeen
2.    Nottingham
3.    FXU
4.    Leicester
5.    Bath
6.    Hertfordshire
7.    Warwick 2
8.    Bangor
--------------------------------------
9.    Nottingham Trent
10.  Surrey

Predictions:
1.    Newcastle
2.    Portsmouth
3.    FXU
4.    Bath
5.    Hertfordshire
6.    Durham
7.    Warwick 2
8.    Surrey

Now let’s begin this discussion!

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Aberdeen on becoming Div 2 champions - really well done! Now my predictions for this tournament were quite off, really showing how fickle university Ultimate is. FXU held true to the prediction in coming third, with Bath and Hertfordshire coming not far off at all. Nottingham were very impressive going from 13th seed to 2nd over the weekend.

Were there any teams that exceeded expectations?

hazard    
So, I just want to highlight how impressive Nottingham and Leicester's performances are. Their region has five bids to Div 1. That means the sixth and seventh best team in their region both came top 4 at Div 2. For all the talk of Scotland, that achievement has to be noted too.

geegee    
Agreed, Leicester really pushed hard this weekend topping both of their pools on Saturday with some impressive games against some of the other higher finishing teams, including Aberdeen themselves.

The Scottish teams have come very far in both divisions, but it was interesting to see Heriot-Watt pull out of the competition last minute. They managed to finish 5th in the UK last year and I believe won their regionals this year. It could’ve been a very different final had they remained in the competition.

geegee (retroactively): Hazard has corrected to show that Heriot-Watt finished sixth at regionals.
     
hazard
Yeah, I do think it would be a bit of a different tournament had Heriot-Watt made the journey.
They've built themselves up during my time at University from a team no one noticed to one you have been forced to. Despite the graduation of some key players (*cough Shona Whitely cough*) they've still held themselves very well this year. I do hope they make it down for the other tournaments.

geegee    
Thank you guys! Now let’s move on to some of the other teams that came to impress this weekend. In particular Warwick 2 and Nottingham Trent stick out to me.

Warwick 2 are the only second team in this division, had a stormer of a Regional tournament, and they did not disappoint at all. I remember playing against them; their slick flow on disc and keen eye on the pitch was very difficult to shut down.
@ali do you have any comments on how your fellow Bears performed this weekend?

ali    
I'd say that they played really well on the Saturday and were very pleased with how they did.

geegee    
A nice little team selfie after the first day at Nationals from the Bears Twitter account https://twitter.com/WarwickUltimate/status/802572308850339841
2 teams heading home in the banter bus after a successful day! #mattsheretoo

ali    
Comments from Warwick 2 players -Cathy Hensman: Lacking consistency. Our best was enough to win Div 2 but we couldn't quite work out why we were clogging our offence or properly fix our D.
Owen Lane: Patches of very fluid and patient disc movement, taking few overheads. Went down early but fought back.

geegee    
I was very impressed with their performance. To see such consistently strong play across two teams (Bears 1 and 2) is fantastic and will really make them a team to watch out for at Outdoor Mixed Nationals.

Nottingham Trent came into the tournament last minute after a few dropouts/promotions from Div 2. They won plate quite convincingly, utilising some of their taller guys and playing the disc through their girls well. Having lost to them in that plate final, their zone is strong, with a brilliantly fluid wall that just broke everything down.

ali    
Didn't the plate final go to universe?

geegee    
It did yes, we just could not play through the zone patiently enough to wear it down.

hazard
I love Nottingham Trent! I was lucky enough to play with their Women's captain (Georgia Spencer) at BTT this summer, and she just brings this great positivity to the team. They held themselves exceptionally well for one of their first times on the national stage. In the old midlands region, they were always kept out by the powerhouse teams, so it's great they've had a chance to push through.

geegee    
Okay thanks guys for that! I wanted to quickly cover some of the teams that fell from their predicted place and seeding. Some of the teams I put near the top were Newcastle, Portsmouth and Durham who all could not reach the top 10. Any comments regarding these results?

jonnyarthur95    
Portsmouth were always reliant on their men, just like at Regionals, having lost so many experienced women last year. At Nationals they were missing 3 of their top 4 guys for whatever reason so that clearly had a big impact on their weekend.

geegee    
I agree, they are a more “Open central” team but would like to develop their girls up after having a fairly new cycle of players come through. They did find some humour in the weekend though:

Sublime @SublimeUoP
@TheShowGame When none of the players mentioned are playing this weekend. . . #inboorerwetrust #poorreporting https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyMbrLEWQAAcQ9d.jpg

jonnyarthur95    
Just a shame those guys couldn’t make it and make a real push at the Div 2 title.

hazard
Durham used to be exceptionally strong. And the Durham players still are! The issue is that a lot of them have now joined teams like Imperial and Edinburgh...

Newcastle seem to have been hit by finally losing some of their eternal female medics. Still a little bit of SMOG influence in the team though, would hope to see that build them up again in future.

geegee    
In fairness, despite this mishap in predictions FXU really held on throughout the weekend. They were genuinely the friendliest team I had the pleasure to lose against and proved that you don’t need to be well known to do well.

hazard
One of these days, I'm going to actually stop and watch an FXU game. I haven't really had chance yet, but they're one of the strongest up-and-comer teams, and I really want to see what it is that has brought them so many victories.
 
geegee
Speaking of friendly teams, I would like to take the time to discuss spirit. It is such an integral part of our sport and recognising good spirit where it is due is not done often enough.
Any comments from the weekend?

ali    
Spirit seemed to be fairly good as far as I could tell! I'd been told that people get a lot more physical at Nationals so I was expecting the worst but it was actually fine.
Bears 2 were discussing  'if bringing only 3 girls to a mixed tournament should be punished/at least considered very bad spirit (as injuries result in their opposition’s women being denied pitch time)' -Cathy Hensman

jonnyarthur95    
At non university mixed tournaments I have seen teams making their opponents play with a player less when they get to call the line. It's a mixed tournament you should have enough players to play mixed properly so I'd almost like to see teams continually call 3 women on against teams that didn't bring enough players to a competitive tournament

geegee    
Having watched a fair few of Leeds’s games over the weekend I have to say they have very good spirit. Everything seemed to be discussed openly and calmly, and their general support for each other made them a joy to watch.

And on that note the Div 2 discussion is closed. Thank you to all of those who contributed!

at
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