Both our open and women’s team took a trip to Šardice last weekend for the qualifying tournament (EUCQ) for the european league.
After competing in the mixed division of the European series for the past two years, this time we have decided to test our luck in separate cathegories with a clear objective – to move up to Regionals (EUCR) which are the gate to the finals featuring the best european club teams.
The Friday temperatures dropped significantly on Saturday but besides a little bit of wind the weather was just perfect for ultimate. The sun showed itself again on Sunday afternoon, just in time to burn our noses. Only one thing was clear at the beginning – 5 out of 10 teams advance in the women’s cathegory, 7 out of 14 in open.
3SBLOKES
Unlike the girls, our guys came to Moravia with a rather weak roster with only a few additions from Prague Seven. However, at the beginning of the first game against Outsiterz it seemed like it won’t be a problem. But then the opponent pushed hard in the second half and 3sb suffered their first loss. Other ones followed agains Os Zla, PD and Hungarian Lézer Pávák. These results put an end to the hopes for Vienna and a chance to compete for the 9th place which our guys finally shared with the Polish (Perun) without playing out the last match and after beating Fri-met.
3SBEAUTIES
Saturday games were key for our prettier half. First place in the pool meant a direct advancement to an “easier” quarterfinal Sunday morning. Flowers from Wroclaw put up a fight but they struggled to find a timely answer to a couple of our upwind points. During the second game against Hungarian Bambi we managed to stay in control the entire day and could, therefore, spend the rest of the day relaxing.
The games played out so that we faced Bambi again Sunday morning in the quarterfinal. We tried to use the fact that the Hungarians had one more game yesterday and dominated the match. This put 3sb straight among the top four teams and for the first time in history we qualified for EUCR! Our roster of 16 players was reinforced only by Káťa from Chupacabras and we all looked pretty amazing in our brand new headbands from our new sponsor – BJEŽ.
But this wasn’t all. Our opponent for the semis were Prague Devils who had caused us serious trouble with their zone defense just a few weeks ago at the first qualifier of the Czech league. Fortunately, our changed O and D lines worked their magic and by employing a powerline a couple of times we won 15:13.
Finals
The Polish Troubles are regulars at the european scene and even have six World Games players on their roster. The finals also started directly after their tough semifinal against Whatever. We started off pretty well but a couple of unforced errors generated opportunities for our opponent to use their height and experience and we suffered our first and fortunately last loss of the tournament (15:11).
For the entire 3sb the tournament was a great succes and a grand entry to the european scene of which we shouldn’t be ashamed. The guys gained some valuable experience and the girls have yet again pushed the boundaries of their capabilities. Wish us luck at the end of August!