James Wiseman Takes Over The #1 Ranking

jameswisemanbtbdelay
Photo courtesy Jordan Haro and Spread The Jam Project

After the world championships, three players were locked in a very tight battle for number one – Jake Gauthier, James Wiseman and Arthur Coddington. Only 16 points separated the three.

James Wiseman struck first post-worlds by playing the Oktoberfest event. His runner up finish with Sophie Wolf was strong, but there weren’t enough entrants to boost his ranking point total. No problem, he just went to the Berlin Hat Autumn 2013 Edition, drew Tobias Burzan and Freddy Finner as his teammates and won it for 146 points. He was the leader in the clubhouse going into Beach Stylers, where both Jake and Arthur would compete. The Berlin Hat win also moved Freddy into the top 20 and Tobias into the top 80.

The math looked like winning Beach Stylers could put either Jake or Arthur on top. The math, though, was more complicated because of Beach Styler’s two divisions – pairs and turboshred. Arthur teamed up with Matt Gauthier to win pairs on the first day of the tournament, with Jake and Amy Schiller coming in a close second. The next day’s turboshred was disastrous for Arthur, where he was edged out of the final by Dave Zeff. Jake had no such problems, sailing through to the final, then winning the event. Jake accumulated 128.75 points across the two divisions, seven points short of James’ point total.

Another interesting dynamic emerged at Beach Stylers. By winning pairs and finishing second in turboshred, Matt Gauthier entered into the mix for the end-of-year number one spot. Matt has had an insane year, winning two titles at the world championships and coming less than a point away from sweeping Open Pairs, Open Co-op and Mixed Pairs. With Virginia States and Beach Stylers wins, he’s racked up dominating results. The factor keeping both Matt and Arthur 30-50 points away from James and Jake is the fact that neither played in the 2012 world championships. Their advantage in closing that gap is their 8th best result. Both of them have much weaker 8th results than James and Jake, giving them big upside for any strong tournament finish.

The 2013 rankings battle is not quite over. James has entered Lazzaroni later this month, and a Northern California turboshred event is forming around the annual post-Thanksgiving jam at Sonoma State. JikJam looms too. Strong finishes by any of the four top players could shift the end-of-year rankings picture.

2013 Beach Stylers

2013 Beach Stylers
San Diego, CA
October 19-20, 2013

Pairs Final
1. Arthur Coddington/Matt Gauthier
2. Jake Gauthier/Amy Schiller
3. Larry Imperiale/Dave Schiller
4. Dave Murphy/Rodney Sanchez
5. Lisa Hunrichs/Joel Rogers
6. Danny Cameranesi/Dave Zeff
7. Matteo Feller/Magnus Peterson
8. Bob Boulware/Mark Regalbuti

Open Turboshred Final
1. Jake Gauthier
2. Matt Gauthier
3. Dave Zeff
4. Dave Schiller
5. Larry Imperiale
6. Joel Rogers

Women’s Turboshred
1. Amy Schiller
2. Lisa Hunrichs
3. Lori Daniels
4. Bethany Sanchez
Continue reading “2013 Beach Stylers”

Results for Alpenbrise Munich Wies’n Jam 2013 (aka Oktoberfest Jam)

Below are the results from the 2013 Alpenbrise Munich Wies’n Jam. In its second year, the “Oktoberfest Jam” is shaping up to be another mainstay of the German tournament scene. Taking its cue from the Berlin Hat series, the Wies’n Jam is a random-team event where the “hat” portion is taken very seriously. Toby, the tournament director, insists on using an authentic Bavarian hat for deciding the teams, and this year the teams were pulled in the beer hall by a dirndl-clad woman using a tattered-looking hat. She and others seemed amused that so many people would bring Frisbees to the hall, but the hat ceremony had a feeling of tradition that made it seem almost appropriate.

Sunday’s competition was, of course, more reason to jam than anything, especially after a long day (and night) of enjoying Oktoberfest. The judging system was based solely on general impression and the light atmosphere made for fun and interesting routines. Every team got to play twice with the finals being split up into an A and B final. The B final was very strong, with a particularly inspired performance by the winning team of Melanie Kranz and Piccioni Cusma, the former displaying a formidable range of abilities (after only a short time of playing) under the seasoned guidance of Piccio.

The A final, unfortunately, had a setback with the music and the last two teams played without accompaniment. Even so, both held seed. Sophie Wolf played two incredible rounds, showing poise and confidence with both spins, despite having only started last January. The winning team of Toby Kunzel and Markus Gotz really impressed. Even without music, these two completely shredded, falling into the kind of smooth flow that requires no accessory. In addition, they followed a longstanding and long-honored tradition of td’s winning their own tournaments. Congrats to both of them!

During the awards ceremony and dinner (graciously hosted by Niki Thoma), Toby and Markus decided to give away their awards. There was a vote held for move of the tournament and spirit of the jam. James Wiseman was voted for move of the tournament (though nobody was quite decided on what the move was, what it was called, if it was caught, or if he was even at the tournament). Toby, incredibly and almost despite himself, won back his own award for spirit of the jam. And truly, no one deserved it more. Toby ran a great event with the help of the Munich crew. For a tournament held in the midst of the largest beer festival (and party!) in the world, it was run with the kind of ease and efficiency that make players want to keep coming back. He provided food and housing for everyone, transportation, and even managed to reserve tables months in advance for everyone who came. And on top of all this, he totally shredded.

And may it be forever more.

Results:
Alpenbrise Munich Wies’n Jam 2013 (aka Oktoberfest Jam)
Munich, Germany
September 28-29, 2013

A Final
1. Toby Künzel/Markus Götz (33.5)
2. Sophie Wolf/James Wiseman (27.75)
3. Ilka Simon/Jakub Mystiq Matula (26.5)
4. Lorenzo Telo/Irena Kulišanová (26)

B Final
5. Melanie Kranz/Piccioni Cusma (22.5)
6. Niki Thoma/Dario Marinoni (20)
7. John Titcomb/Daniel Weinbuch (18.5)
8. Anna Longoni/Jonathan Kriss (15)

Semifinal
1. Toby Künzel/Markus Götz (48.75)
2. Sophie Wolf/James Wiseman (48.5)
3. Ilka Simon/Jakub Mystiq Matula (44.75)
4. Lorenzo Telo/Irena Kulišanová (38.5)
5. Niki Thoma/Dario Marinoni (37.75)
6. Melanie Kranz/Piccioni Cusma (32)
7. John Titcomb/Daniel Weinbuch (28.25)
8. Anna Longoni/Jonathan Kriss (16.5)

Move of the tournament: Hammer Flamingitis (James Wiseman)
Spirit of the Jam: Toby Künzel
Winner of the Party: Mistiq Matula

Freestyle With This

It’s beautiful to watch this 8 foot diameter disc fly. Ironic that the owner has to put his body into a delay position to launch it. What urban disc or freestyle moves are possible with this?

Berlin Hat Tournament Autumn Edition 2013

Berlin Hat Tournament Autumn Edition 2013
Gleisdreieck/Berlin
5.10.2013

Coop Finals
1. James Wiseman/Freddy Finner/Tobias Burzan (35,70)
2. Sascha Höhne/Wu Wunder/Bibi Strunz (31,34)
3. Thomas Nötzel/Philipp Krüger/Jan Schreck (30,64)
4. Dan Lustiger/Ben Edelmann/Tobias Künzel (26,05)

Coop Pool A Semis

1. James Wiseman/Freddy Finner/Tobias Burzan (33,85)
2. Sascha Höhne/Wu Wunder/Bibi Strunz (33,56)
3. Makki Hein/Jonathan Kriss/Tom “Harry” Goltz (26,62)

Coop Pool B Semis

1. Thomas Nötzel/Philipp Krüger/Jan Schreck (35,30)
2. Dan Lustiger/Ben Edelmann/Tobi Künzel (30,80)
3. Mehrdad Hosseinian/Konrad Patris/Jerome Fink (26,10)
4. Anton C./Ilka S./Sophie Wolf/Fabio Caruso (25,00)

Spirit of the Game: Konrad Patris

Anzio Hat Tournament

Anzio Hat Tournament
Rivazzura Beach, Anzio Italy
September 28, 2013

1. Alessandro Damiano/Francesco Lucci
2. Andrea Rimatori/Francesco Romeo
3. Fabio Nizzo/Marco Fera
4. Edoardo Favorini/Raffaele Pilla
5. Fabiana Ciciriello/Marco Chessa
6. Tom Leitner/Roberto Borghesi
7. Dario Giusti/Francesco Paolacci
8. Fabrizio de Rossi/Andrea Pietrangeli
9. Serge Marconi/Andrea Izzo
10. Daniele Circenzi/Martina Biaglioli

Video of 10th-4th place: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtxFR5om_Fo

Video of top 3 teams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ca7OtKDpP4