Sluts beat Freaks; Junta wins MUO 2014

 

 

July 19-20

 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

 

 

 

An earlier version of this article was written by Louis Yap and almost all of the information below comes from Louis and the generosity of the organizers of MUO. A little bit comes from my memory. The wrong bits probably. If any details below are wrong please blame me and tell me about it in the comments below…

This year the Malaysian Ultimate Open hosted 32 teams that included over 700 players. Teams came from throughout the region including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Australia, and of course, Malaysia. Before the competition began, the teams converged on Chapters Bar and Grill for the registration party, captains meeting and an opportunity to meet their opponents before taking the field the next morning.

Saturday morning began pool play. The 32 teams were divided into eight pools of four teams each. In six of the eight pools the highest seeded team went ahead and won all their games to hold their seeds moving into the elimination rounds: Taiwan’s Whisby Nation; an international pick-up team called Junta; Mulatto Davao from the Philippines; and Rascals, Freakshow White and Freakshow Green from Singapore. Two pools featured early upsets. Impact, the overall 23rd seed defeated 7th seeded Disc Knights from Singapore, which lead to Malaysia’s Take 1 taking pool G. In pool F, Australia’s Rainbow Gives you Wengs, the 22nd seed, defeated 6th seeded Chuckies from Singapore to take top spot.

The last round of play on Saturday was the first round of the elimination bracket. From here on out it was win or “go home” (actually “go to the consolation bracket” but, same idea). Five of the eight pool winners won easily and went through to the round of sixteen. Others had hard battles or found themselves relegated. Freakshow White had their hands full with India’s Masala Chai, but were able to advance with an 11-8 victory. Badgers challenged Rainbow Gives You Wengs, falling by only two points. Malaysia’s Take 1’s run was ended with an upset by team from the Singapore Institute of Management. Other notable round of 32 matchups saw Penang’s Islanders push easily past Cambodia’s Orphans in a mild upset, Malaysia’s Carebears defeat Chiang Mai’s Lannanana and Vietnam’s Vudoo defeated Bangkok’s Soi Dogs.

Saturday night brought lively festivities at Afterwerk featuring live music by Hyperzone and numerous towers of beer. Soidogs were loud and visible during the early stages of the party though it was a combination of players known as the Phnom Penh Warriors who drank and danced through the end of the night and provided some of the finest vocal performances Malaysia has ever seen.

Sunday morning brought the round of 16. Whisby, Junta, Mulatto, Rascals and Freakshow Green continued their dominance and skated to the quarters. SIM, after scoring only 10 points total in their three pool play games, won their third straight game with an upset of Vudoo and joined the powerhouses in the next round eventually finishing impressively in 8th place after an original 25th seed. AUR also advanced with a solid 11-5 victory over Rainbow Gives you Wengs. AUR ended up sharing 5th place, a very impressive performance by this Malaysian squad who were fasting for Ramadan during both days of the competition. Finally, in an all Singapore matchup, Chuckies took out Freakshow White to claim the last quarterfinal spot.

Quarterfinals ended the exciting tournament run’s of SIM and AUR as they could do little against Junta and Mulatto sending the international all-stars and Filipinos into the semifinals. In another all Singapore matchup Rascals edged out Chuckies to move on as well. The most interesting matchup of the quarters was Whisby Nation’s battle against Freakshow Green. Having these two powerhouses battle in the quarterfinals, though they seemed to be unpleased to have to face each other so early, was exciting for the fans as a crowd gathered for the first major matchup of the tournament. The game lived up to its billing with Freakshow Green knocking off the overall top seed 9-8 on universe point (some think the structure of the tournament was “controversial”. Chime in at Asian Ultimate’s only online forum to have your say).

In the semifinals Rascals fought hard against Junta, going up two points in the first half. Eventually Junta took over and took the game going away 13-6. In the closer of the semis, Freakshow Green met the Philippines’ Mulatto Davao. Mulatto had been dominant all weekend but were playing with a short lineup, only running two lines deep. Freakshow were coming off their epic universe point victory over Whisby. The game was pretty even, though eventually the Kuala Lumpur heat and the lack of fresh bodies caught up to Mulatto. Freakshow earned their trip to the final with a 10-8 victory.

The crowd gathered (many lounging on Doof beanbags) and after 78 games of ultimate, it was time for the finals. The star-studded Junta Squad came in as a strong favorite against Singapore’s Freakshow Green. Freakshow went up early and showed that they were not going to go down easy. Junta did not come to lose though. Erik Doesburg at 2.2m proved close to unstoppable deep and Sunny Todd flew through the air late for an absurd goalline layout block to reiterate Junta’s dominance. On the Freakshow side Jonathan Joel put up an impressive display keeping his side in the game with a number of scores. In the end Junta was too much and won the final 15-11.

In the consolation bracket Malaysia’s Swat 7D defeated Take 1 in the final on universe point 8-7 to take home some hardware of their own.

This was Malaysia’s largest and most impressive tournament ever. The organizers did a fantastic job. Congratulations to all the players and all those who made MUO a great event.

Want to discuss the great things about MUO and some things that the organizers need to improve on in the future? Hop into the forum and say your piece!

 

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Final Results

1. Junta
2. Freakshow Green
3. Mulatto Davao
4. Rascals
5 / 6. Whisby Nation | AUR
7 / 8. SIM | Chuckies
9 / 10. Carebears | Thirsty Camels
11 / 12. Islanders | Rainbow Gives You Wengs
13 / 14. Disc Knights | Feisty Friends
15 / 16. Vudoo | FS White
17. SWAT 7D (Pool B Champs)
18. Take 1
19 / 20. Falcon | Eat Disc
21 / 22. Lanna Nana | Badgers
23 / 24. Singapore Polytechnic Ultimate | Masala Chai
25 / 26. Soidawgz | Drown the Puppy
27 / 28. Impact | Orphans
29 / 30. Pandesal | Bintulu
31 / 32. Muonsters | SMU

 

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