AUDL Championship Weekend 8 (2019)

The final 3 games of the American Ultimate Disc League 2019 season will take place this weekend at the AUDL Championship Weekend. AUDL's 8th season began in early April.

The final four teams out of 21 AUDL teams advanced to the AUDL Championship Weekend. New York Empire (12-0; 1-0) returns for the 2nd consecutive trip, Dallas Roughnecks (8-4; 1-0) return for their 4th time in a row, Indianapolis AlleyCats (8-4; 1-0) return for the first time since 2012, and San Diego Growlers (10-2; 1-0) advance for the first time in franchise history.

Three division champions advance to AUDL Championship Weekend along with perennial South Division champion Dallas Roughnecks, who won over the top seed in the South Division Championship game - the only upset by seeding in the AUDL playoffs.

The Championship Weekend returns to California. This time, though, it's not at the 18,000-seat Avaya Stadium (like in 2015); the championship games will be played at the football stadium of Foothill Community College, with ~5500 capacity -- the home field of the San Jose Spiders.

San Francisco FlameThrowers Finally Win a Postseason AUDL Game

Top-seeded San Francisco earns their final four spot with a decisive victory over Los Angeles in the 2017 West Division Championship game.

The FlameThrowers are arguably one of the most successful franchises in American Ultimate Disc League history. In their 4 AUDL regular seasons, the FTs have won 40 of their 56 games.; a .714 blazing winning percentage in the West Division. And, the San Francisco AUDL team has posted a winning record in all 4 regular seasons and also made the playoffs all 4 seasons. They have claimed the regular season division title twice - in 2016 and in 2017.

The AUDL postseason is a different story; the FT's fizzled in the division final in 2014 to San Jose, petered out a first round playoff game in 2015 to Seattle, and got doused in 2016 - again - in the division final to Seattle. The FlameThrowers had never won a postseason game until yesterday's 33-22 win.

SF FT W-L History [as of 8/14/2017]

With San Francisco's win, they advance to American Ultimate Disc League Championship Weekend VI with a chance to add to their postseason win total. The #4-seeded FT's play the #1-seed Madison Radicals in Montreal on Saturday, August 26.

Bay Area Women's Ultimate All-Star Game

The San Francisco FlameThrowers are hosting an All-Star game for women ultimate players in the Bay Area. The game will be played prior to their regularly scheduled AUDL game versus Seattle Cascades.


When: Saturday, April 9 @ 4:45pm PT

Where: Laney College (Oakland, CA)

Info: "While we are incredibly excited to compete in the AUDL, the players, staff, and management of the Flamethrowers recognize that the opportunity to play professional ultimate is not available to all. In particular, we acknowledge that the professional leagues' focus on a predominantly male version of our sport exacerbates the existing gender inequities in ultimate. In recognition of this fact, we join others around the league in committing to advocate for the growth of women’s and mixed ultimate, to showcase the extraordinary female talent in the club game, and to vocalize our support for women's professional ultimate. We intend to honor these commitments in ways that are both visible and meaningful."

Also: The Spiders will be making a $1.50 donation to Bay Area Disc for each attendee to the All-Star game.

Teams:

Team 1 & 2 rosters via

[h/t Fury] UPDATED 2:15pm. Hopefully, all up-to-date now.

AUDL West Team Dissed by AUDL

The American Ultimate Disc League started the new calendar year by dissing one of the most successful teams in its history.

January 1st tweet.

New year? Yes. Happy 2016!
New champions? Well, the (repeat champions) San Jose Spiders might have an opinion about that.

Pro Ultimate Costume Ideas

What started as a finding the perfect Halloween costumes for Casey (the mascot of Seattle Cascades) turned into project involving a few more AUDL West teams.

Costume ideas from other West Division teams:

 L.A. Aviator minion! Putting those goggles to good use.

San Diego Growlers? San Diego gr-OWL-ers.

Cowabunga, San Jose!

Quirky Products from AUDL Teams

Any pro ultimate team can sell a flying disc or hat. These products stand out from the typical AUDL team merchandise:

Nashville NightWatch Watch [$35]
SOOOOO meta!

San Diego Growlers Growler [$20-$25]
Purposely meta! GLUG

Toronto Rush Sunglasses with a Red Mustache (Rushstache) - $15
A specially-designed product targeted to the Rush fanbase.

San Jose Spiders Itsy Bitsy Kid's T-shirt [$15]
Meta with a side of cutesy!

San Jose Spiders (7-1)

Once again, San Jose Spiders start their season with 7 wins and 1 loss. The Spiders [7-1 (4-0 home, 3-1 away)] started with a 7-game winning streak, and most recently lost on the road. (They have yet to play Seattle Cascades.) San Jose is first in AUDL's West Division with 6 more games remaining in the 2015 regular season.

San Jose Spiders 2015 Schedule (first 8 games, thru 5/24)
APR 12: win 32-26 vs Vancouver
APR 18: win 29-26 vs San Francisco
APR 26: win 31-18 vs San Diego
MAY 2: win 23-21 @ San Diego
MAY 3: win 20-19 @ Los Angeles
MAY 9: win 20-18 @ San Francisco
MAY 15: win 20-15 vs San Francisco
MAY 24: loss 31-24 @ Vancouver

San Jose Spiders Record vs West Division Teams
SF (3-0) +10
SD (2-0) +15
LA (1-0) +1
VAN (1-1) -1
SEA (has not played yet)

[DATA via SJS, chart by SLUDGE]

Beau Re-Signs with Spiders

Beau Kittredge, AUDL 2014 MVP, will return to the AUDL 2014 Champions San Jose Spiders for the 2015 season.

Beau signs with the Spiders in 2013 (left); in 2014 (right).

	2013	2014
Facial Expression	Sneer	Smile
Fashion	Coffeeshop chic	Bar-mitzvah formal
Body Language	I know arm-folding.	I just got a free hat!

The question remains whether his bobble head will be updated without the faux hawk.

San Jose Spiders - 2014 AUDL Champions

Congratulations to the San Jose Spiders for winning the 2014 AUDL Championship today!

What a first season for the Spiders, who clinched first place in the West Conference with a (13-1) record, and later won the West Conference Finals. With a lean roster, the Spiders won the American Ultimate Disc League Championship with a victory over Toronto Rush today, 28-18 (halftime 12-8)! San Jose finishes their inaugural AUDL season with a (16-1) overall record. Ashlin Joye and Beau Kittredge were named co-MVPs of the AUDL Championship held in Toronto.

Line score via @SJSGameday

Spiders Travel Roster

A deeper breakdown into the San Jose Spider's roster in Toronto for the AUDL Championship Weekend., which is smaller than their normal 28-player roster.

The majority of players are from Revolver (33%) with equal representation from Polar Bears and Condors (19%). MisChief, BW players are at 10% and Boost FC & Bravo are represented by one player each.

Yep, couldn't resist blending the pie chart data into a spider web. (Sorry)

Preview: AUDL Championship Weekend 2014

AUDL Playoffs continue this weekend after each team won their first round playoff game. These four teams are, by record and performance, the best in the league. Saturday's game is being billed as "the 4 best Ultimate teams in North America will meet to determine which 2 teams will play in the AUDL Championship game."

The winner of each semifinal game plays in the finals on Sunday, July 27 at 1pm. All games will be played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. $20,000 in prize money goes to the winning team.


New York Empire (#4) vs Toronto Rush (#1)

:When:
Saturday, July 26 @ 3p ET. Streamed via ESPN3.

:Records:
Empire (11-4; 5-2 home, 5-2 away, 1-0 playoffs)
Rush (14-1; 6-1 home, 7-0 away, 1-0 playoffs)

:History:
(15-1) = Toronto Rush's overall record at home.
(6-0) = Toronto Rush's all-time record versus New York Empire.
2014: Rush won both meetings (April 13, June 21) against Empire by 2 scores and 3 scores, respectively. The April game was played at New York, and the second match-up was played in Toronto.
2013: Rush won all 3 regular season meetings versus Empire, and again in the playoffs.

-----------------------------------------------

Madison Radicals (#3) vs San Jose Spiders (#2)

:When:
Saturday, July 26 @ 7p ET. Streamed via ESPN3.

:Records:
Radicals (13-2; 7-0 home, 5-2 away, 1-0 playoffs)
Spiders (14-1; 7-0 home, 6-1 away, 1-0 playoffs)

:2014 Season Scoring:

:Notes:
Madison Radicals had the best goal differential in the league (+127); San Jose Spiders were third (+112).
Spiders scored the highest number of goals with nearly 400 goals in the regular season (398).
Radicals allowed the lowest number of goals (211) during the regular season.

Radicals Defense = 15.07 avg goals / game
Allowed 20 or more goals in only 2 regular season games; both times were on the road with one being a loss versus Minnesota (Week 3), the other was a win against the Revolution (Week 1).

Spiders Offense = 28.42 avg goals / game
Scored 20 or more goals in all regular season games.

:Travel:
Three out of the 4 teams require travel to the AUDL Finals location in Toronto. San Jose has the furthest trip to attend from the west coast. Not to mention, the expense of booking a flight to YYZ only 6 days ahead. Madison and New York teams are traveling by bus.

Buy a Beau Bobblehead

After Beau Kittredge signed with a new AUDL team late last year, the San Jose Spiders began packaging Beau bobbleheads with 2014 season tickets. The Spiders are now offering the "Beau-bblehead" in their online gear store.

[Image source: SJS Fb]

Beau Bobblehead

Info: A bobblehead in the likeness of top Ultimate player on San Jose Spiders, Beau Kittredge. Beau, posed in a standing position, has an authentic fauxhawk, vest and jeans - exactly as modeled.

Price: $25 + s/h

AUDL 2014 Playoffs

The AUDL post-season begins tonight! Six Eight teams (47%) out of the 17 teams advanced into the playoffs. Both Western Conference teams - Spiders and FlameThrowers - appear in the playoffs for the first-time.

• Besides those new teams on the west coast, the DC Breeze (2nd AUDL season) are the only other team to make their first appearance in the postseason. 
• Philadelphia Phoenix are the only 2013 playoff team not returning to the 2014 playoffs. 
• The Madison-Indianapolis game is a rematch from 2013 playoffs.

The above visual by the AUDL nicely displays the first round of playoffs. Here are some examples of how teams are using visuals to promote their playoff games.

NY Empire display strong PS skills:

Radicals take their standard approach while Indy employs wishful thinking of ending their losing streak:

SJ Spiders' appease-the-sponsor advertisement:

San Jose Spiders (7-1)

An infographic recounting the first 8 games of the San Jose Spiders in their 2014 AUDL season. The Spiders [7-1 (4-0 home, 3-1 away)] started with a 6-game winning streak, including a record-setting game, and have 6 more games in the regular season.

April 12: WIN 20 - 16 vs San Francisco
April 20: WIN 37 - 18 vs Salt Lake
April 26: WIN 31 - 20 @ Salt Lake
May 3: WIN 25 - 20 vs Seattle
May 10: WIN 39 - 32 @ Vancouver
May 11: WIN 23 - 14 @ Seattle
May 17: LOSS 21 - 22 @ San Francisco
May 31: WIN 26 - 25 vs Vancouver

San Jose vs.	Record	GS	GA	GD
vs. SF	1-1	41	38	+3
vs. VAN	2-0	65	57	+8
vs SEA	2-0	48	34	+14
vs. SL	2-0	68	38	+30

High Score in Spiders - Riptide AUDL Game

On Saturday, May 10, the San Jose Spiders beat the Vancouver Riptide in a high scoring match, 39 - 3332. 72 71points is the highest combined point total ever in an American Ultimate Disc League game. The AUDL plays four 12-minute quarters, which averages to 1 score every 40 ~41 seconds.

UPDATED image

(Original mage with incorrect data)

Some game highlights:


UPDATED SCORE based on Spiders & Riptide. Sorry for promoting BAD DATA.

Callahan by Beau

Beau Kittredge of the San Jose Spiders caught a Callahan in last Sunday's AUDL game versus the Lions. The play which took less than 3 seconds has the makings of a segment on Sport Science.



The Salt Lake player establishes a pivot 10 yards before the endzone line and throws a backhand aimed toward a teammate in middle of the field.

Beau (#50 in black) immediately sniffs out the pass and sprints 10+ yards in the direction of the disc as the Lions receiver waits for the disc to arrive. Beau jump-lays out with outstretched arm for the disc and snags the disc one-handed (avoiding contact) as his momentum carries him 3 yards into the endzone for the score.

Breakdown:

Breakdown of Spiders Callahan (April 20, 2014) [Measurements are approximate]

Play sequence:

Imagery:
The shadow cast of this play is remarkably bizarre.

AUDL on ESPN3

The listing of American Ultimate Disc League games are now appearing on the ESPN3 website.

Search under the "Upcoming" tab with the keyword "disc" or "Ultimate" and receive results. As of yesterday, one game from each division –West, Midwest, Northeast – for the first 3 weeks of the season are scheduled. Another Northeast matchup was just added today.

April 12 @ 10pm ET: San Francisco FlameThrowers vs. San Jose Spiders

April 19 @ 3:30pm ET: Toronto Rush vs. Montreal Royal

April 25 @ 8pm ET: Madison Radicals vs. Minnesota Wind Chill

May 3 @ 6pm ET: Rochester Dragons @ Toronto Rush

Screen grab from ESPN3

First off, congrats to the AUDL for securing ESPN3 streaming for their pro Ultimate league.

Second, darn it ESPN! Ultimate is not "Games". Ultimate is not "Poker". Ultimate is not "Entertainment". Ultimate is a sport called "Ultimate".

Lastly, even the Worldwide Leader in Sports is having some issues with the team names (FlameThrowers or Flame Throwers; Wind Chill or Windchill).

[h/t Ultiworld]

UPDATED: AUDL posted a 'Game of the Week' schedule.

Review: San Jose Spiders (AUDL)

Part of the series critiquing the professional Ultimate team logos and nicknames.

Team: San Jose Spiders

Web: http://sjspiders.com // twitter: @SJSpiders

Representation: City // League: AUDL

Disc within logo?: No. // Ultimate element in team name?: No.

Eli's Eval: The spider icon is bold and has a great use of positive and negative space to create something that is both simple and complex. It will read clearly from afar and also reveal more detail when close. Whether the elements are framed by the shield or used separately they all work together and build a solid brand identity.

The circles on the type are going to give them trouble when reproducing in certain types of printing, though an alternate version where they are either filled in or removed could easily be drafted up.

:Eli's Grades:
Overall Grade: A-
On Logo: A
On Typography: B+

Background by SLUDGE: The 'World Wide Web' label leads to a large set of arachnid-centric names for internet tools -- one of them being the search bots. Web crawlers, or search engine robots, are very simple automated data retrieval programs, traveling the web to find information and links. There are a few ways to block search engines.

First impression(s) by SLUDGE: Should an Ultimate spider have seven legs instead of eight? Discuss amongst yourselves.

What if...you mashed elements from three superheroes? Sorta the shape of the Superman emblem! Kinda the colors of Batman!! The look of the Spider-Man icon!!!

What are you thoughts on this AUDL's team name & logo?

Origin of Bay Area AUDL Team Names

Two 2014 expansion teams in the West Division of the American Ultimate Disc League provide background on their team name.

The San Jose Spiders explains the team was:
"named for the internet term for bots that crawl through the web & collect data for search engines. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the team name is a tribute to the great tech tradition that has been a part of Silicon Valley."

Fifty miles away is their California neighbor. The varied ways the San Francisco team was initially being presented (see below) has since been sorta fixed - "FlameThrowers" (one word, capital F & T) in copy; "FLAME THROWERS" (two words, all caps) in logo.

Screengrab of Fb site [November 2013]

In a December 22nd reply via their Facebook page, the SFFT explained their team name:
"First and foremost, we do not intend to use militaristic imagery. That has never been our intention, and we ask anyone with that kind of message to please find another venue. We do believe strongly in the SoTG, and its goal of non-violence and direct conflict resolution.

For us, the FlameThrower is the athlete—traditionally a pitcher—who "brings the heat" and throws the ball, or disc(!), hard and with authority.

Finally, we've also seen a few snide comments about the FlameThrowers name and the LGBT community in San Francisco. We want to make absolutely clear that language or behavior that makes any members of the SF FlameThrowers community feel unwelcome will not be tolerated on this platform or at any SF FlameThrowers events."

Cross-League Heckle

It finally happened! The first recorded cross-league communication between two teams from the two pro Ultimate leagues.

On January 23, 2014, a team (San Jose Spiders) from one pro Ultimate league (AUDL) publicly communicated with a team (San Francisco Dogfish) in the other pro league (MLU).

The Spiders' tweeted reply to the Dogfish is a lighthearted, spirited "heckle*" (*USAU definition), in response to the signing of a Bay Area player.

This also provides a glimpse of what might have been if the MLU team San Jose Black Hats existed. And, probably, the exact reason - competing for local players - why the MLU dropped the Black Hats from the 2013 Western Conference.