Before I start, I doubt anyone will care particularly much but these views are my own and not in any way representative of the clubs I am affiliated with.
UKUltimate yesterday announced the format for this seasons UKUNationals tournament structure. See http://www.ukultimate.com/story/uku_nationals_2012
Some background: Whilst I have been playing Ultimate, Mixed nationals has been in one format, one of the Mixed tours was designated as the national competition, usually the third and final tournament. Then I joined Thundering Herd, my current mixed team, and, inexplicably, Mixed Tour 1 (the first event) was designated the nationals competition. This made no sense in my opinion. This meant that, the first time you were able to play some opponents (and even see others) was when it counted the most. It also made no sense in that it essentially rendered the 2nd and 3rd tours meaningless if you were taking nationals as the national standing for that season, or made nationals seem like any other tour if you were taking tour rankings as the national standing for that season.
To put it another way, it would seem absurd to have the playoffs before the regular season in the NFL.
So, now on to the newly agreed format for this year.
It has been decided that this year the Mixed tour (1, 2 and 3) will be the regular season used for seeding nationals for the mixed division which will be held on the same weekend as Open/Womens nationals.
One thing I have enjoyed about playing in the UK is the ability to play in both the Open and Mixed divisions. I will still have those options throughout the tour season, but for the national competition I will have to make the decision between the two.
This is a definite improvement over one of the suggestions which gave women the chance to play in both the women's nationals and the mixed nationals, but the men would have to choose between Open and Mixed over a 3 day tournament. This set up would have been unfair, allowing the women two chances to win a national championship but the men only one. My opinion has always been that of equality, either both men and women should be allowed two chances to win nationals or they should both be made to choose only one division to compete in.
This setup is essentially the structure used in the USA but the player base in the US is so much bigger that the top of each division is played by the best players who have chosen exclusively to play in each division. However, in the UK you will find very few players who choose to exclusively play Mixed. You will find more players in the top end of the Open and Women's divisions who exclusively play in those divisions but there is still a high crossover.
I understand that the calendar is sufficiently full to mean that to be on the same weekend as Open/Womens and it does mean another Mixed tournament in the calendar and overall, I think the decision was the right one for UKUltimate as an organisation and I am not sure that this year the results will be fully appreciated. But in the long term, which is of course the aim, it will inevitably grow in the future and could be the defining moment for the evolution of the sport in the UK. I know that the decision is final (at least for this year: "There was a degree of support for a stand-alone Mixed Nationals. This will not happen in 2012 as currently, it simply is not a viable option given the already full domestic and international calendar.") and my opinion would not change it, even if I wanted it to change.
I think my main problem with it this year is that there is no need to change it this year as qualifications for xEUCF next year will be made based on next years nationals, and since there is no mixed division at EUCC this year, this is just a dilution of this years nationals for no apparent reason. In my opinion, anyone who has a chance to win nationals or qualify for Europeans in the Open/Women's division will play open/womens as there is more to play for. The UKU has stated that the mixed division will run if a minimum of four teams sign up. I thought the main reason was to legitimize mixed and make it a standalone division separate from Open/Womens, but if the idea is that a team can win two games and be crowned national champions then this seems counter productive. I don't believe there will only be four teams that will sign up, I foresee many more signing up, but the majority wouldn't compete at the European level and I could foresee a lot of steam-rollering before the semis and finals.
I believe last years structure was perfectly fine (apart from Mixed Tour 1 being Nationals) so there seems to be no need to change it this year when they could just plan for next year, when it counts, a year in advance.
If you've made it this far, then thanks. Just my opinion, and if you have anything to say about it, leave a comment.
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