WEEK IN REVIEW: Ultimate Frisbee in Global Times

Wang Bin, Andrew Moffat, Leigh Bloomberg are only some of the many people quoted in Global Times' profile of Beijing Ultimate Frisbee. Here's an excerpt:

Tao commented: "When I arrived in 2008, ultimate Frisbee was pretty developed in Beijing. Although is still a small scene, it's definitely becoming more popular and despite the expat turnover we have a very good track record of new comers, people either like the sport or us."

[sic]

Full article here.

Oh yeah, there's a wonderful picture of Big Brother on the second page.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

Photo by Wang Zi, Global Times

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Shanghai's Robin Xi on the Dalian Beach Tournament this weekend:

Hey guys,

I've got the English version of the Dalian Beach Ultimate recently, but don't have much time for internet access recently, so here's the information in the attachment. How many players do you think will go for it this July 23-24th? I'm really not sure if I will go for it but if there's enough players in for it from Shanghai, I would love to go and have some sandy catches.

- Sorry Wang, I've been travelling around Shanghai and Zhejiang recently intensively and don't have much time taking care of my emails. There was some 20+ players from Shanghai expressed that they were interested for the Dalian Beach Ultimate during our Spring League, but since I forward the invitation from Dalian to the SUPA, there has not been any response. As I know, there are many of the Shanghai players are leaving for home during the summar and most of thought the Beach Ultimate was going to be in August as we learned from last year's Dalian Tourney, until you told us the dates about week ago. So, I guess there are some misunderstanding of the dates and many people are already on vacations. But anyways, I think we'll still have a Shanghai team coming for the Dalian Ultimate Tourney this September.

Best wishes,
Robin

I guess the important part of this post is: Dalian Beach Tournament is this weekend. No one is going. Saddie face.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Media coverage for China Nationals

The front page of China Daily's Metro Beijing section.

A half-page spread in Beijing Today.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:


GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

The newsletter by Alicia, 5/23:

***Pick-Up**
*
The usual: Wednesday 8-10pm on outdoor astro turf fields at ZhiChunLu. Directions: Take subway line 10 / 13 to ZhiChunLu, exit from G1 and the fields will be about 100 meters to the right past the chuanr stands.
每周三晚上8-10点在室外知春路玩pick-up. 知春路地铁站出口G1然后走路大概100米

For May, our pick-up fees are:
Single session: RMB35
Four sessions: RMB120 (upfront payment, cannot carry over to June)
5月的收费:
单次:35元
四次: 120元(不能在六月用)

For details, visit www.beijingultimate.com.

***Events and Happenings**
*
This week:
- China Nationals 2011 was a huge success (largest tournament by number of participants)! Thanks to everyone who participated and everyone who helped out! There'll be a post tournament word from Tournament Director Tao soon.
- Come out to Jim and Tao's quiz on Thursday night, 8pm at Kro's Nest. 35 Xiao Yun Lu.

***Tournaments**
*
China:
1) Next up on the China Tournament Calendar: Shanghai Open: June 11 - 12. Email Mike Shyu at michaelms...@gmail.com if interested to play with Big Brother.

***Farewell and Welcome***

Welcome to Alex Burch.

WEEK IN REVIEW: St. Patrick's Day shenanigans

Before we mention what happened after trivia on St. Patty's Day, here's Global Times' piece on Jim as part of its ongoing "Who questions the quizmasters" series:

Name: Jim (aka "Jimmy Neutron") Kirchhoff

Age: Would you still believe 16?

Quiz: Souk [editors' note: currently defunct - for now at least - Jim has found temporary refuge under Kro's wing]

Amount of years in Beijing: Eight

Strengths: The gift of gab.

Weaknesses: Kryptonite.

I'm running a quiz in Beijing because: I crave the spotlight.

Specialty?subject: Girls.?Who am I kidding? I run a quiz....

How come no girls run quizzes? Because the guys would never stop hitting on them.?It would be like wolves stampeding toward an injured rabbit.

How do you rate the competition? In answering questions, I give them the edge. In entertaining a crowd, get in line, boys.

How do you rate your chances? Terrible. I'm just here for the free beer.??

Our odds: Worryingly, Jim is under the impression that his weekly "banter" as compere of a local quiz ranks as entertainment. For that alone, we're worried whether he might have a touch of Charlie Sheen Syndrome and start talking about "earthworms entering his immortal octagon" or some such. That said, we quite like Charlie Sheen - but we still feel the need to punish Jim for his unfailingly US-centric quizzing. 14-3

After the quiz we hit up Great Leap Brewery, met up with Zach at Stumble Inn and played pool at Cheers.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:



And a video!

The first-place team chose to do a chug off to determine the champion. And for the second straight week, that team lost.

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Jim, 3/17: St. Patrick's Day Party Tonight!

Hey guys!

Come celebrate the fantastic Irish holiday of drinking and brawling known as St. Patrick's Day tonight with a PARTY at KRO'S NEST, hosted by our own jim and tao! We will be passing out some free Jamesons and beer during our Irish-themed trivia night and trying to convince Ginny to boat race another team by himself with car bombs!

The Theme is GREEN and St. Patrick's Day. Wear a costume, win some free stuff!!! Woot woot!

Doors are open all night, we'll be swinging the party into gear starting at 8pm. Trivia and prizes will be happening as well starting at 8:30.

Venue: Kro's Nest. No. 35 Xiao Yun Lu, Chaoyang District across from the Renaissance Hotel, near Bellagio restaurant
Bring friends!

WEEK IN REVIEW: "Who quizzes the quizmasters?

Tao and Jim are being quizzed by some folk over at Global Times. See below for Tao's responses in Part 1 of this ongoing feature.

Meanwhile, Kro's Nest Trivia has officially UPGRADED. We're now in the spacious back dining room, where yesterday the team that always wins LOST the chug-off.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:


GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

On the Big Brother listserv, Ellen's subject line:

[Big Brother] Tao's dark, blank, sexy eyes?

...with simply a link to this article in Global Times.

Excerpt:

Name: Anthony Tao

Age: 26

Quiz: Kro's Nest

Amount of years in Beijing: This is the start of year four, though the answer is 10 if you count the time I spent in Beijing for the first 5.5 years of my life and subsequent summer visits.

Strengths: Ultimate Frisbee

Weaknesses: Approaching women sitting by themselves at cafes

I'm running a quiz in Beijing because: It's fun

How come no girls run quizzes? I'm sure they do in the privacy of their double-x-chromosoned coteries, along with plotting to outlive men and take over the world.

How do you rate the competition? My only competition is myself, so...depends on how much I've been drinking.

How do you rate your chances? 100, if you're talking about with your mom. Unless she's at a cafe right now.

Specialty subject: Baseball

Our odds: They call him "Tao." But that's his name. It begs more questions about the man than it answers, and we were already baffled by his ability to consume table-sized discs of pizza on a weekly basis while still remaining so streamlined. Is there a potential dark horse lurking behind those dark, blank, sexy eyes? We think there might be. 8-1

WEEK IN REVIEW: Big Brother's first practice on Saturday

No pickup Saturday because Big Brother's taking over the time slot for its first practice. Big things are afoot. Grand plans for victory.

A word to the people of Good News from Indonesia: if you're going to crib my man Kevin's blog post, word-for-word, about his trip to Indonesia and the Philippines, have the decency to give him a byline. His full name is in the URL of his blog. I'm sure you've heard of it: Kevin Reitz dot Blogspot dot com.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:


GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

From Ellen on the Big Brother listserv, March 4:

http://beijing.globaltimes.cn/community/2011-03/629624.html

WEEKEND ROUNDUP, pt. 2: BUSL finals -- pics and vids

UPDATE, 8/11: Facebook album.

The results are in from the 4th annual Beijing Ultimate Summer League.

In the semifinals on field 2, Huck took a 7-4 lead on Burn and looked to take half when a dropped pull and a first-throw turnover -- on successive points -- led to consecutive breaks for Burn and a 7-7 tie.

Huck did eventually take half, but Burn had seized the momentum and ran off with six straight points to take a 13-8 lead after intermission. Huck made a small run to make it 13-10 before Burn scored the next two to pull off the upset win.

On field 1, undefeated Pillage beat Bid 15-4. The game was relatively close at 9-4 before Pillage decided to redouble the pressure.

In the 3rd place game, Bid used a zone to slow down Huck's attack and won 12-9.

The finals started out close, but Burn threw away a couple of points and Pillage, doing what they do best, took full advantage of every mistake. They ended up winning 15-9, running their record to 8-0 with a +68 point differential. Pretty dominant indeed.

Videos of three of their points:




Pictures from the day of games:

Ethan and Wally of Huck

Brian vs. Patrick Marco of Burn

Joe vs. Jim

Kelly vs. Kelsey


Team Bid... started 0-5, ended 2-6. Not bad.

Alan of Team Pillage in the finals

Peter with disc

Joel Brand, Pillage male MVP, elevates for the score

Zach, Joe, Andy, Brian, Wes. The girl is 17-year-old Cheris from Tianjin.

Jim in middle of team huddle

Joel with co-captains Mike Shyu and Alicia


The awards ceremony:



Jordan consummating the Team Bid Spirit Award

Peach and Joe (Female MVP and Spirit)

And then, of course, the party in Wudaokou's Solutions. This is right after dinner:

Around the table from the left: Boehner, Michelle, Jeff, Steph, Ken Dry, Matt, Cheris, Jehan, Gareth

Kelsey, Andy, Wes, Ethan, Chirona, Chris Carlsen

Mandy, Andy, Kelsey, Wes, Ethan, Chirona in a picture that will surely make the 2010 Beijing Ultimate Slideshow...

And then, an hour or two later, this happened (all names withheld to spare potential embarrassment):































Until next year, Beijing Ultimate summer leaguers....

POSTSCRIPT: This was after a pretty good party on Friday at Solutions, which you can read about here.

POSTSCRIPT 2: City Weekend gave us a shout-out. Thanks Charlie!