The ShowGame

The World Games starts in a matter of minutes, and you can watch the games here. The games will feature the eight best ultimate-playing nations in the world according to the WFDF rankings, split into two pools of four. There’s plenty of coverage around where you can see the rosters and hear what the teams have to say, and we’ll be starting our World Games journeys series shortly so you can hear from some of the players on the GB team and the wider squad. This article, though, is in keeping with the greatest tradition we have at the ShowGame: I make predictions that will invariably be wrong and then everyone can tell me how stupid they were when I see them at a tournament.

Pool A

Let’s start with the pool that we care about the most. GB are in a very tough group, with the USA, Canada and Germany their opponents on the first three days of competition in order. Having the USA feels like the best outcome to me; all three other teams in the pool are unlikely to beat the four-time reigning champions such is the weight of talent on their roster. You could take the three best players of each gender, cut them and then find six new players to replace them and that team would very likely still win gold. So the first game is a free hit for GB, a game that they’re not expected to win that can help them get up to speed for the next two.

Canada and Germany are undoubtedly both excellent teams. But Germany are without talismanic cutter Holger Beuttenmuller after he suffered a knee injury, and Canada feel like they lack some of the star power of previous editions where they have won consecutive bronzes. Both games will still be extremely tough, neither team will be a pushover and both feature some world-class players, but if GB want to reach the semi-finals for the first time they’ll have to beat both. The GB team has the potential to do just that, but it’s a tall order. The female matching players on the German roster look particularly troublesome, with Levke Walczak continuing to grow into one of the most dominant female players in the world.

Pool B

This pool feels very open at the top. Colombia and Australia won the last two silvers between them and both could be excellent again, while the Japanese team can never be discounted such is their skill in their singular style of play. France are the fourth team here and, in their first appearance at the World Games, will likely struggle to pick up a win despite having a talented squad including star YAKA handler Aline ‘Rasta’ Mondiot.

The Colombians return six of the seven women who won silver in Poland in 2017, missing Laura Ospina only due to injury. That includes the Cardenas sisters, Yina Cartagena and potentially the best female player in the world at the moment, Elizabeth Mosquera, and her massive, booming pulls. The Australians have players like the Phillips sisters, Tom Tullett and Alex Ladomatos who have played prominent roles in teams that have been in the biggest games in the sport and won at the highest level. Japan welcomes back Buzz Bullets stars Taiyo Arakawa and the ageless Masahiro Matsuno as well as a depth of players who have represented Japan and mastered the short space, quick-hitting style that has served them so well. All three could be contenders, but one will miss out on the semis.

Predictions

Starting with pool B since I think it’ll be a bit simpler, I see Colombia and Australia advancing. Japan will be great and the games should be tight, but the athleticism of the two southern hemisphere nations will likely be too much to overcome, particularly among the women. You could argue that the strength of both teams lies on that side of the roster, but I’d back the Australian men against their Colombian counterparts. The game between them will be a cracker and will happen later today, first pull at 10pm. I’ll shade towards the Colombians because of the strength of their women but neither outcome would be a huge shock.

Pool A is tougher, maybe because of the emotional connection of having a GB team in there. The Americans will top the pool, but I think you could make an argument for any of the other three nations that could convince me. The GB/Canada game tomorrow will be massive, especially if Canada loses first off to the Germans shortly. GB have the talent to run with and beat both, but Canada have some battle-hardened veterans that have won games at this level, whereas GB have always struggled to put a whole game together. As much as I’d like to say GB will win, I’m going to put my (hypothetical) money on Canada.

Once we get to semis, I think we’ll see the winners of both pools advance relatively comfortably. So, I am predicting a rerun of the 2017 final with Colombia facing the USA, new money vs old in ultimate terms. While the Colombian women are absolutely good enough to win their match ups against the Americans, I don’t think Colombia are well-rounded enough to beat the whole American roster. I would be relatively surprised if anyone came within four points of the USA throughout the tournament, even with the variance that comes in a short tournament with such small squads. Talent wins, and the USA has an embarrassment of riches in that area.

I think GB will be facing Japan for fifth. A win there would be the first win against a significant, non-European ultimate-playing nation at the World Games (they beat Taiwan twice in 2009 and in this scenario will have beaten Germany). This team is good enough to clear that hurdle, so I’ll say they’ll do it. I hope very much that I’ve underestimated them and will be delighted for that to be the case.

Final predictions:

1. USA
2. Colombia
3. Australia
4. Canada
5. GB
6. Japan
7. Germany
8. France

At the outset of the World Games trial process, Marius Hutcheson had no expectations. He’s had a career unlike all of the other players on the World Games training squad, so why would there be any expectations?

Marius has been around UK ultimate for a long time, playing well on good teams but never featuring on a team considered one of the top teams in the division (despite winning a mixed national title with Birmingham in 2014) until recently. That lack of visibility and access to the top of the sport has meant that he’s one of two players not to have played for a senior GB team in this squad, with the other (Molly Wedge) only moving to the UK recently. So how did such an experienced, and simultaneously relatively inexperienced, player reach the level of training with the top team in the country?

Starting out at Birmingham university

Marius first heard of ultimate when at high school but the version that he and his classmates played was a long way from how the sport actually works. He sought out the ultimate club at university as soon as he arrived in Birmingham to play a more social sport than swimming, which had been his main focus until then. At Birmingham the team developed during his time there, with the mainstays of the team that would go on to become arguably the best university team in UK history all starting during his time there (including World Games squad-mate Ben Burak).

He played for EMO for one season but largely played with Leamington Lemmings until Birmingham Ultimate started in 2012.

“I had labs on Wednesday afternoons, and EMO trainings in Leicester were on that day. After one season with EMO 2 I didn’t really have time to travel so that’s probably why I started playing with Lemmings, until there was a Birmingham shift.”

The Birmingham shift

The shift that Marius mentions is the founding of Birmingham Ultimate, a club team in the second city. It meant that the best players from the city and the surrounding areas had another option instead of travelling longer distances to other teams. The team became competitive quickly. However, it was a tough grind to get to where they thought they should be:

“We felt pretty hard done by coming up the ranks. We saw teams that were formed only for a year or two jump into A Tour and just be given a higher ranking. We felt that we were always pushed down because we didn’t have bigger names on the squad. It was quite a graft but we got to the point where we, after a Saturday, were the top seeds of A Tour. We went to Euros in 2014 after winning mixed nationals, albeit in a down year because some of the big teams didn’t play. That was our peak year.”

After moving to London, Marius stayed with Birmingham because his friends were still on the team. The next season he played open with Ka-Pow! but continued to play mixed with Birmingham. In 2020, though, he moved to Deep Space.

“I had a lot of untapped potential in terms of how far I can go in the sport despite being relatively old compared to some other people coming onto the scene. I wanted to play very competitive Frisbee for a team that was close and I could train regularly and be active within the club.

“But the other thing was that I was holding some development back at Birmingham. If I continued to pick up for them at tournaments, I was taking the roster spot of someone who had been developing and coming up through the ranks. At that one tournament, we might do better with me than someone else, but having someone who’s ingrained in the club, the training and the culture will be better in the long run. I felt like I was holding them back.”

Elite mixed teams in the south

The move to Deep Space meant that Marius was now on one of the best teams in London, a team with more visibility in the city with the most ultimate players in the country and where a lot of top players live. After one season with Deep Space, and a nationals final appearance, Marius moved west and is playing with Reading this season. So what was the change in moving to these teams and getting more recognition, was it a renewed dedication to training or extra fitness work?

“I think part of it is that visibility. When I first applied for under-23s (in Toronto, 2013) I wasn’t even given a trial because I didn’t play for a club in the top five. I’ve never had a Clapham trial, although that’s probably a different story, and the first trial I was ever given for a GB team was in 2018 for the 2019 cycle. That was after I moved to London, so I think just being in the London community and going to goalty with people who are in management set-ups, being known a bit more by people who have seen my face around, was the biggest advantage.

“In Birmingham and in some other regions you’re at a disadvantage because you don’t have some of the exposure that you do in the London community.”

World Games process

As mentioned above, Marius had no expectations going into the first trial.

“I wasn’t too bothered with seeing what happened because I was going in to learn. I obviously wasn’t going to make the team or even the training squad so I wasn’t even planning on filling out the form, I filled it in with two days to go because someone said what’s the point of not filling it in and missing out on a good training session if that’s all it is.

“Because I had no expectation on my shoulders I played really comfortably and did myself justice. I came out of the session thinking I had shown I could play and I had learned some things, bad positioning or a throwaway that gets punished much more at that level, but I came away thinking I could hold my head high. When I got an email inviting me to the closed trial I was pretty confused, to be fair!”

Only around 40 people were invited to the closed trial, about 20 male and 20 female-matching players. At that point, the odds of someone making the team are much, much better.

“That was eye-opening, and I thought I may as well give it a go. I did a lot of work over the next three months. Tom Abrams was really useful, we went and did a lot of throwing sessions and just talking to him was valuable. I find at club trainings you talk a lot about minutiae that don’t matter and he’s very keyed into what matters, so that was useful.”

The closed trial in Edinburgh took place while there was a storm going on, so it was all held indoors. Marius believes that was an advantage for him. His mentality also helped at that session:

“I think some of the Clapham boys, especially, are better in tough conditions. They have an advantage, because of the amount they train and the graft they put in, when it gets windy and rainy. And then I still had no expectations, now I could just go and ball out. If I learned stuff, great. If I proved to myself that I might have a shot at the 2023 Euros season with GB then great, and it was visibility again. After the session I thought I played pretty well. I had a couple of regrets but the rest of it I was pretty pleased with. I threw five deep shots for goals and four were to Rachel Naden, so I think she got me on the training squad!”

On the training squad

Once the squad was decided, the emails went out. Marius’s email was not the one that everyone was dreaming about, he wasn’t going to be heading to Alabama to represent GB, but he was asked to be part of the training squad. So how did it feel receiving that email?

“I felt proud. I have some screenshots on my phone of when that email came through and when I was added to the World Games squad WhatsApp group and I was like this is unreal. I felt very proud of myself, it was some validation that I hadn’t necessarily been looking for. I don’t need other people to validate the fact that I think I can throw Frisbees well, but it was a really good feeling knowing that people think you can hang at the top level of the sport. There was some element of thinking I didn’t respect the fact that I had a shot at the team, I was closer to the top level of competition than I thought I was.

“On defence I struggled, I was run ragged at times. Against the USA and Canada I would have struggled, but on offence I actually held by own quite well. I’ve learned some things about myself physically that I will be working on over the summer, going to sprint training and stuff to try and rectify at least a small part of that. But I look at some people and think if I had worked like they have over the last five years, to the extent that some of the Clapham guys like Brooksy [Alex Lakes] have, I would have had a good shot at making the squad.”

The process has been such a quick one, with the team having a very short time to work on tactics, cohesion and execution. Marius decided to take on a specific role to help the team be as good as it could be:

“I wasn’t there thinking if someone gets injured I might go, I wasn’t there hoping to go to Alabama. I was there in my position to whatever I could to help this team succeed. My best way to do that is to be competition and push at trainings as much as possible. Sometimes I failed at that, but I think over the course of the process I got better and I learned a lot. One of the most important things about the cycle was how quickly the team had to adapt to certain situations. We would discuss a new zone at the beginning of a session, walk through it with cones, do five pull and then that’s it, moving on to something else. Being in that environment where learning is quicker and a lot is assumed meant it was picking up experience really quickly.”

So now the process has come to an end, and the team is in the other Birmingham. How will Marius feel when his teammates step onto the field?

“I am a little bit nervous but I am confident that they will represent really well. There are people on that squad that I didn’t know when this process started and now I’m friends with most, if not all of them. Everyone has their personalities and understanding that, feeling what they feel and empathising with them makes the viewing experience better. I think I have a unique opportunity to feel what they feel through the screen. I’m going to be proud of them watching and I’m really hoping they do well.”

 Now with the rest of the season on the horizon, Marius reflects on the experience as a whole:

“It comes with pros and cons, my body is a bit more damaged now than it would be if I hadn’t done some of the GB stuff. But the cons of not letting my body heal between Reading and GB sessions are massively outweighed by the pros of what I’ve learned and been able to garner throughout the cycle. It’s been a really positive experience and will help for WUCC and Nationals this season and then next season, when I think I’ll be having a push at the next GB cycle.”

Will Rowledge has been one of the best players in the UK for several seasons, a standout defender who has added to his offensive skillset in recent years to become a well-rounded threat. At the start of the World Games process, when people were incredibly keen to talk to me about who might make it onto the team, Will was one of the names that was most prominent. His making the team wasn’t much of a surprise for anyone. However, just a few weeks before the tournament he suffered a freak recurrence of a shoulder injury and will now be travelling to Alabama to support his teammates, but not to play.

Always under a spotlight

Will first played frisbee as a scout before university, when he was taught only the very basics on an indoor-sized pitch before going on to a final against a much more experienced team on a full-sized outdoor pitch. As though that wasn’t a difficult enough situation in which to have a first competitive game, there was also a crowd of around 1,000 people. Needless to say, it went poorly and his team lost heavily.

Will’s combination of height and athleticism marked him out very early on, though, as someone to watch once he started playing the real version of the sport.

“At my first warm up tournament at university, one of the senior players walked me over to Matt Parslow and said ‘this kid’s the next you,’” says Will. Parslow, of course, was a former World Games player himself.

The World Under-23 Championships in London in 2015 was the first indication that the comparisons might be onto something. As a relative unknown, just a year removed from under-20s, he was a standout player on a very strong team that just missed out on a medal.

“That was an incredibly cool experience. I didn’t really know what was going on, I was just doing what Jools [Murray, the coach] told me to do and trying my best. I think when you don’t know what’s going on and you know less, you remember less of it but I remember it being an incredibly fun experience and Jools really helped me, gave me loads of confidence.”

In the first game of the tournament, Great Britain played the heavily favoured Americans. Will had a great game and was one of the players that looked like they could run with the USA.

“I think I went into it with a different attitude. I think everyone gives them a bit too much respect if I’m honest, they are just like you and me. They get more experience in the top-level games but we are just as skilled as any of them, just as athletic, so their only advantage is the experience. If you go in with loads of confidence I think you can surprise them and I think that’s what I did in that first game.”

Returning to university

Will properly got into Frisbee at Portsmouth university. The team, Sublime, had previously been one of the best in the country, completing an unbeaten open outdoor season and winning nationals with Matt Parslow as captain before Will arrived. Many of the players from that dominant team played for Fire of London, and invited Will and his university teammate Ross Nugent to play with them on a ‘Rising Star’ scheme that helped fund travel.

“They were just trying to get us involved as much as possible. We’d travel up once a week for training in 2016, my first season with Fire. Being not based in London it was quite difficult and Fire tried to make it as convenient as possible.”

Will was continuing to play with his university team, often playing whole tournaments without taking any points off and going to fun tournaments whenever possible, as well as training and playing with Fire.

“I think playing in games where there’s a lot of depth at the top level really makes you better at reading the game, so playing with Fire really helped that. At university there’s a couple of big players and it’s easier to read but it’s much harder when you have to take more into account.”

Move to Clapham

After two seasons with Fire, he moved to Clapham to play at WUCC in Cincinnati.

“WUCC was great but only having been involved in the team for about six months beforehand meant I was less emotionally invested in the team compared to some guys who had been there for years and years. I still gave it my all but it was definitely different. Clapham has changed a lot since then, but I’m really excited to be competing at WUCC again with them again.

“There’s a huge sense of responsibility with my role on the team now. Back when I started one of the captains told me I wasn’t allowed to throw any hucks but now I have permission to do what I want and cause chaos on defence. The main difference really is flexibility on offence.”

The flexibility highlights the main change in Will’s game since he joined Clapham; his throwing. Defensive ability has always been his calling card – he was voted European defensive player of the year in 2018 – but now that he’s able to make the kind of throws that playing at the top level requires he’s able to exert more influence after the turn.

“I love throwing, and I’ve really developed my ability to throw aggressively upfield with more reps at a high level. You build up that confidence over the years and Clapham has really made a difference with that. I’m one of three hybrid players that are called onto the O line if we get broken along with Connor McHale and Josh Awcock. At training, with a smaller O line there’s times where we go a whole training weekend just playing offence.”

Playing mixed at World Games

While Will has focused on open for most of his competitive career to this point, he has played a lot of mixed. Not only was he part of the GB mixed team that won European bronze at beach euros in 2019, he’s been part of Mighty Hucks for a while now.

“I’ve loved playing mixed. It’s a slightly slower game than I’ve been used to with Clapham and I think the options you have are much greater. That’s definitely the case offensively but defensively there are lots of opportunities to create more turnovers as well.”

The World Games was an opportunity to play a game that Will enjoys, but the real draw was that he’s seen it as the peak of the sport for most of his career, since the introduction to Parslow at a beginner’s tournament.

“Seven players of each gender get picked so the high level, the challenge of competing against all these other great players was definitely a reason. I’ve loved mixed every time I’ve played it as well, and then there were the tales about Matt Parslow who’s been an inspiration for me. Since that moment making the World Games team was a goal of mine. When I made it, I felt like I had achieved that.”

The trial process saw him travel to Edinburgh for both sessions, and he’s full of praise for the way the whole thing was run both for players who made it all the way through and those who took part in only some bits of it. Once it was finished and he received his email, how did it feel knowing he was in the team?

“It was such a heartwarming email to read. It was really a special moment and knowing all the effort I had put in had come to this big moment and I got in, it was huge for me.”

Disappointment post Windmill

After working so hard to get into the team, Will was ruled out after injury at Windmill.

“It was the semi-final against Iznogood. We were up at the time and I was marking some of their big players, I did a small layout onto my left side but used my right arm to catch myself. I had thrown myself about in much worse scenarios throughout the tournament but it must have been the perfect combination of the angle and fatigue, and the right shoulder came out.

“I couldn’t even look at my teammates. I felt like I had disappointed [the World Games team], the Clapham lot. Whenever I saw a World Games player at Windmill I was in tears. I felt like I had let down loads of people, even though I had put in loads of effort to get better, make myself as prepared as possible. It was obviously a very tough one.”

Will’s Clapham teammate Ollie Gordon had already been named as the travelling reserve so, after realising what the injury meant for his participation, Will spoke to Ollie.

“I gave him a huge congratulations. I think if I had wanted anyone in UK ultimate to take my spot it would probably be Ollie. He’s been a huge inspiration to me, we have had similar roles throughout our careers and he was playing seniors a long time before I was and has always been an inspiration to my style. I’m really glad he’s going now. He was very apologetic, but I suppose it would have been pretty nasty if he had rubbed it in at that point!”

Part of Will’s disappointment was his perception of the role he had played on a squad that featured a number of people who had never played together before, and in some cases knew each other only in passing.

“I’ve tried to be a very social member on this team, helping bring people out of their shells and bringing the team together, making it fun. I’ve also been able to calm us down in some bigger moments, so I think I’ve had a real impact on the team which is why I was so disappointed. I’ve been so excited to play with some people on this team, messaging people after training about how much you’re looking forward to playing with them. I’m not even sure how to describe the feeling really, but letting people down is probably the closest I can think of.”

Despite that blow, Will is travelling to Alabama. Part of his decision-making process was speaking to Ollie about why he had wanted to go as a travelling reserve, knowing he might not play and having already gone to Cali in 2013.

“I’ve built up some relationships on this team and I am emotionally invested in it. I spoke to Lucy, I spoke to Ollie about his reasoning for going out and they just said the whole experience of the World Games is an amazing one. GB hasn’t qualified for every version of this tournament so this might be my only chance to go, and those off-the-field traits mean I can still help out the team.

“It’s been really hard turning my mind to the off-the-field stuff, but I think it’ll be easier once we’re there and I know what the team needs from me. The hardest thing was at the last training when we were all saying our goodbyes, I had to walk away and be by myself and cry for a while. That was tough.”

This has clearly been a rollercoaster for Will, but he’ll look back on the process fondly.

“This has been so enjoyable. The new friendships I’ve made have been incredible and I think people have viewed me in a different light as well. It’s been really great.”

And there’s always next time, right?

“I think I’ll be a hot contender for the next World Games team. I’m pretty sure about that.”