PLAY> started its ‘17 season at Prague Winter’s 5v5 indoor competition. A reduced roster, tight schedule and very competitive opponents made PLAY> rank in last place. However, lots of learning and good spirit combined with delicious Bohemian food and a great party made this weekend fantastic.
The bubble at Strahov Stadium with its state-of-the-art artificial grass field was a great spot to play on that weekend. We started the Saturday afternoon pool with a game against Terrible Monkeys. The local team came up very strong from the beginning and we struggled with our setup, which lead to a clear final score of 3-15. Consequently, we improved our defense tactics and managed to play a good game against Catchup. Although we kept the score tight at the beginning, the team from Graz played strong in the end leading to a final score of 7-10.
In our third game of the day we faced the Franconian selection Frank N. Although one could see further improvement in both of our lines, our manpower suffered during that game because Peter got injured. Our opponents showed really nice long throws and enough energy to beat us 7-13. Next we lined up against our neighbors from Bratislava. We knew that Outsiterz will be hard to beat, but in fact it was a really tight game which we really enjoyed. Some Outsiterz players even called us FWD>>, however this compliment was as bit overstated, since we got really tired by the end of the game and lost 7-11.
Lucky-7 points in a row unfortunately did not bring us luck at all: Yellow Block was our last opponent of the day. Needless to say that the tight schedule – only half an hour breaks between each of the five games – and only 3 subs remaining showed a tremendous impact and the game against the later winner of the tournament ended with the clear score of 5-15.
Now it was time to recover and we found a great spot to enjoy the local cuisine. Afterwards we joined the party at Le Mirage, where our tournament hosts did not skimp on providing Mojito-buckets to the party people…
On the next morning we were really motivated to play against Cosmo from Maribor. However, due to sickness we were only 7 players remaining. Cosmo is a really young and fast team and we were not able to oppose anything on that morning. Final score 4-15. At our last game in Prague we faced Moustix from Lyon. These guys showed how a disc can fly when you play ultimate for decades and beat us 4-13. Not only the French herb spirit that we were offered but also the conclusion that despite of the results we kept on learning and improving during the tournament made as leave Prague with a smiling face.
Many thanks to the organizing team of Prague Winter! We are already looking to next year’s event in Prague.
PLAY> roster:
Lugi, Luki, Markus, Matteo, Mo, Nacho, Peter, Rolf, Sandro
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