Melbourne Hat

Some observations from the Melbourne Hat, which I played this weekend.

• The Hat is still a lot of fun, all these years after my first one.
  
• There were four pools of teams on Saturday, and I think my team was in a strong one. The 2 teams who finished 5th (my team), and 6th (Evel Knievel), cleaned up our opponents in cross pool play on Sunday. Our pool winner lost the final by 2 points.
  
• The winds came through again, making Saturday arvo and Sunday morning a zone-fest. Not the most enjoyable conditions for the numerous beginners, because the disc tends to be kept in the hands of the veteran handlers on offense.
  
• A Moulin Rouge party theme is a wondrous spectacle in terms of costumes for the ladies, and is just a token top hat for the men.
  
• Popping is fun, so much fun. I made a point of putting our strongest throwers as middles or poppers to a) give more touches to other players in the handler positions and b) replace the risky dump-swing, go-nowhere offence with a powerful cup-busting, quick-passing offence. I think it was productive. It was definitely fun.
  
• On teams with a wide range of abilities, huck and hope is a winning tactic. It can be unsatisfying for those wanting a short passing game (who get looked off), but it seems to win games. The two teams in the final seemed to be lead by two of the best huckers in the tourney. However, the crowd (and I count myself among them) wants to see teams win using all their players. The eternal juggling act of hat tournaments.