Monday Snitch: August 5

by JackthePhan | August 5, 2013

Completing his personal three-peat, Michael Parada, GM of the Orange Team, led his team to a 6-0 record at the largest fantasy tournament of the summer. Parada's Firestorm defeated many of the tournament favorites, including Augustine Monroe's Black Team in pool play, Samy Mousa's Pink Team in the semifinals, and Ricky Nelson's Plum Team in the finals, en route to the championship.

Photo by Michael E. Mason/IQA Staff

Pool 1

Pink (Samy Mousa) 3-1

Blue (Zach D'Amico) 3-1

Purple (Ethan Sturm) 2-2

Green (Patrick Sheehy) 1-3

Grey (John Glynn) 1-3

Samy Mousa's Pink Team and Zach D'Amico's Blue Team took the top of Pool 1 with 3-1 records, followed closely by Ethan Sturm's Purple Team. An outstanding performance from Max Havlin at beater and great chemistry between the tandem of Zach D'Amico and Devin Sandon carried Blue despite their lack of depth. Pink, who boasted one of the best chasing trios of the tournament in Dan Daugherty, Meredith Taylor, and Colby Soden, also used a variety of strategies orchestrated by beaters Samy Mousa and Kara Levis. Pink was able to execute a Baylor-style hoop defense in their victory against Blue, shutting down the speedy Sandon and D'Amico.

Pink's defeat came at the hands of Purple, who used strong beating led by Heather Knoch to fight back into games with the snitch on the pitch. This strategy fell apart though, when seeker Billy Greco (who caught the snitch to defeat Pink 80*-60) became nauseous and couldn't play.

Patrick Sheehy's Green Team and John Glynn's Grey Team both went 1-3 to round out the pool. As expected, the Grey Team had lots of chemistry between Rochester-area players and played hard and tough. Green had trouble keeping up with the other teams in this pool but avoided going 0-4 with a defeat of Grey.

Pool 2

Plum (Ricky Nelson) 4-0

Glitter (Ben Nadeau) 3-1

Red (Clay Dockery) 1-3

Orange (Shenuque Tissera) 1-3

Gray (Dante Close) 1-3

Ricky Nelson's Plum Team topped Pool 2 with a 4-0 record. Existing chemistry between Maryland chasers Harry Greenhouse, Matt Angelico, and Matthew Paesch propelled Plum past Ben Nadeau's Glitter Team, despite mistakes and new teammates adjusting to each other. Never falling into snitch range, Plum's beaters played stifling defense. Richmond's Julia Baer proved to be one of the biggest steals of the tournament, as she and Nelson shut down the offense when playing together. "I picked the deepest team there with fantastic players all around," asserted Nelson. "We trusted each other not to make mistakes, and if anyone did, no one got mad because I made it very clear that we were there not to win, but to enjoy ourselves."

Nadeau's Glitter Team also played with a "fun first, winning is extra" philosophy (as he described it) and it showed. Glitterfly played loosely and developed some of the best strategies of the tournament, advancing to bracket play as the six seed.

All tied at 1-3 were Clay Dockery's Red Team, Shenuque Tissera's Orange Team, and Dante Close's Gray Team. Orange and Gray both boasted great depth but didn't have a reliable top scorer. Red had two amazing scorers and physical defenders in David Foxx and Kedzie Teller, but were outdueled in terms of beater strategy. The Glitter Team and the Plum Team were both able to adjust their beater strategy to limit the productivity of Foxx and Teller, and Red's beaters weren't able to stop their stars from being neutralized.

Pool 3

Orange (Michael Parada) 4-0

Black (Augustine Monroe) 3-1

Neon (Jayke Archibald) 1-3

White (Sean Beloff) 1-3

Baby Blue (Jamie Lafrance) 1-3

Michael Parada's Orange Team really had no weaknesses and cruised through pool play with a 4-0 record. Chemistry developed very quickly between Orange chasers Steve Hysick, Alex Linde, and Parada, beater Scott Axel was aggressive on defense, and Andrew Zagelbaum, Hysick and Parada went a combined 6 for 6 on snatches.

Black was led by their GM Augustine Monroe to a 3-1 record. Monroe, a natural playmaker, excelled on the fast-break and worked fantastically with Aryan Ghoddossy. Kody Marshall, who was injured last weekend, became less important as the day went on. Beaters Jacob Adlis and Theresa Buchta played very well and conservatively, but neither were dominating forces on the pitch. Black's final game of pool play was a 210*-140 marathon victory over Neon.

Neon, White, and Baby Blue all finished at 1-3. Neon didn't have a seeker that could win games for them, White developed good chemistry but were also just out of reach in most of their games and Baby Blue was hurt by dropouts of important players. Being in the pool of death might have been Neon, White, and Baby Blue's biggest obstacle from getting into bracket play.

With only six teams advancing to bracket play from a fifteen-team field, the bracket play games were sure to be close and exciting. The Pink Team (Samy Mousa) and the Glitter Team (Ben Nadeau) were knotted in a close game with Glitter leading 70-50. However, the scoreboard showed 70-40 and Glitter thought they were up by 30 points. The error was corrected as Daugherty pulled the snitch, giving Pink an 80*-70 win.

The game between the Black Team (Augustine Monroe) and the Blue Team (Zach D'Amico) turned into a tight defensive showdown. Rock solid chaser defense from Hannah DeBaets, Kaci Erwin, and Aryan Ghoddossy coupled with Monroe defending the hoops for Black was especially impressive. The snitch returned to the pitch and was caught quickly by former Badassilisk utility player Edward Inzauto, giving Blue a 60*-50 come-from-behind victory.

The two teams that received byes -- the Plum Team (Ricky Nelson) and the Orange Team (Michael Parada) -- benefitted greatly from the rest. In the semifinals, Plum narrowly defeated Blue on a Greenhouse snatch, 100*-70. Orange's 100*-30 win over Pink was a bit more comfortable.

Final

In the final, Parada's Orange Team jumped out ahead of Nelson's Plum Team. Plum lacked the precision in the passing, tackling, and beating that they had displayed all day long. Trailing by 40 at one point, Nelson recalled, "My players remembered the easy attitude we had before, and ended up taking the match back to the opponents."

Plum was able to bring the match back into snitch range, and Harry Greenhouse was given the green light to go for the snitch. An epic duel between Greenhouse and Parada for the tournament championship seemed inevitable, but Parada was sidelined due to charley horses. Greenhouse was guarded closely by the Orange beaters, and he was beat right before several snatches. With three false Greenhouse snatches and the Plum Team surging into the lead, the intensity was high. Plum was threatening to pull out of snitch range when Orange seeker and Parada replacement Steve Hysick secured the grab and the tournament victory. In a lengthy interview to be published later this week, Parada remarked, "I was relieved it was over. Our depleted chaser and keeper line was having a hard time getting subs and we were all beginning to hurt.”