The Blog

Featured tournament: Lei-Out

Posted by christian on Monday, January 5, 2009 · No comments

2009 promises to be a big year for ffindr: an ever increasing tournament listing, a constantly growing link collection, and also its regular blog posts. I try to make the latter as interesting and informative as possible by continuing the popular featured tournament series and soon by starting an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament 101 series.

Read on for the first ffindr featured tournament in 2009 about the annual Lei-Out Beach Ultimate Tournament in Santa Monica, welcoming over 1,000 participants and countless spectators for its tenth anniversary.

I was lucky to get in touch with two Lei-Out guys, tournament director Brian and schedule-maker Andy. A big thanks to both of you for answering my questions and sharing interesting background information about your tournament.

How did everything start?

Brian: Lei-Out started very small. The original intention was to have a grass tournament in LA that could be a showcase of the Ultimate community in the Los Angeles area. The intent was to build the community by bringing a bunch of Ultimate players from all over. There was one problem though: field space in LA is virtually impossible to acquire. So the idea went on the shelf. But soon after that, it was realised that while we don't have grass, we do have an abundance of sand. And the rest is history. The first few tournaments were small and mostly drew local teams — except for a team from Germany called the Woodies that somehow heard about the event and came.

How did the tournament evolve during the last years?

Brian: About five years ago we decided to aggressively expand the program and market the event. We started our own organisation based around the tournament, got the word out to virtually every local ultimate community in the nation, and even placed a two page showcase in Ultimate Magazine. We upgraded the party and the competition and focused on making it not just another tournament, but a whole Ultimate experience. Now we have one of the largest, most well attend and most competitive tournaments in the world.

What is the biggest hurdle to take during the organisation of your event?

Brian: Time and labour are the biggest hurdles. It takes a lot of work to get things done right. And for us to expand the way we did, it takes someone devoting almost all of their time to the organisation. Now we have several people working on Lei-Out the organisation, Lei-Out the tournament, and Lei-Out Beach League almost all year around!

For the competition and the tournament to go off without a hitch, there are a ton of things that go on behind the scenes. First and foremost is managing the relationship with the City of Santa Monica because at the end of the day if they don't want to give us a permit, we don't have an event. We have been able to establish a very strong relationship with the city and enjoy working with them every year. We also make a point to participate in other things the city does to show that we also want to be a partner with the city, not just a once a year event.

Outside of working with the city, coordinating the party and coordinating sponsors is also very important. Part of having a great tournament experience is having a great party. Last year we changed the venue to a much bigger and more swank location. We stay in contact professionally and socially with the restaurant staff and management all year because we want to always have access to a great party venue. Same goes for sponsorships. It is all about relationships!

How does team selection works?

Brian: We try not to turn any teams away but every year we do. We do not give preference based on gifts or anything like that. We give preference solely on getting the bid in before the deadline and how long a team has been coming to the tournament. We would like to take all of the teams that apply… and we usually do.

How about seeding and the format?

Andy: All the teams are required on their registration form to request either A (elite) or B (standard) to support seeding. They also have the chance to rate their expected ranking within A or B. For the initial seeding I use last year's results to rank the top 8 teams. Seeding for the rest gets very difficult and is no exact science. I base them on past results, the captain's expected standing, special requests, and some geographical diversity. Finally I do some final adjustments to the lower seeded teams just to try and even out all the pools as best as possible.

On Saturday Lei-Out starts with two brackets: A and B. I try to have the same number of teams in A and B. The number of pools is determined by the number of teams in A and B, whereas each pool consists of 5 teams.

Sunday features three brackets:

the top 4 teams in each A pool and the winner of each B pool go to A,
the top 4 teams of each B pool and the last of the A pools go to B, and
all the remaining teams fall into C, or what is more commonly called the Beer Bracket (a couple teams truly only play for that).

All Sunday games are knock-out games, losers will go down (A2, B2 and C2), winners proceed. When teams lose in any round of the loser's brackets, they're done for the day. For the most part, any team that loses two games on Sunday probably wants to be done anyway. And then watch the semi-finals or finals of the A bracket.

The ranking for Sunday is very simple. The winners of each pool are the top teams, the rest is seeded by record (making sure that teams from the same pool can't play each other in the first two rounds). Now if one side of the bracket just looks stronger than the other side, I will not make adjustments to even it out. I'm a very strong proponent of "however it falls is how it falls". To me, that's sports... that's just the way it works out... and it creates fun debate, and who doesn't love debate? Isn't that part of makes sports so fantastic?

The Sunday tournament format in Lei-Out has got to be one of the most gruelling in all Frisbee tournaments. 32 teams start play Sunday morning (no byes for any team in the field of 32) which means to win, you have to win 5 straight games. I love the idea of crazy upsets, I'm such a huge fan of it. I also take a tiny bit of pride in feeling that this is the hardest beach tournament to win. First, because of the quality of teams (Lei-Out probably has more teams that have a legitimate chance to win the whole thing than any other tournament I've seen), second, because of the very difficult 32-seed one-day bracket you have to get through to win.

But I'm possibly going to change the Sunday format this year because many players have told me how insane it is to have to win 5 games on Sunday. On the beach no less. After a really great tournament party the night before. And I totally understand those concerns, and for that, I might change the format one day.

Does the tourney have a positive impact on the local Ultimate scene?

Brian: Lei-Out has a positive effect on the local community — especially for people who did not have a chance to play Ultimate in High School or College. Lei-Out gives them a great opportunity to participate in a competitive environment that is still highly social.

Two more weeks to go until Lei-Out 2009 starts, who will join the hall of fame of Lei-Out's previous winners?

Antimony (Lei-Out 2008)
Brown and Blue (Lei-Out 2007)
Crazy Go Nuts University (Lei-Out 2006)
Mr Briefcase (Lei-Out 2005)
Carbomb! (Lei-Out 2004)

Thanks for reading. And if this wasn't enough for now or if you simply can't wait for the next featured tournament, just have a look back at the series' previous articles:

Disco Volador 2006 (November 2008)
Coman Fruta Cabrónes (November 2008)
UPA Championships (October 2008)
European Ultimate Championships Finals (September 2008)
Monkey Foo Tournament (September 2008)