As it happened…
EFL came back to Tallinn for the second and last time in the current season. In the build-up to the event and as part of the New Year traditions the home club of the cradle of Estonian Ultimate published results of club members’ poll that was styled as year’s resolutions. While it did reflect the fun and friendly nature of ultimate society there was a heavy emphasis on ambitions. So many players want to take part in bigger international
tournaments and play in momentous finals. Well the road to that starts at home, winning is a habit in big and little games alike and the desire to win has shined brightly on the day. EFL started with goals to help develop beginner’s competitive experience and promote Ultimate in Estonia as well as to work on progressing in group stage qualifications of international tournaments. The first part turned out great instantly with help of a responsive and fantastically welcoming community, but the friendly league is outgrowing into a real competition, especially with this season being so finely poised.
January seems to become the time for big upsets. In 2014 Rockets have all but eradicated the two-horse race against Kenn in the penultimate stage of the league. In 2015 there were two more stages left on the calendar so there was not much threat of the title race being predetermined at the end of the event, but the Red Wings already had a 5 point lead and a second successive win for them would be a big step towards securing the title. Horns, Checkmate and Brothers looked towards cutting the gap to leaders, and ÖÖ being the team with the most WUCC players and most EFL past winners really needed to come up to initial expectations and realise their potential in order to start building what already seemed to be a long comeback.