On October 28 and 29, your favorite ultimate team Squid LITE traveled north to our fellow UC campus UC Irvine to compete at the annual Huckfest pre-season. The Squids set off in high spirits Saturday morning ready to take the field once again with our teammates. Their first game was against the SDSU Federales, a team that the Squids took down regularly last season. However, the Federales’ athleticism and height were able to overpower them. Squid LITE were able to bring the game to universe point but unfortunately they couldn’t score the final point needed to win. Their next opponent were the USD Flat Tax Ballers, another team the Squids had success against last season. The Squids let the close loss last game discourage them, and the effort and intensity for this game was lacking. The Flat Tax Ballers caught the Squids off guard and secured a decisive victory. The Squids’ final opponent for the day were the Cal State Fullerton Phantoms. Frustrated with their performance up to that point, the Squids came out the gate swinging and quickly took down the Phantoms.

On Sunday, Squid LITE arrived at the fields way earlier than on Saturday. The Squids were motivated to put more energy into the games and perform better. However, the wind kept picking up, which led to some unpleasant games. The first two games looked identical, the team playing downwind had it way easier and almost always scored, which took away a lot of fun and forced the Squids to really focus up. Since the team was rusty after the vacation, games got really difficult. During the first game the Squids barely managed to beat USC Blockdown, with the game-deciding point lasting over 10 minutes. The team scored in the last seconds before the game would be officially declared a draw. For the second game, Occidental Detox proved their skills by scoring one point upwind, which was the game deciding moment. The Squids made them work for the win, with a few opportunities to get an upwind point back, but they lacked the focus to do it, losing the game very slightly. The last game however was way different, as LITE played against SLO B, one of the best developmental teams in the region. The wind had zero effect on SLO B, who held the Squids scoreless. Even though the result wasn’t the best, the Squids were happy to play together again and get some tourney reps. Hopefully, with practices starting again, Squid LITE will improve in the next tournaments.