Gnomeageddon was C-Co’s first tournament under their new name, Coastal Coconut Coalition. It was also Katie “Nami” Helms and Elise “Rio” Delgado’s first tournament with C-Co. The team’s first game was against UCSD’s very own Berserk Coalition. It was a fun and intense game with lots of handler movement and many awesome catches and throws. One of the highlights was a rookie score, with an assist from Jordan “Zilla” Liou to Lujain “Paps” Al-Alli. C-Co’s second game was against USC A. Though this game was challenging, C-Co was able to force numerous turns through a strong zone defense, and got close to the endzone multiple times. C-Co’s third game against UCLA B was extremely windy, and resulted in many long points. Our zone defense pulled through once again, trapping the UCLA handlers on the sideline and forcing many turns. 

The second day of the tournament began with a match against Irvine A. This game started off with a bang, with C-Co scoring the first point! C-Co put up a tough fight and had many near-scores. Between games, C-Co took a quick break to go cheer on B-CO. During the next game, which was against Claremont, the wind had started to pick up again, resulting in increasingly long points. This game featured a long-distance huck from Leah “Calyx” Catalano to Rio, resulting in a score. During the third game against UCSB B, the wind somehow became even stronger, to the point that random objects were blown across the fields. C-Co further refined their zone defense skills, particularly how to stop the other team’s handlers from making short passes to each other, as well as how to make progress going upwind. Though the game ended in a loss by 1 point, it was a tough and well-fought battle, with the score being nearly tied most of the game.

Overall, the tournament was an exciting experience. Despite the hot and windy conditions, C-Co kept their spirits up by inventing new cheers, creating TikToks and memes, and bonding with other teams. Isha “Lex” Pandit pioneered a new term, “Big Line Energy”, which quickly became a central theme of the tournament. Every C-Co player worked hard and played their absolute best, resulting in vast improvements across the team. C-Co has grown so much so far, and will undoubtedly continue this trend through the rest of the season!

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The Berserk Badgers had a nice (relatively!) late wake up time and got to the fields at 7:45 (ish). With only 14 players, B-Co knew they had to be on their A-game (B-game?) for the second ever annual gnomeaggedon! 

A delightful start to the morning, B-Co began their day with a game against our own CoCoCo! As it was the first game of the day, both teams needed to stay focused and really warm up our bodies so (sadly) no shenanigans ensued, and it was instead a nice classic spirited game, ending with a score of 12-1 B-Co!

Moving forward, B-Co was faced with an opponent they lost to for the first and only time at this very tournament last year, UCLA-B! The game was (graciously) much less windy than last year's, and B-Co was really able to build some chemistry with their teammates and focus on their fundamentals. Many hard-fought points later, B-Co pulled through with a solid 13-3 win!

Ending off the day, B-co went on to play the USC (A) Hellions (where are the Cleos??)! The wind was roaring and the energy was depleting, but B-Co stayed strong and cheered each other on all the way. Though the points were hard fought, USC-A pulled through with a clean 12-3 win.

Despite losing an hour (who put daylight savings in the middle of our tournament??), B-Co showed up on day 2 with spirits as high as ever, ready for another windy day of ultimate!

B-co started the day bright and early with a hard fought game against Claremont! B-co came out with a victory on universe point, ending with a winning score of 8-7. B-co loves playing Claremont and always appreciates the close match up, their spirit, and of course line dancing at halftime!

The second game of the day was against UC Irvine, which was a tough match and a windy game. Heavy winds and dust made it super hard to play effectively and even blew endzone cones away! B-co fought hard but ultimately lost 3-9. 

The wind continued for the third game against the host team, SDSU. It was a tough game with a lot of calls, but B-co fought hard with a comeback of many points after they were initially winning by quite a bit to 0! SDSU ultimately won 6-7. 

Overall, everybody had fun, played good ultimate, and definitely improved as a team, but were challenged by some of the heaviest wind they’ve ever played in!