So far it sounds like a lot of the cool kids are playing competitive, but Jess and I want to play twice a week and sign up as a foursome. Are club players going to play regular summer league? Is it going to be terrible, or just not quite as fun?

You both lick -

You can't keep 100% of the people happy 100% of the time, and unfortunately the complaining voices are usually loudest from those you know best... :)

There is certainly a desire for a more competitive league, and CUSL wasn't quite ready to jump into Bring-your-own-team/corporate format. Believe it or not, I think the board has done the homework on this to discover the need for a more competitive league. Now, let me get into several of the complaints we've heard from all the whiny people, before and after the decision for competitive league (paraphrased):

Before:
- "I'm not playing CUSL - I don't want to get hurt for the fall season playing with dangerous newer players (for something I don't get paid to do so I can stroke my ego for mediocre glory - i.e. being the tallest midget)!"
- "The level of competition in CUSL creates bad habits"
- "I'm tired of feeling guilty for not showing up to league games - if I don't show up, my team suffers/loses (mostly feedback from club players)"
- "I don't want to teach, I want to play"

After:
- "I liked CUSL the way it was and always has been (mostly from old guys who have played in this for years or founded the league. i.e. incorrect assessment of self importance)"
- "I like the camaraderie that the old CUSL facilitates between the good players and new players"
- "We're going to lose those who can teach new players"
- "I want to play with my friends - and they're all going to play competitive league and I don't wanna..."

So you see, there's nothing we can do to keep everyone happy, and frankly we can't care about making everyone happy. However, we do care about making the majority happy, and from what research suggests, this may be a good first step. You know, I would like to have a corporate league format and say screw this intermediate step to form a competitive league - but I can't. It doesn't appear to be what people want - yet - and the board exists to make decisions for the greater Chicagoland Ultimate community. If we had our way, Ms. Ultimate would never see the ultimate field again, and Brown Bear would only be allowed in the Thursday beginner league to work on his "FUN-damentals", but we do the work of the people. That said, We're trying this league out, and it may lead to more of a tiered corporate league, or it may be a failed experiment.

Where's competitive league going to be? Well, I hope in both the North and South depending on registration. Right now, we need to assess how many teams can be formed, and how many teams we can allocate to the North or south. But we'll know within a week.

I'm going to make a t-shirt with a very simple design that I'm going to wear to ALL leagues games from now on: "If you don't like it, run for the board"

That is all.

I think the default will be Wash park if there aren't many teams. I think we were anticipating 16 teams. 8 north, 8 south.

My one complaint would be that I wish they would have done competitive on a different Night than MW, so that people would have had the option to play both.

I haven't played summer league in a couple of year (just West League), I may play competitive this year, but I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna play at all

Posted By: bcdavis75Also, I think it's fair to say that we wanted to segregate out the most competitive players from playing CUSL because of all the spirit complaints we received in the survey.

OK, I've certainly got no problem with that and think it's a good idea assuming this is what the average Non-Competitive player wants. I guess people might be confused as to what league they should play in. Maybe define the leagues as COMPETITIVE and SPIRIT? or something like that.

Maybe those distinctions are already more obvious to others and I'm just talking nonsense.

Okay, so I'm not sure if I want to play in the "spirit" league. So Jess, the question is, once a week competitive or twice a week not-so-competitive? And most importantly, can we show up at Piece for pizza on Monday if we play competitive?

Yeah that sounds good. I'll email Rob and Rory.

sweet. I miss fighting for pizza like a starving hyena.

Jess and I are signing up for competitive league.

well dan we wanted to be sure we couldnt sign up with you before we took the leap to competitive league.

this is sad. how are we going to not play summer league with you? maybe since you have connections we could sign up as a three buddy team?

okay totaly off topic but why does it never recognize my buddies? it says claire doesnt have me as a buddy but she certainly does. unless shes ditching me to play with brown bear....