Does anyone have the schedule yet?
This tournament is going to be crazy good. The 15 teams in the platinum bracket are all high quality teams. This should be a very exciting weekend.
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Agree! I was just looking at the teams.
If you look at the website, the brackets are set up, I think there are going to be a lot of close games, even on day one.
Agree, should be a heck of an early tournament. Sure wish they could do better on the game times though. Seems like it is a regular thing to have some teams be the first game and last game of the day. I would like to think it is just an occasional thing but after seeing it happen for multiple years , it is more than on occasion. I’ve seen 6-8 hour gaps before between games. Seems silly. Could go as far as be intentional? Who knows.
Love the user name egg. Solid work!!
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Thanks Jack. As you know, it’s all in the reflexes! 
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It wasnt EC Cup, but we had a 9 hour gap between games last year. You know that is 
intentional.
I honestly think it’s unfair when teams that are clearly capable of competing at the A level choose to play in the B bracket simply because they know they have a better chance of winning there. There’s a big difference between playing where you are appropriately ranked and intentionally dropping down because you aren’t confident you can beat the stronger A teams.
The B bracket should be an opportunity for teams that genuinely belong at that level to compete, develop, and have a chance to succeed—not a place for stronger teams to go just to collect wins and trophies. It takes away from the teams that actually belong in B and creates an unfair advantage.
Competition is supposed to be about challenging yourself and playing against teams at your appropriate level. If a team is good enough to play A, they should play A—even if that means they don’t win as much. That’s how players actually get better and how tournaments remain fair and competitive for everyone.
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That sounds oddly specific spill the tea 
Couldn’t agree more, across multiple age groups this past weekend.
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While I don’t disagree with you, it is early in the year. Could be team’s first or 2nd tournament of the year. Maybe they were just testing the waters in B group with newer team, new players and now figured out that they belong in A group? I would assume it could be tricky gauging a newer team and what level they should play, this early in the year. Doesn’t necessarily mean they’re trophy hunting. But I also don’t know what team you’re talking about.
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I’m not going to name specific teams but I was at different pools and it was definitely noticed. It was just sad to see these teams get destroyed. I hope it gets better from now on.
It won’t. Certain clubs tend to play down now. I spoke with one coach who wants to play up but his director said they can’t afford a bad tournament.
Maybe I misunderstood him but are we really at the point where people will flee a club after a bad tournament? What happened to fighting through adversity and improving every game?
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We are 1,000,000% beyond that point from what I have seen and heard.
This is a bit suprising. I would expect that better players might flee a club if the club is not willing to play in very competetive tournaments and less developed players stay if the environemnt is sufficiently friendly. We live in a brave new world now 
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I would think general level of play and practice is way more important than tournament finishes.
Does a team really need a family that bails out due to tournament finishes?