The Four Major Reasons Why MLU is Boring to Watch

For an avid Ultimate player and fan like myself, finding quality Ultimate streams and videos is a very tough chore. Among the monotony of Callahan videos, Frisbee trick shot videos, and how-to videos, there are very little actual games on the net. And amid these very few videos, most are of low quality and are very hard to get interested in.

But if you're talking about professional Ultimate, there's only two places to turn to; MLU and AUDL. Both are regarded as the top level of Ultimate in the US. With only three years to grow its program, both leagues have many impressive things. However even with all the advancements in professional Ultimate, the MLU is still boring to watch for four major reasons:

1: Lack of Movement

Now any Ultimate players may be confused about why I say that a lack of movement is making the MLU seem boring. Surely Ultimate is a high speed sport? Let's first look at how a typical Ultimate player sees the game. On offense, if you do not have the disc, you usually are running around. As a cutter, you typically look at your handler with the disc, the field in front of you, and the defenders around you. If you have the disc on offense, you are always looking for cuts and handler movement. On defense, players look for these same things, but in a different way. As a player, area that you can visually sense is dynamic and constantly changing, leading to a very exciting experience.

Now let's switch perspective and take a look at how a viewer of a typical MLU game sees the game. First, the camera is zoomed out to see a larger view on the field. However, this makes all the players look slower than they actually are. This camera perspective is not really a MLU problem though; most, if not all Ultimate games are filmed in such a way. It allows viewers to get a better grasp of the field as a whole. This wouldn't be a bad thing if it didn't directly interfere with another part of the camera; central focus on the person with the disc. When the disc is actively moving, the game is exciting. Unfortunately, for a majority of the game, the disc is stationary in the handler's hands. While it makes sense, keeping the disc in one space slows the game down and makes it less fun to watch.

2: One Strategy   

This problem has been a huge problem for me specifically, but probably for other fans of Ultimate as well. When I play Ultimate, I try to stress the point of having what I like to call "smooth flow". This "smooth flow" is the act of having cuts happen at a time where the disc can be pushed up the field in one smooth motion. This movement leads to a faster paced game than playing more conservative. Yet this is not the best strategy in the meta today. The best strategy in the game right now is to wait for a long drive opportunity. There are several reasons why this strategy is considered the best. First and most obvious, it's one of the quickest ways to score. No doubt throwing the disc across the field for a score is a great and exciting way to score. Moreover, the downside for missing a long huck is very minimal. The defending team would usually get the disc at the front of their endzone, which is pretty bad field position. The problem is that this strategy is used so much during professional play that it gets repetitive. In my experience, a typical professional Ultimate game has around fifty to eighty-five percent of scoring plays using this strategy. In any sport, a play done over and over quickly gets stale, whether it be the long hucks of Ultimate, or a hail mary play from football. The monotony of the same play happening over and over again get tiring to watch. It doesn't help that most defenses usually play a mix of one to three defenses. But this is the most optimal way to play the game. Although boring to watch, it's understandable that teams play this way. 

3: Monotonous Commercials

Now while the above two points can be attributed to how the sport of Ultimate Frisbee is played in general, the next two points are purely MLU problems. Like football, Ultimate has commercials during idle parts of the game. Also, like soccer, Ultimate(at least the MLU) is plastered with ads around and across the field, on players, and perhaps other places. Usually, I would be mad about this as I am with hockey, but I do understand that MLU needs the money, as Ultimate as a sport has just started up. I am confused, however, that as of the last game I have seen, all commercials during the MLU games are about MLU. Furthermore, the MLU must have hired a single intern to make commercials, because there are a grand total of around seven commercials that constantly cycle over and over. As I previously stated, repetition leads to staleness and all around less interesting content. The MLU also switches to commercial break extremely often. Sometimes, the commercials overlap with game footage, making viewers miss parts of the content, although they have been getting better with this recently. Furthermore, most MLU commercials have very bad songs to go along with them. All of these advertisement gaffes makes watching an MLU game painful to watch.

4: Commentary

The last point that I want to make is that commentary for the MLU is sub-par. First off, the microphone volume for the two commentators are off. One commentator may be too quiet, while the other is too loud. But it doesn't really matter which is louder because the commentary itself is dry. Most commentary consists of saying who caught the disc, what penalties are called, and if the disc is caught when thrown deep. The problem is that this style of commentary doesn't add anything to the game. Commentators need to do analysis on key plays on the field. Now, I know that Ultimate isn't like football; after a play you can't go to Starbucks and get yourself a cappuccino and come back to see the next play. Nevertheless, MLU commentators need to go more into detail when commentating. The MLU also suffers from having boring commentators in general. I like to say that commentators in the MLU would be better on radio because they speak as if nobody can see the game. Unfortunately, Ultimate is a game that is streamed, so these voices are ineffective here. Commentators need to have more excitement when they commentate. If they can do that, the game will be more interesting and the MLU will get more viewers. 

This game highlights several of the problems I've already stated.

Also, this is the state of the game footage after the livestream. It's not great.

I understand that the MLU is still very young, and will take time to get to a truly entertaining level. But at this rate, MLU will get overtaken by its major rival, the AUDL. MLU needs to make major changes in its upcoming seasons, or drop out.

If you have any opinions or questions, please leave a message in the comments section below! I'm always interested in other's opinions.

The Silliest Rule in Ultimate

When I was watching Major League Ultimate the other day, I noticed a strange event happening on the field. The pulling team, called a timeout before the pull. Afterwards, the started the pull from midfield.

Now for those of you not versed in the rules of Ultimate Frisbee, usually pulls are thrown from your end zone. This is done to assure that the defense has the time to set up an offense. It was a big surprise to me that the pull was taken from midfield. At the time, I thought that there was some kind of weird rule going on, so I checked the rules and sure enough, there was. From the head of the MLU rulebook, Ian McClellan,

If the pulling team calls a timeout between points (before readiness is signaled), they will get to pull from midfield after that timeout. This provides an exciting strategic option for using a timeout between points apply some extra defensive pressure to start the next point. Hopefully this becomes a useful tool for teams that are behind to create some break opportunities to improve comeback chances. 

From http://mlultimate.com/head-of-rule-committee-ian-mcclellan-explains-2015-rule-book-changes/ 

Now, let's get to the point. I believe that this rule change is a terrible decision. Let's first talk about how this effects the starting field position and starting flow of the game. Normally after the pull, the offense has about one or two uninterrupted throws before the defensive team can set a play on the offensive team. This short freedom allows the offense to solidify the beginnings of their offense. Furthermore, the disc after the pull usually ends up outside of the end zone, giving the offense better field position. These two things allow the offense to get a slight advantage after previously losing a point. Unfortunately, with the new timeout rule in place, both of these slight offensive advantages are lost. When pulling from midfield, the defense can both easily set up a defense and apply massive pressure to the offense because of the imbalanced field position of the two teams. With the defense starting from midfield, it is much easier to set a defense due to the shortened space between the two teams. Coupled with the fact that any good puller can pull half the field, the defense is in an unfair advantage over the offense with this rule.

But to say that this rule wouldn't achieve its purpose is a false statement. I'm sure that this very advantageous defensive position could be, as Ian McClellan says, "a useful tool for teams that are behind to create some break opportunities to improve comeback chances." However, the converse could be true. This rule could also be used to solidify leads. Now, I'm always excited to see a huge comeback and I would be happy to see a reasonable rule that favors comebacks. Yet this rule is not it. This call, when used when a team is two or three points ahead, could further increase a teams lead by causing turnovers, or even worse, Callahans. This would make a losing team's comeback that much harder, rather than make it easier.

In a sport where the rules are already confusing enough to understand, is this rule worth adding in for the "hype factor" or excitement? In my opinion, it's just poorly designed. A rule that promotes unfair advantages and potentially kills comebacks is a big pass in my book. As an Ultimate player myself, I know that I would be annoyed if I lost or won a game because of some silly rule.

But maybe that's just me. If you have any opinions or want to call me silly for not knowing what I'm talking about, please leave something in the comments! I'm always ready and willing to discuss anything about Ultimate!