Buckeye Showcase Recap

There’s never a dull weekend in Columbus. Last Sunday’s Buckeye Showcase proved to be the most exhilarating season opener yet (and arguably the most exciting thing to happen in Columbus that weekend). Ohio State hosted 5 schools for the third annual Buckeye Showcase, and my oh my, what a day of close matches. Obviously, teams can change a lot between the start of the season and Nationals, but if these teams continue to play like they did at the Showcase, the Ohio Region very well could claim the National Title this season.

If you weren’t at this event, the above claim probably doesn’t hold a lot of weight – there’s a lot to unpack. Let’s go team by team to evaluate what we saw and speculate the future of these teams.

Buckeye Showcase Preview

Sunday marks the first big tournament of the college dodgeball season! The 3rd Annual Buckeye Showcase will feature five Ohio schools itching to be recognized as the state’s top ranked team. Although we are less than a month into the season, we are anticipating close matches and new rivalries; the Ohio teams continue to narrate the college dodgeball scene.

So who do we need to look out for? Whose match predictions will prove true? Which rookies should we keep an eye on as the season progresses? And how will these teams perform against their current standings?

2022 Women’s All-American Team

The 2022 NCDA season was always going to be one with a lot of mystery heading into the year. With a significant hiatus away from the court, questions about which teams and players would step up and push their way to the top remained at large until finally everything came together with a fantastic showing at this year’s Nationals. Since 2017, the NCDA has honored the female competitors who have dedicated time and effort to their craft. These women erased all the doubt, the mystery, and questions through their excellent play and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they were some of the best athletes college dodgeball had to offer. This list recognizes both the athletic achievements and amazing leadership these women have brought to their respective clubs.

– Hunter Ford, NCDA President

Rocket League Fundraiser

On August 8, the NCDA teamed up with the Dodgeball Club at UW-Platteville to host the league’s first ever Rocket League tournament. Rocket League is a fast-paced, exciting online video game featuring remote control cars with special abilities whose goal is to push a larger-than-life soccer ball into the opponent’s net as many times as possible in a given time limit. This event raised money to go towards the Tim Ebert Memorial Scholarship, which goes to help the NCDA’s internship program. The goal of the event was to raise $500 and I’m excited to announce that we raised over $750 through entry fees and donations.

The NCDA teamed up with current players: JT Warren (UWP), Jacob Sebranek (UWP),Caleb Frank (CMU & NCDA intern) and myself to host this competition. This tournament consisted of 9 teams that went head to head to be crowned champions. We started with a round robin tournament followed by a double elimination bracket, and the games were live-streamed for everyone to be a part of the experience. Teams consisted of current and former players from the league. Some of these schools included: UWP, VCU, and WKU. In the end, a team from WKU took home the title as the NCDA’s first ever rocket league champions. There was no one more excited about this than Felix Perrone (WKU alumni). As his response to the victory of his former teammates was, “WKU wins their first championship tonight”! A very much deserved win for sure!

NCDA Scholarship Fundraiser

This year the Platteville Dodgeball Club will be hosting an online tournament to raise money for the Tim Ebert Memorial Scholarship. With all the uncertainty going on, Platteville wanted to ensure that they could continue to help the NCDA with their internship program. For this year’s fundraiser, the Platteville Dodgeball Club will be putting on a Rocket League tournament. The tournament will be held August 8-9. Registration is due by July 26th, at 11:59p.m eastern time.

A special thanks to Caleb Frank for creating and designing this flyer.

The Complete History of the WDBF

The Complete History of the World Dodgeball Federation

Every Member Nation’s relative strength after every game

Technical Documentation – WDBF Global Rankings

WDBF Womens, Sorted.

Standing	Nation	Rating	Status
1	🇲🇾 Malaysia	44.681	2017 Gold
2	🇦🇺 Australia	44.411	2017 Silver
3	🇺🇸 United States	43.973	2017 Bronze
4	🇨🇦 Canada	41.186	2017 4th
5	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	40.543	2017 Attending
6	🇲🇽 Mexico	38.403	2017 Attending
7	🇮🇹 Italy	36.167	2017 Attending
8	🇨🇲 Cameroon	41.350*	2018 Non Attending
9	🇨🇫 Central African Republic	38.650*	2018 Non Attending

* denotes a provisional rating (< 6 matches)

Gonzalez Standings WDBF Womens

WDBF Mens, Sorted.

Standing	Nation	Rating	Status
1	🇲🇾 Malaysia	48.665	2017 Gold
2	🇨🇦 Canada	44.058	2017 Silver
3	🇦🇺 Australia	44.877	2017 Bronze
4	🇺🇸 United States	42.773	2017 4th
5	🇲🇽 Mexico	41.832	2017 Attending
6	🇳🇿 New Zealand	40.791	2018 Attending
7	🇭🇰 Hong Kong	39.595	2017 Attending
8	🇮🇹 Italy	37.799	2017 Attending
9	🇦🇷 Argentina	40.000*	2018 Attending
10	🇨🇫 Central African Republic	42.135*	2018 Non Attending
11	🇨🇲 Cameroon	40.215*	2018 Non Attending
12	🇹🇩 Chad	39.000*	2018 Non Attending
13	🇬🇦 Gabon	38.650*	2018 Non Attending

* denotes a provisional rating (< 6 matches)
Gonzalez Standings WDBF Mens

Ranking Order:

Inactive Member Nations are not listed
Sort Worlds attendees first, then others.
Sort the most recent Worlds medalist according to their placing; Gold, Silver, Bronze, 4th finishers of the last Worlds will always have a standing of 1-4.
Sort by Gonzalez rating

In late October of last year, 2017-10-21 to be precise, I had the privilege of watching live results of “Worlds” come in from an event hosted by Dodgeball Canada in Toronto.

These results were barely “live” like other sports might be privileged to experience, but dodgeball is in a nascent state despite the NCDA’s efforts and contributions. There were posts from fans watching the live stream, but the results I went for were the cell by cell updates to a simple Google Sheet.

We have a fellow Chicagoan and DePaul alumnus Vegim Begolli’s Mad City doing great things in developing event production and streaming quality live feeds. Dodgeball has much to learn from the achievements of eSports. Other organizations are coming to appreciate the value of records. At the very least, we are improving from hand written poster boards of brackets posted to social media. With actual reliable data gathering, we can evaluate competitors based on quantitative analysis and avoid the many pitfalls of opinion based Captain Polls.

As my first feature article as part of the new Statistics Committee of the WDBF, and as the United States representative of Dodgeball Canada’s Statistics Committee, I present the Complete History of the World Dodgeball Federation. Continue reading “The Complete History of the WDBF”

League Expansion and Retention: Fall Edition (18-19)

INDIANAPOLIS – Office of the Director of League Expansion & Retention: With Colleges and Universities already heading back to school this weekend (some went back this past weekend), most if not all of our upcoming teams are hinging on having success at their school’s respective fall recruitment fairs. Many of our current member teams depend on this success as well. Before clubs start competing in late September, we will go into detail who our prospective clubs are, and how soon we see them competing this season. As an update in itself, Brett Hadwin (CMU alum) and Kyle Dattelbaum (UNG alum) have taken on the role as my assistants for this season, and have already started much of the leg work required to get us off on the right track for the 2018-19 season. Continue reading “League Expansion and Retention: Fall Edition (18-19)”

My Dodgeball Story: Nathan Council (SVSU)

I approached Kevin a while ago (he probably stopped believing I’d actually write this) about telling my Dodgeball Story. I read some of the others that have been submitted this summer and it made me want to tell mine. I know there is a story inside of me but I have been struggling with how to tell it. How do I tell my story which is personal but also make it meaningful, insightful, and at least somewhat entertaining to the people reading it that do not know me? I decided to simply go for it and not worry about it. Selfishly, I’m telling this story in hopes that I can move on. I’m hoping that once I am finished I will feel a sense of closure. Closure that I have been missing since I left SVSU in 2014. Continue reading “My Dodgeball Story: Nathan Council (SVSU)”

My Dodgeball Story: Sean Smith (Towson)

It seems all too common for dodgeball stories to begin with an obscure story about how an individual discovered the sport on their college campus. This story will be no different.

Before moving in to campus as a freshman in Fall 2011, I knew I wanted to play a club sport, but I wasn’t sure which one or how to even get involved. The smart kids went on Towson’s website and researched this type of thing, meanwhile my lazy behind decided to just show up and hope I could figure it out. Little did I know my laziness would actually turn out to be the best thing of my first year at Towson.

Continue reading “My Dodgeball Story: Sean Smith (Towson)”

Who Will End ‘The Streak’?

The state of Michigan’s 11-year national title run will come to an end eventually (maybe even this year). Here’s a look at the teams who came closest to ending ‘The Streak’ in the past, and those best positioned to do so this year:

The state of Michigan has had an unprecedented amount of success in collegiate dodgeball over the past decade or so. In fact, a team from Michigan has won each of the last 11 NCDA Nationals Titles. This 11-year-run has been incredible, but there have certainly been a few close calls along the way.

Here we are, less than a week away from crowning yet another College Dodgeball National Champion, and ‘The Streak’ is still alive and well. Before I dive into which teams have the best shot to end this steak in 2018, here is a quick history lesson on the closest misses that have occurred during the 11-year stretch:

Continue reading “Who Will End ‘The Streak’?”

NCDA Regional Hierarchy – November 2017

The question often arises: “Which Region is the best in College Dodgeball?”. While Michigan has historically had the best region in the country by a large margin, the argument for 2nd and 3rd place was always a big debate.

While reviewing the most recent Power Rankings, I noticed that the race for strongest region is much closer than some may anticipate. In fact, depending on what one determines to be the most important criteria, there could be a case made for several different regions as the best in the NCDA.

Over the past decade, many have accepted the narrative that the Michigan Region is the best in College Dodgeball and that it will never change. After taking a closer look at our current power rankings, the distinction of ‘strongest region’ is more up in the air than people may think.

I used two different methods to analyze the NCDA’s ‘Regional Hierarchy’, both of which were based off November’s Power Rankings. For reference, here is the top 20 for November: Continue reading “NCDA Regional Hierarchy – November 2017”

Standings as of 2017-10-31

The Gonzalez System now includes 260 technical upsets in 1337 (leet) ranked matches. For the 2018 Season, we’re at 24 technical upsets in 87 ranked matches. We’ve also seen twelve JV contests, and four new schools: Midland, Southern Illinois Edwardsville, Gonzaga, and Oregon St. All the following data is current as of 2017-10-31.

If you’d like to know more about the Gonzalez System, please refer to our Spec Doc detailing the system. And as always, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions. Continue reading “Standings as of 2017-10-31”

Standings as of 2017-10-11

This feature article was co-authored with Felix Perrone

In three events across a similarly expansive swath of the country as last week, we played 15 ranked matches and three JV contests. This has brought the records to a nice and round 1300 ranked matches. We saw a feature article with Dylan and Felix, in this feature article, Felix and I will present some more fun facts regarding that large chunk of data. Complete records span eight seasons, from the Opening Match on 2010-09-25 to this weekends games of 2017-10-08. While we have a number of matches recorded from 2005-2010, those records are not complete and as reliable so we refer to those as the dark times.

We had three events this weekend at PSU, GSU, and GVSU.

So far:

50 matches played in the 2018 Season (another round number!)
23 teams of our 32 active teams have played (not as round)
just 1 overtime (way under average)
11 technical upsets (about on target)
a historical leader dips (more on that later)

Continue reading “Standings as of 2017-10-11”

NCDA Stats 2011 to Present

With the first month of the season in the books we have already seen 50 games played through 9 events with 282 points being scored. It is still very early in the season but it is already looking like we are on pace to break several records this year, including some big ones like total number of games played and average points scored per game.

President Felix Perrone was bored one day so he ran some numbers and came up with some cool stats about the NCDA. While we have some incomplete stone age records going back to our first season in 2005, these stats use our complete records which date back to September 2010, up through this weekend.

Continue reading “NCDA Stats 2011 to Present”

College Dodgeball’s Winning Formula – Part One: Play Elite Dodgeball

No automatic alt text available. — Looking for dodgeball outside the NCDA? Look no further than Elite Dodgeball.

As we inch closer and closer to the start of another National Collegiate Dodgeball Association (NCDA) season, I plan to begin a series of articles on “College Dodgeball’s Winning Formula”. From my experience as a player and board member within this league, there seems to be no shortage of enthusiasm or commitment among players. But that has not transitioned to on-court success for some teams, especially those in their first year or two as a program.

My goal with this series is simply to provide some insight into what it takes to be a championship level dodgeball player/team in the NCDA. It is no secret that building a club sport at your school is a difficult task. Competing against programs with far more experience makes that process even more trying. This series should help expedite that improvement process. Future topics in this series will be about recruitment of players, practice formats, etc., but this first portion is a bit unique. The reason I am writing about Elite Dodgeball right now is because the Elite season just ended, and I am more convinced now than ever before that this is something NCDA players NEED to be involved in. Now, time for Part One: Play Elite Dodgeball! Continue reading “College Dodgeball’s Winning Formula – Part One: Play Elite Dodgeball”