introduction
20/08/2021
EUCS ARE CHANGING!
Do you remember a few months ago when we called for a Transition Taskforce to help us plan a better Club Series? Well, we started it!
THE EUROPEAN ULTIMATE CLUB SERIES STRUCTURE IS OFFICIALLY CHANGING!
After months of research & development, we have decided that in order to grow and develop the sport we all love, it is time to evolve the European Ultimate Club Series structure.
### Disclaimer ###
We want to be as transparent as possible during this transition process because we are still working out a lot of the details so that the new structure works for all European member countries.
So, every Friday for the next couple of months in the lead up to XEUCF, we are going to publish a deep dive into the different elements of the transition and the new structure.
We want to get as much input as possible because we want this to work for everyone so if you’d like to get involved or have any ideas or issues please let us know by emailing felix.nemec@ultimatefederation.eu.
We also want to make sure that everyone is on the same page so please feel free to submit any questions you may have at https://forms.gle/S6txXWCszgTNZYEe9 and we will compile them and answer them in a Frequently Asked Questions document.
So, first off we’d like to share with everyone why we think change is necessary, and where we hope to improve the EUCS structure for the whole European Ultimate community in the long run.
If you want to stay updated on EUF news, be sure to subscribe to our social media channels:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ultimate.eu/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/euf_ultimate
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INTRODUCTION
Let’s start with a brief summary of the EUCS right now:
Teams get their ticket for the European Ultimate Club Regional (EUCR) from their National Championships (NC). At EUCR they have to fight for their ticket to the European Ultimate Club Finals (EUCF). This final tournament hosted 12 Mixed Teams, 24 Open Teams and 12 Women Teams in regular years. This year with the XEUCF a total of 20 Mixed, 32 Open and 20 Women’s teams have a chance to win. That is what can be called the “European Season” that we know right now.
That brings us to the reasons why the EUF board and task forces think it is good to change the system:
Currently, the level of competition is unevenly distributed across Europe and the European Ultimate Club Series structure is not helping to close the gap between teams, or across divisions. There are several ways in which this is happening.
Firstly, The number of relevant games at the EUCR level is quite limited. Some regions, e.g. South in Open, are very strong, where more than 50% of the teams qualify for the EUCF. On the other side of the equation the road to the Finals is relatively easier for some teams, but being a contender for a top spot is out of reach. Then we have teams that don't feel they have a chance to qualify or don't plan to attend EUCF anyway, and therefore don't participate in the EUCR, emphasizing, even more, the problem above (e.g. in the North Region).
The structure is also unequally distributed across divisions with 24 Open teams, 12-16 Women’s teams, and 12 Mixed teams competing at their respective finals. In order to develop the sport in general, we need to effectively promote gender equity and encourage higher participation across women & mixed. We don’t want to overwhelm the community with this and therefore create a step by step approach where teams can learn and grow into more competition.
One thing that is working quite well for the existing structure is that the location of teams is not a limiting factor to participate. We want to ensure that neither top teams nor any other team have to have long or expensive travels to participate in the EUCS.
In the upcoming series of articles, you will find a lot of information on where we are currently standing with our thought process.
1st we will start with the Timeline: What is changing when and how many years do we think we need for this transition.
2nd we want to talk about the single Events we are currently planning:
Elite Invite
Spring Invite
Summer Invite
3rd we want to introduce our thoughts about a ranking system: This is a very sensitive topic since it has a lot of implications with the whole system but we don’t know yet if we can create the perfect system for the needs of Ultimate Europe (if you have ideas, please get in touch!)
After those three articles and the XEUCF we want to continue with special segments about eligibility and collect as well as answer your questions.
Whenever a question comes up for you, please let us know through the contact information above. This information is important for Players to know about their season and implication on holiday planning as well as Teams to plan their highlights and last but not least for national federations and how they want to be included in this system.
EUCS - European Ultimate Club Series
EUCR - European Ultimate Club Regionals
EUCF - European Ultimate Club Finals
NC - National Championship