Unfortunately for the college rankings, the three college teams playing at New Year's Fest did not actually get to match-up against each other. UC-San Diego went 1-3 on Saturday in pool play, beating the Huckwallas 13-1. On Sunday, the team made it to the semifinals of the B bracket, by beating the Benjamins in quarters. UC-San Diego played a close match against Fusion (UCLA-Claremont alumni team) in the semis, where the team lost by one after the cap went on (14-13). Colorado also finished fourth in its pool with a 1-3 record on Saturday, defeating Rodeeho 10-8. On Sunday, Kali beat Dirty Kitty 13-10 in the B bracket quarterfinals and lost 15-8 to Bait in the semifinals. Arizona ended up 0-4 on Saturday, despite almost pulling out a win against Dirty Kitty (11-10). That loss relegated Scorch to the C bracket where the team defeated the Huckwallas 15-12 in quarters and lost to Rodeeho in the semis. The A bracket was won by club team Napoleon Dynamite (Portland/Northwest team) who defeated Team USA (Atlanta) in the finals. Pictures of the finals games can be found at www.superpowers.us/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=nyf2005&page=1 (check out the uniforms: Vote for Pedro shirts for Napoleon Dynamite and gowns with sashes for Team USA).

College teams playing in a predominantly club tournament is always a challenge for the younger, more inexperienced college players. Nonetheless, the experience gained will help these three teams when they match-up against other college teams later in the season. As Colorado and Arizona did not attend the Santa Barbara Invite, this was their first tournament of the winter and was an important chance to introduce rookies to competitive tournaments. Hopefully at future tournaments, these three Southwest rivals will get to match-up against each other in preparation for the battle for first at Regionals. For a hint at relative strength, only games with common opponents can be compared as there were no head-to-head match-ups with these teams. UC-San Diego and Colorado both lost to Bait (13-8 and 15-8, respectively) in similar scores. However, UCSD lost to Fusion 14-13 on Sunday while Colorado lost 13-2 to the same team on Saturday. Comparing Colorado with Arizona, Colorado beat Rodeeho 10-8 in pool play while Arizona lost to Rodeeho on Sunday. Both teams played Dirty Kitty closely, Colorado beating the team 13-10 while Arizona losing 10-11. UCSD and Arizona both beat the Huckwallas, although UCSD won 13-1 and Arizona won 15-12. These three teams will all compete at the President's Day tournament in mid February, so watch for more definitive results then.

With a tournament of 20 teams, it is not guaranteed that the 3 college teams attending will get a chance to play each other. Nonetheless, if they do get to match-up, UC-San Diego is the favorite to win over both Colorado and Arizona. Last year, UCSD won the B-bracket of the club tournament, and the team is looking to do the same this year. Although this will be Colorado's first tournament of the season (including the fall), its group of experienced veterans should prove too much for Arizona to handle. All three of these teams will benefit greatly from the tough competition of playing against more experienced club players and the opportunity to fit in another tournament early in the season to help team chemistry.