[Antoine G.]

Probably something a bit border line in terms of rules. BUT.

We’ve all witnessed some so-called “shit calls”, intentionnal or not. If they are intentionnal, this could be classified as “shit behaviours”, in my honest opinion.
I know Ultimate is and will remain a competitive – at least a bit – sport, and this will be part of the game, but I do believe that we can play wihtout these bad behaviours.

Therefore, I would like a clear statement from WFDF to fight against this. Because spirit of the game is a part of Ultimate as well – something some can easily forget !

The “shit calls” I can think about are PICKS and TRAVELS – those I have mostly witnessed. So many loopholes exist around those two violations/infractions and it’s too easy to take advantage of that.
That leads me to talk about bad behaviours. I do know it is all about a “clash” of points of view and about winning – most of the time. Some people probably actually believe they’re right when they just want to win. But the thing is : it is nearly absolutely impossible to make them change their mind if they’re wrong or misjudged the situation. And that is a problem, a human problem, yes, but which can have a huge impact.

To be honest, this is something that makes me sick of this sport. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does…

I think there is nothing to actually solve this problem in the rules. Because everything rest on the self-refereeing system and the FAIR-PLAY, which rest on human beings, thus there will be no real penalty for unfair behaviours.

Do we need referees? Honestly, I don’t know. This would hurt the identity of our sport, and this is not what I want. BUT we need something to actually solve conflicts, something that would be NEUTRAL and HONEST, no matter what is at stake. To make this sport healthier, more honest, more fair.

This could be the only oppotunity to reach the big brains of Ultimate so I needed to write something. And I Hope this will lead to something.
Peace, y’all, and take care.
Sincerely,

[Oliver Browne]

We already have a system for this, at WFDF-levels, called Game Advisors. You can read more about that here >> https://rules.wfdf.sport/game-advisors/

[Antoine G.]

I’m well aware about that, thank you, but I do think that’s not enough, especially because we cannot allocate sufficient NEUTRAL human resources in every championships and/or tournaments everywhere in the world, at high or low level of practice. If it becomes mandatory, then maybe something could happen, that’s more or less the purpose of my initial post.

Moreover, speaking of game advisors and their role, I read about what happened to Hungary Mixed U20 at WJUC. They have been penalized because of their bad and non-spirit behaviour, which is a very good thing, but there is a clear limit of what game advisors can do. I guess there were some but they haven’t been listened to when they warned the team, because they have no abilities to really affect the situation.

I keep thinking we need immediate penalties in some situation, not just post-game penalties, especially when there’s a medal at stake.