On behalf of the worldwide polo community, we took some advice from a LOBP thread (found here) and decided to ask the community a few questions. This is an informal surveyed, merely used for reference regarding various organizing topics. Since there is no unified world organizing body this information is pretty superficial. None the less, it could prove to be useful in the future. You can find the survey here..
Category: WHBPC
After 94 elimination games, Beavers won the World Championship.
What a week we had down in Weston, Florida. After a Wildcard, 2 days of swiss round play, a day full of heartbreaking double elimination games and some temporary rain: North America’s Beavers came out on top in a decisive 5-1 victory over reigning champions Call Me Daddy.
The venue was spectacular and you couldn’t ask for much more from the Florida clubs who worked to organize this event. The weather was absolutely perfect, and even the rain was a nice relief from the oppressive heat. The tournament ran almost to schedule thanks to the amazing volunteers, and the level of play brought by the players was nothing less than impressive. Watching crowd favorites and new rivalries develop throughout the bracket was both inspiring and entertaining. One thing is for sure, the future of our sport is bright, and the players of North America should be proud to bring the game they work so hard on. Congratulations to Brian, Eric and Joey. The top shelf 4th goal, and the full court 5th goal will stand out in the memory of the bike polo community for a long time to come.
Here are the top 24 from WHBPC 2013:
1st Beavers (Eric, Brian, Joey SF)
2nd Call Me Daddy (Polo, Greg, Will Paris)
3rd The Assassins (Nick COMO, Joe, kouyo SEA)
4th Edisons (David FRA, Eddy GER, Anthony TOU)
5th The Control (Andrew CRZ, Ace NYC, Forrest SF)
5th Pilgrims (Rupert, Adam LDN, Pierre SF)
7th Getting Wild (Hayden, josh CBG, Jon LDN)
7th True Danger (luca CBG, Hugo, Alex Paris)
9th Wolfgang (Quentin, Manu, Clement GVA)
9th Portland United (Jason, Arlyn, Eric PDX)
9th The Makers (Nick LEX, Ben, Chris MKE)
9th We Are Animals (Jo FR, Piks GVA, Morgan LYN)
13th Big Country (Alex, Rory VAN, Henry VIC)
13th Journeymen (Dodi BUD, Robbie OTT, Nick TO)
13th Power Rangers (Max FKB, Phil GER, Robert HAM)
13th Guardians (Cody, julian, Dustin SEA)
17th Simon Says (Nicky, Chris, Jaouad ANT)
17th Warlocks (Miguel ATX, Floris NAN, Rob Paris)
17th Switchnics (Nic, Charlie COMO, Nick MPLS)
17th The Means (Chris NYC, Alexis OTT, Nick RVA)
17th The Greens (Christopher LEX, Drew LOU, Adam TO)
17th Mucko (Jake BOS, Ngaihon, Kevin TO)
17th Bill Murray (Emmet LDN, Sterling, jake SEA)
17th Mosquito (Duane, Daren, Will SKN)
14 North American Teams, 10 European Teams!
The 2014 season will feature groundwork being laid for big structure changes, an even better ruleset, and refined referee certification! There will be more information on all of these things over the coming months.
(Photo Credit: Brandon Carter)
WHBPC REGISTRATION INFO
World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships are coming up fast!
Time for registration. We are now accepting FULL team registration for all those qualified to participate in the WHBPC and for those hoping to be in the Wild Card Entry tournament. You should know if you’re considered qualified or not. Please check with your International Continental Reps to confirm. We will also compare against our community lists regarding eligibility.
Information regarding the Wild Card Entry tournament break down to come.
Please visit: http://whbpc2013.com/registration-form/
See the teams already signed up here: http://whbpc2013.com/register/teams/
WHBPC 2013 Continental Regional Registration Info
The community of World Hardcourt Bike Polo is wrapping up it’s international championships schedule and has patiently waited for the breakdown of entrants to the WHBPC 2013 being held in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA, October 16th-20th.
Wait no more!
The team distribution is as follows:
20 North America [based on placing finish at the North American Bike Polo Championships 2013] http://leagueofbikepolo.com/nahbpc2013
20 European [based on placing finish at the European Championships 2013] http://www.ehbpc.org/2013/
6 Australasia [based on the Australasian Championships 2013] http://www.timarupolochamps.com/Timaru-Bid
3 South America [based on the South American Championships 2013] yet to be completed. http://leagueofbikepolo.com/3rd-south-american-bike-polo-championships-s%C3%A3o-polo-0
3 Central America/Mexico/Caribbean [as determined by the region]
3 Japan
1 Taiwan
2 Florida [as selected by Florida representatives]
6 WILDCARD [distribution and registration information to follow in a separate post]
What you can expect right now:
We are in the process of contacting all leaders in the international community to gather the summarized team registration lists for each region listed above. So far direct contact has been established with the Australasian bike polo organization, John Hayes from London is handling the european connection, and we’ve heard from Puerto Rico.
North Americans will be handled by NAH once the tournament has completed.
South America, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, Cuba/Central America we’re still needing a direct contact from you!
If you have not been in contact via email and can actively contribute to the registration of your region please email tournaments@nahardcourt.com
Thank you and watch for more worlds updates soon!.
World Championships for 2013 in Florida!
After great amounts of discussion (online as well as off, you can see the LoBP discussion here) and thorough consideration from North American Hardcourt’s 7 appointed regional board members, the tournament and sponsorship committees, AND the international community of bike polo, the debate has been settled! After a 5-2 vote, we are excited and proud to announce Florida will be hosting the World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships 2013! The Fort Lauderdale, West Broward, Miami, Orlando, and the rest of the Florida clubs stepped up, congratulations on your winning bid!
Great bids were presented by both the Florida and Milwaukee groups, and a huge thanks and appreciation is extended to both for their efforts in creating a very difficult decision between the two. Ultimately, the voting went as follows:
- Cascadia – Florida
- Midwest – Milwaukee
- Northsides – Florida
- Eastsides – Florida
- South East – Florida
- South Central – Florida
- South West – Milwaukee
The date will be officially set coming immediately, but there is a secure time from October 10-28 that can be used.
The location is the pristine and multi-million dollar park facility, Regional Park at Weston. See the link here., and the google map is here.
The court surfaces are smooth, professional grade hockey courts with 4′ walls, rounded corners, and an additional 4′ fencing around all courts. There is an option to utilize all 7 courts side-by-side to create identical courts, maintaining consistency throughout the tournament. The facility itself is virtually unmatched in it’s world class standards. Full access to running water, electricity, FREE WIFI, restrooms, an on-site YMCA with it’s own benefits, including an Olympic size swimming pool, and many other bonus’ to hosting here.
The proximity to two international airports, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, within an hour’s drive make this great for all travelers coming to North America – be they fom Central/South America, Europe, the UK, Australia, or Asia. It would be great to see some of the less noted clubs represent at Worlds due to it’s closeness to the Caribbean, Central/South America, and Mexico. With plans to shuttle/bus/drive the distance from the airports to the hotels/beach condos/camping available for the participants, the travelers can worry about their playing rather than their driving.
The area around Florida, including the closeness to the Keys, Caribbean, etc makes this a unique and popular travel destination for many people, so if you’ve ever wanted to create a trip around polo this is a great state to start in! I’m sure that in the next couple of weeks we’ll see other opportunities around the event that will allow for travelers from farther away to really take advantage of their time in the South East of the United States.
There will be many updates and details to come, but we are very excited to see Florida coming together to show North America and the World what they have to offer! We support them 110% and are confident that this will be a tournament that raises the standards yet again!
Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the discussion, and both Milwaukee and Florida for your bids.
North American Hardcourt