The development of ultimate around the world has changed the sport in a number of different ways. There has been a proliferation of new tactical approaches and training methods, as well as a much wider interest in the way that the sport interacts with society and deals with emerging social topics. Another area that has seen extensive change is the way in which the sport is covered, and the way that players and fans consume that content.
International tournaments are now expected to show games online, to have a social media presence and to have some way of assessing and reviewing games and storylines that take place away from the on-field, on-camera action. Many smaller, local tournaments are now putting games on film while university, college and even school teams are making an impact on social media.
Fans who want to follow EBUC 2019 can rest easily, as the tournament has assembled a multimedia team that will be churning out great, engaging content across a number of channels. Here’s a primer on what you can expect.
Catching the live action (for free)
Livestreaming is a key part of any tournament nowadays, and the Ulti.tv team will be bringing their expertise and experience to Portimão to broadcast the big games on the arena field. The team, led by Mike Palmer, has been at the World Championships of Beach Ultimate and the World Ultimate Club Championships in the last couple of years, as well as a number of other events, and will contribute their usual excellent coverage and highlight videos at live.ebuc2019.org (unrestricted). The team will also feature seasoned operators Milan van den Bovenkamp, Felix Shardlow, Casper Schmitt, and Lodewijk Curiel Luijt.
Of course, any broadcast is only as good as the commentators that are describing the action. ECBU viewers are lucky, then, to have the commentary team of Tom Styles, Hannah Pendlebury and Benji Rees calling games all week. Tom has been commentating on ultimate since man first picked up disc-shaped objects and decided to throw them some time in the late Paleolithic era, while Hannah has commentated on the finals of the World Games and WUCC 2018 so comes in with extensive international experience. Benji Rees has been honing his skills at UK and European tournaments over the past few years, and Brian Toye will be in charge of gathering player statistics and data. Further commentators will be confirmed during the event.
The home team, Portugal, will have some dedicated coverage from 4 Yeahs TV, provided by Adriana Mateus and Malgorzata “Gosia” Trojanowska.
Photography can be a dangerous job…
Capturing the games
The event will have three official photographers as well. Illia Shypunov, Verena Brucklacher, and Robert Engelbrecht have all worked extensively on beach ultimate over the years and will bring that experience to Portugal in order to capture the best moments on and off the pitch. The photos will be uploaded to both Facebook and the website and will be free to use and download from both locations!
As well as still coverage from across the tournament, Basile Limoges from Canadian company The Flatballer will be creating daily overview videos about the atmosphere at the event, encapsulating not only the games but everything going on across the beach and the town of Portimão in order to bring the feeling of the tournament to viewers across the world. Paulo Calhau and Luis Silva will be contributing to the footage of the tournament by operating a drone to catch some games.
Read all about it
The final aspect of coverage will be live.ebuc2019.org and the social media channels. The website, designed and operated by Justin Palmer with support from Bruno Gravato, will be the hub for all of this content. The live section will feature broadcasts, the updated player statistics and live schedules for all divisions, so will be the best place to go to answer any and all questions on how the tournament is going.
Contributing to that section will be the writers from the ShowGame, Maya Israel and Sean Colfer (currently writing about himself in the third person). They’ll be reviewing games that happened away from the bright lights of the cameras, talking to teams to get a perspective on how they’ve prepared and what their hopes are for the tournament, keeping up with storylines throughout the week and, crucially, offering views on the best kits on show. The kit article from WCBU 2017 created a kind of currency among those teams trading on the last day (we witnessed a Dutch player haggling for more swag from another country because the Dutch kit was named best-in-show and succeeding) so this responsibility will not be taken lightly. Dinis Ermida will be contributing as the resident Portuguese correspondent, making sure that the event is properly covered for the local audience.
Social media is going to be another key element, and Filipa Matta May controlling the feeds the tournament is in excellent hands. She’ll be promoting everything that the tournament does and contributing content across a variety of different platforms. Filipa Galvão and Tania Miguel are the final parts of the media machine and will be putting in efforts to get coverage in traditional press all week, speaking to local newspapers, radio stations and TV channels to try and reach a wider audience.
This huge, diverse and multi-talented team has been working (mostly) behind the scenes for months to get things in place for EBUC 2019. They’re going to make sure that this tournament is as well-covered, accessible and enjoyable for fans as any tournament before it, and will be getting a new generation of Portuguese youth interested in playing beach ultimate. Stay tuned!
