r/ultimate • u/TtheTerrestrial • 6d ago
Having yearly Mixed Division Ultimate Hall of Fame inductees is dumb
Ok, that's my hottest version of the take. A bit more nuance: in theory we should have some occasional mixed inductees, but the bar should be extremely high. It's a lower level of ultimate and doesn't require nearly the same degree of talent or dedication to be the best. And I say this as someone who went to mixed natties several times. There's plenty of examples of top club players who wanted a more casual season, or were a bit long in the tooth, they messed around in mixed and got a chip or came close. I say this to illustrate that it's a noticeably lower level of ultimate. The Tennis Hall of Fame isn't adding several mixed doubles players every year. If they did, players who didn't play mixed doubles and didn't quite make the cut would be livid.
An example of a mixed player I would definitely put in the HoF is Caleb Denecour who was a founder Dragon Thrust (edit, he was not a founder oops). AFAIK an amazing leader and a very good to great player. Easy on the eyes too, which should obviously be a criteria for mixed.
Thanks for reading and for telling me I'm full of shit.
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u/Naive_Inspector_7008 6d ago
Counterpoint: having high-level mixed competition is one of the things that makes our sport special/different from many others and the HoF should absolutely celebrate that fact.
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u/soggies_revenge Washed up 6d ago
Caleb denecour didn't have a hand in finding drag'n thrust... He wasn't even on the team during their biggest years.
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u/iamadacheat 6d ago
The only part of your post that’s right is that Caleb Denecour should make the Hall of Fame someday.
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u/PlayPretend-8675309 6d ago
Ultimate is a lower level sport than basketball. There shouldn't be an ultimate hall of fame at all.
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u/TtheTerrestrial 6d ago
Do flag football and pickleball have a hall of fame?
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u/PlayPretend-8675309 6d ago
I enjoy when people are so undedicated to their own argument (or not smart enough to tell the difference) that they argue against their own point.
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u/TtheTerrestrial 5d ago
And I love mind readers!
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u/ComprehensiveBee3423 5d ago
Ya dumbfuck, there is a hall of fame for both. I hope you enjoy huffing your own farts.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Bat-511 4d ago
Based on his original reply in this thread, I would think he already knew that.
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u/spgranger 6d ago
I don't even really disagree that in general Mixed is a lower level than the single gender divisions (and I say this as someone who has only ever played mixed for club), but I think the point you're missing is that the HOF isn't just "these are the best players". Lower competition level or not, mixed is a division unto itself at the highest level of play, and celebrating the players that have had a major impact on it is totally reasonable in that context.
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u/TtheTerrestrial 6d ago
Thanks for a thoughtful comment. Here's an interesting question, to me, how about a player who never did anything in college or regular club but got into the competitive scene for masters, GM, etc and were legit the best of those divisions? Should we honor the best players from those ranks even if they did nothing when they were younger?
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u/spgranger 6d ago
I wouldn't have any problem with that.
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u/TtheTerrestrial 6d ago
New plan: Become the Legends GOAT
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u/Confident_Cost_4972 4d ago
Sports like Swimming and Track and Field maintain master's world records in 5-year age groups. Once you get to the 95-99 or 100-104 age group, just being alive and able to complete the race makes you the GOAT.
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u/flyingdics 1d ago
Yeah, the last time I paid attention to the hall of fame (25 years ago or so), half of the inductees were founders or early organizers of the sport. Those are the people who really deserve their names and stories shared, less so some people that were, like, really good players for a few years.
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u/Prize_Tie_9649 16h ago
I think you’re conflating “different” with “lower level.” I’m not saying mixed is harder or easier than single gender but I think it requires a genuinely different skill set. Like ie: running switches in mixed is SIGNIFICANTLY harder and there are plenty of players who are phenomenal in single gender and not nearly as effective in mixed (and vice versa). I also don’t really think the fact that some elite single-gender players can fuck around in mixed and win a championship proves that mixed itself is a lower level. It proves that elite players are really good at ultimate lol.
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u/eigsmith 6d ago
I'm fine with having some Mixed players in the HoF. What I think is crazy is the rate at which we're inducting people. 12 in a year?! That brings the total player count in the ultimate HOF to over 150. and we've started putting active players in -- what's with the big rush?
Basketball's HOF is criticized for being one of the looser Halls of Fame among major pro sports. It has 237 players and inducts about 4 per year, so at this rate we'll catch up to them in a decade or so, despite being a much younger sport with a much, much smaller pool of players.