Fusion are Scotlands elite open team made up from the top players around the country including several from Glasgow. In 2008 the squad split into two separate teams (East and West) in order to expand our numbers and promote player development. The goal was to re-form at the end of 2009 and select the top players to compete at the European club championships in London.
After a very successful 2008, dwindling numbers and loss of experienced players led to disappointing results for both teams at Tour 1. The stronger Fusion East team finished outside the top 10 for the first time and although they improved their performance at Tour 2 they were still struggling against the top teams.
We decided to unite our squads to start focusing on Europeans and narrowly missed out on a semi-final spot at Nationals after a sudden death point against Brighton. European qualifiers began woefully; we were tamed by Clapham and defeated in the crucial matches against Emo and Leeds. However, the team wasn’t quite ready to lie down and finished the weekend by comfortably taking down Chevron (eventual European champs) and Fire (2nd at UK nationals) to qualify the hard way and go to Euros as the 3rd seeded UK team. There was now a strong belief in the team that we could compete at the top and it seemed we were going to peak in time for Euros after all.
After 2 days of brutal ultimate in the London sun we managed to top our group and destroy Fire (again) to make the quarter finals. Unfortunately at this point we lost momentum and did not win any of our remaining games despite some good performances, especially against Ragnarok in our final game.
This was undoubtedly the most varied season Fusion has ever had; the journey from outside the top 10 in the UK to a top 8 finish at Euros made for an exciting story. In 2010 Fusion will return to take on the best in Britain and Europe, beginning with trials sometime in spring.
Phil
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