BBQ Review: Zaragoza, Spain 13-14 April 2013

Australian infiltrates Irish Jugger in Spain  
(Wendy, Brisbane)

3...2....1 ... Jugger!

Wait!

What?

Where am I?

Spain – Zaragoza to be precise... but something isn’t right.

I am rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as a full 2 teams worth of Irish (and the token Australian) step off the bus into Zaragoza for our adventure into the uncharted territory (well at least for me) of a Spanish tournament.

Luckily for those organising a tournament, 

Juggers are easily stored.

Photo: Wendy

A not-so-short drive and a long game of corners later and we are in the tournament’s city of Leciñen, a sleepy little village with no idea as to what madness was descending upon them.  Our first greeting to the sports hall where we were staying was watching a grown man, with a box on fire gripped tightly to his head, chasing a child around the car park. Specifically with a firework stuck in the top, shooting sparks out in every direction while running full speed around people gathered around the hall.

The atmosphere on the Friday night we arrived was mixed. There were many strangers (or should that be Juggers we haven’t manhandled yet?). The mix of languages, mini games and the congregating of friends in the various areas of the hall and car park lent weight to the pre-party atmosphere. Many people, probably exhausted by their travels (or determined to win their games in the morning) tried to sleep early, but with lights out at midnight, and an early rise for many to get weapons up to spec, sleep was not very long. Others were in the car park in the traditional element of many juggers – i.e. eating and drinking and having fun while the stars twinkled brightly overhead.

The first morning of the tournament opened the hall to blazing bright sunshine and blue sky (if you could squint enough to see it), some light breakfast and a short wander down to the field. After spending the previous few years away from Australia, I must admit that the heat was extreme to me in the first few hours. I could feel my skin exposed to sunshine for the first time in years – my brain was in shock under the sudden dosages of UV, so I lay down. That was a bad idea as circling in the sky over the field was a flock (murder?*) of vultures waiting for their breakfast to finish dying. I refused and got back up again, adjusted my pink and black uniform of the Tank Girls team, smothered myself and anyone else in arms reach with sunscreen and prepared to play the most awesomest of sports – Jugger! Spanish style.

Spanish Jugger takes a little bit to get used to. Points are short, but between points are the discussions and faults awarded by the referees. There were a few points that the discussions took so long that I had a nice long sit down in the blazing heat. Having said that, the points were fast! After playing in Germany for the last long while and in Australia for many long whiles before that ;) , I can safely say that the Spanish like to play fast, as if they are running out of time. I also noticed that they took a bit of time to get used to the Irish way of playing which gave my team an early advantage in many games.

The latest Irish sleep fashion

Photo: Wendy 

After the first day of tournament, tired, weary, sunburnt juggers made their way back to the only restaurant in town and the hall. After refreshing, juggers did what juggers do best – enjoy themselves! People gathered around chatting, hanging out etc. until weary eyelids begged them to consider sleep. Looking at the non-Spanish section would have you witnessing an interesting collection of Rigor sleeping almost in formation, and two very large crash mats covered in bodies.

The second day of the tournament started very similarly to the first, except the Spanish play a knockout system, so once you lose a match, there are no more games for you that day. Getting knocked out didn’t mean the end of playing though! Games of Zombie, Mega Jugger (shirts vs skins), Ultimate Ninja and Get Down Mr President were played amongst the knocked out teams. Juggers were bonding everywhere you looked. Rigor Mortis played a friendly match against the might of Tank Girls until the rest of the Irish invaded to make it a memorable match in my eyes for the fun, playfulness and the sportsmanship of the match.

Food, glorious food

Photo: Stephen Kelly-Hannon

The Zonenekinder, as always, attracted a massive fan club and many bananas were sacrificed to the cause of cheering for them. Jerseys were being traded everywhere until teams became a higgledy piggledy mix of colours. Then the Paella arrived. It is capitalised for the simple reason that a car drove up and it was sitting in the back half of it. It took 3 men to carry it out and set it on the grass. Plates were handed out and mystified internationals were staring at this giant dish in awe. The finals were watched while eating fantastic Spanish paella and other Spanish delicacies.

The Spanish showed us all a great time, in some cases they went over and above what we could have asked to make for an awesome tournament. Kudos to the guys who made everything as wonderful a tournament as they could have!

*Editors note…Yes I am going to call myself “The Editor” and might even get myself a cape
So out of curiosity I looked it up
A group of vultures is called a wake, committee, venue, kettle, or volt. The term kettle refers to vultures in flight, while committee, volt, and venue refer to vultures resting in trees 

(Wikipedia)

To Boldly go (Seamus, Dublin)

It’s Jugger Jim, but not as we know it. That’s one of the thoughts that I’ve brought with me as we came away from the Spanish International Tournament in Zaragoza this year. I took a few other things away as well such as a lot of new friendships, various in jokes and references, some mental scarring and a strapped up knee that was decorated in hazard tape. But really it’s the way that a sport you know and are familiar with can be developed in completely different directions by other people. To me this is entirely a positive thing as the sport is so young and it’s important that people be reminded that there is a lot of room for evolution and development there. Before I get into it all though, I just want to say a big thank you to the organizers, especially Abel and Alvaro whom I happily consider to be my brothers-in-arms. You did a damn fine job.

So... first let’s set the scene – The vultures were circling. That’s not a metaphor. As we stood on the green grass of the football fields and enjoyed the distinctly unfamiliar feeling of sunshine we looked up and saw them flying and wheeling above the field of battle. It’s probably a bad sign that this made us incredibly happy.

Just a normal crowd, of normal people

Photo: Wendy

We had setup base camp by tying a number of Irish flags to some goal –posts and forming a makeshift tent out of it – which was promptly christened Fort-Kickass. For this tournament we had formed two teams, the Wild Geese and The Tank Girls, the latter had prepared an interesting surprise for everyone. While the Wild Geese were clad in our regular jerseys, our comrades in arms went for a more...flamboyant approach. Black and pink were their chosen colours and these were expressed using t-shirts, neckerchiefs, fishnet tops, tights and in one case rabbit ears. This team most definitely left an impression...and quite probably funny taste in people’s mouths too. However people choosing to underestimate them as purely a joke team were quickly disabused of this notion and the re-abused in various other ways. One of my favourite memories of that trip is looking over and seeing Marcy, who is 6 foot of rodential fury crammed into a 5 foot 2 body, using a fallen player as a shield against the chain and popping her head up and down like a meerkat to avoid the swing before leaping out to strike down her prey. Seriously, that's a scary little woman.

In my case I had a great time playing against both the Spanish and German presence in the tournament and it made for some interesting comparisons and contrasts. One of the first truly major differences that struck me was the Spanish use of shield players. Generally the sword and shield in Jugger gets treated as more limited weapon by most folks. “It has too short a range”, “it's very specialized” and “it takes too long to develop” tend to be some of the reasons given for its lack of common use. Well nobody seems to have told the Spanish any of that. No matter what the situation is, whether the tactics are offensive or defensive, there is a damn fine chance that the Spanish solution will involve a sword and shield. And more often than not they made it work. Attacking in the centre? Can do. Blocking the chain? Not a problem. Slay a dragon? We call that training.

One of the reasons that the shield players seem to be so effective is their ability to cover ground ridiculously quickly and this leads to an interesting contrast between the German and Spanish. The German players I fought had a strong emphasis on movement of their weapon and had a tendency towards counter-striking. Weapon on weapon contact was very common as players sought to create openings. The Spanish seemed much more focused on moving themselves rather than the weapon. They had a very offensive striking style where they would dart in and out often using leaping motions to try and land a one-shot kill where neither weapon makes contact with the other. Their weapons reflect this in that many of them were much thinner and lighter than weapons from other countries, making them faster but less sturdy. Of course they also had a tendency to explode during games which at the very least counts as an interesting design feature. I lost track of the amount of chains I saw detonate on the field but it does explain why the Spanish term for a chain-blocker is a chain-breaker. This could all lead to a chicken and egg debate very easily about whether their style reflects the weapons, or the weapons reflect their style. So, can any Spanish players out there offer comment?

The 'Flying Geese'

Photo: Wendy

Back to the tournament itself, while there were some very different elements to the game, there were some things that I was happy to see were universal among Juggers. One is that so many of us are so god-damned sexy. Zonenkinder, I'm looking in your direction. But also the fact that people are for the most part so welcoming and friendly. We played a lot of teams in tight, aggressive games and the general response afterwards regardless of who won or lost remains to congratulate each other on a good game, hug affectionately and then possibly fondle each other’s bottoms. It was good to see that type of good natured sense of fun about the game shows up where ever we've visited. We were also made feel incredibly welcome, because on the second day they discovered the secret to buying the loyalty of the Irish, Feed us!. A gigantic dish of Paella had been prepared for the visiting foreign teams alongside soft-drinks, Spanish omelette and various other treats. We watched the final match while gorging ourselves on the plenty provided by our hosts, which was a nice way to wind things down. But one of the great highlights of the tournament for me actually came after that.

The Flying Geese and Zonenkinder relax casually

Photo: Wendy

As I'd mentioned already there were some German teams present. Rigor Mortis (Berlin) had sent a team, and there was also mixed teams present with players from teams like GAG (Berlin) or Skull (Berlin). But by far one of the most popular turn-outs was that of Zonenkinder (Jena). All through the tournament they had received a high level of support from all parties, and there were always cheers and chants when they took to the field. When the final match had been played and it came to the time for the awards ceremony things proceeded as you would normally expect. The winners and other finalists were awarded their medals and trophies and there was much cheering and general rejoicing. But there in the background it lurked. Standing above us all in its metallic majesty and begging the question –

That Giant Trophy
Photo:  Not sure yet :)

Who the hell gets the giant trophy?

Which giant trophy?

The giant metal one which was a sculpture of the Iron Throne, made out of Jugger weapons

Yeah!

That giant trophy!


And finally it was time. The organizers announced that they were presenting an award for people's favourite team of the tournament
...and that team was none other than Zonenkinder!.