Armageddon

Armageddon was a second year frisbee team (with one third year) at Duke West Term I 2011. They entered the frisbee tournament as major underdogs, won three games, including 2 against 4th year teams expected to win, and came out as the champions of the Annual Student Ultimate Tournament.

Armageddon in 2011

2011 Members

• Samir Gadre - Starting Midfielder, The only third year on the team. Known for wearing pink Nike short-shorts to every game.
• Nigel Blackwood- Starting Midfielder
• Sam Rule - Reserve Midfielder
• Joseph Zuckerman - Staring offense
• Dylan Wieger - Starting Offense
• Pranav Prabu - Reserve Offense
• Harlie Lane - Reserve Offense, The only girl on the team.
• Jacob Thompson - Starting Defense
• Zamil Gilani - Starting Defense
• Tate Atha - Starting Defense/Midfielder
• Alan Lo- Head Coach, known for pumping up the team with his pre-game inspirational speeches such as "Guys, don't play like S***!" or "If anything bad happens, it's Joseph's fault."

The Forming of Armageddon

Samir and Nigel had the idea of forming a second year frisbee team with the hopes of taking down the hyped 4th year teams. They came to Joseph with the idea for the team and he suggested to add classmate Dylan, roommate Jacob, and RAGmates Sam and Tate. Nigel and Samir brought in Zamil, Pranav, and Harlie, to round out the 10 person squad. They "practiced" daily out on main quad from 4-5, usually by rigging the teams during pick-up ultimate games so they could be together. When it was time to enter the tournament, they submitted their roster to the staff, without a team name. The staff assigned them the fearsome name of Armageddon.

2011 Student Tournament

The tournament included 5 teams this year. One side of the bracket had Sons of Jesus (and Daughter), the favorite to win the tournament, pitted against Skater's Gators, the all girls team, with the winner to be in the championship. The other side of the bracket had Armageddon vs. a 3rd year team (don't remember the name), with the winner playing against the Anonymous Decepticons for a right to play in the championship.

The tournament began with the Armageddon/3rd year team game played on Wednesday of the second week. Armageddon blew out the 3rd years and won 10-0 in about 15 minutes. The next day, Armageddon would play again with no time for rest.

This time they were playing against Anonymous Decepticons, a 4th year team favored to make the championship. The game begain with the Anonymous Decepticons mounting a 2-0 lead, but Armageddon quickly erased the lead. The game was a defensive battle, by 4:45 the game was tied at 4 (the game was set to end at 4:50 regardless of score). With about a minute to go, the Anonymous Decepticons had a chance to score and win the game. A long pass to an open man in the endzone made it seem like it was the end for Armageddon, but out of nowhere came Jacob to make an incredible defensive play and save the game. With time winding down Jacob found Tate, and Tate connected with an open Joseph at midfield. As Joseph caught Tate's pass, RC Jon began to count down from 10 signaling the end of the game. A mass clump of Armageddon and Anonymous Decepticon players were in the endzone, and Joseph made a last second desperation heave to the end zone that was anyone's for grabs. As the frisbee neared defender's outreached hands, Dylan went up and over everyone to make an unbelievable catch, but he landed shortly in front of the end zone. Dylan made an easy pass to a wide open Zamil to win the game and give Armageddon a birth in the championship game.

The championship was scheduled for Saturday, with the Skater's Gators/Sons of Jesus Game scheduled for Friday, but with the dance that night, Skater's Gators dropped out and gave Sons of Jesus an automatic bid in the championship. The championship game was moved to Friday afternoon, and would make it Armageddon's third day with a game in a row. Crowds lined both sides of the field to watch the highly anticipated championship game. The crowd was full of the heavily favored Sons of Jesus fans to only a few Armageddon fans. The game began quickly in Armageddon's favor with Nigel finding Joseph in the back of the end zone with an impressive pass. The Armageddon lead would not last long, and soon they found themselves down 6-3 to SOJ. Armageddon was extremely tired, with this being their third day playing in a row, but they knew they would have to put it all on the line if they wanted to come back and win. With the competitiveness rising, and trash talking reaching a peak, Armageddon began their fight back to be down 5-6 and then tie the game at 7. Armageddon took a 9-7 lead and could practically taste victory, but the Sons of Jesus were not done yet. The game clock was winding down with only 2 minutes left, and the Sons of Jesus had to act quickly. They scored a quick point and made the game 9-8. Armageddon had to make there last possession count. They ate up as much of the clock as they could and got the frisbee to the goal line. Victory was that close but an impressive defensive effort by SOJ kept Armageddon from winning. Now Armageddon had to play the best defense of their short frisbee careers. Sons of Jesus made an impressive drive down the field to come within feet of tying the game , but they made a costly turnover and Armageddon had possession once again with only thirty seconds left. Simply letting the clock run out would have succeeded, but Samir, one of the teams best throwers, picked up the disc and saw Dylan making a break for the end zone. Samir made a near perfect throw and it seemed as if this would end the game, but out of nowhere came an SOJ defender to break up the perfect pass. Now with mere seconds left, the Sons of Jesus had one last chance to try to tie up the game. They launched it into the endzone, but the pass was broken up by Armageddon defenders as time expired. Armageddon had won the student tournament in one of the most exciting ultimate games in TIP history.

2011 Staff vs. Students Game

the Staff/Students ultimate game was set to take place the Sunday following the conclusion of the student tournament. This year the staff game, being a full 2 hour event, would feature the top two teams, Armageddon and the Sons of Jesus. Sons of Jesus would play the large staff team first. The staff saved most of their star players, such as JD, Joey, and Matt, for attempting to take down the student champions, Armageddon. With the staff's star players watching from the sidelines, SOJ crushed the inexperienced staff quickly in a 10-1 blowout. Now it was Armageddon's turn, but now the staff team featured their intimidating athletic squad. Armageddon knew it would be a rough match, but they needed to win for two reasons: 1, the satisfaction of beating the staff, and 2, keeping the 4th years from bragging that they beat the staff but Armageddon didn't. It was an evenly matched game, and the game was close until late, but in the end, the staff's size and experience proved to be too much. The staff was victorious, much to the satisfaction of student fans, who for some reason were rooting against Armageddon. The 4th years did brag about beating the staff while Armageddon couldn't and claimed they were the superior team, but Armageddon knew that they played a much better staff team and that they were the better team as they demonstrated in the student tournament.

Armageddon in 2012

2012 Members

• Joseph Zuckerman
• Dylan Wieger
• Jacob Thompson
• Wil Hartter
• Zac Lewis
• Tom Patterson
• Arjun Dheenan- Head Coach

Note: Because no tournament was organized, a complete team was never made. These were the players that were gathered before the tournament was cancelled and played in the staff game. More players would have been added if a tournament happened.

No Student Tournament?

Despite being a second year team, only 3 members of Armageddon returned for their third year. Returning members Joseph, Jacob, and Dylan were back and excited to defend their title as student champions. However their excitement would not last long, as the staff informed students at the end of the first week that a student ultimate tournament would not be possible this year (One reason being that main quad was closed this term. However, there were other playing spaces, such as Kryzewskiville, where the staff game was held, which led to the rumor that the tournament was cancelled due to the staff's fear the students watching the tournament would get kidnapped, after numerous encounters between TIPsters and creepy people). With no student tournament, Armageddon had to make their mark in the one chance they had, the staff game.

The 2012 Staff vs. Students Game

Prior to the staff game, Joseph, Dylan, and Jacob recruited new Armageddon memebers Wil Hartter, Zac Lewis, and Tom Patterson. The staff game took place on Kryzewskiville, right outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium.This year the staff game was open to anyone to play in so play time for Armageddon would be limited. Teams of 7 would rotate for the whole game every time the staff scored against the students. Armageddon was the first team to play against the staff, but they came in too cocky and unorganized and the staff quickly scored against Armageddon and they were off and had to wait a whole rotation through the about 12 team lineup. They were angry that they were embarrassed that quickly by the Staff, and they planned so when the got in next time the would be ready. When Armageddon got back in only 1 point had been scored against the staff, and the 11-1 blowout was boring the crowd, which now included almost the entire basketball camp. Armageddon returned into the game and shocked the staff with their athleticism and skill. They forced turnovers on long throws the staff had no problem completing throughout the game and split the staff's defense and scored without any problems. The highlight of the game began with a long throw near Armageddon's endzone that no one was even close too. Dylan outran all of the staff defenders and dove with full extension to make an unbelievable catch. He tossed the disc to Joseph in the endzone to cap Armageddon's amazing run. This amazing play pumped up the crowd (TIPSters and basketball campers). In the end Armageddon ended up scoring 5 in a row points against a staff team that seemed somewhat unstoppable. When Armageddon was walking off the field, many TIPsters, including the majority of those playing, were telling Armageddon to stay on the field and play, but the RCs and other teams that wanted to play would not allow it. The game ended without Armageddon getting to go back in. Staff members, impressed with Armageddons abilities, told Armageddon that they would play against just them at the end of the term if they won the student tournament. However, because there was no tournament Armageddon never got to play against the staff. After the game many basketball campers came up to Armageddon members, mainly Dylan, asking for autographs after they were so impressed with the athleticism demonstrated by the nerd camp participants. Armageddon had gained respect from the basketball camp for all of Duke TIP West that term. It was widely accepted that had Armageddon been able to play the whole game against the staff it would have been a blow out in favor of Armageddon.