Wombats Bow Out In Quarter Finals

The Wombats have finished their world cup tilt, finishing in the quarter finals of the foam division.

The Wombats competed in three divisions: stinger, 8.5 and foam divisions. Having only ever played with foam balls before the Dodgeball World Championships in Las Vegas – the stinger and 8.5 divisions were an unknown to The Wombats. With no experience, we headed into our first game against the east coast champions and came out on top. It looked like it was just a warmup though, because from then on, only another handful of games were won in both the stinger and 8.5 qualifying rounds.

After a bit of lunch and a rest to catch up on the night before, The Wombats felt much better about the foam division, handling balls they were familiar with. The qualifying rounds were much better ending up with a few wins and being seeded 12th for the following day’s elimination finals.

With another long night and early morning, The Wombats weren’t as well prepared for the morning’s stinger and 8.5 finals. Dropping out in the first round of each, The Wombats wished they had slept in a little longer. But once again, lunch and a snooze inside an Irish Pub booth put a bit of energy into the team. Thankfully, the proprietor woke us up as he kicked us out (apparently Vegas tolerates anything but sleep).

The foam division finals seemed to take forever. With a seeding in the top half of the draw, the minnows were fighting it out on the dodgeball court while we waited for our match against the Naughty Beavers from San Diego. We’d played them in the qualifying rounds and knew we could beat them. They came into the eliminations seeded 3rd, so as underdogs we took the court content that we had already started as the 12th greatest dodgeball team in the world. In a best of 5 game, The Wombats moved to a 2-0 lead pretty quickly. Talk amongst the team was good and some tactics we’d discussed over lunch were working.

Before too long though, the Naughty Beavers were back to 2-1 with a 2 vs 1 advantage on the court in the fourth game. Wombats captain Jon took one of the two beavers out, leaving a 1 v 1. With images of a roaring crowd for a captain’s knock to get through to the quarter finals, Jon threw the ball at his opponent, only to miss and get out by a suicide play all in a matter of milliseconds. As he watched his ball miss his opponent by centimetres, he was hit in the chest by a ball that was thrown so hard, any normal man would have ended up in hospital. It was now 2-2 in a sudden death game.

The final game was well played by The Wombats. The Wombats quickly got the advantage to 5 v 1. The last remaining Beaver threw the ball and was caught, at the same time as being hit by 3 balls at once.

The Wombats quarter final was played against Team LA and The Wombats were taught a lesson. While the previous match had gone for about 30 minutes, the quarter final was finished within 5. Team LA were fast and unrelenting. They taught The Wombats a lesson, knocking them out of the Championships.

The Wombats held their own against much more experienced teams and Australia can hold it’s head high, knowing we have the 8th best dodgeball team in the world. Congratulations to all The Wombats!