Outdoor Club Competition 2023 - February Update
We are making ongoing progress in planning events for 2023. Please see below for a summary of the latest information. The events, locations and dates are listed below, organised by division, and then in date order. Entry to some of these events is NOW OPEN - please see below.
Please also see the KEY DATES for other divisions, as well as some new details about roster rules, and entry fees.
Club Outdoor Events - UKU Tour 2023
UKU Mixed Tour 2023
25-26 March - Mixed Imperial - ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 28 Feb 2023
Location: Harlington Sports Ground, West London.
UKU Mixed Tour Season Opener
Some National League games will be held as part of this competition.
1-2 April - Uni Fans - ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 28 Feb 2023
Location: Riverside Sports Complex, University of Nottingham.
Alongside Uni Outdoor Nationals
17-18 June - Moooxed - Entry coming soon
Location: Edenbridge
UKU Mixed Tour Event, paired with Grey Towers
17-18 June - Grey Towers (provisional) - Entry coming soon
Location: Durham (to be confirmed)
UKU Mixed Tour Event, paired with Moooxed
15-16 July - “the one where we all play mixed” - ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 21st March 2023
Location: Moor Lane, Birmingham
Mixed Tier One event
Capacity for all teams, on site camping available
29-30 July - UKU Nationals Playoffs (see below)
26-27 August - UKU Nationals / EUF EUCR-West
Location: Highfields Sports Complex, University of Nottingham
UKU Women’s Tour 2023
22-23 April - UKU Spring Startup & EUF Spring Invite - ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 7th March 2023
Location: Imperial College Sports Ground, West London
Women’s Division tour event open to ALL teams.
Winner of the Spring Invite gains qualification to EUCF.
Some National League games will be held as part of this competition.
3-4 June - UKU Windfarm - ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 21st March 2023
Location: Riverside Sports Complex, University of Nottingham
We are in discussions with a number of national teams looking to use this event as part of preparation for EUC in Limerick (also windy :-).
29-30 July - UKU Nationals Playoffs (see below)
5-6 August or 12-13 August -
We have provisional plans to run a Women’s & Open Tour event on one of these weekends (more details below).
26-27 August - UKU Nationals / EUF EUCR-West
Location: Highfields Sports Complex, University of Nottingham
UKU Open Tour 2023
22-23 April - Spring Startup - ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 7th March 2023
Location: University of Leicester Sports Ground, Stoughton Road
Open Division tour event open to ALL teams.
Some National League games will be held as part of this competition.
3-4 June - UKU Windfarm - ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 21st March 2023
Location: Riverside Sports Complex, University of Nottingham
29-30 July - UKU Nationals Playoffs (see below)
5-6 August or 12-13 August
We have provisional plans to run an Open & Women’s Tour event on one of these weekends (more details below).
26-27 August - UKU Nationals / EUF EUCR-West
Location: Highfields Sports Complex, University of Nottingham
Playoffs / August & September Tour events
Entry to Nationals will open and close early in 2023 so that we know the size of the Playoffs competition that will be required. One of the Playoffs will be held in Reading (probably mixed); other venue(s) TBD.
Women’s Division (August)
Based on entries in the last few years, we may not need a qualification event in the Women’s division. In that case we plan to run a women’s Tour event on 12-13 August (or the backup date 5-6 August). If Playoffs go ahead in the Women’s division we do not expect sufficient demand for a Tour event in August.
Open Division (August)
The competitive outdoor season does not have to stop in July for teams and players who are not going to Nationals. We aim to run a further Tour event for Open teams in mid August, which may be of interest to some of the Nationals teams, but is really aimed at everyone else.
September
We are keen to work with clubs that would like to host Tour events in September and/or October. In the long run we aim to add another round in each division at this time of year - primarily for the players who are not involved in Nationals.
Nationals 2023
As noted above, the key dates for Nationals 2023 are:
29-30 July - Playoffs (single event per division to replace Regionals)
26-27 August - UKU Nationals / EUCR-West
The Nationals date is now confirmed, returning to University of Nottingham Highfields Sports Complex on the (bank holiday weekend) 26-27 August. This does not mean a permanent return to the end of August for Nationals - it just works better this year.
National League
The section below regarding the National League is out of date. Please see this announcement for more details.
The qualifying teams have been contacted with provisional information about National League 2023. The top 3 teams in the National League will qualify directly to Nationals.
In each division we are inviting the top 6 teams from Nationals 2022. In the Women’s division we are also inviting SMOG, given that they won the League that we ran in 2021.
Women’s
LMU (London)
Bristol (Bristol)
SYC (London)
Iceni (London)
Spice (Midlands)
SCRAM (Scotland)
SMOG (North of England)
Mixed
SMOG (North of England)
Reading (Reading)
Deep Space (London)
Lemmings (Leamington)
Oxford (Oxford)
Glasgow (Glasgow)
Open
Clapham (London)
Alba (Scotland)
Chevron (Midlands)
Smash’D (London)
Devon (Bristol)
Bristol (Bristol)
Fixture-Plan / Dates
In 2023, we plan to have the games played across two fixture dates, with the first of those being the corresponding UKU-Tour / EUF-Invite happening on that weekend.
Mixed: 25-26 March (Mixed Imperial), 13-14 May (venue tba)
Women’s: 22-23 April (Spring Invite), 13-14 May (venue tba)
Open: 22-23 April (Spring Startup), 13-14 May (venue tba)
National League teams will have the option to play just their league fixtures on those weekends, but in 2023, we are expecting most, if not all, to enter the full event.
The section above regarding the National League is out of date. Please see this announcement for more details.
Roster Rules
We expect to publish an update to the UKU Tournament rules and event-specific appendices before the end of February. For planning purposes, we include an outline of how we expect these to work in 2023.
UKU Ranking events - no roster restrictions, except where superseded by the competition-specific scenarios below.
EUCS Eligibility rules - https://www.ultimatefederation.eu/eucs-eligibility-rules.
These rules govern EUF Invites as well as EUCR-EUCF.
Teams attending Spring Invite are NOT required to submit a roster for EUCS, but in that case will not be awarded EUF ranking points, nor can they qualify to EUCF by winning the Spring Invite.
New for EUCS: within EUCS competition 2023, any player is free to change teams up to a maximum of ONE time per season. Check the EUCS rules for the full details. Note that UKU rules will supersede this rule between Playoffs and Nationals.
UKU National League - we will take a similar approach to the new EUF Eligibility rules noted above.
Teams submit a roster before they play in the league - this roster will carry forwards to both the Playoffs and/or Nationals (and therefore EUCS and any EUF Invites).
A player that has NOT played in a National League fixture is free to join a National League team at any time (prior to Playoffs).
Each rostered player is free to move between teams ONCE AND ONLY ONCE without restriction up until the start of Playoffs. This rule applies across all three divisions - i.e. players can play in one division only (unless they move).
Teams have the option to compete in the National League without any roster restrictions, but in that case will NOT be able to qualify for Nationals.
The flexibility is intended to help teams and players early in the season. In general, if a player already knows which team they would play with at Nationals, that is the team they should play with in the League. The flexibility is not intended to be used simply for playing in multiple divisions. Use the other ranking events for that.
UKU Playoffs-Nationals - no change to these rules since 2022.
I.e. a player in a team at the UKU Playoffs that qualifies for Nationals is locked to that team at Nationals.
Note that the EUCS rules this year mean that some players may be able to change teams between Nationals and EUCF even if they are on a qualifying team.
Other Divisions - Key Dates
University Men’s & Women’s Outdoor Nationals is on 1-2 April at Riverside, Nottingham.
Beach Nationals - 15-16 April (timing to enable winners to attend EBUCC).
ENTRIES OPEN - closing date 7th March 2023
We are planning 2023 Beach Nationals (mixed division only) in September, after which we hope to move to Open & Women’s Beach Nats in Spring, and Mixed Beach Nats in September.
University Mixed Outdoor Nationals is confirmed for 24-25 June at Moor Lane, Birmingham.
Junior Outdoor Nationals will be held on Sunday 25th June in Leicester.
UKU is hosting the WFDF World Under-24 Ultimate Championships, 2-8 July. We will share more information about this as soon as we can. Please also see this announcement by WFDF: https://wfdf.sport/2022/10/wfdf-announces-2023-events-schedule%ef%bf%bc/
Entry Fees
For a number of events this year we are trialling a combination of TEAM FEES and PLAYER FEES. For events with team & player fees:
The team fee will be a non-refundable deposit.
The process of paying player fees will replace the current team rosters process.
The player fee deadline will be approx. 10 days before the event.
There are three main goals:
As entry costs continue to increase, this will distribute the increase in fees more evenly across all competitors - irrespective of team size.
Allow teams to secure entry with a smaller non-refundable amount to make cash flow easier for clubs, but also simplify the admin workload when teams dropout.
Continue to move towards more accurate information about the individuals that are attending events.
