The 2nd North American Underwater Rugby tournament was a great event thanks to the people behind the organization process. The host, Quincy UWR, put a lot of effort into having a great event.

Having a league where Canadian and USA teams play together is helping the sport to have better visibility. Underwater Hockey has been for decades the predominant underwater sport in both countries but a well-defined set of dates for UWR tournaments could attract new players and even the media.

For this tournament we had a record number of 7 teams, including two from Canada. The tournament was played as a coed event since the number of women playing the game is still small.

The tournament was arranged in such a way that teams would play an equal number of games during the classification round (which was set to be 4 games) and then an extra game will be given to those teams which would make it to the final round.

The two Canadian teams present at the event were CAMO Rugby sousmarin (Montreal, QC) and Liberation UWR (Brantford, ON). CAMO had among its ranks players who have been part of the highly competitive UWR Colombian team. Liberation UWR showed progress in their training process by displaying great improvements in their strategy and technical skills.

East Haven Makos (East Haven, CT) is the latest team to join the league. They are a group of young players and showed the great progress attained by continuously playing with their NJ Hammerheads neighbors.

NJ Hammerheads (Newark, NJ) counted with the presence of experienced players who have been to UWR international events in Colombia and even world championships. Their experience was noticeable at the semifinal stages of the tournament where the games required a more strategic planning.

The hosting club, Quincy UWR (Quincy, MA), had two teams signed for the tournament. Quincy Red was a mixed of experimented players and newbies while Quincy Blue had amount its ranks players who have been to world championships. All the North American UWR community was really excited seeing the revitalization of the Quincy UWR team.

The “orphans” team was group of players from FL, DC, NY, and TX. These players don’t have a hosting team in their respective cities of origin and as such they were allowed to put a together a team. They struggled during the first games but their combined experienced took them to win the tournament.

Cesar Florez from CAMO Rugby Sousmarin took the first place in the Top Scorers ranking.

Results and stats related to the tournament can be found at
https://usauwr.wordpress.com/tournaments/north-america-tournaments/2nd-na-uwr-tournament/

Club CAMO from MontrealEast Haven Makos will be the host for the 3rd edition of the North American tournament in June. The dates are still in the works but they should be announced shortly.

See you underwater!