UKU Competition Structure

The UKU competition structure varies a little depending on the division.  All of our divisions hold a UKU National Championships.  Additionally, the outdoor season in the Open, Women and Mixed divisions also have the UKU Tour; and in the Open and Women divisions there is also the annual European Ultimate Championship Series.

The following statements attempt to describe the high level goals of each competition:

UKU National Championships (All divisions)

  • Competition to crown the UK National Champions
  • Should be open and available to all UK clubs.  "Open to all" should be achieved through a minimal number of qualification rounds - i.e. it is expected that there would be a National Finals with only a limited number of places available
    • In 2016 we took decision to allow Irish teams to play at the combined UK Nationals / EUCR-W event from 2017 onwards as the IFDA and EUF Championship Series Committee requested that Ireland rejoin the West region.  
  • Does not necessarily need to rank teams other than as required to decide the winners and any positions being used as qualification for later events (e.g. international events)
  • The UKU's primary “showcase event” – we will aim to build a spectator base and spend more effort on publicising this event outside the ultimate community

UKU Tour (Outdoor Open, Women, Mixed only)

  • Multiple-event competition structure - at least three events - that aims to produce an annual UK Ranking list across all teams that compete in it.
  • Tournament formats will be constrained to ensure there will be a high proportion of competitive games.
  • Focused towards teams/clubs that have reasonable level of stability: likely to enter more than one of the events, with stable club rosters regardless of event location
  • Aims to ensure tournaments meet minimum standards, and should help to push for those minimum standards to be raised year on year
  • Will adapt structurally in order to grow capacity in response to clear evidence of higher demand but will not necessarily attempt to be provide places to all teams

European Ultimate Championship Series (Outdoor Open and Women only)

  • Annual elite European club competition - should be the pinnacle of club competition in most years
  • Provide an agreed structure in terms of dates to the climax of the club ultimate season in Europe
  • Push the top European teams to higher level to help meet the demands of competing against the top teams from the rest of the World - esp. North America
  • The structure of the series - with Regional qualifiers (EUCR) - aims to provide strong European competition for clubs that fall just outside the qualification places for the Finals