The World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships are underway in Berlin, Germany. Two days of qualifiers all lead to a round of 32 on Sunday. Full list of teams can be found here.

Up to date info is promised at the Official tournament site as well as the thread on the League of Bike Polo. Here’s hoping for an all North American podium with a strong showing from the Midwest.

A full report from the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championships will be coming shortly but check out this local news piece.

68 teams will compete Friday and Saturday for one of 32 spots in the double elimination bracket on Sunday.

The level of organization the Madison club has put into this tournament is amazing. They already have their refs scheduled! 6 courts, some built by Mpls Bike Polo Inc,  at one site will mean each team will be playing no less than 10 games over the weekend. Add to that the 32 team elimination bracket and you have a recipe for massive amounts of polo.

Wish us luck as we travel to Madison and represent our fair city on an international stage.

Huge thanks to Christopher Berg for persevering through the rain to capture 33 of the 44 teams that came down. We tried to herd everyone over there but missed a few teams.

Over 25 clubs were represented and the photos show a great cross section of Midwest hardcourt bike polo and beyond.

You can contact Chris at christopherolafberg.com and check out the outtakes from the photo shoot in the gallery here.

The courts are located in one lot on the southwest corner of downtown Minneapolis at Dunwoody College. We are constructing courts from scratch for the site. The three courts will be 120′x60′, with 2′ walls, braced and weighted, with additional height for goal backstops. Goals are 72″ (w) x 32″ (h) x 30″ (d) with nets.

Friday night pre-registration will be at the 501 Club in downtown Minneapolis. We’ll have someone there after 7pm. We’ll accept cash, check and credit card payment for online and new registrations. You can get your player packet, t-shirts, and posters there as well. Beers, food, awesome music lineup and a great place to meet up with your hosts. A lot of our crew will be down at Dunwoody constructing courts—if you feel like helping, it would be appreciated. Bring a drill! There is also a faction attending the Minnesota Twins vs. Milwaukee Brewers in the new Target Field. The stadium is just a couple of miles from Dunwoody and the 501.

Saturday morning we’ll open registration and start up breakfast at 8am. Players can check in and register on-site, we’ll be able to accept cash, checks and hopefully credit cards (depending on our internet connection—we’re a ways from the building). We’ll have the MANDATORY (!!!) player meeting at 9:30, where we’ll discuss rules, last minute particulars, and tournament structure.

Games will begin at 10am on Saturday and continue until about 8pm. Games will be scheduled in batches at the end of each Swiss round. There will be at least one Swiss round on Sunday morning at 10am. We anticipate the 24-team double-elimination phase of the tournament to start at about 1pm and continue until about 7pm.

Saturday night, we will be partying in the legendary alley behind the One On One Bicycle Studio in downtown Minneapolis. There will be beverages. There will be derbies. There will be pickup polo.

The tournament itself will consist of 6-8 rounds of Swiss-style tournament to rank the 24-team double-elimination tournament. Game length will be determined at the close of registration on Saturday morning. The teams will be split into two groups for the Swiss rounds. One group will play first, from 10-3, and the other 3-8, with additional rounds on Sunday morning. We expect Swiss round games to be 10 minutes each, with 15 minutes allotted for a set of 3 concurrent games. Games will be played to time, ties are recorded as ties. At the end of each round, ranking will be updated and the next round of competitors scheduled. Initial Swiss round ranking will be determined by a combination of self-rankings provided during registration and the opinion of the tournament organizers. Ranking at the end of each round play teams with like records, avoiding rematches and intra-league games. Other game statistics may factor into rankings.

A referee will start the game, watch time, record statistics and assign penalties. We will do our best to accurately record and share game statistics, but we ask that players understand we’re talking about a lot of data! We will try to have goal judges for every game, but the referee will have the final say on goals. Please see the expanded rules here. We expect players to referee one game and goal judge two games during the swiss tournament, however we will not be assigning refs and judges.

Alcoholic beverages are prohibited from the grounds of Dunwoody College. Please do not bring or consume alcoholic beverages on the campus. You may wish to note, for your off-court party needs, that all liquor stores in Minnesota are closed on Sundays.

We ask that you bring a container for water, coffee and tea and permanent dinnerware for breakfast and lunch. We’re trying to keep our waste to a bare minimum and bringing your own makes a huge difference.

There will be breakfast and lunch for registered players, as well as coffee from Tillie’s Bean and water all day. See Sven’s post on The League for a detailed menu. Local food cart Chef Shack will be on site with more delicious snacks! The tournament is located quite centrally, and there is ready access to a wide variety of goods and services nearby, including bars, restaurants, grocery stores and coffee shops. Check out the map with all of the official locations on it. Thanks, Sven!

There will be a well-equipped mechanic from Freewheel Bikes on site during the tournament.

As of Monday afternoon, National Weather Service is forecasting Mostly Sunny with high of 78 on Saturday and 83 on Sunday. You should bring sunscreen and insect repellent. There isn’t much shade in the area, so if you can borrow a shade tent from someone, you will probably enjoy it!

If you have any questions, let us know and we’ll try to get an answer to you all quick-like! Thanks for coming everyone!

GreifMasters 2010 Bikepolo from Uolmo on Vimeo.

This past weekend while Minneapolis was racing Stupor Bowl 13, Germany was putting on an epic tournament. Just look at those shirts!

Uolmo has made some nice videos in the past and this is no exception. Check out his video detailing his trip from Geneva to Karlsruhe, Germany with his polo team L’equipe The Iron Ponies. As well as being a great editor and cameraman Uolmo, from what I hear, is also one hell of a polo player.

Highlights from the 7th Midwest Bike Polo Champeenships, held in Columbia MO, November 7-8, 2009. Chicago’s ‘Machine Politics’ took home the Jenny Cup. Runners Up were Milwaukee’s ‘Beaver Boys’ & ‘Hot Sauce Enema’ followed by 4th place Madison.

In this game Machine Politics from Chicago comprised of Joe the Lefty, Matt Lane and Ben Schultz played against defending champs The Beaver Boys. The Beaver Boys from Milwaukee are comprised of Joe Burge, Brian Dellman and Kremin. This isn’t the championship game but the first time they met.

This probably the best video of a hardcourt game I have ever seen. With just one camera, Dustin aka Mr. Do is able to edit down the footage and get a really great sense of the flow and skills on display. I don’t remember how long the game was but this video clocks in at 4:30.

The quality is great so set that player to full screen and kick back check out some of the best players in the Midwest.