Intro

Picture the following scenario. It should be familiar if you've been to a bunch of frisbee tournaments.

You walk up to a field to watch what looks like a tight, heated game. You ask, “who's up?” Someone says that the game is on serve. The problem here is that your question hasn't been answered. If the game continues as is (i.e., no more breaks), one of the two teams will win, but you haven't been told who.

Luckily, someone else says that the first person was wrong. They say that team A is winning. “How much are they winning by?” you ask. The person says that Team A is up by 1 break. Again, your question hasn't been answered. Team A could be up by 0, 1, or 2 points at the given moment.

The above situation is why many players and coaches use half-break terminology. However, what should be standard terminology isn't universal and furthermore isn't fully understood by some players. The goal of this blog post is to explain the half-break system and why it is a serious upgrade over talking in full breaks.

The issue with full breaks

Before we can introduce half breaks, let's discuss the problems caused by using full-break terminology.

The central issue with describing a game state using full breaks is that it fails to adequately communicate the state of the game. This shortcoming stems from the (unintuitively) faulty premise that when the both teams have the same score (such as at 0-0), the game is tied. That, however isn't true, because one team is receiving, which is an advantage equal to one half of a break.

Put differently: there is never a “tied” situation in ultimate because there is always a team that will win if there are no more breaks (or, if you rather, are no more turnovers). At 13-13, it is obvious that the team receiving has an advantage, but this is just as true at 0-0.

Let's dive deeper into the lack of clarity provided by full-break terminology. Consider that all you know about the game state is that Team A is up by 1 (resp. n) breaks and that it is the second half of the game, which is a common situation. There are a few series of events that could have led to this.

  1. Team A started on offense, then broke 1 (resp. n) time at any point during the game. Then, they are up by 1 or 2 (resp. n or n+1) points. On the points when they start on offense, they're up by 1 (resp. n), and when they start on defense, they're up by 2 (resp. n+1).
  2. Team A started on defense, then broke 1 (resp. n) time in the first half. Likewise, they are up by 1 or 2 (resp. n or n+1) points [1].
  3. Team A started on defense, then broke 1 (resp. n) time in the second half. They are up by 0 or 1 (resp. n-1 or n) points.

From enumerating these situations it is clear that Team A can be ahead by 0, 1, or 2 (resp. n-1, n, n+1) points while being ahead by 1 (resp. n) break.

The solution: half-breaks

Half-break terminology solves these issues by explicitly and correctly stating who is ahead, and by how much. When a team is ahead by 0 points when on offense and 1 point when receiving, that team is up half a break (and the other team is down by half a break). When a team is ahead by 3 to 4 points, that team is up by three-and-a-half breaks (and the other team is down by three-and-a-half breaks).

Note that one team is always up; there are no ties in ultimate. Two teams having equal scores means that one team is up by half a break.

Note also that in the first half, knowing which team started on offense or defense is still necessary to know the game outcome because that knowledge is necessary to know which team has the potential to earn the “double-break” by taking half after starting down half a break. This requirement is true when using full-break terminology, too [2].

Conclusion

Let's return to our original example, this time using half-break terminology.

You walk up to a field to watch what looks like a tight, heated game. You ask, “who's up?” Someone says that team A is up half a break. Your question has been answered. If the game continues as is (i.e., no more breaks), you know that team A will win by 1 point. You look at the field - if team A is pulling, they are up by 1, and if they're receiving, they are up by 0.

Someone else says that the first person was wrong. They say that team A is winning. “How much are they winning by?” you ask. The person says that team A is up by a break and a half. Again, your question has been answered. You look at the field and immediately know whether team A is up by 1 or 2 points, depending on whether they are pulling or receiving.

Full-break terminology is dead. Long live the half-break system!

[1] Some would consider this being up by 2 breaks, as team A earned the so-called double-break by taking half after starting the game on defense. This is another source of ambiguity of full breaks that is clarified by using half breaks.

[2] And that's even if you can get straight whether a team who started pulling and netted one break in the first half is up by 1 break or 2 in the second half!