*EMUC Spirit Director Lloyd Slinger giving away Bronze medals for Team Germany, the Master Mixed Division Bronze medalists and Spirit winners © European Ultimate Federation / Oliver Hülshorst*

Growing the SOTG Committee & strengthening the network

The Spirit of the Game (SOTG) is at the heart of Ultimate, and 2025 has been a year of growth, structure, and renewed energy within the EUF SOTG Committee. Here’s a look at what we’ve been working on, and what’s coming next!

This year, we expanded our committee with new members and built a wider network of SOTG minded players, including contributors from outside Europe. The goal? To exchange educational material, discuss SOTG related issues, and foster a more connected Spirit community.

We’re also excited to keep former committee members involved in this network, tapping into their experience while keeping the connection strong.

To better tackle our tasks and long-term goals, the committee has been reorganized into three focused areas:

Spirit Director Management
SOTG Ranking System
Educational Content & Network

While the Educational Content & Network group made efforts this year, a lack of availability meant it didn’t progress as much as hoped. However, both the Spirit Director Management and SOTG Ranking System groups held their initial meetings and have already started executing their agendas.

Spirit Directors – 2025 Recap

This season, we assigned the four major EUF events, Elite Invite, EMUC, EYUC, and EUCF, to Ted, Lloyd, Peter, and Dominik, respectively.

To prepare, Lloyd and Peter gained valuable experience by supporting a Spring Invite tournament on-site. Ted covered the remaining Spring Invites remotely. For the Summer Tours, the weekends were divided between Ted (remote) and Dominik (remote). Dominik also took on E2CF remotely before managing EUCF live on-site.

Throughout the year, Spirit Directors have also been actively handling SOTG related incidents arising at both EUCS and EYUC events, ensuring fair and constructive resolution.

*EYUC Spirit Director Peter Cibula giving away the SOTG trophy for Team Spain, the U20 Mixed Division Spirit winners © European Ultimate Federation / Carl Mardell*

SOTG Ranking System – 2025 Recap

A major milestone this year was the consolidation of SOTG data. We imported all available scores from our scheduling tool into our central archive/ ranking system and built the formulas to calculate annual averages.

Using SOTG scores from Spring Invite, Elite Invite, Summer Invite, and the EUCFs, we created the first full-year SOTG ranking for 2025.

This year’s system keeps things simple with average-based calculations. In future seasons, we will expand the ranking to enable deeper analysis by subcategory, division, or long-term trends.

Save the Date – 2025 SOTG Award Ceremony

The annual SOTG Award Ceremony is coming soon in December!

Stay tuned for the next In or Out? show for the announcement of this year’s winners.

Join Us!

We’re always looking for more SOTG enthusiasts to join the committee, contribute ideas, or simply talk Spirit with us. If you're passionate about promoting fair play and positive culture in Ultimate, we’d love to hear from you!

sotg.chair@ultimatefederation.eu

Apply or express interest here: https://forms.gle/fnyfwbWAuZ3B8EFc7

SOTG Committee Update – What We Achieved in 2025