Observers, Referees and Instant Replay in Ultimate

This was written in http://www.indiaultimate.org/2013/08/observers-referees-and-instant-replay/

There have been some passionate pleas for some kind of officiating for the sport of Ultimate and equally passionate pleas for why Ultimate needs to be as it is i.e. self officiated under the aegis of SOTG (Spirit Of The Game). I will not rehash their reasons either way, but lets take a look at where the sport is headed if we take the direction of officiating.

Officiating round one, Observers. What are observers, referees who aren’t actively officiating but rather waiting to officiate, if I am right, they cannot make a call on their own, but they can be called upon to resolve disputes. At first sight Ultimate would have set itself apart from all other sports, players would still manage the game and observers would come into play only when required. Perfect world! well if we lived in a perfect world we wouldn’t need observers in the first place, the observers would start getting called for every foul call, and why not, we have observers why not just use them. A good example is how we have a third umpire in cricket, it was initially just for the tough decisions, but nowadays its used all the time even when the verdict is beyond doubt. So what would start off as something to be used on occasion would end up being used all the time, especially in games where the stake is more than just the weekend bragging rights, the observers would end up becoming referees who are called to officiate every dispute. 

My prediction is within a short time of allowing observers they would be elevated to becoming referees.

Officiating round two, Referees. A referee is someone who is responsible for a game to be played within the rules of the game. The good and bad of referees are well chronicled, every other sport has gone through them. Ultimate would rehash all the refereeing problems faced by the other sports. We would also reach the same conclusion all the other sports have, the game is no longer being played according to rules of the rulebook but rather what the referee can see and deems fit to enforce. To solve the many refereeing problems all sports have decided to use technology in the form of instant replays, referee challenges etc. Be it cricket, soccer, baseball, american football or tennis they are increasingly relying on technology to make the game fairer and faster. Ultimate would follow the same route.

Officiating round 3, Technology. Referees need help as they can only referee what they see and are limited by vision, the right place to observe the foul and their own emotions. Who better than technology to help them, enter instant replay, DRS (decision review system), chips coded into discs and everything else technology can help with.

Reinventing the wheel of officiating, thats what is going to happen to ultimate if it chooses observers, it will lead to referees which will lead to instant replay, so my suggestion is, if Ultimate is going to go down the path of officiating then why not skip the intermediate steps and go directly to all time instant replay virtual officiating, it will be different in a cool way. Let each game be covered with multiple cameras and let somebody in the booth make the call, lets get ahead of the curve here instead of following the curve.