Editing Ultimate frisbee (section)

==Competitions==
The common types of competitions are:
* Hat tournaments: random player allocations, mixed levels, and amateur
* Club leagues: usually considered [[semi-professional]]
* Professional ultimate: Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA) and Premier Ultimate League (PUL)
* College teams
* National teams competing in international tournaments

===Professional Leagues (UFA, PUL, and WUL in North America)===
North America consists of one men's professional-level ultimate league, the [[Ultimate Frisbee Association]] (UFA) (formerly known as the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL)), with teams from the United States and Canada. The United States has two women's professional leagues, the [[Premier Ultimate League]] (PUL) and the [[Western Ultimate League]] (WUL).

The AUDL was founded by Josh Moore and its inaugural season began in April 2012. In 2013 the league was bought by Ultimate Xperience Ventures LLC, a company founded by Rob Lloyd who was serving as VP of [[Cisco Systems|Cisco]] but has since become the CEO of [[Hyperloop]]. In 2012 the league began with eight teams, but currently consists of 22 teams in four divisions (East, South, Midwest, and West). Since the league's inaugural season, they have added 24 new teams and had 10 teams fold. Only two of the original eight teams remain in the league ([[Detroit Mechanix]] and [[Indianapolis AlleyCats]]). Each team plays a total of 14 regular season games on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday during the months of April through July. In late July there are playoffs in each division followed by a championship weekend held the first weekend in August. The AUDL uses the [[Discraft]] Ultrastar as the official game disc. The team funding comes from sources similar to those of other professional sports: sales of tickets, merchandise, concessions and sponsorship.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ultimateinterviews.com/2012/03/josh-moore-american-ultimate-disc.html |title=Ultimate Interviews |first=Mark |last=Earley |work=UltimateInterviews.com |access-date=April 15, 2012 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505223423/http://www.ultimateinterviews.com/2012/03/josh-moore-american-ultimate-disc.html |archive-date=May 5, 2012 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> In 2014, the league entered an agreement with ESPN to broadcast 18 games per season for a two-year period (with a third year option) on the online streaming service ESPN3. That contract was executed by Fulcrum Media Group.

There used to be a rival league named [[Major League Ultimate]] (MLU). Active between 2013 and 2016, it had eight teams, and was considered the main alternative to the AUDL, until it closed down. It used the [[Innova Discs|Innova]] Pulsar as the official game disc.

In 2018, there was a planned mixed league called the United Ultimate League (UUL),<ref>{{cite web  |access-date=2022-06-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417105527/https://uulultimate.com/ |title=UUL {{!}} United Ultimate League |url-status=dead |archive-date=2018-04-17 |url=https://uulultimate.com/}}</ref> but it did not come to fruition due to a lack of funding. The plan was to present an alternative to the AUDL, which at the time was dealing with a boycott related to gender equality. The UUL was supposed to be supported by crowd sourced funding, but the initial Kickstarter failed, raising only $23,517 of the $50,000 goal.

The [[Premier Ultimate League]] (PUL) was established in 2019. The league includes women and nonbinary players and hosts teams from the United States and until 2023, [[Colombia]]. The PUL is a 501(c)6 nonprofit that is operated by a board of directors that includes representatives from each of the participating teams. The mission of PUL is "to achieve equity in the sport of ultimate by increasing accessibility to and visibility of women* players through high-quality competition, leadership experiences, and community partnerships. Our league strives for gender, racial, and economic diversity in the sport of ultimate frisbee."

The [[Western Ultimate League]] (WUL) was established a year after the PUL in 2020. After successfully running a series of professional showcase games in collaboration with the AUDL in 2019, a group of team organizers in the western United States set their sites on joining the PUL in its second season. This coalition grew to include seven teams across the west and was ultimately too big of an expansion for the PUL as a second year league. The Western Ultimate League was established instead by the combined member teams: [[Seattle Tempest]], Portland Swifts, [[Utah Wild]], [[San Francisco Falcons]], [[Los Angeles Astra]], [[San Diego Super Bloom]], and [[Arizona Sidewinders]]. The WUL works in collaboration with the PUL and has their sites set on a future merger. The first season of the WUL was cancelled in 2020 due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] and its inaugural season wasn't held until 2022. The Portland Swifts withdrew in 2020 and later the [[Oregon Onyx]] joined the league in 2022. The 2022 champions were the Seattle Tempest. A new team, [[Colorado Alpenglow]], was added in October 2022 for the 2023 season, bringing the league up to 8 teams.

===North American leagues===
[[File:20120713 202257 NZ4 6429 1280.jpg|thumb|220px|Australia vs. Canada ultimate players at WUGC 2012 in Japan. [[Ultimate Canada]]]]

Regulation play, sanctioned in the United States by the [[USA Ultimate]], occurs at the college (open and women's divisions), club (open, women's, mixed [male + female on each team], masters, and grandmasters divisions) and youth levels (in boys and girls divisions), with annual championships in all divisions. Top teams from the championship series compete in semi-annual world championships regulated by the WFDF (alternating between Club Championships and National Championships), made up of national flying disc organizations and federations from about 50 countries.

[[Ultimate Canada]] (UC) is the governing body for the sport of ultimate in Canada.<ref name="Ultimate Canada" /> Beginning in 1993, the goals of UC include representing the interests of the sport and all ultimate players, as well as promoting its growth and development throughout Canada. UC also facilitates open and continuous communication within the ultimate community and within the sports community and to organize ongoing activities for the sport including national competitions and educational programs.<ref name="auto"/>

Founded in 1986, incorporated in 1993, the [[Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association]] based in [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]], Canada, claims to have the largest summer league in the world with 354 teams and over 5000 players as of 2004.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ocua.ca/node/13 |title=Play Ultimate |work=OCUA.ca |publisher=Ottawa Carleton Ultimate Association |access-date=1 May 2015}}</ref>

The Vancouver Ultimate League, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, formed in 1986, claims to have 5300 active members as of 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vul.ca/content/about-vancouver-ultimate-league-society |title=About the Vancouver Ultimate League Society |work=VUL.ca |date=March 24, 2013 |publisher=Vancouver Ultimate League |access-date=March 1, 2017}}</ref>

The Toronto Ultimate Club,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tuc.org/ |publisher=Toronto Ultimate Club |work=TUC.org |title=[Home page] |access-date=March 8, 2013}}</ref> founded in 1979 by [[Ken Westerfield]] and Chris Lowcock,  based in [[Toronto]], [[Canada]], has 3300 members and 250 teams, playing the year round.<ref>{{cite web |title=TUC History |url=http://tuc.org/history/tuc |work=Toronto Ultimate Club History |access-date=March 29, 2013}}</ref><ref name="auto"/>

The [[Los Angeles Organization of Ultimate Teams]] puts on annual tournaments with thousands of players.

There have been a small number of children's leagues. The largest and first known pre-high school league was started in 1993 by Mary Lowry, Joe Bisignano, and Jeff Jorgenson in [[Seattle, Washington]].<ref name="Free">{{cite journal |last=Bock |first=Paula |date=July 24, 2005 |title=The Sport of Free Spirits|journal=The Seattle Times Sunday Magazine |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw07242005/coverstory.html |access-date=August 28, 2008}}</ref> In 2005, the [[DiscNW]] Middle School Spring League had over 450 players on 30 mixed teams. Large high school leagues are also becoming common. The largest one is the DiscNW High School Spring League. It has both mixed and single [[gender]] divisions with over 30 teams total. The largest adult league is the San Francisco Ultimate League, with 350 teams and over 4000 active members in 2005, located in San Francisco, California. The largest per capita is the Madison Ultimate Frisbee association, with an estimated 1.8% of the population of Madison, WI playing in active leagues. Dating back to 1977, the Mercer County (New Jersey) Ultimate Disc League is the world's oldest recreational league. There are even large leagues with children as young as third grade, an example being the junior division of the SULA ultimate league in [[Amherst, Massachusetts]].

Many other countries have their own regional and country wide competitions, which are not listed here.

===College teams===
There are over 12,000 student athletes playing on over 700 college ultimate teams in North America,<ref>{{cite web |title=College Division |work=USAUltimate.org |access-date=March 1, 2017 |archive-date=July 29, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729210824/http://www.usaultimate.org/competition/college_division/college_championships/ |url=http://www.usaultimate.org/competition/college_division/college_championships/}}</ref> and the number of teams is steadily growing.

[[Ultimate Canada]] operates one main competition for university ultimate teams in Canada: Canadian University Ultimate Championships (CUUC) with six qualifying regional events, one of which is the Canadian Eastern University Ultimate Championships (CEUUC).<ref name="Ultimate Canada" />

===National teams===
There are also national teams participating in international tournament, both field and beach formats.

Yearly or twice-yearly national competitions are held.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wfdf.org/events/upcoming-wfdf-events/660-2016-world-ultimate-and-guts-championships |title=World Ultimate and Guts Championships 2016 (WUGC) |access-date=July 16, 2017 |archive-date=July 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708102549/http://www.wfdf.org/events/upcoming-wfdf-events/660-2016-world-ultimate-and-guts-championships |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the US and other countries, the national teams are selected after a tryout process.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usaultimate.org/news/usa-ultimate-announces-new-team-selection-procedures-for-wugc/ |title=News USA Ultimate Announces New Team Selection Procedures For WUGC |work=USAUltimate.org |date=December 8, 2014 |access-date=March 1, 2017}}</ref>

WFDF maintains an international ranking list for the national teams <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wfdf.org/history-stats/world-rankings |title=World Rankings |work=Wfdf.org |access-date=March 1, 2017}}</ref>

===Hat tournaments===
Hat tournaments are common in the ultimate circuit. At these tournaments players join individually rather than as a team. The tournament organizers form teams by randomly taking the names of the participants from a hat.

Many hat tournaments on the US west coast have a "hat rule" requiring all players to wear a hat at all times during play. If a player gains possession of the disc, yet loses her or his hat in the process, the play is considered a turnover and possession of the disc reverts to the other team.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ultimatefieldlocator.info/rules/hat-tournament-rules/ |title=Ultimate Field Locator – Ultimate Frisbee Pickup Games & Tournaments: Hat Tournament Rules |work=Ultimatefieldlocator.info |access-date=March 1, 2017}}</ref>

However, in some tournaments, the organizers do not actually use a hat, but form teams while taking into account skill, experience, sex, age, height, and fitness level of the players in the attempt to form teams of even strength. Many times the random element remains, so that organizers randomly pick players from each level for each team, combining a lottery with skill matching. Usually, players provide this information when signing up to enter the tournament. There are also many cities that run hat leagues, structured like a hat tournament, but where the group of players stay together over the course of a season.