USA Ultimate

Mixed Division teams from four regions will battle it out at Regionals this weekend with their sights set on a berth at the 2013 National Championships in Frisco, Texas.       Mid-Atlantic   Northeast   Southeast   Southwest

 
Mid-Atlantic Mixed Preview, by USA Ultimate

Format: 16 teams / 2 bids Saturday - pool play & start of bracket play (4-team championship bracket) Sunday – championship & 2nd place game to go

Pool A   Pool B Team Rank Sectionals  AMP 1 FOU-n/a Tyrannis 51 CAP-3 BANG 67 FOU-4 Expendables      94 FOU-6   Team Rank Sectionals  Termite's Entourage 16 FOU-1 American Hyperbole 52 CAP-2 Death by Jubilee 49 CAP-4 Bitmap 90 FOU-8 Pool C   Pool D Team Rank Sectionals  Ambiguous Grey 18 CAP-n/a The Muff 'n Men 35 FOU-3 Los Penguinos n/a CAP-6 RedLine 78 CAP-7   Team Rank Sectionals  Ant Madness 42 CAP-1 Jughandle 53 FOU-2 Throws of Passion n/a CAP-5 Key Party! 96 FOU-5

Not surprisingly, the mixed division is the most difficult to predict. Higher turnover rates for both individual players and teams each year mean it’s hard to say which team will be best from year to year. Frequent additions for the postseason make it nearly impossible to know what a team will look like come Regionals. 

In the Mid-Atlantic, Philly AMP has made every effort to separate themselves from the pack and prove that they are anything but inconsistent. Since July, they’ve gone 19-2; the two losses were both by five points, one to Boston Wild Card and one to Ames Chad Larson Experience. The regular-season champs have earned their way to this weekend’s one seed, and given the four-pool format, they should have an edge going into the championship bracket after some easier games in pool play. So far, AMP has wins over each of the other one-seeds except Ant Madness who they haven’t faced yet this year. 

As always in the Mid-Atlantic mixed scene, there are five or six other teams in the region that could potentially contend for the second bid, but there are two that stand above the rest. D.C. Ambiguous Grey may be the more talked-about team this year, but Morristown, N.J.’s Termite’s Entourage has made some noise of their own. They made the trip out to Seattle for the Elite-Select Challenge at the Emerald City Classic and left 4-3, with a couple of strong wins. Ambiguous has played tough competition all year, and their results are a checkerboard of pink and green to prove it. All their experience playing in close games against elite teams should help them survive what will likely be a pretty grueling weekend. 

Right behind them are teams like Ant Madness, Jughandle and The Muff ‘n Men, all teams with the talent to pull off an upset or two. But the teams’ endurance may be the deciding factor. After the top three seeded teams, depth becomes more of an issue. Teams like Ant Madness, Jughandle and The Muff ‘n Men will likely tighten up rotations in their closer games to try and pull out wins, but by the time they get to the big games on Sunday, they may be too tired to truly contend with the likes of Termite’s Entourage and Ambiguous Grey. Look for those two to play in the game to go. The team that can stay more positive and show more mental toughness throughout will take the second bid to Frisco.

 

Northeast Mixed Preview, by USA Ultimate

Format: 16 teams / 5 bids Saturday – Pool play & first round of bracket play (8-team championship bracket)  Sunday – Championship & 2nd-5th place brackets

Pool A   Pool B Team Rank Sectionals  Slow White 4 ENE-n/a The Lions 26 ENE-2 Pleasure Town 38 ENE-3 Rut 87 WNE-2   Team Rank Sectionals  Odyssée 5 WNE-n/a Destructors 36 UNY-1 Enough Monkeys 44 WNE-1 Darkwing 64 ENE-7 Pool C   Pool D Team Rank Sectionals  The Ghosts 7 ENE-1 7Express 31 MNY-1 Blackfly 56 ENE-5 Sucker Punch 97 ENE-6   Team Rank Sectionals  Wild Card 11 ENE-n/a SHUYAMOUF 12 MNY-2 Mixed Nuts 41 ENE-4 Gotham Gigante 66 MNY-3

The Northeast mixed division wins for most number of Nationals bids from any one region in any division in 2013. They also have the most parity, at least on paper. The region has three teams in the top 10 of the final USA Ultimate rankings and five in the top 12. There are six teams with a legitimate shot of taking one of the five bids and a handful of other unknowns looking to cause trouble. The four one-seeds heading into the weekend – Boston Slow White, Montreal Odyssée, Boston The Ghosts and Boston Wild Card – should all advance easily.

Slow White gave themselves a long season. They start going to tryout tournaments as early as May and held a steady pace throughout the summer. In their six tournaments, they have six losses. Since the season began in earnest in July, they only have losses to CLX, AMP and Polar Bears; CLX and Polar Bears both finished ahead of Slow White at the 2012 Club Championships, and AMP is the 2013 regular-season champion – not exactly shabby losses. They are a deserving number one seed. 

Sitting right behind Slow White, atop Pool B, is Odyssée. After becoming the first international team to win the U.S. Open in July, Odyssée hit a few speed bumps. They had a tough showing with a short roster at the Pro-Elite Challenge at Philly Invite and finished fifth at the Canadian Ultimate Championships in August. Northeast Regionals will be their first tournament back on American soil since July. While the top six teams are especially strong, with their second-overall seed, Odyssée should largely avoid tough match ups in pool play, and finishing top two in the pool will be enough to get them to the championship bracket on Saturday afternoon. From there, the road obviously gets a little more challenging. We’ll all have to wait and see if they can rebound and hold onto their second overall spot. 

Excepting Slow White, the Boston-area mixed scene is constantly evolving, with teams coming and going. The Ghosts have been around a few years already, which makes them a stalwart in the scene. They lost in the quarterfinals at Nationals last year, thanks to Polar Bears, but are back this year for another run at the championships. They’ve had a strong year but haven’t seen much action in the latter half of the season. They lost in the semifinals at the Pro-Elite Challenge at Philly Invite and didn’t play again until Sectionals, where they cruised to a tournament win. So far on the year, they’ve split games amongst regional competition, getting the best of Wild Card and 7Express while being bested by Slow White and Odyssée. But it’s been a while since The Ghosts have seen any of those teams. They, like Odyssée, shouldn’t have problems making it to the championship bracket, but seeing how they fare against strong competition in the quarters and semis could be interesting. 

Wild Card is a team to watch this weekend. Based on record alone, they’ve had a roller coaster of a season. But they were also shorthanded at nearly every tournament this year. The first time they played together as a semi-full squad was at the Elite-Select Challenge at ECC in August. There, they made the finals and only had two losses – both to Mischief, a semifinalist at last year’s Club Championships. Given their four seed, they should see a reasonable challenge from SHUYAMOUF in the last round of pool play but still easily make it to the championship bracket. Wild Card is a young and athletic team that could cause some problems for the teams seeded above them.

Barring a major upset, SHUYAMOUF and 7Express should end up fighting for the fifth and final bid to Frisco. Based on regular-season results, SHUYAMOUF looks to have a slight edge – a very slight edge. They are ranked at 11 and 31, respectively, but they split their match ups at Metro New York Sectionals. SHUYAMOUF took the pool play game and 7Express came out on top in the finals. When they meet in Devens, everything is likely to be on the line, and the game should be one of the more exciting match ups in any region this weekend.

  

Southeast Mixed Preview, by USA Ultimate

Format: 12 teams / 1 bid Saturday – pool play Sunday – 8-team championship bracket

Pool A   Pool B Team Rank Sectionals  Raleighwood 21 NC-1 Bucket 30 EC-1 Pluff Mud Panic 50 EC-3 Infinite Dragons 68 FL-3 Hairy Otter 84 EC-4 Carolina Reign 82 NC-3   Team Rank Sectionals  Cahoots 15 NC-2 The Hucking Dead 40 FL-1 Swamp Rabbit 58 EC-2 MK Ultimate 69 FL-4 N.O.P.P. n/a GC-1 Southern Revival 39 EC-5

One-bid regions always put everyone a little on edge. For the second year in a row, the Southeast has a single bid to Nationals, and three teams are in the hunt. Raleighwood, in part a reincarnation of wHagonweel, arrives as the number one seed, thanks to a finals win over rival Asheville Cahoots at North Carolina sectionals. That brings their series to 2-2 on the season. Atlanta Bucket is sitting right behind the N.C. teams hoping to earn their sixth straight trip to Nationals. 

It all seems eerily similar to last year’s Regionals. All three top teams are travelling quite a ways to get to the tournament, and they’ll be hoping to knock each other out on Sunday. In 2012, Bucket came out on top after besting wHagonweel in the semis and easily taking down Cahoots in the finals. But Bucket is a different team this year. They still have experienced, high-level talent but have struggled more this time around than in years past. Bucket hasn’t played much and struggled at the Pro-Elite Challenge at Philly Invite, their one high-level tournament of the season. They escaped a few close calls at East Coast Sectionals to win the tournament and will hope to carry some momentum into Regionals. Adding a player like Sophie Darch to your roster for the Series has to help with that some too. Her throws will open up the field for Bucket and give downfield cuts more viability. 

You never know, but a fifth run-in seems likely for Raleighwood and Cahoots. If it comes to fruition, it would be the fourth time they’ve met in a tournament final this year. So far, Cahoots holds the edge in that particular stat line, coming out on top in two of their previous finals match ups. These teams know each other well. Cahoots has several players that either currently live in Raleigh or have in the past. Picking up players like Cate Foster-Yackey certainly hasn’t hurt Cahoots either. They may have a slight advantage in pool play as well. Since Raleighwood and Bucket ended up in the same pool, Cahoots shouldn’t have much trouble holding onto their one-seed. But no matter what happens in Pool A, Cahoots will have the tougher semifinal match up.

Assuming all the teams are at full-strength, this year’s finals in Alabama should be a barnburner. And it may end up being the first time in half a decade that Bucket hasn’t seen Nationals. 

 

Southwest Mixed Preview, by USA Ultimate

Format: 16 teams / 3 bids Pool Play – pool play & crossover; Sunday – 8-team championship bracket & 3rd place game to go

Pool A   Pool B Team Rank Sectionals  Polar Bears 2 NCAL-n/a Classy 45 NCAL-3 Rubix 77 SCAL-4 Capitol Punishment 60 NCAL-5   Team Rank Sectionals  Mischief 6 NCAL-n/a BW Ultimate 27 NCAL-2 On The Rocks 43 SCAL-5 The Greater Good      57 NCAL-4 Pool C    Pool D  Team Rank Sectionals  Blackbird 10 NCAL-n/a American BBQ        24 NCAL-n/a Del Sol 48 SCAL-2 Blurred Lines 70 SCAL-6   Team Rank Sectionals  Groove 20 NCAL-1 7 Figures 19 SCAL-1 Fireball n/a SCAL-3 Oakland Shipping Co. 106 NCAL-6

Thanks to the swinging pendulum that is the strength of mixed ultimate, the Southwest is down a couple bids this year. After five teams earned their way to Nationals in 2012, this year, that number has been reduced to only three. Given that the last two teams to win national championships are in the region and in the field again this weekend, there is always a fair amount of interest in the outcome of this particular tournament. 

San Francisco Polar Bears will start the weekend in the number one overall spot, and rightfully so. They got knocked out of the U.S. Open in the semifinals earlier this year, but rebounded nicely at the Pro Flight Finale over Labor Day. Polar Bears started that weekend a little shaky with a tough loss to Cosa Nostra but came back to win out and take home the championship and the prize money. Polar Bears have qualified for the National Championships every year since forming, and after winning the title in their first year (2010), they’ve been bested at the Championships in each of the last two years by regional rival Blackbird. 

Blackbird is a well-known unknown. The team was formed with the express purpose of bringing together talented and experienced players who would not need as much practice time or tournament experience to make a run at Nationals. So far, so good. But each year, they arrive at Regionals as an unknown entity. Everyone knows they’ll be good but not necessarily anything about their major weapons or biggest strategies. With the new Triple Crown Tour format, that is slightly less true this year. They played at the U.S. Open in July and again at the Pro Flight Finale early this month. On both occasions, they struggled. But they always manage to pull themselves together in time for the Series, and in particular, in time for Nationals. In each of their championship runs, they haven’t taken the first bid out of the region, so you can never count them out. And despite some early-season growing pains, it would take a major upset to not see them on the fields in Frisco.

Yet another perennial contender from the Southwest, Mischief has been working hard this year, but they’ve also had some hiccups. Without Tyler Grant at the Pro Flight Finale, they struggled early in several of their games. They often rallied but couldn’t close out many wins. Their close losses to regional rivals Blackbird and American BBQ have to be making the Mischief crowd a little nervous heading into Arizona this weekend. They certainly have the talent to hold onto their second-overall seed and claim one of the three bids to Nationals, but they’ll have to be at the top of their game to make it happen. 

Groove, 7 Figures and American BBQ are all on the upset hunt. Groove is an old team with a new face in 2013. They have a win over 7 Figures on their résumé but also some unfortunate losses. Groove has played several close games against Mischief this year but hasn’t been able to hang on for a win, and Mischief is the only team seeded above them that they’ve seen all year. American BBQ would love to have a second consecutive trip to the big show, but they’ll have to be in top form. They’ve only played in two tournaments this year, and all they have to show for it is two wins and a lot of really close losses. If they can turn up the dial just a hair, they’ll have a shot of upsetting some higher-ranked teams. 

Despite not being in their region until after the club restructure last year, 7 Figures didn’t lack history with the Northern California teams. In 2011, before the restructure, 7 Figures was knocked out of the power pools on point differential, in large thanks to the Polar Bears. In the prequarters, they ran into Blackbird who bested them en route to their first championship. In 2012, their only losses at Regionals were to Mischief – once in the semifinals and the second time in the last round of the second-place, back-door bracket. 

Watch out for this one. The mixed division in Arizona will be fun.

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