August 29, 2012 by Charlie Eisenhood in News, Recap with 2 comments
After this weekend’s tournament action, many teams have played their last Regular Season games. With the top 16 teams in each division in a position to earn extra bids to Nationals and just the Labor Day Championships still to determine the final rankings, this week’s USA Ultimate rankings actually matter.
Open Division
First, the changes in the top 16 from this week:
Who’s in: Southpaw (Philadelphia — Mid-Atlantic), Madison Club (Madison — North Central)
Who’s out: PoNY (New York — Northeast), Boost Mobile (Palo Alto — Southwest)
No changes at the top as Boston’s Ironside and Denver’s Johnny Bravo stand apart from the field by over 100 points. Both teams have had excellent seasons, but Bravo will face a difficult test as the overall one seed at Labor Day.
The big news from this weekend is that Madison Club, that lost both of their games against Machine, jumped into the rankings at number 12.
Philadelphia’s Southpaw did just enough to get in, but will have to play well this weekend to hang on to the second bid for the Mid-Atlantic region.
After very inconsistent performances at Chesapeake, we expected Sub Zero (Minneapolis) or Truck Stop (Washington) to be outside looking in. But the rankings algorithm instead punished Boost Mobile, who fell from number 9 all the way to 18. It seems that Boost’s losses to Truck and Southpaw — both relatively low-ranked Mid-Atlantic teams — did them in. Their win against PoNY wasn’t enough to put them in the bubble spot at 17.
PoNY’s close games against the Santa Barbara Condors (#13) and Atlanta’s Chain Lightning (#5) leaves them there, still giving the Northeast hope for a third bid (assuming another team plays their way out of the top 16 this weekend).
Here’s the bid breakdown as it stands today: Northwest (3), Southwest (2), South Central (2), North Central (2), Great Lakes (1), Mid-Atlantic (2), Northeast (2), and Southeast (2).
If the season ended today, Ultiworld’s early season bid predictions were dead on, save for the Condors switching places with Boost Mobile for the Southwest’s second bid. There could still be changes after this weekend: Boost Mobile could snag a third bid for the Southwest, Madison Club could fall out with a rough performance, or Southpaw could let PoNY back in if they lose all their games like they did last year. Other moves are possible, but unlikely.
Mixed Division
Who’s in: Chad Larson Experience (Iowa — North Central), Mental Toss Flycoons (Missoula – Northwest), District 5 (Connecticut — Northeast), Bucket (Atlanta — Southeast)
Who’s out: Death by Jubilee (Washington — Mid-Atlantic), Santa Maria (Columbus — Great Lakes), Mesteno (Denver — South Central), Grass Fight (Dallas — South Central)
Minneapolis’ Drag’N Thrust, after an undefeated weekend at the Chesapeake Invite, launched themselves into the top spot in this week’s rankings.
The Ghosts (Boston), last week’s top team, fell to number five after three losses, including two to Slow White (Boston — #3).
Despite a poor weekend, District 5 — a 2011 Nationals team — made it in to the top 16, but it won’t matter as they will not reach the ten game minimum required to earn a strength bid.
The Mixed division could face a real shakeup after Labor Day — much more so than Open — as many of the teams from positions 10-20 will play this weekend.
Here’s how the bids would break down if the season ended today: Northeast (4), North Central (2), Southwest (4), Great Lakes (1), Mid-Atlantic (2), Northwest (1), South Central (1), Southeast (1).
Women’s Division
Who’s in: Hot Metal (Pittsburgh — Mid-Atlantic)
Who’s out: Safari (San Diego — Southwest)
Not much changed this week in the women’s division, with only one new team in the top 16.
The only change in the top 10 was Showdown (Austin) stealing the 10 spot away from Nemesis (Chicago).
Despite many of the top teams facing off this weekend, it is likely that the games will be played mostly for seeding, although the very bottom of the top 16 could change.
Here’s how the bids would break down if the season ended today: Southwest (2), Northwest (4), Mid-Atlantic (2), North Central (1), Northeast (2), Southeast (2), Great Lakes (1), South Central (2).
