What do you think of these seeds and pools?
September 16, 2015 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 20 comments
Here are Ultiworld’s seeding predictions (and associated pools) for the Mixed Division at the 2015 USA Ultimate National Championships:
| POOL A | POOL B | POOL C | POOL D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drag'N Thrust (1) | CLX (2) | Wild Card (3) | Slow White (4) |
| Bucket (8) | Polar Bears (7) | Blackbird (6) | Seattle Mixtape (5) |
| 7 Express (12) | Metro North (11) | NOISE (10) | Love Tractor (9) |
| Ambiguous Grey (13) | AMP (14) | Birdfruit (15) | The UPA (16) |
Here is the basic reasoning for the seedings presented above, based heavily on the latest USA Ultimate rankings (which include postseason performance so far).
1. Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust – Defending National Champion x2, World Champion, USAU #1 overall, H2H over CLX
2. Iowa Chad Larson Experience – H2H over Wild Card, USAU #2
3. Boston Wild Card – Northeast Champs, USAU #4
4. Boston Slow White – H2H over Blackbird, USAU #6
5. Seattle Mixtape – USAU #9, H2H loss to Slow White, H2H wins over Drag’N & CLX
6. San Francisco Blackbird – Late-blooming team, Southwest champs, USAU #7
7. San Francisco Polar Bears – USAU #3, dropped due to finish behind Blackbird
8. Atlanta Bucket – USAU #8, 1-1 v. Polar Bears
9. Boulder Love Tractor – USAU #11, little connectivity
10. Madison NOISE – USAU #13, H2H over 7X
11. New York Metro North –USAU #14, placed above 7 Express
12. New York 7 Express – USAU #12, H2H over Ambiguous Grey
13. Washington DC Ambiguous Grey – Mid-Atlantic Champs
14. Philadelphia AMP – USAU #10, punished for finishing behind AG
15. Seattle Birdfruit – USAU #24
16. Chicago UPA – USAU #25
***
Discussion
– I am not envious of the National Mixed Director. That person will have to figure out what to do with Seattle Mixtape. Mixtape is a 2014 finalist that has wins over the #1 and #2 ranked teams and has largely dominated this year. But they had some weird results (notably a 5-4 “loss” to Birdfruit at Sectionals played in such horrible conditions that they cut the game short) that left them with a #9 ranking.
Honestly, they should be getting a pool one seed, but it’s hard to do that without giving them the #1 overall seed! It wouldn’t be shocking to see them get the eight seed — if you go by the rankings alone, that’s where they should end up. But I think that ignores too much context. Give them a bump, seed them behind Slow White (who they lost to 15-9 at the US Open), and make things a bit more fair.
– The Chicago UPA will get the 16 seed, and they will be incredibly dangerous from that 16 spot.
– What do you do with AMP? They finished 10th in the rankings but should probably go behind Ambiguous Grey — you have to weight postseason results especially heavily in the Mixed Division, in my opinion, because so many teams don’t show their true colors until then (see: Blackbird).
– All in all, there’s probably going to be a need for some thumbs pushing on the scale in a few spots. Better to get the seeding right then to blindly follow the rankings in this Division.
