It's time for the postseason!
August 24, 2016 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 8 comments
USA Ultimate has announced the final regular season rankings and the bid allocation from Regionals to Nationals. Here is the breakdown for each Division. Stay tuned for a special emergency Deep Look podcast to break down the bids and the Regionals competition to come.
Although some teams switched ranking positions, our final bid allocation predictions were spot on in all three divisions.
Men’s Division
Bid Allocation
Great Lakes: 2 bids
Mid-Atlantic: 2 bids
North Central: 2 bids
Northeast: 3 bids
Northwest: 2 bids
South Central: 3 bids
Southeast: 1 bid
Southwest: 1 bid
Discussion
The bid allocation is exactly as we expected, with a punishing one bid getting handed down to the Southeast and Southwest regions and the South Central sitting flush with three bids after a strong regular season from Houston H.I.P.
The North Central looks primed to be a competitive tournament as three good teams in Madison Club, Sub Zero, and a red hot Prairie Fire battle for just two bids.
The Southeast will be the most brutal, as a relatively deep region with a lack of top tier talent has to dole out just one spot at Nationals to a historically dominant region. Raleigh Ring of Fire is in danger of missing Nationals for the first time in 20 years.
Mixed Division
Bid Allocation
Great Lakes: 1 bid
Mid-Atlantic: 3 bids
North Central: 3 bids
Northeast: 2 bids
Northwest: 1 bid
South Central: 3 bids
Southeast: 1 bid
Southwest: 2 bids
Discussion
The Southwest manages a minor miracle as they claw a second bid from the jaws of the Northwest after the San Francisco Polar Bears did enough at the Pro Flight Finale to climb above Seattle’s BFG for the last spot in the top 16. What’s amazing is that they couldn’t have done it without a really poor performance from their regional rival San Francisco Blackbird at the Pro Flight Finale. BFG’s ranking was tied closely to Blackbird’s; a 1-5 showing in Vancouver, WA, this weekend from Blackbird dropped them down the rankings and pulled BFG with them.
The Southwest’s gain is the Northwest’s loss. Now Seattle Mixtape will have to fend off BFG, Birdfruit, and other contenders in what should be an exciting Regional tournament.
Also notable in Mixed is the South Central earning a bid via Fort Collins shame., a team that played just one top 25 ranked team all season: Boulder Love Tractor. They lost by one to Love Tractor back in June and crushed all the other teams they played. Their two large wins over Bozos buoyed them in the rankings to a #11 finish.1
Women’s Division
Bid Allocation
Great Lakes: 1 bid
Mid-Atlantic: 2 bids
North Central: 1 bid
Northeast: 2 bids
Northwest: 3 bids
South Central: 2 bids
Southeast: 2 bids
Southwest: 3 bids
Discussion
The Women’s Division was the only one to feature an autobid getting sent to a region that didn’t land a team in the top 16. The Great Lakes earned a bid with the region’s two highest ranked teams — Columbus Rival and Chicago Nemesis — landing at #20 and #21, respectively.
That snatched a bid away from the Northeast, which hosted the top three teams outside of the bid cutoff (#16 New York Bent, #17 Boston Siege, and #18 Quebec Iris). That should make for a brutal battle at Regionals as #2 ranked Boston Brute Squad and #7 ranked Toronto 6ixers try to fend off the challengers in the two bid region.
Three California teams — San Francisco Fury, San Francisco Nightlock, and San Diego Wildfire — earned bids for the Southwest as the West Coast (including the South Central) swept up half of the country’s bids.
An earlier version of this article suggested that shame.’s close loss to Love Tractor was what boosted their ranking. That was incorrect. See the discussion in the comments. ↩
