2017 National Championships Seeding Predictions: Men’s Division

Sockeye’s Zane Rankin (left) goes up with Revolver’s Antoine Davis. Photo: Jolie Lang — UltiPhotos.com

Here are Ultiworld’s seeding predictions (and associated pools) for the Men’s Division at the 2017 USA Ultimate National Championships:

POOL APOOL BPOOL CPOOL D
Revolver (1)Sockeye (2)Ring of Fire (3)Truck Stop (4)
High Five (8)Machine (7)Johnny Bravo (6)Ironside (5)
Doublewide (12)Florida United (11)GOAT (10)Dig (9)
Sub Zero (13)PoNY (14)Patrol (15)Condors (16)

Here is the basic reasoning for the seedings presented above, based heavily on the latest USA Ultimate rankings that include postseason performance so far:

1. San Francisco Revolver – #1 ranked team. Won Pro-Elite and Pro Championships. Only knock is 1-2 record vs. Sockeye, but rankings and historical performance will outweigh that.

2. Seattle Sockeye – Obvious #2 seed. Nearly 100 points clear of #3 ranked team, Ring of Fire. US Open champion.

3. Raleigh Ring of Fire – #3 ranked team. H2H over Truck Stop. Also 1-0 vs. Sockeye, but rankings differential should make that a moot point.

4. Washington DC Truck Stop – #4 ranked team. 3-1 vs. Ironside. 1-1 v Bravo.

5. Boston Ironside – #5 ranked team. Over 50 points ahead of #6 Johnny Bravo, although they are 0-1 against them.

6. Denver Johnny Bravo – Bravo has a case to be the #5 seed with the H2H advantage over Ironside. But the large rating gap and USAU’s heavy emphasis on the rankings leads me to believe they’ll stay at #6.

7. Chicago Machine – A superb end of the season buoys Machine to the seven seed. A lock for this spot.

8. Michigan High Five – A Regionals loss to Machine (and the #8 ranking) assures that High Five will be the last two seed.

9. Boston Dig – Obvious #9 seed. #9 ranked, beat #10 GOAT at Regionals. H2H loss to High Five.

10. Toronto GOAT – Clear #10.

11. Florida United – Florida United has just a single loss on their resume: 12-10 to Ring of Fire in the Southeast final. They have played no other Nationals-qualifying teams. They will almost certainly take the #11 seed given their matching ranking.

12. Austin Doublewide – Ranked #12. 1-1 v. PoNY.

13. Minneapolis Sub Zero – The first seeding that doesn’t match the rankings. Sub is ranked #14. H2H over #13 PoNY, plus their ranking differential is less than a single point.

14. New York PoNY – 1-1 v. Patrol. Ranked 15 points higher. Tricky seeding, though.

15. Philadelphia Patrol – Patrol could theoretically go as high as #13, since they have a H2H win over Sub Zero and have beaten PoNY recently. But USAU very rarely moves a team up two spots.

16. SoCal Condors – Ranked #16. They do have H2H wins over GOAT and Sub Zero. Those won’t come into play for seeding, though.

***

Discussion

  • Seeding was fairly straightforward this year. With the advent of using post-Regionals rankings, many seeding decisions are now quite obvious, as USA Ultimate relies so much on the rankings.
  • A tough decision is going to be Ironside or Bravo at #5. Ironside’s ranking is much stronger, but they have a loss to Bravo.
  • The trickiest set of all is Sub, Pony, Patrol for the 13-15 spots. Sub and PoNY’s rankings are tied and Patrol is 15 points behind. Patrol is 1-1 v. PoNY and 1-0 v. Sub. Theoretically, you could see them bumping up to #13, but I doubt that will happen. USAU does not usually move a team more than one slot away from their ranking.
  • Notably, these rankings conform to Regionals results, but not by design. Remember that Regionals results no longer bind Nationals seeding.
  1. Charlie Eisenhood
    Charlie Eisenhood

    Charlie Eisenhood is the editor-in-chief of Ultiworld. You can reach him by email ([email protected]) or on Twitter (@ceisenhood).

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