Club Power Rankings [8/23/23]

New teams join some familiar faces as Elite Select shook up the middle of the Top 25

August 23, 2023 by Ultiworld in Rankings with 0 comments

Each week, we’ll post an updated edition of our Power Rankings here on the front page to facilitate discussion in the comments and help us share each week’s rankings via social media. The most up-to-date version can always be found on our permanent rankings page.

Women’s Discussion

• Starting from the top: congratulations to #7 Portland Schwa for winning Elite Select Challenge! They took down #10 Seattle Riot, #12 Chicago Nemesis, #14 Pittsburgh Parcha, #16 Philadelphia Flight, and #17 Atlanta Ozone en route to an undefeated tournament victory.
• Of the teams mentioned above, three also received rankings bumps from ESC. Riot made a run to the final, including upsetting number one overall seed BENT in semifinals on universe and therefore slot in just above the New York team. Nemesis also had a strong showing, upsetting Riot in pool play before losing to eventual champs Schwa in semis and BENT in the third place game. Flight’s win over Ozone in pool play netted them a quarterfinals appearance and a spot just ahead of Ozone in the rankings.
• The biggest backslide of the week is #11 New York BENT. They only lost one game on the weekend and by just one point, but a loss is a loss. They drop four spots to fall just behind the victors, Seattle Riot.
• Denver Small Batch and Minneapolis Pop fall out of the rankings after only netting wins against unranked teams at ESC, while Seattle Underground slide in at #24 for defeating Pop in the eleventh place game.
• #23 Florida Tabby Rosa return to the rankings after more than a month away. They battled to the ninth place game at ESC, beating Underground along the way, where they fell to Ozone by only one point.
• Utah Dark Sky plummet from #15 to out of the rankings after losing by one to new additions #25 San Diego Wildfire in the final of Ski Town Classic.
• Special shoutout to #8 Toronto 6ixers for winning the Canadian Ultimate Championships! They felled #9 Vancouver Traffic by two.

Men’s Discussion

• #7 Boston DiG went undefeated at ESC but receive no rankings love, as they have yet to avenge a head-to-head loss against #6 San Francisco Revolver from earlier in the season.
• Fellow ESC finalists #9 Atlanta Chain Lightning receive a two spot bump for being one point away from winning the whole thing. Similar to DiG, a head-to-head loss against Rhino Slam! keeps them from the elite eight.
• #11 Seattle Sockeye were two points away from an undefeated showing, losing by one to both #13 Virginia Vault and #15 Cincinnati Omen but picking up comfortable wins over #12 Minneapolis Sub Zero,  #22 SoCal Condors, and formerly ranked Tennessee Tanasi.
• So why the slide for Omen and Vault? #14 Toronto GOAT received a five-spot bump for winning the Canadian Ultimate Championships, and Ultiworld’s in-house deliberators found GOAT’s results against the same competition – GOAT beat Chain earlier in the season and just won a national tournament while Omen lost to Chain 15-7 in ESC bracket play – more impressive, awarding the #14 spot to GOAT over Omen. In more straightforward reasoning, Vault slide spots to fall right behind Sub Zero after losing to them in quarterfinals.
• Sub Zero are recipients of the largest rankings boost, jumping 11 spots after reaching the semifinals of ESC.
• On the flipside, Condors get the biggest knock, and were even on the chopping block in early discussions. Their ESC performance fell far short of expectations: the SoCal team’s only win on the weekend was against Trident I, 13-10.
• #24 Pittsburgh Temper were also on the verge of Top 25 elimination, but their wins over formerly ranked Tennessee Tanasi and Amherst Sprout was enough to keep them in and knock the other two out.
• Welcome New Jersey Garden State Ultimate to the rankings! They picked up wins over Condors and Tanasi at ESC and thus a spot in the Top 25.
• A warm welcome as well to Berkeley Zyzzyva! They went through the gauntlet at ESC, only playing ranked teams, but picked up three wins, including two on universe against Condors and Raleigh-Durham United, who they slot in right above.
• Most other rankings movement is a result of CUC. #18 General Strike beat #19 Vancouver Furious George in semifinals, the first time the Vancouver team has not made the final at the event. In the other semi, #20 Ottawa Phoenix fell to eventual-champs GOAT by one, before losing to Furious George in the third-place game 14-10.

Mixed Discussion

• Another ESC winner, another lack of rankings movement. #2 Fort Collins shame. beat every team ahead of them, and quite comfortably, but none of those teams were #1 Philadelphia AMP. They’ll have to wait until Pro Champs to challenge for #1.
• The word is out: we love to see Hot Girls Succeed. #7 Boston Sprocket jump five spots with a finals appearance at ESC. They took two losses on the weekend but both were to shame. while notching wins against #9 San Francisco Mischief, #12 Ann Arbor Hybrid, #19 Atlanta Dirty Bird, and #20 Arizona Lawless.
• True to their name, #6 Huntsville Space Force rocket up the rankings with a third place ESC finish. Their only loss on the weekend was to eventual-champs shame., while they picked up wins over #15 Dallas Public Enemy, #24 Denver Love Tractor, and beat Mischief twice.
• Welcome back to the rankings, #14 Washington DC Rally and #15 Dallas Public Enemy! After falling out a month ago, both jump right back into the thick of things with bracket-play runs at ESC. Both teams also ended up in the fifth-place bracket, with Rally toppling Public Enemy and #13 Cleveland Crocs by one point each to claim fifth place, while Public Enemy went on to lose to Hybrid in the seventh-place game. Rally lost just two games on the weekend to the top two seeded teams, while Public Enemy only won two but made them both count, knocking off #16 Boston Slow and #17 Nashville ‘Shine.
• ‘Shine couldn’t replicate their success at PEC East a little over a month ago, going 0-3 in pool play and notching just two wins against Love Tractor and #19 Atlanta Dirty Bird in placement games. The Nashvillians finished with a loss to Slow in the ninth-place game and slot just below them in the rankings.
• Dirty Bird fall just below ‘Shine after taking a 13-7 loss at ESC, but two one-point wins over Arizona Lawless this past weekend keep them inside the top 20.
• #20 Arizona Lawless suffer a twelve spot slide after a 1-5 record at ESC, claiming their sole win against #25 Durham Toro. An early season win over #21 Oregon Scorch keep them from falling any further.
• #25 Durham Toro barely cling to the last spot in the Top 25 with a win over formerly ranked Wichita Impact. Impact’s 1-5 showing at ESC, with their only win coming against the unranked Chad Larson Experience, sees them drop out completely.
• With Impact out, so too go Denver Flight Club, whose only ranked win on the season against Oregon Scorch doesn’t top split results with Impact.

Mid-Season Grades