The Carolina kid wins!
February 8, 2024 by Ultiworld in Awards, Opinion with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s 2023 Catch of the Year bracket is presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.
One of our most popular series to begin each year, it’s time to look back at last year and let our readers decide some of the top plays of the year from 2023.
We watched many hours of game footage and asked for help from the community to hunt down the catches, grabs, yoinks and everything else. With so many players making big plays in 2023, it was too tough for us to even cut to a final 16.
This year’s voting tournament introduces two new elements, both of which are exclusive to our subscribers.
First, in our Subscriber Selection, our subscribers culled the initial nomination list down to the final sixteen (eight from MMP and eight from FMP).
We also introduced the Subscriber Save. During the quarterfinal round, subscribers selected one play on each side of the bracket to save from elimination and send to the semifinals. The semifinals consisted of three plays each.
With all of the votes tallied, in an incredibly close vote, the winner is…
2023 Catch of the Year: Tobias Brooks – Carolina Flyers (UFA)
In another close final matchup, Tobias Brooks’ layout for the UFA’s Carolina Flyers outvoted Pénélope Robert’s windy Worlds rundown, with 53% of the vote. With over 2000 votes cast, both catches had quite a lot of deserved support. Brooks’, who is just in the early stages of his college career, has already received a Club accolade this year as the Breakout Player of the Year second runner-up, so he can add to his virtual trophy case.
The difficult layout grab came in the last minutes of a game that was in hand against Austin, but did set up another assist. At a high angle pushing away from him, Brooks showed deftness and power with the catch. Impressive for anyone, let alone a teenager. A low initial “seeding” from the Subscribers didn’t hold back this highlight.
Past Winners
2022: Abbi Shilts
2021: Jordan Rhyne
2019: Charlotte Koerner
2018: Pranav Rajan
2017: Theo Kuhn
2016: Himalaya Mehta
