Looking at SFI's on both sides of the country.
July 26, 2024 by Jenna Weiner in Preview with 0 comments
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Ahead of the tentpole tournament weekend that is the US Open, there is another slate of TCT tournaments on tap this weekend with the Select Flight Invite East and Select Flight Invite West. While it’s rare for either SFI to have an outsized influence on the bid picture, this weekend offers up a chance to take stock of some of the best “next-team-up” regional challengers across all three divisions. As for those teams with true-blue Nationals aspirations? Their task is to simply not fall short at the first hurdle after strong early season starts.
Select Flight East Tournament Profile
- Date: July 27-28
- Location: Sylvania, Ohio
- Weather: Highs in the 80s, and about 20 degrees cooler for the lows, with higher temps on Sunday
- Top 25 teams: 5 Men’s Div. | 1 Mixed Div. | 5 Women’s Div.
- Schedules & Results
- Event Page
Select Flight West Tournament Profile
- Date: July 27-28
- Location: Burlington, Washington
- Weather: Partly cloud with highs in the mid-70s and low in the mid-50s
- Top 25 teams: 4 Mixed Div. | 2 Women’s Div.
- Schedules & Results
- Event Page
Streaming Schedule
All Ultiworld Standard and All-Access subscribers will have access to watch the live broadcasts from this year’s Select Flight Invite East, where we will have two games in each broadcasting round.
The broadcast schedule can be found below:
All times are ET.
Saturday, July 27
8:30 AM: Parlay vs. Port Authority [X] | Lounar vs. Beacon [M]
10:15 AM: Zephyr vs. Crush City [W] | Smokestack vs. Banc [M]
12:00 PM: Vengeance vs. Stellar [W] | Union vs. Steamboat [X]
1:45 PM: RAMP vs. Revival [X] | Omen vs. Phantom [M]
Sunday, July 28
8:00 AM: Quarterfinal TBD [M] | Quarterfinal TBD [W]
9:45 AM: Semifinal TBD [M] | Semifinal TBD [W]
11:30 AM: Final TBD [M] | Semifinal TBD [X]
1:15 PM: Final TBD [X] | Final TBD [W]
Mixed Division
Though both mixed division fields competing this weekend are bound to have plenty of intriguing results to sort through, SFI West has arguably the stronger top-line teams. #3 Vancouver Red Flag lead the way after falling one point short of taking down the PEC West title earlier this month, and they’re clear favorites to take home the crown this time around. #20 Bay Area Sunshine and #22 Montana MOONDOG are seeded no.2 and no.3 respectively, with Sunshine’s 10-8 win over MOONDOG at PEC West lifting the Californians into that second spot. #23 Denver Mile High Trash round out the division’s pool leaders, and they’ll look to their WUL Championship winning players in Abby Thorpe, Allysha Dixon, and Ari Nelson, among others, to carry them to success this weekend.
Over at SFI East, after missing Nationals last season #9 Durham Toro bull-rushed their way into the rankings with a third place finish at PEC East. Out of the always contentious Southeast region, Toro’s statement wins over a trio of top20 teams in New York XIST, Madison NOISE, and Boston Sprocket rightfully springboarded them back into the Nationals bid picture. The question for Toro this weekend, then, is whether or not they’ll be able to build off that momentum or fumble it away. Their competition in Ohio include Chicago Parlay, Chicago RAMP — who were both in attendance at PEC East, though neither had stellar weekends — and the ageless Ames Chad Larson Experience, but it’ll be a real surprise if any team but Toro take down the title.
Men’s Division
The split of top-line teams between the two SFIs flips from the mixed to men’s divisions, with SFI East putting up a significantly stronger field than SFI West. #13 Toronto GOAT and #16 Ottawa Phoenix take the top two seeds after solid showings at PEC East, with GOAT getting the better of Phoenix in the ninth place game 13-8. The two Canadian squads will hope to have a last-game matchup this time around too, albeit in the final. Before GOAT and Phoenix can get there, though, they’ll have to go through a raft of American teams from across the central and eastern US, with #21 Arlington Oakgrove Boys, #22 Chicago Trident, and #24 Philadelphia Phantom the top-ranked contenders according to the latest Ultiworld Power Rankings.
In stark contrast to its counterpart, the men’s division field at SFI West boasts a grand total of zero power ranked teams. Colorado Fungi laid claim to the no.1 seed courtesy of their win at Colorado Summer Solstice last month, with third place finishers Boulder ISO Atmo coming in as this tournament’s no. 2 seed. An assortment of Northwest, Southwest, and South Central regional teams then follow the two Colorado clubs in the SFI West pecking order, with no.3 Seattle Switchback making it two-for-two on TCT events after playing at PEC West two weeks ago.
Women’s Division
As compared to their mixed and men’s counterparts, the fields of the two women’s divisions at SFI West and East are fairly balanced. That said, #11 Vancouver Traffic are the notable outliers as the top-ranked team across both tournaments, and they’ll be heavy favorites to follow up their fifth place finish at PEC West with a win this weekend at SFI West. Their competition for this weekend’s title include a promising #18 Utah Dark Sky team who will get their season underway this weekend, and the best of the next-up teams from the Southwest (#15 San Diego Wildfire and Oakland LOL), Northwest (#19 Seattle Underground and Seattle END), and South Central (#22 Colorado Kelp).
The women’s division at SFI East has a similar, though slightly weaker, slate of top-25 teams on tap, with #23 Atlanta Ozone the highest ranked team coming into the weekend. They’re joined in the top 25 by #24 Austin Vengeance, who opened their season with a nice outing at PEC East. Despite their power ranking placement Vengeance aren’t the tournament second seeds, with that honor going to Indy Rogue, who took down the Heavyweights title earlier this month. Rogue have just two losses on the season so far, though one of those defeats was to Michigan Outrage (formerly Rival), who follow Rogue in the seeding order at SFI East.
