A mix of teams hoping to break into the top of their divisions and teams hoping to make it to Nationals collide this weekend
August 16, 2024 by Zack Davis and Graham Gordon in Preview with 0 comments
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Without many of club’s uppermost elite teams in attendance, the spotlight is on those looking to make their case as contenders and those hoping to steal a bid as the regular season begins to wane. Featuring over 30 teams ranked in our top 25 and few clear favorites, this year’s Elite-Select Challenge is set to be a proving ground for each club’s lofty aspirations.
Tournament Profile
- Date: August 17-18
- Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
- Weather: Highs in the mid-80s on Saturday cooling down to high 70s on Sunday, with 15 mph winds and chance of rain both days
- Top 25 teams: 12 women’s div. / 10 mixed div. / 11 men’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 ESC, where we will have three games in each broadcasting round.
The broadcast schedule can be found below:
NOTE: Due to technical difficulties, we were only able to stream 2 out of 3 fields each round. The other field’s games are still being recorded in full and will be uploaded after the weekend.
All times are ET.
Saturday, August 17
9:00 AM: 6ixers vs. Pop [W] | Mischief vs. ‘Shine [X] | Raleigh-Durham United vs. Dark Star [M]
10:50 AM: Grit vs. LOL [W] | Sub Zero vs. Sprout [M] | Tower vs. Public Enemy [X]
12:40 PM: Chain Lightning vs. Furious George [M] | Iris vs. Riot [W] | Rally vs. Love Tractor [X]
2:30 PM: Dark Sky vs. Parcha [W] | Lawless vs. Sprocket [X] | Sockeye vs. Blueprint [M]
Sunday, August 18
8:00 AM: Quarterfinal TBD [M] | Quarterfinal TBD [X] | Quarterfinal TBD [W]
9:50 AM: Semifinal TBD [W] | Semifinal TBD [M] | Semifinal TBD [M]
11:40 AM: Final TBD [M] | Semifinal TBD [X] | Semifinal TBD [X]
1:30 PM: Final TBD [W] | Final TBD [X]
Men’s Division
Favorites Tune Up
The top of the men’s division field at ESC sees action from a pair of highly ranked 2023 Nationals bracket sides, #10 Austin Doublewide and #8 Atlanta Chain Lightning. Both looked strong during their lone outing to date at PEC East, and, barring a truly disastrous run this weekend, have already locked up strength bids for their regions. The goal, then, is to sharpen themselves for postseason play. Doublewide have a great offense when Jake Radack’s shots are hitting, especially with youngsters Xavier Fuzat and Aaron Barcio stepping into feature roles. Can Chain disrupt it? The answer likely depends on how many of the many players missing from their first tournament (Michael Fairley, Dean Ramsey, Jeremy Langdon, and Team USA’s Brett Hulsmeyer) hit their 2024 club debuts at full speed. They’re the top two seeds for a reason; it will be a surprise if anyone else takes the tournament crown.
The Big Bid Bubble
Further down in the lineup, a lot of teams will be fighting to attain better positioning on the bid-earning bubble for their regions. #13 Seattle Sockeye, as the third overall seed, will be an interesting team to watch, as they continue to rebound from missing Nationals last year and integrating stalwarts like Trent Dillon, Phil Murray, and Brice Dixon with young talent like Declan Miller and Ryan Shigley. Their bid is likely safe, and a weekend commensurate with their seed would cement it.
#11 Virginia Vault, #15 Raleigh-Durham United, and #17 New York Blueprint are currently the last three bid-earning teams. (#16 Minneapolis Sub Zero are technically ranked behind them, but they are just the representative for the North Central’s autobid.) They’ll each want to keep those strength bids from falling into the hands of a different region. That means staying ahead of #21 Amherst Sprout and #19 Vancouver Furious George, currently top among the bevy of teams within 200 points of the cutoff. For a more thorough look at the ins and outs of the bid landscape, check out our Club Bidwatch.
Other Notes from around the Division
- ESC features the top two men’s teams in Minnesota, Sub Zero and Minneapolis Mallard. Mallard have generally played second fiddle among this pair, but their roster this weekend is certainly interesting; in addition to their general bunch of Minnesota Grey Duck standouts and young talent from the state, they also roster former Sub Zero and Drag’n Thrust standouts Blake Trantina and Josh Klane, as well as the inimitable Ryan Osgar! Sub will counter with a heap of young stars like Will Brandt and Gordon Larson who weren’t with the team earlier this season. North Central pecking order is on the line.
- #18 Eugene Dark Star’s attempt to repeat last season’s Nationals campaign came out of the gate with a stumble. Earning a bid might be off the table at this point, but a combination of hoping for Furious George to get one and proving they’re good enough to beat the other Northwest challengers would get them right back on track.
Women’s Division
Unchalked
With all of the division’s blue bloods sitting out ESC this weekend, the fight will shift from teams jockeying for championship edges to teams striving to prove they can join the title fight as soon as this October. And there are a whole lot of them, with a whopping 11 top-25 teams in the field. Given the lack of a shoe-in favorite, there’s a big chance we see a lot of lower seeds winning games both in pool play and the bracket. Prepare for a weekend utterly lacking in chalk.
Northwest Showdown
Three of the current bid earners for the Northwest region will be present in Indianapolis this weekend: #10 Portland Schwa, #11 Utah Dark Sky, and #13 Seattle Riot. Each of these three teams will be looking to separate themselves from the pack and gain some momentum heading towards the postseason, because while they each have a bid now, it’s going to be a tough putt to keep all four. However many strength bids they end up with at the end of the day, though, getting a one-up on what looks to be a tight regional grouping will be on their minds.
Bid Watch
Speaking of Nationals hopefuls, the first three teams currently out1 are going to be playing for those strength bids. #17 San Francisco Nightlock, #15 Washington DC Grit, and #18 Oakland LOL will be looking to pick off any of the aforementioned Northwest contenders or even earn a bid from the Northeast, who will be represented by #9 Quebec Iris, or the Mid-Atlantic, represented by #14 Pittsburgh Parcha. For an in-depth rundown of this weekend’s bid implications, check out our standalone Club Bidwatch article.
Other Notes from around the Division
- #7 Toronto 6ixers have had some moderate success this season with a great win over the #6 Raleigh Phoenix at PEC East, but haven’t demonstrated they have what it takes to make a title run in San Diego. They do come into this tournament as the top seed, but anything less than domination portends a semifinals ceiling.
- There’s also more than a few WUC players this weekend, including the aforementioned 6ixers’ stars Britt Dos Santos, Sarah Jacobsohn, and Tiffany Zhang who will represent team Canada alongside Iris’ Anouchka Beaudry and Pénélope Robert. Team USA also has some representatives from Schwa, with Julia Sherwood playing for the mixed team and Claudia Tajima on the women’s squad.
Mixed Division
Minneapolis: Dragging or Thrusting in 2024?
The ESC mixed field is headlined by #4 Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust, whose performance to date has not settled whether they are in the contending class or not. Drag’n have been one of the strongest teams in the division during the regular season each of the past few years, but are still working on putting it all together. A loss to #1 Seattle BFG at PEC West doesn’t ding their record much. Losing to #7 San Francisco Mischief at the same tournament, though? That’s the sort of game they need to win every time out if they want to get back to semis – or beyond. Look for Team USA’s Dylan DeClerck and Sarah Meckstroth to have big weekends before jetting off to Australia.
Making Mischief, Expecting a Rally
Speaking of Mischief, they’ll want to capitalize on the high points of their season to date, including the aforementioned win over Drag’n and a shocking dismantling of 2023 champions #9 Fort Collins shame., with consistently high level play against a field littered with potential traps. Jaclyn Watoaka is definitely a player to watch for Mischief this weekend, as the disc tends to move through her a lot in the handler space for their O-line.
#11 Washington DC Rally are in a similar position, albeit without quite so many games on their resume. They have bona fide club heavy-hitters in Jenny Fey and Brandon Lamberty (among others) – and also a bona fide club collapse in their loss to #6 Philadelphia AMP at PEC East. If they can make it through the weekend without a similar brutal ending, we could be looking at a legitimate quarters-or-better Nationals threat.
Bid Chaos Set to Pop Off
You won’t get anything like the level of detail here that you will if you click over to our recently released Club Bidwatch, but here’s what’s at stake in the ever-volatile mixed division: Rally, #18 Boston Sprocket, and #15 Sacramento Tower need to keep raising the bar to keep their bids. #10 Madison NOISE, #12 Arizona Lawless, #16 Seattle Mixtape, #24 Dallas Public Enemy, and Ithaca Townies are going to charge hard to burgle them. Extra incentive could lead to incredible fireworks on the field.
Other Notes from around the Division:
- It’s a new era for Tower, who added Tom Doi and Robyn Fennig to a roster that finished strong even without them in 2023. Fennig in particular is one to keep an eye on. The former Player of the Year has already made highlight-reel blocks this year at Goalty Nationals and Masters Nationals. Surely she will be generous enough to treat us with another demonstration in USAU club play.
- The Southeast teams at ESC are potentially out of bid-challenging range. That doesn’t mean #19 Nashville ‘Shine and Charlotte Storm don’t have anything to play for: every chance to practice against top competition will be valuable in what promises to be a tumultuous region. And when they aren’t playing, they can hope for dominant results from compatriots #13 Huntsville Space Force, just inside the bid picture and playing this weekend on the other side of the country at the Ski Town Classic.
According to www.frisbee-rankings.com ↩
