What stood out (both good and bad) from the first day of the annual early season major.
February 1, 2025 by Edward Stephens in Recap
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Aside from a few gusty moments today, the weather has been simply lovely in Gainesville. Plenty of sun and temperatures in the 70s are just what the doctor ordered for squads traveling from such snowy regions as Minnesota, upstate New York, Massachusetts, Quebec, western Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, and New Orleans. That sunshine was like a spotlight on the tournament, putting pure college ultimate – unpredictable, raucous, and wonderful as ever – on center stage at Florida Warm Up.
Five of nine rounds of match play action are in the books. You can view the results on the USAU event page. Those results, of course, won’t take you very far without the rest of the formula. Warm Up does not follow a standard pools-to-bracket tournament format. Instead, it groups teams by win-loss record, then sorts each team within each W-L grouping by algorithm. The eight top teams by this system qualify for a single elimination championship bracket played Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Here is where the competitors stand after one day of play.
#14 Georgia Jojah, #5 Carleton CUT, and #16 Michigan MagnUM, undefeated so far, are in a great position to play in the championship bracket once match play concludes. (#17 BYU CHI top the table and can also finish undefeated, but they are a special case from a standings point of view. More to come their weekend in other recaps.)1 None of them have games scheduled against each other on Saturday, leaving open the possibility that all could remain undefeated until Sunday morning.
But the standings at Warm Up aren’t everything. What’s worth even more is the first real spring look we get at programs that have been in development for months. You’ve been told that first impressions matter – and we have found that idea holds some truth. Read on for what left this reporter – or unimpressed – on the first day of Florida Warm Up.
Impressed: Zoodisc Defense
Because they do not play on Sundays BYU cannot participate in bracket play and are excluded from the top grouping. ↩
Florida Warm Up 2025: Friday’s First Impressions (Men’s) is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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