From major storylines to offseason shakeups to a guessing at who could be the ninth different champ in nine seasons, we've got you covered for the club season.
June 27, 2025 by Edward Stephens, Aidan Thomas and Alex Rubin in Preview
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 club ultimate season 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.
Ahead of Pro Elite Challenge, the first stop on the Triple Crown Tour and first major event of the 2025 club season, we’ve got you covered on all the major storylines, players to watch, preseason rankings, and way-too-early semis picks in the Club Men’s Division.
Club Division 2025 Primers: Men’s | Mixed | Women’s
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Major Storylines
Another New Winner?
Who wants to bet we get our ninth different champion in nine years this October?1 It’s enticing to think this is the new normal – but before you go all in, let’s take a look at the math. All of the top four men’s teams in our preseason rankings appear to be in the mix. #2 Portland Rhino Slam! (obviously) would break the variation streak if they repeat; so would 2018 champions (and last year’s runners-up) #3 New York PoNY. #1 Chicago Machine and #4 Boston DiG, on the other hand, are both well-positioned to keep the carousel spinning.
Two for and two against, then. But are the odds really 50-50? The answer depends partly on how much you believe in Machine’s ability to field a full roster all the way through Nationals. Last season saw them end the regular season as one of the favorites, only to suffer three catastrophic injuries (John Lithio, Walden Nelson, and Joe White) and a crucial penalty (the result of Daan De Marrée’s double-yellow-card in quarters). They bring back White, Daan De Marrée, Johnny Bansfield, Nate Goff, Paul Arters, Jeff Gao – in short, virtually all of their key players from the last few seasons – and add a pair of international aces in Sam McGuckin (Australia) and Sofiène Bontemps (Belgium). Provided that they don’t run smack into the bad luck bug again, the Machine roster – like that of DiG, who also return their core and add Italian superstar Sebastian Rossi – tips the title odds into “new winner” territory.
Or perhaps it doesn’t. There may not be a team in the country with more on-paper improvements than PoNY, who add (among others) new recruits Ben Dameron, Anders Juengst, Tristan Yarter, Ethan Lieman, and Jacob Cowan, who can enjoy Marques Brownlee’s World Games season, and who, even without all that, made last season’s championship game. And then there is Rhino. The champs have brought in a couple of important pieces (2024 Mixed DPotY Lukas Ambrose and a back-from-retirement Nick Stuart) and, outside of losing Will Lohre to injury, retain a massive portion of the roster that declaimed the death of small ball and ran roughshod over the Nationals field last fall. Raphy Hayes, Matt Rehder, Dylan Freechild, Daniel Lee, David Sealand, Henry Ing, and Jack Hatchett (to name a few) are all horns up again in 2025. Maybe – although I want to emphasize just maybe – the foundation of a new dynasty has already been laid.
A New Chapter for Truck Stop
When Rowan McDonnell switched kit from Truck Stop to DiG last season, it felt important and symbolic — he was the club’s defining player, and one of its best, for years — but thanks to Truck’s Marianas depth and the fact that McDonnell’s position was (unofficially) undefined, it seemed as though they would be able to replace him in the aggregate. (And, in the opinion of this writer, they did.) This season the ‘replace-a-star’ challenge kicks up another notch, though. They’re losing center handler Johnny Malks and 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Troy Holland. While they still have plenty of talent, it remains to be seen whether they will have enough of it at those two crucial positions. Matchup defenders as versatile as Holland and throwers as poised as Malks are unique assets.
Can they still compete at the highest level without them? Downfield they aren’t going to have any issues. Christian Boxley, Cole Jurek, and Tyler Monroe remain three of the best in the business, and you figure that between Kevin Healey, Miles Grovic, and Chain Lightning transfer Aidan Downey that they’ll have plenty of rotational options. But around the disc? Two of the more capable backfield generals, Thomas Edmonds and AJ Merriman, could probably make the switch to O-line, but at what cost to an already-weakened D-line? And there are enough question marks around the versatility of Gus Norrbom, Jacques Nissen, and Andrew Roy to make one skeptical of a pure plug-and-play. The way the leadership group puzzles out how to rework their pieces around the holes will determine if Truck are set to stay among the division’s elite for another season.
Who Could Run to Semis?
Repeated success in the men’s division has been brutally difficult, with no repeat champions in the last decade. Furthermore, every year since Nationals returned from its COVID-induced hiatus at least two of the previous season’s four semifinalists have failed to return to that stage. However, on that flip side of that coin, rarely does a true title threat emerge from nowhere. 2018 Sockeye were the last team to make the semis after not at least making quarterfinals the year before.
So where does that leave us in 2025? It won’t be easy to dethrone last year’s semifinalists, with Rhino, Machine, and PoNY remaining the top three teams in the preseason rankings, and Revolver slotting in at No. 5.
Who can enter the chaos? The clear choice is Boston DiG, who have been knocking on the door, with consecutive quarterfinal exits. DiG get a second straight year of Jeff Babbitt’s services and rising star Tobe Decraene, a potential MVP candidate in the UFA this season. With their wide assortment of young stars including Orion Cable and Calvin Stoughton, DiG feel like they are entering their prime and are ready to break through.
After that, it’d be foolish to write off a talent-laden Truck Stop squad that could certainly return to the semis after a one-year hiatus. The other half of last year’s quarterfinalists, #7 Atlanta Chain Lightning and #11 Raleigh Ring of Fire, feel like the less likely options to make that semis jump. Chain Lightning could be a factor, but with three quarterfinal losses and a prequarters defeat in their past four Nationals, it’s feeling less like a knocking on the door and more like an inability to break into that elite tier of title contenders. Ring of Fire lacked defensive bite last season, crashing out in a 15-8 quarterfinal loss. It’s unclear whether this squad, laden with current and former UNC Darkside stars, got much better, and as a result they’ve slipped to No. 11 in the preseason rankings.
And of course, trends are meant to be broken. Perhaps the most likely team since 2018 Sockeye to make semis after failing to make quarters the previous season is… 2025 Sockeye. The Seattle squad returned to Nationals after shockingly missing the field in 2023. Last year’s return led them to bracket and a prequarters loss to Truck Stop. Now Sockeye bring back some of their young stars that got big-time college reps this past spring, including national champion and Ultiworld player of the year Declan Miller as well as Western Washington’s dynamic handler Cedar Hines. If you’re looking for a team to really shake things up, that’s the roster to keep an eye on.
Tiered Power Rankings
Tier 1 – Heart of a Champion
Five seems like a pretty big grouping for title contention, but just try to find daylight between this quintet of juggernauts.
- Machine
- Rhino Slam!
- PoNY
- DiG
- Revolver
Tier 2 – Semis Shot
Youth (Sockeye), underwhelming historical performances (Chain), the stink of 2024 Nationals (Johnny Bravo), and missing fundamental pieces (Truck) keep us from going all in on these otherwise talented sides.
- Truck Stop
- Chain Lightning
- Johnny Bravo
- Sockeye
Tier 3 – Absolute Wildcards
Raise your hand if you think you know whether Ring, GOAT, and Furious are semis contenders or only borderline Nationals teams, and keep your hand out if you are lying about how certain you are in your prediction
- Furious George
- Ring of Fire
- GOAT
Tier 4 – No Guarantees
Plenty to like on these rosters — well, except for Doublewide, whose composition is a complete mystery at press time — but plenty of room to wonder if their regions will have enough room to accommodate their Nationals bids
- Doublewide
- Shrimp
- Mallard
- Mephisto
Tier 5 – New Kids On the Block
Three teams from the Eastern Seaboard who have been showing a lot of promise. They’re solid bets to make the leap to Nationals.
- Pacmen
- Sprout
- Garden State
Tier 6 – Trust the Process
All of these clubs have the institutional knowledge to put together a Nationals run since all of them have done it before. Expect all of them to seriously compete for a ticket to San Diego, even if only a couple of them actually make that mission successful.
- Sub Zero
- Dark Star
- Vault
- RDU
- Blueprint
- Condors
Preseason Rankings
Bid Range Per Region
Great Lakes – Minimum: 1 / Maximum: 2
Your men’s division champions, starting in 2016: Ironside, Revolver, PoNY, Sockeye, Ring of Fire, Johnny Bravo, Truck Stop, Rhino Slam! ↩
Bonus Content for Club Season Primer 2025: Men’s Division is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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