Club semifinalists? Check. National teams? Check. International stars? Check. The US Open is one of the best events of the year.
July 29, 2025 by Edward Stephens, Laura Osterlund and Emmet Holton 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.
And just like that, the calendar turns to August. With the early training, testing, and tweaking behind us, it’s time to dig into the meat of the season, beginning with one of the summer’s most demanding events: the US Open. The 2025 field consists of all 12 2024 national semifinalists, a handful of other top-level US teams looking to break into that tier, and, to add some extra pepper to the stew, elite international sides – particularly the fearsome quartet in the men’s division – to push the US clubs in unexpected ways. The first real high-octane competition of the year, the global infusion, and the fact that several of the teams will be missing their World Games contingent1 make for an unpredictable weekend of ultimate.
Ultiworld will have full showcase and field pass streaming throughout the weekend for everyone looking to follow along with the best action from Aurora, as well as dedicated on-the-ground reporting coverage via articles and our Discord. Stick with us throughout the big weekend – and read on for our full streaming schedule and a tournament preview.
Tournament Profile
- Date: August 1-3
- Location: Aurora, Colorado
- Weather: Mostly sunny with highs in the mid-80s and 10+ mph winds; low chance of rain Friday and Saturday
- Top 25 teams: 10 women’s div. / 10 mixed div. / 8 men’s div.
- Schedules & Results
- Event Page
Streaming Schedule
You have three options for watching Ultiworld’s live coverage from the 2025 US Open:
- Standard Subscription ($14.99/mo.): A Standard subscription will get you access to all of the showcase games, all six semifinals, and the primary Field Pass broadcast each round. Plus all of the other Ultiworld subscription benefits, like exclusive articles, Discord access, and more.
- All-Access Subscription ($20.99/mo.): An All-Access subscription will get you access to every single broadcasted game from the US Open: all the showcase games, the Field Pass primary broadcast, and individual All-Access FP broadcasts. Plus all of the other Ultiworld subscription benefits, like exclusive articles, Discord access, and more.
- US Open Event Pack ($24.99): A one-time Event Pack gets you lifetime access to every single game from the US Open: all the showcase games, the Field Pass primary broadcast, and individual All-Access FP broadcasts. Does not include additional subscription benefits.
Note that Ultiworld is not covering the three US Open finals: they will be broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPNU.
The full Ultiworld broadcast schedule can be found below, including the three free-to-watch games on the Ultiworld YouTube channel:
All times are MT.
Men’s Division
It’s finally time to get a temperature check on where the contender cutoff stands in the men’s field. Yes, #1 San Francisco Revolver looked dominant at PEC West, but that was against a field with a few teams well out of Nationals range – and #6 Portland Rhino Slam! didn’t even make the final (or face Revolver at all), despite a largely intact roster. Likewise, #2 New York PoNY were the clear class of PEC East, but several teams fielded what can only fairly be called understudy rosters (looking at you, Johnny Bravo-Varsity). Save for the seven inactive World Games athletes2, the US Open will be our first look at all the title hopefuls with complete (or nearly so) rosters.
PoNY, Revolver, and the Field
The New York offense looks significantly improved from their run to the championship game a season ago, as Raleigh transfers Ben Dameron and Anders Juengst fit seamlessly into the veteran-laden O-line at PEC East. Weathering the US Open field without Chris Kocher will be a much stiffer test. Though they will spend the rest of their season without Calvin Brown, who was one of the most effective pieces of their defensive attack in Sylvania, OH, they bring Jibran Mieser back into the fold in Aurora, who promises to add immediate potency to an already deep stable of defensive talent.
Revolver, for their part, found their identity in defensive excellence at PEC-West. Jason Vallee took on a greater throwing role to great success, while Sean Liston and rookie Carter Lankford were two standouts among many consistent block getters for the SF defense. Offensively, this season figures to include a healthy dose of Leo Gordon, Adam Rees, and Mac Hecht, much like a season ago. Without Michael Ing, who made an early DPoTY case in Corvallis, the returns of Dexter Clyburn and Kyle Lew will be critical to filling the defensive and offensive gaps left behind.
Beyond our two early season tournament winners, picking favorites gets muddy, both because the field is absolutely stacked and because it’s riddled with question marks. Can Rhino Slam! improve upon their result of two weeks ago, even without Henry Ing, Raphy Hayes, and Dylan Freechild? Their success last year suggests the answer is yes. How good are #3 Chicago Machine? We have them third in our power rankings despite having not played a single game, and yeah, their roster is that good. But they don’t have their full roster this weekend. In fact, two of the marquee names, Daan De Marrée and Sofiène Bontemps, are suiting up with the two seed in Machine’s own pool, Brussels Mooncatchers, who may well have the top talent to push deep in the bracket at this tournament. The questions for them will be about their depth.
#7 Boston DiG and #4 Washington DC Truck Stop both have the chance to build on solid opening salvos, each picking up a single loss at PEC East; Truck to PoNY in the final 15-10, DiG in the semis to Truck, 15-12. And what kind of a Johnny Bravo team will we get? The one we saw last regular season, going to semis at this tournament and winning Pro Champs in dominant fashion? Or the one we saw flame out in a Nationals prequarterfinal they scraped their way into with a universe point break? Tokyo Buzz Bullets, Bologna BFD LaFotta, London Clapham, and #12 Atlanta Chain Lightning each have the potential to make a run as well, even if they lack some of the recent results of the rest of the field.
Players to Watch
- Jason Vallee (Revolver) – The Revolver D-line often goes as Vallee goes. If he has a good weekend expect the team to see similarly strong returns.
- Daan De Marrée (Mooncatchers) – A tired take at this point but he is truly a marvel of endurance and athleticism. Mooncatchers lack the depth of the top US squads, but having your best player be able to play 20 points a game through an entire tournament is a pretty good stopgap.
- Sam Little (PoNY) – With Kocher inactive due to World Games, Little will likely have even higher usage than usual, and he was already driving the offense more at PEC than he did a year ago.
- Sebastian Rossi (DiG) – A new young European star has entered the Villa! Tobe Decraene was a glowing success last season, why should we expect anything different from another of Europe’s brightest young talents?
- Jacques Nissen (Truck Stop) – Truck were without Nissen at PEC, and the lack of a ruthlessly efficient backfield ace proved too great an impedance to win the tournament. Nissen brings much needed dynamism to a more conservative bullpen.
- Jack Hatchett (Rhino Slam!) – No Henry or Raphy means lots of touches for Jack. Lots of touches for Jack means lots of big throws. Simple as that.
- Noah Coolman (Johnny Bravo) – Coolman embodies the Bravo spirit. When he’s on, he’s a one of one talent who changes the complexion of the field with his athleticism and nose for the disc. When he’s off… He’s pretty off.
Women’s Division
The Big Four
Fury, Scandal, Brute, Molly. Brute, Scandal, Molly, Fury. The women’s division’s standard-bearing clubs – they have been the national semifinalists for two consecutive seasons – are the top seeds in Aurora, setting up a collision course for heavyweight contests deep in the bracket.
So far, #2 Boston Brute Squad have the only intra-fab-four win on the year, a 15-8 statement of intent over #4 Washington DC Scandal in a DC-area round robin in July (and surely a balm for the sting of having been knocked out by them at 2024 Nationals). #1 San Francisco Fury, the reigning champs, took care of business in a big way at PEC West a few weeks ago, utterly dismantling the field. #3 Molly Brown, meanwhile, have been content to lie in wait for the rest of the division to come to them: the US Open will be their 2025 debut. The blows these four titans land against one another this weekend – assuming, of course, that they end up meeting in the elimination rounds – will offer a tantalizing look at what to expect in October.
Only it will be a funhouse mirror sort of a look, since all of them will be missing key players in advance of the World Games. Six members of both the US and Colombian national teams will not cleat up with their clubs at the US Open in order to rest up for the international tournament in Chengdu.3 All four teams have plenty of talent even without their globetrotting superstars – but they will need to manage their performance differently. Look for players on the next tier to step into feature roles. Molly Brown’s Ronnie Eder and Bailey Shigley; Scandal’s Jackie Wang and Marie Périvier; Fury’s Ally Tsuji and McKinley McQuaide: expect the weight of team performance to fall more squarely on their shoulders than at other times, and get ready to see who makes the most of the opportunity. As for Brute Squad? They appear to have the services of their biggest World Games superstar at their disposal, as the indefatigable Levke Walczak is listed on the event roster.
Cracking the Quartet
#5 New York BENT have been on a mission since the end of last season (at least) to infiltrate the ranks of the Big Four, though, and they might just have everything they need to do it, even without Yina Cartagena. They followed up a strong run through the PEC East field with an even stronger one at SFI East, and they could end up being the most well-honed group in Aurora. Ella Juengst and Caitlyn Tien have been on fire in the early going, and Brute transfers Samiya Ismail and Amy Zhou could push them over the top.
It hasn’t been quite so smooth for #6 San Diego Flipside, who would have preferred a much closer game than the 15-8 drubbing they received at the hands of Fury in the PEC West final. That said, they’re still close to the mark. Thanks to the World Games, though, they’ll need to lean a little more heavily on players like Kaitlyn Weaver, Kristen Pojunis, Jasmine Childress, Tori Gray, and Kelli Iwamoto to soak up the displaced touches and matchups that would normally belong to Kaela Helton.
#9 Seattle Riot are intriguing, particularly as they’re likely to have U24 stars Chloe Hakimi and Lauren Goddu stepping into big roles. So are #10 Pittsburgh Parcha, who will look to build on a stupendous PEC East performance that saw them barrel into the final. With apologies to both of them, though, the third team with a really good chance to reach semis is BFD Shout, a team based in Bologna, Italy. Notable Euro club standouts like Charlotte Schall, Juliette Bertrand, Martina Kmecová, and Elena Benghi should measure up fairly well against the best American players. Could a Cinderella run to the final be in store?
Players to Watch
- Charlotte Schall (BFD Shout) – The 2023 European Player of the Year — and soon-to-be World Games star — Schall is the engine the powers the Shout offense. Let’s see how she stacks up against the likes of Scandal and BENT on Friday.
- Samiya Ismail (BENT) – Ismail had been launching beautiful hucks for Brute Squad — but now she has moved to a new club. How much will those boosts boost BENT’s ceiling? Could be an x-factor for them.
- Faye Burdick (Molly Brown) – Speaking of x-factors, Molly Brown could use an extra one for the weekend with three of their to players resting up for World Games. Burdick’s aggressive offensive game and massive layouts could prove to be exactly what they need.
- Carolyn Normile (Parcha) – Normile is on a heater to start the 2025 season, and her play has been one of the big reasons for Parcha’s hot start. Can she keep up the excellent work as the level of competition rises?
- Gabby Everett (Grit) – Want a young player to get excited about? Look no further than Grit’s Everett, making her elite club debut this year. She just finished up a fantastic rookie season with Virginia Hydra in the college division.
- Ally Tsuji (Fury) – We don’t give out Defensive Player of the Month awards — but if we did, Tsuji would have won July 2025 in a landslide. Injured for Nationals last season, she has returned in a huge way as Fury’s best block getter.
Mixed Division
The mixed division is doing what it does best – not letting any team (or two or four) dominate the field and making things interesting and unpredictable. There are no frontrunners. Or, perhaps more accurately, there are too many frontrunners. The door is wide open for any team to rise above them all and win.
The question remains: Who will it be?
While no teams competing at US Open have “perfect” lossless seasons, several are close and make a strong case. For starters, take a look at the reigning US Open and National Champions, #6 Ann Arbor Hybrid, who added depth to their roster from last year but finished in the middle of the pack at PEC East. Or perhaps you prefer the tournament’s top seed, #10 Seattle BFG, whose short-handed squad fell to #2 San Francisco Mischief (not playing at the US Open) in the final of PEC West. #4 New York XIST and #1 Fort Collins shame. also only have one loss to their seasons, and #7 Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust should never be counted out.
And then there’s the question of the continental divide. With every (USAU) club competing at this tournament only playing in their respective PEC’s, we have yet to see East and West teams face off. This weekend will be the first time in the season that East and West teams clash — and it’ll happen right away, as the organizers gave the top seeds in each pool to the PEC West group, and the second seeds to the PEC East group, setting up immediate tests and important connectivity.
In pool play, we will see two potential marquee matchups as both of last year’s national semifinals will replay themselves: BFG facing #9 Boston Sprocket and Drag’n Thrust taking on Hybrid4. On the other side of the pools, although not as noteworthy, shame. and XIST, and #11 Boston Slow and #16 Austin Disco Club will also see rematches from last year’s Nationals.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the US Open without international competition. This year sees two clubs flying north from Colombia. Bucaramanga Voltaje and Bogotá Makawua sit on two sides of the same coin — Voltaje are a veteran team at the US Open at this point, with this year as their third appearance in a row. On the other end, there’s Makawua, who will see the US Open for the first time as a mixed team. The outfit from Bogotá have competed on the big stage in the men’s division, but will make their mixed stateside debut this weekend. One of the highlights will be getting to see how star Jonathan Cantor looks in advance of his appearance at the World Games for Colombia.
Players to Watch
- Travis Dunn (Lawless) – When the 2023 OPotY and two time All Clubber missed PEC, #23 Arizona Lawless suffered, only winning one game of their six total. Now that he’s present, they could find their mojo.
- Sadie Jezierski (XIST) – One of the most powerful cannons in the mixed division is taking her talents to play East Coast frisbee. With the arm of All-WUL First Teamer, Sadie Jezierski could combine with XIST’s speedy receivers for offensive domination
- Naomi Fina (BFG) – The Carleton Syzygy speedster has been known to best some of the top college defenders. Now, making her club debut with BFG, the world5 is Naomi Fina’s oyster.
- Rory Veldman (shame.) – A few years removed from her BPOTY season, Rory Veldman has continued to make waves in every sphere she enters. And after just being named to the All-WUL First Team, she’s bound for even more greatness on the club scene.
- Kyle Suelflow (Drag’n Thrust) – It was only a season ago that Suelflow was a practice player for the team, getting promoted to the roster midseason. Now, he’s proven his defensive and offensive versatility with a standout season for Minnesota Windchill and big moves at U24 Worlds earlier this summer.
- Aaron Bartlett (Hybrid) – With another dominant college season and a U24 gold medal under his belt, the reigning mixed OPotY will (likely) only get better and no doubt have the poise to step up and be a rock forHybrid’s offense once again.
None of the fourteen Team USA competitors are allowed to compete with their clubs at the US open, per coach Matty Tsang. ↩
PoNY’s Chris Kocher and Marques Brownlee; Rhino’s Henry Ing, Dylan Freechild, and Raphy Hayes; Revolver’s Michael Ing; and Johnny Bravo’s Grant Lindsley ↩
Fury’s Anna Thompson and Carolyn Finney; Brute Squad’s Laura Ospina, Mangie Forero, and Ximena Montaña; Molly Brown’s Claire Chastain, Valeria Cárdenas, and Manu Cárdenas; Scandal’s Claire Trop and Kami Groom; BENT’s Yina Cartagena; and Flipside’s Kaela Helton. ↩
interestingly enough, the winners of those matchups last season (Hybrid, Sprocket) are the ones entering with the lower seeds. ↩
well, field ↩
