Our expert stock watcher analyzes the best bets for your buck after a day of play at ESC
August 17, 2025 by Josh Katz in Opinion, Recap
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.
On an extremely warm Saturday in Westfield, Indiana, sixteen teams took the fields for, in many cases, the start of their last regular season tournament, all of whom had varying goals for the weekend. Over half the field had at least a somewhat-credible reason to believe they could earn a coveted Nationals bid, while others were merely hoping to generate some positive momentum heading into the Series. Top-seeded #3 Austin Disco Club continued their topsy-turvy season, while regional rivals #15 Denver Mile High Trash continued their surge up the rankings. Elsewhere, the Southeast contingent showed their strength, and many of the tournament’s bottom seeds continued to falter.
Before telling you more about what trades to make when the stock market opens again on Monday, be sure to check out our film archive and the day’s results:
Buy
Southeast Dominance
Mathematically, the best the Southeast could have done on Saturday was an 8-1 combined record (as the matchup between #2 Durham Toro and #13 Huntsville Space Force had to have a loser). Come Saturday evening, the Southeast was… 8-1, and looked mighty strong in the process. #12 Nashville ‘Shine swept Pool D without too much of a fuss. Sure, the final score between them and #24 Montana MOONDOG looks a bit closer than you’d expect, but that was also in a round interrupted by a lightning delay and in a game that never felt all that close (After ‘Shine’s first break, MOONDOG were never able to get the game back to even. Levi Branan was flying around on defense for Nashville, always a willing bidder for a disc and often coming out successful. On offense, Avi Ghitterman, Nicholas Farren, and Rachel Kramer were the leading contributors to a well-rounded line, one that was never broken during ‘Shine’s victory over #16 Philadelphia AMP to close off the day.
Like ‘Shine, Space Force also had a result that was a bit close for comfort: in their case, it was an opening round win over Richmond Revival. Space Force trailed for much of the game, and were down 10-8 when a lightning strike in the area caused a 30 minute delay. Whatever Space Force did in the parking lot during that timeout worked, as they outscored Revival 5-1 after the break to pull out a 13-11 win, and rode that momentum to wins over #17 Seattle Mixtape and Toro to win Pool B. The trio of Sean Connole, Isaiah Mason, and Jonathan Sillivant were all crucial to that Huntsville comeback: Mason had a block, a goal, and an assist on consecutive points to tie the game and take the lead, with Sillivant getting the respective assist and goal, plus another assist to Connole to start the run. That same trio, plus Nick Loughran, were all heavily involved as Space Force raced out to an 8-4 halftime lead over Mixtape.
And Toro started the day strong with a pair of blowout wins over Mixtape and Revival, before running out of steam against Space Force to close out the day. Although we don’t have yardage totals for ESC, I’d wager Claire Bidigare-Curtis was the leader in receiving yards today: it felt like she was running her defender ragged on every point, constantly finding herself open downfield and/or in the endzone. It helped that she had Player Pierce and Elijah Long usually on her line, both of whom were more than comfortable trusting her to get open at a moment’s notice. Don’t be surprised if tomorrow’s final is a preview of Southeast Regionals… or if the next official rankings update has three bids heading there.
Hold
Sacramento Tower
On paper, a 3-0 day for Tower, without talisman Robyn Fennig, is a pretty great day. But peek under the hood, and some cracks begin to emerge. Just a +7 point differential? Just a two point win over Ithaca Townies (a game that was tied at 9-9 before a hold and a break to seal it, no less)? A one goal win over Mile High Trash? Those aren’t exactly results befitting the number five team in our Power Rankings. That being said, there were plenty of positive developments for Tower. Ryan Takayama was poised and confident in the backfield, and Tom Doi was an excellent partner for him. And Julianna Madigan appears to have gone to the Anders and Ella Juengst School for Endzone Cutting over the offseason; an unofficial count from one of her teammates says she scored half of Tower’s goals today.1 It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them put together another 3-0 day on Sunday, just given the potential path ahead of them, but we need to see a bit more before putting Tower in championship contention.
Two-Bid Mid-Atlantic
Entering the weekend, #14 Washington DC Rally and Philadelphia AMP each found themselves just inside bid-earning range. Halfway through the weekend, Rally and AMP each find themselves… juuuuuust inside bid-earning range2. Rally are still being weighed down by some big losses at the US Open, and they squandered a great chance to earn some of those points back by coming out slow against Chicago Parlay to open the day (Rally trailed 7-5 at one point, before scoring three straight to take half and then winning the second half 6-3). A quarterfinal matchup with Toro to start Sunday offers a great chance to climb the rankings, but Rally will need to rise to the moment to take advantage.
AMP, meanwhile, just don’t have the same level of depth they used to possess during their heyday, when they could simply wear down their opponents. They seemed to run out of legs under the heat against ‘Shine, unable to consistently force turnovers or convert break opportunities when they came around. It didn’t help that they’re also still trying to find a new easy button on offense, nearly two years since Henry Ing last played for the club. The offense was too reliant on one of Lindsay McKenna, Danielle Walsh, or Ethan Sarles to make something happen. That’s not necessarily a bad thing… except they also frequently crossed McKenna over to defense and asked her to do the same heroic act on that side. As great as McKenna is, that’s a lot to ask of her. The youthful infusion AMP has received recently (Nolan McCloskey, Zoe Costanza, Will Zamsky, and others) was much needed, but this feels like a team still a year away from being a serious threat.
With both AMP and Rally in the top bracket on Sunday, there’s ample opportunity for both to cement their bids and return the Mid-Atlantic to two bid status. With apologies to Pittsburgh Port Authority and the rest of the Mid-Atlantic, you’d have to consider AMP and Rally heavy favorites at a two bid Regionals. Should either falter, however, we’ll likely be in for a repeat of last year’s thrilling regional final.
Sell
Northwest
There are going to be numerous retrospective articles on the collective disappointment that was the Northwest region in 2025. What was a four bid region last year (and a perennial multi-bid earner) is now almost certainly going to end up with just a single bid this year. Like the Southeast, the Northwest had three clubs in attendance at ESC, each with varying degrees of a chance of earning a bid. Mixtape were the closest heading in, but they struggled mightily, leading off the day with blowout defeats to Toro and Space Force before salvaging a semblance of hope with a win over Revival. Their offense never seemed to click into gear today, especially when Seattle tried to open up the field with their deep game. On three consecutive possessions early against Space Force, three different throwers (Marc Anthony Muñoz, Lucy Tanner, and Mo Tilmo) overthrew their receivers, leading to two breaks and a 4-1 deficit that Mixtape were never able to narrow.
Seattle Lights Out and MOONDOG, the other two Northwest clubs, would’ve needed to play nearly perfect ultimate to even get close to the bid picture. To be frank, neither were anywhere close to that. Lights Out lost all of their games by four goals or more, including a 10 (!) goal loss to Mile High Trash. MOONDOG were marginally better, falling by two to ‘Shine and on universe to #21 San Francisco Polar Bears. And while this article is ESC-focused, we should also mention that the Northwest collectively went 0-9 in match play at Northwest Fruit Bowl, the weekend’s other big Mixed tournament. Just a shocking letdown on all fronts by the Northwest.
Parity in Mixed
The mixed division, always known for being the most chaotic and unpredictable, was anything but on Saturday. Just three games out of 24 total didn’t go according to seed on Saturday, and the eight teams in the top bracket are the tournament’s top eight seeds. So is parity really dead? In short, probably not. Today felt more like a display of the haves and the have-nots in the division. Those top eight seeds all look and feel like true Nationals-caliber teams, even if all eight likely won’t end up making it. The bottom eight each have too many flaws to think that any one of them is Nationals-caliber. Just three of the sixteen games between a top eight and bottom eight team were decided by two goals. Among that upper tier, however, parity is still alive. Two of those three aforementioned upsets came in this tier, in Rally’s win over Disco Club and Toro’s defeat at the hands of Space Force. The other two “top-eight” matchups, Tower vs Mile High Trash and ‘Shine vs AMP, were each close games decided by three goals or fewer. Expect more surprises in the top bracket on Sunday.
I’m not sure the number is quite that high, but I’d believe it. ↩
Seriously. Per our Projected Rankings, Rally are just two points ahead of Boston Wild Card for the final bid, and AMP just 20 points above Rally. ↩
