The best players in the game right now

October 4, 2025 by Ultiworld in Opinion

There’s no shortage of talent in the USA Ultimate Club men’s division. We look a lot at team success, and often see familiar names and faces in those discussions. But who are the best individual players? Who brings the most value to winning a championship? Figuring out which stars shine the brightest is more art than science, but perhaps there’s democratic power in numbers.

So who are the best players in the division right now? To try to clear away as much of the white noise created by circumstance as possible and get to the heart of each individual’s value and contribution, we asked a diverse group of twelve members of our coverage team, as well as an anonymous group of elite players, to weigh in on the following prompt:

If you were starting a club team today with the singular goal of winning a theoretical Club Championship this October, how would you rank the players within the division? You aren’t building a team of all of your selections, so don’t worry about how the players complement each other. Consider each pick the first pick of a team, drafting in order, only you can’t pick the players you’ve already ranked above. All players who were on a 2025 USA Ultimate Club men’s division roster of a team that reached regionals are eligible to be drafted. With regards to injuries an absences, we will include all rostered players unless there is confirmation a player will not be competing, or would not be able to compete, at Nationals.

In order to improve how representative our rankings are of the opinions of our voters, we have iterated until arriving at this process. We each listed out our top 35 players to iron out some of the gradations on the fringes and then combined our lists to create a composite ranking. In addition, we included the ballots of a few anonymous elite players and coaches from different teams and regions. We used a weighted scoring system for votes, with Participants’ Ballots counting as 60% of the value of Staff Ballots, and Subscriber Ballots counting as 30% of the value of Staff Ballots.¹

We’ll start with our top 10, and discussion about that group. Then we’ll reveal the entire top 25, followed by the complete ballots, and additional conversations about the rankings.

Staff Voters

Calvin Ciorba (Staff Writer)
Charlie Eisenhood (Editor-in-Chief)
Emmet Holton (Staff Writer)
Josh Katz (Staff Writer)
Keith Raynor (Senior Editor)
Alex Rubin (Senior Staff Writer)
Patrick Stegemoeller (Senior Staff Writer)
Edward Stephens (Club Editor)

The Top 10

Overall Rank	Player Name	Ranking Pts.	Josh Katz	Edward Stephens	Patrick Stegemoeller	Emmet Holton	Alex Rubin	Keith Raynor	Calvin Ciorba	Charlie Eisenhood	Participants (5)	Subscribers (14)
1	Daan De Marrée	3737.2	1	1	4	1	1	1	2	1	5	1
2	Christian Boxley	3720.6	4	3	3	4	4	3	3	4	1	4
3	Michael Ing	3702.7	2	2	2	2	3	5	1	2	4	3
4	Raphy Hayes	3596.4	8	6	1	7	8	2	4	3	2	2
5	Henry Ing	3497.2	3	7	6	6	6	4	5	6	5	6
6	Tobe Decraene	3218.7	7	5	11	8	2	7	7	5	9	5
7	John Randolph	2922.6	9	4	19	3	9	6	8	8	11	7
8	Jonny Malks	2550.7	15	8	9	11	12	15	6	11	13	17
9	Mac Hecht	2373.8	17	9	17	9	21	9	11	19	12	11
10	Ben Dameron	2343.4	6	17	16	14	15	13	16	18	10	14

[Editor: There may be some sorting issues with the table that cannot be altered at the time. Our apologies for the inconvenience.]

Daan De Marrée was the overwhelming favorite for the #1 overall ranking this year, topping six of our eight staff ballots, as well as the subscriber ballot. What is it about De Marrée’s play this season that made it so clear? Raphy Hayes (4) and Michael Ing (3) also earned one first place vote apiece from the staff, and Christian Boxley (2) finished first among the participants — and all of them performed well in everybody’s voting. How did you decide in what order to rank them?

Keith Raynor (Senior Editor): Of that cohort, I had De Marrée at the top, followed by Hayes, Boxley, and Michael Ing (below Henry Ing). To me, he feels like the most complete one right now. I’m not sure he has a superpower over the others — well, maybe a bottomless well of energy — but he might be the second best at each major aspect. The biggest knock might be lack of experience, but I’ll choose to be ahead of the curve here.

I’m not necessarily surprised this is where consensus is at, but I think from where we were a year ago, it is quite surprising how much this position has become so popular.

Alex Rubin (Senior Staff Writer): I agree with Keith — it’s hard to point out a precise superpower, but it’s so clear to me that De Marrée is the best player every time he is on the field that he was an easy lock at #1. He is always moving in the right way and maybe not making the most flashy plays, but clearly productive on both sides of the disc.

Josh Katz (Staff Writer): Healthy Joe White is, I think, the only player that could touch De Marrée right now. Unfortunately, we don’t have a healthy Joe White, so De Marrée is my number one, for the same reasons Keith and Alex mentioned. He’s just so good at so many things

Patrick Stegemoeller (Senior Staff Writer): I had Raphy Hayes #1 last year, and nothing that has happened since has dissuaded me from keeping him there. I think he’s slightly more explosive than De Marrée and, crucially, has proven that he can be the centerpiece of a title-winning team. Even his volatile performance at World Games speaks to why I think he’s #1 for this exercise: when you have a team built around his strengths (not what team USAU did) he’s got the most effective superpowers in the division.

Edward Stephens (Club Editor): Both Hayes and Henry Ing were in consideration for the top spot for me, but I didn’t feel comfortable with either of them because, as well as they played last year and in August at the World Games, not being on the field for Rhino’s toughest games of the season at US Open and Pro Champs means I don’t feel like I have an exact sense of where they stand this season in USAU play.

For me, that meant deciding between Boxley, Michael Ing, and De Marrée. Boxley’s execution hasn’t been quite as sharp as it has needed to be in my eyes to the number one player — so really it was just a coin flip between Ing and De Marrée. Tie goes to the O-line player.

Mac Hecht (9) and Jonny Malks (8) both landed near the back end of the top 10 as center handlers. The rest of the top 10 tend to play downfield roles in teams’ offenses. Do you feel like it does or does not reflect your perception of the division that center handlers are not better represented at the top of the list?

Calvin Ciorba (Staff Writer): The days of the center handler being the best player are behind us. Yes, Malks and Hecht play their roles quite well, but in order to be the best player in the division, you need to do more than that. The people I put above the center handlers are gonna give me big gainers downfield while also have all the throws these center handlers can have.

Edward: Hecht might not be the best player on his team — that’s Michael Ing — but I’d wager a fair amount he’s the best player on his line. I wonder why more players don’t embrace that handler role: Revolver’s offense is the best in the game thanks in large part to Hecht, and Sockeye appear to have been both catalyzed and stabilized by having Malks for the first time.

Alex: I’d be interested if we did this exercise ten years ago if they’d be higher, but with both the style of offense played now and the overall increase in disc skills across the board, the best players are the ones who can get open downfield and throw well. Malks and Mac are some of the best throwers in the world , but they can’t play downfield the way Hayes or both Ing brothers do — and at this point in the sport’s progress, that’s the harder skill.

Patrick: Teams are getting too good at pushing center handlers downfield or disconnecting them from the cutter flow. Guys like Hecht and Malks who have the range on throws to reconnect the offense and the craftiness to still get to their spots are the exception, and they still are having to subsume their games a bit to the ‘pace-and-space’ offensive systems that define the current offensive meta.

And also, defense is a skill that matters in all this.

A couple of players in the top-10 made huge leaps from this time last year. Michael Ing (3) finished in the final slot in 2024, an elevation of 22 places. Tobe Decraene (6) was unranked. What changed about these players from a year ago?

Keith: Michael Ing was in his first full season back last year after an injury, and I think was still ramping up as we did this exercise. At Nationals, he hit full sprint and showed us what he can do and hasn’t stopped since. It’s impressive he has recovered this well, because he’s somehow back on the trajectory his PotY level college skills once promised.

Decraene has gained steam because he has grown (makes sense since he’s so young that we see such leaps in his game) in his skill, and also in his role. He’s taking on bigger volume without cutting down on his difficulty curve. After another year of seeing it all come together, the time is now to buy.

Alex: It’s hard not to point out that Michael Ing not only had a great Nationals last year, but just looked like the best player in the world at the World Games. I wonder if he would be that high if he was just playing D-line for Revolver at US Open and not getting a chance to shut down the literal best players in the world on the biggest stage in the sport. I’m not saying it’s not deserved — just that the circumstances of this season might have something to do with the magnitude of his rise.

Patrick: I think important to call out the role of the UFA in Decraene’s glow-up. I don’t weigh it has heavily as USAU or elite WFDF play, but it is a laboratory for seeing what some of the real freaks of the game can do, and Tobe got freaky all season for the Glory.

Edward: Some of us (me) haven’t watched so much as a minute of Decraene’s UFA play. The way he’s taken all the most important plays over on DiG, despite being surrounded by some of the most dominant athletes in the game, is everything.

Every staff voter (except Alex) ranked a player in the top 10 who did not end up placing in the overall top 15. Make your case: why should everyone else have been higher on your disrespected star?

Edward: If I’ve got to pick one single player that most of the rest of you are behind on, it’s Will Brandt (25). The guy is simply elite right now. Feels like a case where people are looking past him because he hasn’t had the chance to prove it at Nationals for a couple years. That’s reasonable and all, but it’s also wrong. He’s right in the thick of it with Mac Hecht and Jonny Malks for best handler in the country in 2025.

Keith: I’m still a huge fan of Nate Goff’s (16) game. Evolving into an initiating cutter who can be dangerous at all levels has made him such a flexible player. He can be your ace cutter, defender, or play a more complimentary role. That sort of easy fit is really attractive to build around. If Machine show out as expected, I think it’s possible he’s their best player at Nationals.

Patrick: Technically he came in at #15, but in the spirit of the question, I think we were collectively too low on Thomas Edmonds. A guy who was a legit DPOTY contender has shown that he can be the hub of an elite offense… and people are going to put him somewhere around 20? I think most people in DC have him and Boxley as a coinflip for Truck’s most important player, and credit his World Games-enforced absence for some of the Breeze’s no-show against Boston in the UFA playoffs.

The Top 25 and Beyond

Top 25

1. Daan De Marrée
2. Christian Boxley
3. Michael Ing
4. Raphy Hayes
5. Henry Ing
6. Tobe Decraene
7. John Randolph
8. Jonny Malks
9. Mac Hecht
10. Ben Dameron
11. Chris Kocher
12. Declan Miller
13. Jeff Babbitt
14. Dylan Freechild
15. Thomas Edmonds
16. Nate Goff
17. Sam Little
18. Orion Cable
19. Malik Auger-Semmar
20. Grant Lindsley
21. Brett Hulsmeyer
22. Adam Rees
23. Jack Hatchett
24. Quinn Finer
25. Will Brandt

Full Voting & Discussion

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1. Our experience has shown that participants’ ballots trend towards regional concentrations and emphasizing the strength of their teammates, as well as other quirks such as occasionally not ranking themselves or hate-ranking rivals, which is why their ballots are weighted in this manner. ↩