Breaking down every team in every pool ahead of the US' premier club tournament
October 16, 2025 by Edward Stephens and Alex Rubin in Preview
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 Club National Championships 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.
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The first pull of the 2025 USAU Club Championships is just days away! To make sure you’re prepared for all the action, we’ve got breakdowns of every team in every pool, as well as projected finishes. Is this the year overall number one seed San Francisco Revolver reclaim their spot atop the division? Could Portland Rhino become the first men’s team since Revolver to nab back-to-back titles? Can Boston DiG replicate their success from the UFA season and win the team’s first title? How about recent champs like Washington DC Truck Stop, Raleigh Ring of Fire, and Denver Johnny Bravo, lurking as the lower seeds in pools but whose names are enough to strike fear into the heart of the most players? Upsets and high-flying plays are assured during what’s heralded as the best tournament in the world, so let’s dive right in.
Pool A
San Francisco Revolver
Pool Seeding: A1
Power Ranking: #1
Regional Finish: SW1
Overall 2025 Record: 21-1
Against the Nationals Field: 14-1
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Machine, 2-0 vs. Sockeye
Turn back the clocks to 2017 and get ready to reminisce; it’s an odd year and Revolver are favorites to win another title, which would be their sixth. Simon Higgins, Justin Lim, Eli Kerns, Byron Liu, and coach Molica Anderson are the only teammates left from the last Revolver title team, and at this point they’re good supporting players to the stars that run more modern sets on both offense and defense.
Higgins has evolved from an isolation menace in the side stack of yesteryear into a dynamic two-way player who fits into the fast-paced spread offense in which Mac Hecht, Walker Frankenberg, Adam Rees, Leo Gordon, and Raekwon Adkins thrive. Revolver move the disc quickly and use a variety of shapes and spaces to outwit even prepared defenses. A hallmark of the best offenses is the ability to threaten a defense in multiple ways. Through their youth and college careers, Hecht, Gordon, and Adkins are well-practiced in small-ball dominator sets. Meanwhile, Rees, Frankenberg, Higgins, and Dillon Whited are field stretchers who are able to threaten vertically and open up easier options closer to their throwers. Teams aiming to take down Revolver need to be ready to stop both and not give up the disc too often themselves.
For as good as the Revolver offense is looking, their D-line is just as fearsome. Kerns, Liu, and Lim add to a defense headlined by the athleticism and tenacity of Michael Ing, Daniel Ritthaler, and Jason Vallee. Ing was already an All-Club-level player who further elevated his game as a lockdown defender for Team USA at the World Games this summer. With Dexter Clyburn, Seamus Robinson, and Sean Liston also on the field, Revolver have the length and speed to effectively shut down their opponent’s deep game and force passes into small spaces.
Perhaps that is why, of all the teams to chart a course into the Revolver maelstrom this season, Truck Stop were the only ones to sail out of it intact, coming away with a 15-13 pool play win at the US Open. Truck are very comfortable hitting tight window throws and manage to keep possession against high-pressure defenses better than any other team in the division. While that win came in early August and was played without Ing on the field, it does offer a blueprint for other teams to aim to take down the favorites.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Chicago Machine
Pool Seeding: A2
Power Ranking: #2
Regional Finish: GL1
Overall 2025 Record: 10-6
Against the Nationals Field: 6-5
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Revolver, 1-0 vs. GOAT
Since the heyday of Revolver’s last dynasty, a different team has won the men’s division championship each season.1 If that trend is to continue, Chicago Machine are a good bet to win the 2025 championship.
Machine have been in and around the title conversation each season since 2019, their first with former Michigan High Five teammates Johnny Bansfield, Joe White, Keegan North, Paul Arters. With the bulk of the elite men’s division players in the Great Lakes all together, the depth of talent on Machine is hard to match. Joining Bansfield, North, and Arters are Ohio’s Will Wettengel, Kentucky’s Xavier Payne, and Wisconsin’s Victor Luo. Add that to international pickups Daan De Marrée (who was recently voted the best player in the division), Sam McGuckin, and Sofiène Bontemps, and the outline of a title team is clearly taking shape, even with White sitting out this year after sustaining a knee injury during Nationals last season.
Machine played without De Marrée, McGuckin, and Bontemps at the US Open, when they won just a single game. Once the entire squad got together at Pro Champs, Machine made the final, and only lost to Revolver without De Marrée, who sat out that game with an injury.
It can be tough to judge them since they look so different with and without their best player, but their ceiling is incredibly clear: Machine have everything they need to win a championship. Whether they can hold the pieces together for all four days that they’d need to – both injuries and red cards have hampered their chances in recent years – is the open question that nobody will really know until we see what happens in San Diego.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Seattle Sockeye
Pool Seeding: A3
Power Ranking: #9
Regional Finish: NW2
Overall 2025 Record: 18-5
Against the Nationals Field: 4-5
Against the Pool: 0-2 vs. Revolver
To be blunt, it is incredibly likely that this is the best Sockeye team since they won the 2019 title. While they’ll face a tough pool draw against the top two teams in our power rankings, Sockeye have the firepower to compete with both of them. By the end of Nationals, here’s a good chance that we’ll be calling this the most successful season for the Fish since the post-COVID restart too.
After taking a few years to help develop young talents like Declan Miller, Eli Diamond, Cedar Hines, and Ryan Shigley, that group are now the budding stars dotting a roster full of players who can take turns being the hero. One game it might be the throwing prowess of Jonny Malks that stands out, but during another it might be the tireless motor of Trent Dillon, or the step-for-step lockdown defense of Troy Holland, or the power cutting of Garrett Martin, or the patient resets from Ben Snell. This year’s Sockeye team has so many options to rely on that nobody needs to singularly carry the team through an entire tournament the way some of these veterans needed to a few years ago.
Though they were somewhat out of the spotlight this season without playing at US Open or Pro Champs, the Fish acquitted themselves well against the tough competition they did have access to. Multiple wins over Rhino and convincing victories over Pacmen and Sub Zero have Sockeye positioned for even bigger statements at Nationals.
Likely Ceiling: Semis
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Toronto GOAT
Pool Seeding: A4
Power Ranking: #15
Regional Finish: GL2
Overall 2025 Record: 11-6
Against the Nationals Field: 2-3
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Machine
With most of their summer focus on the Canadian Ultimate Championships in this worlds qualification season,2 GOAT are just gearing up for the second end of their double-peak, and it’s clear that their regular season results and postseason success should have little correlation.
GOAT lost earlier this season to teams like Boston Scoop, Brooklyn Shade, and Pittsburgh Temper who weren’t particularly close to the Nationals picture. They eked out the last strength bid ahead of a crowded field just to make it to San Diego. Despite the bumps along the road, the exit ramp at the end of the season should prove smooth sailing (even if they’ll need to translate the kilometers into miles).
Much of the team played together in the UFA with the Toronto Rush, and they have built-in chemistry from years of playing together in the fairly insular Toronto scene. With Tom Blasman and Connor McHale continuing their time in Toronto after playing the UFA Season with the Rush, GOAT add a jolt of talent, and in McHale’s case Nationals bracket experience from his time with Chicago Machine.
GOAT will have their work cut out for them in such a difficult pool, but they should expect to be competitive even against some of the best teams in the division. At regionals, GOAT lost to Machine 15-10, but presumably they were keeping something in reserve knowing that a loss would mean an additional game afterwards. Turning a five-point loss into a win requires a lot of work, but GOAT have had a month since then, and with no UFA or CUC left to distract the team3, the singular goal of doing well at Nationals should focus their training, and a significant improvement from the regular season is not only possible, but likely.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool B
Boston DiG
Pool Seeding: B1
Power Ranking: #3
Regional Finish: NE1
Overall 2025 Record: 19-5
Against the Nationals Field: 11-5
Against the Pool: 1-1 vs. Truck Stop, 1-1 vs. Johnny Bravo, 1-0 vs. Red Tide
As you likely read about in Chicago Machine’s preview above, a different team has won the men’s division championship each season since 2016.4 If that trend is to continue, Boston DiG have a compelling chance to win the 2025 championship.
They have been building up to a championship season for a few years now. Two seasons ago, they came within a blown strip call of beating eventual champions Truck Stop in their quarterfinal. Last year they were bested by an ascendant Chicago Machine team, but won the rest of their games and finished fifth. What’s it going to take to get past the semis hump?
Wins this season over Rhino, Truck Stop, Johnny Bravo, Ring of Fire, and PoNY speak to the potential of this team. Those wins could be a set of Nationals bracket matchups this season, and DiG’s already passed those tests. DiG’s counterparts in the UFA (featuring many of the same players as DiG themselves) won the title this year after a few seasons building up their big game capacity, and there’s good reason to think that DiG can do the same.
The downfield trio of Tobe Decraene, Jeff Babbitt, and Orion Cable is enough to overwhelm any defense with their combination of size and power. Even scarier is the amount of time that group spends in the offensive backfield. Their throws are all well developed enough to make an impact back there, but they also are able to leverage their size and deep threat into easy reset cuts. Simply put, taking the disc away from this team is a tall task, especially with a leveled-up Ned Dick steadying the backfield with precision throws and a strong sense of timing and pacemaking.
The bulk of the team is composed of senior or recently graduated college stars like Calvin Stoughton, Wyatt Kellman, Peter Boerth, and Oscar Graff who are rapidly developing their skills and becoming key contributors at the club level. Between the high skill floor across the board, the championship know-how from the UFA, and the unique threats of DiG’s best players, the City of Champions might be bringing back one more trophy this fall.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Washington DC Truck Stop
Pool Seeding: B2
Power Ranking: #7
Regional Finish: MA1
Overall 2025 Record: 16-10
Against the Nationals Field: 6-10
Against the Pool: 1-1 vs. DiG
As they have since the 2021 post-COVID restart, Truck Stop continue to look like one of the best teams in the division as they build another title-worthy season. Led by Christian Boxley, a World Games snub who finished second in Ultiworld’s Top 25 Player Rankings this season, Truck Stop play one of the most unique offensive styles in the division and press their advantages across the board.
Truck Stop have given favorites Revolver the most trouble this season5, and that’s enough evidence to vault DC into championship contention. At the same time, this season has shaped up differently for Truck Stop than the last few did. The departure of Jonny Malks (to Sockeye) this season – on the heels of losing Rowan McDonnell (to DiG since) the year before – has forced Truck Stop to figure out what their offense looks like without two of the primary throwers and leaders from their title team. Jacques Nissen, Andrew Roy, and Thomas Edmonds take most of the backfield reps, but despite their obvious talent6 the fluid motion Truck Stop is known for has faltered at times this season.
As Truck Stop drift ever so slightly away from the Malks-era reset-driven offense, newcomers Aidan Downey and Sean Mott look like the most energizing offensive forces on the team. Both have the speed and crafty disc skills to fit in with the existing structure of Truck’s offense, and bring a dose of outside perspective to expand it beyond functional break throws and bladey resets. Bringing Edmonds fully on board after he ran a more traditional offense for Team Canada at the World Games will help, but Truck Stop could also do worse than relying on the creative improvisation Mott and Downey bring.
On the defensive end, Alexandre Fall, Jasper Tom, AJ Merriman, Charlie McCutcheon, and Dave Cranston are all top notch defenders who can go toe-for-toe with the best offenses in the division. With Edmonds, Miles Grovic, and Cole Jurek crossing over from the O-line when needed, Truck Stop have plenty of firepower to manufacture the breaks they’ll need to win close games.
Truck Stop know better than maybe any other team here, though, that the difference between a title and a devastating bracket exit could be a matter of inches on a single throw or the luck of what else happens in other games in the bracket. Truck Stop not only bring a well prepared, talented team to San Diego, but also the positive hope that everything goes right for them to take another title back to DC.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Denver Johnny Bravo
Pool Seeding: B3
Power Ranking: #8
Regional Finish: SC1
Overall 2025 Record: 15-9
Against the Nationals Field: 5-7
Against the Pool: 1-1 vs. DiG
What a weird season it has been for Johnny Bravo. A schedule conflict with the UFA’s Colorado Summit (and USA Ultimate’s inflexibility surrounding TCT tournament requirements) meant that Bravo played their first tournament of the season (PEC East) with a skeleton roster of eighteen players including many who did not make their postseason roster and one who is actually their coach. US Open came and went with but a single win over American competition (a Machine team missing many of their stronger players); Bravo were without World Games player Grant Lindsley. At Pro Champs, Quinn Finer was stuck on the sideline nursing a nagging injury as Bravo played their most successful tournament to that point of the season, losing only to Revolver and PoNY on their way to a fifth place finish.
On one hand, the story of Bravo’s season so far points to continual improvement and lots of opportunity to experiment and see what unexpected strategy and tactics might end up working well. On the other hand, nobody has seen a complete Bravo team yet, and their ceiling is something of a mystery.
More than any other team at the tournament, Bravo have proven that they can ride out an uneven regular season and make the most of their opportunity at Nationals. In 2022 and 2023 they had so-so regular seasons, lost the regional title, and still made a semifinal (2023) and won a championship (2022) in that time. Perhaps the depth players who got an extended early season run will prove to be impact players at Nationals. Perhaps the returns of Finer (at Nationals, assuming he’s healthy) and Cody Spicer (after a year away) act as stabilizing moves for the offense of both lines. Perhaps Bravo have yet another defensive wrinkle they’ve been hiding from the division all along. If they play their best at Nationals, Bravo have enough firepower and focus to take down anyone else in the division… but that sentence starts with an if because that has not happened yet this season.
Likely Ceiling: Semis
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Portland Red Tide
Pool Seeding: B4
Power Ranking: #19
Regional Finish: NE3
Overall 2025 Record: 23-6
Against the Nationals Field: 0-2
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. DiG
Congratulations to Portland Red Tide for making it to Nationals for the first time since 1999! It is always exciting to see a smaller ultimate community pull together a strong enough roster to be competitive at the National level. In recent seasons teams like Eugene Dark Star, Salt Lake Shrimp, Cincinnati Omen, and Madison MadMen all accomplished similar feats, and all were great additions to the Nationals field. Luckily for Red Tide, about a quarter of the players on their roster have already made Nationals as members of other teams, so there is plenty of relevant experience to lean on as the bulk of the roster gets ready for the toughest tournament they’ve ever played in.7
It will be tough for Red Tide to win a game at Nationals. They were not competitive in six- and eight-point losses to PoNY and DiG respectively at Regionals, though they also may have been saving their legs and strategies in those games for the inevitable game-to-go. Their best regular season win was against 23rd ranked8 Amherst Sprout, and they beat 15th ranked Ottawa Phoenix in the Series. Most pools at Nationals are difficult, but there is not an easy win hidden among the DiG/Truck Stop/Johnny Bravo trio. Red Tide have enough firepower (Backer is a multi-time Team USA handler, and Stewart Kelley is swiftly becoming a downfield star) to take down one of that group if they play their best, but it will take a concentrated team effort and maybe a little bit of luck to get a win before consolation.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool C
New York PoNY
Pool Seeding: C1
Power Ranking: #4
Regional Finish: NE2
Overall 2025 Record: 17-7
Against the Nationals Field: 8-6
Against the Pool: 0-0
None of the Pool C teams have faced each other yet this season, so they’ll all present a unique mystery to each other. Not a mystery: PoNY’s title chances. Making three of the past six championship games, and winning the 2018 title, PoNY’s bona fides are beyond proven. At this point, they know how hard it can be to win, and they work even harder to make it a possibility.
The injection of former Ring of Fire stars Ben Dameron and Anders Juengst onto an O-line that already featured Sam Little and Chris Kocher gives PoNY an advantage over basically every other team in the midfield and red zone areas. Any combination of that quartet can cycle in and out of the backfield and front-of-stack roles to make offense flow out of nothing. With Harper Garvey’s cannon arm, the speed of Scott Heyman, and the height of Ben Jagt also on the field, PoNY have ways to threaten every area of the field and present matchup problems for just about any defense.
And the toughest defense they probably play against is during practice. With Marques Brownlee, Cam Wariner, John Randolph, Jibran Meiser, and Antoine Davis, PoNY can drop D-lines made up basically of Team USA talent. Elevated play from Shashank Alladi, Isaac Kaplan, and Josh Stevens-Stein makes an already dangerous unit even tougher to plan around.
PoNY have finished first in their pool every year since 2018 and have not lost a pool play game since that season. Despite the talent in Pool C, it’s a good bet to pencil them into a quarterfinal spot and trust that their combination of experience, skill, passion, and planning will likely get them even farther.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Philadelphia Pacmen
Pool Seeding: C2
Power Ranking: #12
Regional Finish: MA2
Overall 2025 Record: 19-3
Against the Nationals Field: 1-2
Against the Pool: 0-0
Philly is back! No Philadelphia-based men’s division team has made it to Nationals since Patrol in 20179 until now. With a who’s-who of the local college and youth talent along with hometown hero Alex Atkins returning to his roots after a half-decade away in Colorado, Pacmen rolled through a regular season with limited Nationals competition and earned their way to the true test: Nationals itself.
Alongside Atkins, Adam Grossberg and Sam Grossberg are Pacmen’s most exciting players. The brothers and Georgia Tech teammates are balanced playmakers adept at squeezing out tough resets and moving smoothly through open space downfield. Casey Thornton and Zander Lutz round out a set of solid throwers who rotate in and out of the backfield with ease rare for a team in their first year together.
On the defensive side, Paul Owens, Max Tran, Logan Piercy, and Nate Little lead a tenacious bunch hunting for blocks. While Pacmen’s tactics might not be revolutionary, their athleticism and skill is high enough to make life difficult on opponents. With Owens, Atkins, Brandon Pastor, Mike Campanella, and Max Charles around to share their experience with a young roster, Pacmen should be able to navigate their first Nationals experience better than a typical first-year team. While nobody has championship expectations just yet, it’s possible that we could look back on this season as the start of a future title-winning campaign.
Likely Ceiling: Quarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Atlanta Chain Lightning
Pool Seeding: C3
Power Ranking: #13
Regional Finish: SE3
Overall 2025 Record: 15-9
Against the Nationals Field: 4-7
Against the Pool: 0-0
While their roster crossover looks more like a true Venn diagram than a circle, the Atlanta Hustle finally broke through this season and made Championship Weekend in the UFA, and Chain Lightning are looking to continue to build on their success when the summer turns into the fall. As the euphoria from that experience wanes and many of Atlanta’s best men’s division players refocus on Club Nationals, Chain Lightning have a few obstacles in the way if they’re too to make the final four.
First, Chain Lightning need to be grateful that they did not get drawn into a pool with Raleigh-Durham United. The second squad from the Triangle beat Chain Lightning all three times they played this season, including a game-to-go at Southeast Regionals. Chain did recover to beat Charlotte BaNC and secure their seventh straight trip to San Diego, but their vulnerabilities were made clear along the way.
Their surprising inability to beat RDU aside, Chain Lightning have a set of very impressive wins this year, taking down Sockeye, Machine, and Johnny Bravo at different points along the way. With little film10 and lots of talent, Chain Lightning enter Nationals with the benefit of surprise.
Following his UFA breakout, Adam Miller is pacing the offense alongside Brett Hulsmeyer and Hayden Austin-Knab. Veterans like Michael Fairley, Nicky Spiva, Kenni Taylor, Lukas McClamrock, and Jeremy Langdon are all performing at their expected levels and elevate the play of their teammates. With the downfield cutting prowess of Simon Dastrup and the throwing talent of Brandon Van Deusen added to the lineup, Chain Lightning are still perhaps tinkering with their optimal lineups, but should have the firepower to strike down opponents’ best game plans.
Likely Ceiling: Quarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
SoCal Condors
Pool Seeding: C4
Power Ranking: #17
Regional Finish: SW2
Overall 2025 Record: 15-6
Against the Nationals Field: 0-4
Against the Pool: 0-0
Welcome back SoCal Condors! It’s been a couple of years since the big birds made the very short trip to San Diego for Nationals. By avoiding blowout losses and beating all of the teams they were “supposed to” Condors earned enough rankings points for a strength bid and closed out a dramaless Regionals by punching their ticket back to their hometown showcase tournament.
You’ll recognize many of the team’s stars: KJ Koo is becoming one of the most reliable players in the country. Matt Miller’s steady and patient backfield presence will keep the Condors offense alive even against the tougher defenses in the field. The defenders on the other side of the ball are imposing, too: the size and intelligence of Max Gibson effectively takes away easy deep looks, and the tireless motor on Marshal Wildmann makes cutting a challenge for anyone unlucky enough to match up against him.
To continue to build their program given the large number of first-time Nationals participants on the roster, Condors should be viewing this season as a learning and growing opportunity for them. While the team never quite got to the heights they imagined nearly a decade ago, the talent hatching from the area now could set the stage for the next competitive phase of Condors’ storied history.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool D
Portland Rhino Slam!
Pool Seeding: D1
Power Ranking: #5
Regional Finish: NW1
Overall 2025 Record: 18-10
Against the Nationals Field: 6-9
Against the Pool: 0-0
Checking in on the Rhino campaign to re-elect themselves champions in 2025 and… uh, is that good? A .400 winning percentage against the rest of the Nationals field? A serious dive toward the cellar at Pro Champs? Are they already out of contention?
No. Take a breath. Rhino Slam! are fine. In fact, that 0-5 run to start Pro Champs before finally salvaging a win against Truck Stop is exactly what they did at the same tournament a year ago. And just like this year, the perfectly comprehensible reason for that underperformance is that they were missing a chunk of Team USA players.
Does that mean that they’ll win the 2025 championship? As has been true for every champion in the men’s division for nearly a decade – Rhino became the eighth different club in eight years to etch their name on the trophy – it depends on a hell of a lot of variables breaking right. But the baseline talent has to be there, too, and Rhino clear that bar with an obscene amount of room to spare. Think of the players you remember from their 2024 run: an electric Mica Glass running the point for the O-line and getting the disc back with remarkable frequency; Raphy Hayes, Henry Ing, and Matt Rehder imposing their will on anyone brave enough to try to guard them; Jack Hatchett slinging inch-perfect OI hucks; Dylan Freechild spotting crossfield backhands against the grain of the opposing O-line’s defense; Daniel Lee and David Sealand forming one of the greatest 1-2 punch match defense has ever seen. Every major piece, and most of the minor ones, are back for a run at what would be the rarest of accomplishments: the back-to-back title.
On top of that, they’ve added a third arm of the defensive brigade in the form of 2024 mixed division 1st Team All-Clubber Lukas Ambrose. Will Lohre has missed the year with an injury, but elevated play from the likes of Felix Moren and Chander Boyd-Fliegel have more than made up for the loss. In short: Rhino aren’t only back, they’re (arguably) improved.
Here’s the thing, though. For all the factors working in their favor, there are a couple of obstacles to overcome. The first is the potential for a lack of chemistry given how little time they have spent on the field together. They can carry the benefit of the doubt on that front, considering they overcame the exact same issue a year ago. The other is much bigger: Rhino can’t sneak up on anybody anymore. They are the face of the division, and every club they take on will approach the matchup both prepared to challenge Rhino’s big ball offense and knowing that it’s an opportunity to take down the champs. Our first glimpse of what that pressure will look like comes in the form of a pool play game against Ring of Fire. If Rhino have another trophy run in them, we’ll see it on the field on Thursday afternoon.
Likely Ceiling: National Championship
Likely Floor: Quarters
Raleigh Ring of Fire
Pool Seeding: D2
Power Ranking: #6
Regional Finish: SE1
Overall 2025 Record: 12-6
Against the Nationals Field: 6-5
Against the Pool: 1-0 against RDU
Quick. Name the most successful program in the men’s division in the 21st century. If you’re counting championships, it’s Revolver. But if you’re counting anything else, the only acceptable answer is Ring of Fire. They’re tied with Johnny Bravo for the most Nationals appearances (24) – and Ring own the tiebreaker by virtue of owning the longest active streak; they are tied (with Revolver) for the most quarters appearances (20, including a run of 10 straight); and they’re tied with Revolver for the most semis appearances (10). That is a cream-of-the-crop program. That’s longstanding excellence.
And yet, people are quick to count them out. Somehow their 2021 championship came as a surprise even though they had made semis for four consecutive Nationals heading into it. Despite their harvesting the fruits of the greatest run of college excellence men’s ultimate has ever seen, no one seemed to believe it when they made semis again in 2023. Again in 2025, after a “down” year of losing in quarters, the consensus view of Ring heading into the season is that they were not in a position to compete at the top.
It was – and I’m defending myself here as much as anybody – a reasonable thought. Three of the most gifted young offensive playmakers in the game, Anders Juengst, Ben Dameron, and Rutledge Smith took their talents north to PoNY and Machine. Longtime stars from the championship team like Andrew McKelvey, Eric Taylor, Elijah Long, and Henry Fisher also moved on. Even a promising younger player Xander Wilcox opted to move crosstown to RDU instead of playing another year with the region’s traditional powerhouse. That’s a lot of loss, on top of which Ring added some middling results at PEC East.
And then Ring played at Pro Champs and blew away those negative prognostications like so many dandelion buds. They not only notched the results, they looked the part, and they subsequently carried on through a sterling Southeast Regionals performance. In short, we misjudged them. Matt Gouchoe-Hanas has remade himself as one of the most reliable backstops against stagnation and unnecessary turnovers in the division. Trevor Lynch and Jacob Fairfax play each game as if they rocheambeau’ed beforehand to decide which of them gets to be the most heroic. Dylan Hawkins and Josh Singleton are tremendous for the O-line; newcomers Tanner Roberts, Henri Lessard, and Matt Barcellos are monstrous on the D-line. It turns out that all that worry in the early season is much ado about nothing, and Ring are right up to their regular standard.
How far will that take them, though? That’s the million-dollar question. To the bracket, almost assuredly. Once there, though, we’ll see how much pressure the first-year Ringers can stand before they crack.
Likely Ceiling: Quarters
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Raleigh-Durham United
Pool Seeding: D3
Power Ranking: #10
Regional Finish: SE2
Overall 2025 Record: 13-4
Against the Nationals Field: 5-3
Against the Pool: 0-1 against Ring of Fire, 1-0 against Sub Zero
Next team, same city. Can we take a minute to appreciate how utterly incredible it is for RDU to have sustained success at this level? While they haven’t overtaken big sib Ring of Fire in the Triangle, they aren’t just a second club. What 2024 intimated and what 2025 has proven beyond a doubt is that RDU are a legitimate Nationals program on their own, full stop.
Did it take some calculated moves to make it happen again? Absolutely. RDU are algorithmic engineers: as any team who don’t think they are firmly in the top 10 should be. They have made a habit of knowing exactly the level they need to play to at any given tournament to ensure that the Southeast bid allotment includes a portion for them. This season, the USAU rankings battle was waged at Elite-Select Challenge, so RDU called a few friends – former Bull Tobias Brooks (not playing with any club this fall) and 2025 soldier of fortune Allan Laviolette – to join the effort for the weekend. With that star power boosting them they made a run to the final, where they would have played Sockeye if adverse weather had not delayed the final round into oblivion.
But that was only an insurance policy. RDU do not owe their place at Nationals to roster trickeration, they earned it on merit with a 15-13 win over Chain Lightning in the crossover round (and subsequent semifinal drubbing of Alabama Alliance) at Southeast Regionals. It was their third win over Chain Lightning on the season. Multi-point wins over Condors and Sub Zero at ESC – and a tight loss to Ring in the regional final – confirm that RDU are above the line.
They’re getting breakout seasons from both Xander Wilcox and Noah Bush (to name just a couple of upwardly trending young players who have elected RDU over Ring) on top of the usual solid foundation established by longer-tenured Bulls Clint McSherry, Cam Bellando, Daniel Ferriter, and Jacob Louie. Poaching all-underrated poster boy Nathan Lyle from the Charlotte scene and picking up Arthur Feller, a stray Mooncatcher, has only helped their chances to take a step forward at Nationals from last season’s pool play exit.
The pathway to better results presents plenty of challenges, however. Rhino are most likely out of range at the top of the pool, and, despite the way RDU have narrowed the Triangle Gap, Ring are 14-1 against them in history, with their only loss coming all the way back in 2016 under RDU’s old moniker Turbine – which makes a pool finish above Ring unlikely. Furthermore, they’ve got a live dog sitting behind them in the form of fourth seed Sub Zero. Getting out of the pool will be tough. Should they achieve it though, the bracket possibilities of a crossover with Pool A are unappetizing. We’ll see if these Bulls, as good as they are, can run with the Big Dogs.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Minneapolis Sub Zero
Pool Seeding: D4
Power Ranking: #11
Regional Finish: NC1
Overall 2025 Record: 16-5
Against the Nationals Field: 1-5
Against the Pool: 0-1 against RDU
What a return it has been for Sub Zero in 2025. The franchise reset – following a mass exodus of major contributors after the 2019 and 2021 seasons – has moved forward in fits and starts. They missed Nationals in 2022, made a feeble return in 2023, and missed again in 2024, that last at the hands of in-city rivals Mallard. But the years-long revival appears at last to have taken root, growing out of the rich soil of the Minnesota youth scene to bear fruit annually for the foreseeable future.
Northfield, Minnesota deserves much of the credit for keeping the flame alive during the down period. The hamlet on the banks of the Cannon River is the home of both Carleton College and St. Olaf College. The careers of team leaders Noah Hanson and Will Brandt were forged there, and that’s where major playmakers Luke Bleers, Ryan duSaire, Thomas Shope, Gordon Larson, and Eric Crosby Lehmann have honed their skills. Toss in the homecomings of former Twin Cities youth standouts Leo Sovell-Fernandez and Peter Mans, and some key University of Minnesota holdouts from the Mallard recruiting effort – most notably Paul Krenik, who, along with Brandt, has an argument as the team’s 2025 MVP – and it’s easy to see why Sub have been punchy at major tournaments and were dominant at North Central Regionals. They are brimming with high-level, high upside young talent.
Will they boil over into a bracket run? In the two-to-three year outlook, almost certainly. It’s much more of a crapshoot in San Diego this year, however. All of the challenges enumerated above in the RDU section apply to Sub, as well. A 2-1 pool play record is perfectly conceivable – and so is 0-3. The ceiling feels a tick higher than RDU, which gives them a slightly more favorable forecast should they earn the right to play meaningful Friday games, but the floor is indistinguishable. All eyes will be on their Thursday afternoon matchup to see which of them have the upper hand at that moment in time, likely with elimination on the line.
Likely Ceiling: Quarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Ironside in 2016, Revolver in 2017, PoNY in 2018, Sockeye in 2019, COVID in 2020, Ring of Fire in 2021, Johnny Bravo in 2022, Truck Stop in 2023, Rhino in 2024 ↩
GOAT won the Canadian Ultimate Championships over Mephisto in August to earn a WUCC bid ↩
Blasman and McHale were playing at EUCF in early October, but that’s done now as well ↩
If you didn’t see it above, it’s Ironside in 2016, Revolver in 2017, PoNY in 2018, Sockeye in 2019, COVID in 2020, Ring of Fire in 2021, Johnny Bravo in 2022, Truck Stop in 2023, Rhino in 2024 ↩
Truck Stop were responsible for Revolver’s sole loss and held a 14-12 lead in the Pro Champs quarterfinals before capitulating ↩
Edmonds finished third in our Top 25 players at the World Games rankings ↩
Red Tide players who have been to Nationals before include Noah Backer, Cole Moore, and Henry Babcock with DiG, Rocco Essex-Linehan with DiG and Sprocket, Chuck Cantone with Truck Stop, Sam McCarty with Dark Star, and Ryan Woodhouse with Slow. ↩
by USAU rankings ↩
yes, that’s the year they went winless and were bageled by Machine ↩
just two Chain Lightning games are in Ultiworld’s video library this season, and both are from PEC East, way back in June ↩
