Recapping the storylines you need to know from the first stages of bracket play
October 25, 2025 by Alex Rubin and Edward Stephens in Recap
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.
SAN DIEGO – Twelve teams competed in arguably the most exciting round of prequarters we’ve ever seen in club ultimate, followed by a fairly unexciting set of quarters. The men’s division saw two universe point games in prequarters alone, highlighted by a first-year team taking down the second overall seed. Catch up with our recap of all the day’s big events before semifinals start tomorrow!
Machine on to the Semis
- Machine 15-13 Sub Zero | Game Recap
- Machine 15-11 Bravo | Game Recap | Stream
Daan De Marrée (3G/4A/3D/0T) led #2 Chicago Machine to another berth in the semifinals as Chicago closed out a 15-11 win over #8 Denver Johnny Bravo. Of course, it was not just De Marrée who played well; Machine got standout performances from Rutledge Smith, Nate Goff, Sam McGuckin, and Ben Preiss. The Chicago offense overall played with very intelligent spacing.
As a crosswind picked up, Machine were able to keep the space they wanted to attack on the high side of the field clear of poaching defenders even against the typically stingy Bravo defense. But, the story of the game was De Marrée’s obvious impact. It seems there isn’t a defender at this complex who can slow him down as he lands among the league leaders in goals and assists while limiting turnovers to either zero or one, depending on if you believe him or the volunteer scorekeepers respectively.
Earlier in the day, Machine knocked off a feisty #10 Minneapolis Sub Zero team that broke Machine early. From the middle of the game onward, though, McGuckin, De Marrée, and Goff were all on heaters for Machine. They opened up huge spaces and mostly kept Sub’s defenders out of reach all the way through the rest of the game. They got stronger throughout the second half.
But spare a thought for Sub Zero, who played a whale of a game on offense on their own, despite a few second half hiccups. Will Brandt, Gordon Larson, Paul Krenik, Peter Mans, and Leo Sovell-Fernandez were simply terrific. They’ll form the offensive core of a team with an incredibly bright future.
Rhino Repeat Quarters Feat
- Rhino Slam! 15-11 Truck Stop | Game Recap
#4 Portland Rhino Slam! reprised their bracket run from last season, advancing to the semifinal round with a 15-11 win over #7 Washington DC Truck Stop. Rhino methodically took apart the Truck Stop offense and never let their focus drift from their ultimate goal of winning another championship.
Rhino Slam! have now achieved a semifinal or better placement in four of the past five seasons. They’ll face off against pre-tournament favorites #1 San Francisco Revolver with their season on the line tomorrow.
Revolver Triple Crown Still Alive
- Revolver 15-9 Pacmen | Game Recap | Stream
A hot #12 Philadelphia Pacmen side, fresh off of an earth-rending prequarterfinal upset of #2 Boston DiG, were little more than a paving stone on #1 San Francisco Revolver’s titanic journey toward what is starting to feel almost like an inevitable championship game appearance.
Revolver did, on the other hand, need to get out of their own way on before the momentum could pick up. The dark side – rarely seen this year – of their hit-open-hands-as-quickly-as-possible offensive sets is that sometimes they can move too fast for their own good, and that’s what happened as they surrendered an early break to Pacmen. By the time the game hit halftime, though, they had a three-break lead.
Typically balanced play defined the offense, with scoring plays distributed between Mac Hecht, Adam Rees, Simon Higgins, and Leo Gordon. Having so many weapons firing well at the same time ought to stand Revolver in good stead for semis, where a brilliant #5 Portland Rhino Slam! defense await to give them a serious challenge.
PoNY Gallup to Semis
- PoNY 15-9 Sockeye | Game Recap | Stream
The speedy John Randolph, Cam Wariner, and Scott Heyman trio formed the spearhead of a PoNY defensive unit that collected two breaks before Sockeye could even get on the board. Randolph and Heyman, in particular, were devastating forces after turnovers, applying the power and brakes liberally as they ran to warp anything Sockeye tried to do to stop them.
The offensive unit, on the other hand, showcased a diverse bouquet of shapes and play calls to keep Sockeye’s defensive unit guessing. Some possessions saw them create a void on one half of the field and fill it with a short series of power cuts that ended in the goal. Others saw something much simpler: a Harper Garvey huck for Ben Jagt, usually after having established the other parts of their game. And then sometimes they would simply put the disc into the hands of Ring of Fire imports Anders Juengst and Ben Dameron, whose high-energy play as a pair has regularly produced fireworks this weekend.
Pacmen Upset DiG in Prequarters
- Pacmen 15-14 DiG | Game Recap
#12 Philadelphia Pacmen stormed back from an 11-7 deficit to upset #3 Boston DiG in prequarters 15-14. Led by Sam and Adam Grossberg, the Grossbrothers family stat line was an eye-widening 5G/9A/2T. Alex Atkins (2G/3A) and Max Tran (3G/1A) were important contributors as well, but Pacmen’s defensive effort to discombobulate the DiG offense helped them dig a foothold in this game.
Midway through the second half, Atkins made up ground on an Orion Cable deep cut and rose for a slapaway block. On the counter, he jacked a big huck to space for Sam Grossberg to cut DiG’s lead to one goal. A few points later, Paul Owens applied tremendous reset pressure to DiG in their own end zone to force a short field turn, and Tran got open in no time to tie the game.
On double game point, it was strange to see DiG leave Cable, Tobe Decraene, and Jeff Babbitt off the field. Though that trio typically plays on their O-line, they all can be all-world defenders when called upon. On their last point of the season, DiG did not get close to touching the disc. It looks more like they were fleeing like so many blue ghosts after Pac-Man consumes a pair of cherries. The end was easy, Adam Grossberg found Atkins on an inside upline, and that freed up a continue pass to Casey Thornton for the victory.
Fishing Out a Bracket Win
- Sockeye 15-14 Ring of Fire | Game Recap | Stream
#9 Seattle Sockeye outlasted #6 Raleigh Ring of Fire on double game point to advance to the quarterfinal round. Both teams were able to generate a lot of handler pressure on defense, as the chess match between possession offense and switchy defense played out point-to-point. For every dance that Matt Gouchoe-Hanas, John McDonnell, and Trevor Lynch pulled off, Jonny Malks, Eli Diamond, and Declan Miller had an answer. For every Sol Yanuck poach or Cooper Williams shutdown, there was a Garrett Martin layout or Ben Snell/Cedar Hines switch to match. It may be impossible to find two more evenly matched teams at the field complex.
Martin laid out to block a wide throw and Sockeye wasted no time putting another point on the board. Diamond, who crossed over to limit Fairfax, drove a blading huck over two defenders right to Max Gade for Sockeye’s first lead of the game. With a 14-13 lead, Sockeye could have closed the game. Josh Singleton, who played an incredible game as a downfield slasher, got too stuck in the reset space and lifted a soft scoober to space that Gade raced over to block. Not willing to go home just yet, Fairfax crashed into the ensuing Sockeye play for a layout block and the pop-up score a moment later. This game deserved universe and the fans who trickled over from adjacent fields were in for a treat.
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Ring collapsed on the underneath space and limited Sockeye’s options. Feeling an opening in the deep space, Miller boomed a skyball to Carter Bayer. Though Sol Yanuck peeled off his downfield assignment to pressure the catch, Bayer read the trailing disc correctly and used every bit of his 6’5” frame to secure the game winner.
Truck Stops Chain
- Truck Stop 15-12 Chain Lightning | Game Recap | Stream
#13 Atlanta Chain Lightning were able to hang in there against a more polished #7 Washington DC Truck Stop team thanks to the backfield mastery displayed from Adam Miller, Brandon Van Deusen, and Nicky Spiva and the downfield tenacity of Jeremy Langdon (3G/2A) and Hayden Austin-Knab (2G/2A). Like Truck, Chain also had a rulebreaker on offense, and this game it was Simon Dastrup (1G/3A) who was able to free himself of Truck’s best defenders and make impressive plays over and over again in his rookie year on Chain.
Truck Stop were able to pull away at the end of the game when Isaac Lee took advantage of a chaotic goal-line sequence to block what looked initially like a sure Chain scoring chance. Truck Stop poured in an insurance break and was able to close out the game a few moments later.
While the score was not that close, Truck’s final goal was controversial. Thomas Edmonds had steps deep on Langdon, but Downey’s throw hung too long and Langdon made up the ground to catch it. Langdon’s momentum carried him into Edmonds, and they collided midair. Edmonds agreed that Langdon got the disc first but called a dangerous play. After a two minute discussion, observers agreed with Edmonds and issued Langdon a yellow card. Truck Stop kept the disc on their goal line and finished the possession with a crisp game winner to Christian Boxley.
While the ending may have been controversial, the end result was never in doubt.
Tomorrow, Rhino-Revolver and Machine-PoNY will play in the semifinals. Follow along with the action first-hand by watching tomorrow’s streamed games.
