Pool wins by Cal and UCLA bring a Southwest flavor to the Northwest Challenge.
March 7, 2026 by Alex Rubin in Recap
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From the first round at 9 a.m. through the last round at 2 p.m., whispers of upsets drifted around the Northwest Challenge complex (and the Ultiworld Discord). Unranked UCLA Smaug and Cal Ursa Major won their pools, setting up an imbalanced bracket that is sure to make Sunday’s play full of intrigue. After Saturday’s play, just eight teams remain in contention to win Northwest Challenge; read on to hear more about how that happened.
Southwest Region Puts the Division on Upset Alert
UCLA Smaug won their pool with upset wins over #17 British Columbia Thunderbirds (13-11)1 and #25 Washington Sundodgers (13-10). Loic Billaut effectively quarterbacked the O-line, using his quickness to get open for backfield resets at will. In their streamed game against UBC, UCLA was able to score upwind by targeting poached players and moving the disc quickly before roaming UBC defenders could truly lock onto a matchup. Smaug also continuously held in both wind directions. Mateo Nacusi showed up with some timely layout blocks to stifle the UBC counterattack.
One win could be a fluke, but two is a trend. Taking down top 25 opponents this late in the season at their home tournament is quite notable – especially considering UCLA lost to Washington twice already. UCLA came into the weekend 29th in the Projected Rankings, and if they’re able to keep up this level of play through the bracket on Sunday, they could end up in the bid bubble. At the very least they might have #5 California-Santa Cruz Slugs and #8 Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE thinking Regionals might not be a cakewalk.
Over in Pool A, California Ursa Major notched their own upset-filled adventure. Cal finished 3-0 with upsets over #9 Victoria Vikes and #18 Brigham Young CHI in their first two rounds before squeaking by Virginia Night Train 13-12 in the last game of the day. Like UCLA, Cal avenged a loss with their win over Victoria and earned a bye to Sunday’s quarterfinal round. The extra round of rest will certainly be nice, but so will the opportunity to face another top team as the tournament condenses into bracket play.
Whether this tournament turns into a bid-winning experience for the Southwest, or merely is very good improvement for UCLA and Cal, their Saturday injects some vibrancy and excitement into what was beforehand a fairly straightforward Southwest region.
Northwest Pecking Order
Last season, #6 Oregon State Beavers had the better regular season, but #7 Western Washington DIRT outperformed them at Nationals. This season, the two teams are battling for second place behind #3 Oregon Ego in the Northwest, and were 1-1 against each other entering the weekend. OSU won Saturday’s matchup 12-10 and snuck by Northeastern in a tight 13-12 game to win the pool and advance directly to the quarterfinal round. With Victoria, UBC and Washington each taking unexpected losses, it seems like competitive tiers are starting to solidify in the region.
Bracket Preview
With Saturday’s upsets, the bracket produces some intriguing early matchups. On the top part of the bracket, the Southwest risers UCLA and Cal face Northwest challengers #23 Utah and Western Washington respectively. The bottom part of the bracket will see the top four seeds at this tournament face off in quarters. Whichever team gets out of that group will certainly be favored to reach the finals. Cal Poly SLO will match up against UBC, and the winner of that game will face the winner of Oregon State versus Victoria.
While one of the higher seeded teams from the bottom bracket should be favored to win the tournament, whichever team comes out of the top side will be eager to prove that they deserve their place. According to our Power Rankings, it should be Western Washington returning to the final (which they also reached at this tournament in 2025). A win if they get there would be a big confidence-builder for the ascending program.
Other contenders include OSU, who won this tournament a year ago, Cal Poly SLO, who like WWU would benefit from a tremendous confidence boost with a tournament win, and Victoria, who despite their loss earlier are still the highest ranked team here per the Projected Rankings algorithm.
Quick Hits
- Aside from Utah’s demolition of Northeastern, all of the prequarterfinal games were won by identical 13-11 scorelines. With an upwind/downwind nature to the games, scoring upwind just one more time than an opponent sometimes was all it took to hold on for a win.
- All three of the non-west coast teams (Northeastern, Virginia, and #21 Minnesota) were eliminated after winless days. They’ll battle with Washington, who also went winless on Saturday but did beat BYU on Friday, in the ninth place bracket.
- Don’t forget to change your clocks, and let’s hope the teams also remember so nobody shows up for their first round games at the wrong time.
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