What did we learn about the Southwest, Northwest, and the shifting bid picture for SFI West?
July 29, 2026 by Aidan Thomas in Opinion, Recap
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2026 club 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.
The Select Flight Invite tournaments took place this past weekend. And with the ultimate world taking a breath after the WJUC and ahead of the U.S. Open, they more or less flew under the radar. No national title contenders were in action, but plenty of potential bid-earners and bid-stealers were lacing up their cleats. Out west, we had a couple of top-20 teams doing work in the Men’s and Mixed divisions, while an unranked top select squad made some serious noise with a dominant effort in the Women’s Division.
1. Dark Star Holding Serve
Eugene Dark Star faced an interesting challenge at this tournament. After firmly inserting themselves into the bid-earning conversation with regional upset wins over Vancouver Furious George and Seattle Sockeye at PEC West, Dark Star then needed to hold serve as the clear top seed and tournament favorite in California. It’s one thing to pull an upset; it’s another to follow it by dominating teams and proving you belong in that higher tier. Dark Star, largely, did just that. They didn’t play a game closer than five points en route to the semifinals, and they handled business from that point onwards, winning 13-10 in the semis and edging out a surging Chicago Trident squad in the final, 15-14. The last result notwithstanding, it was exactly the combination of comfortable winning results you’d want to see from a team in the top-15 against a bunch of fringe top-25 and below teams. Job done for Dark Star, as they should maintain their place in the Power Rankings this week.
2. Trident, Wavestorms Make Statements
The clear next two best teams in the field, Chicago Trident and Santa Cruz Wavestorms each made strong statements with 5-1 weekends. For Trident, they improved to 10-2 and shook off the dirt of an ugly loss at their first tournament, and for Wavestorms, they improved to 10-1, with their lone loss coming on double game point in semifinals to Trident.
Trident will compete for the second-best team in Chicago and an extreme dark horse to Toronto GOAT, who figures to be defending the second Great Lakes bid against Trident, Chicago Haymaker, or another challenger.
Wavestorms will be an interesting team to monitor, as they did make some intriguing additions, most notably UC Santa Cruz Star and Revolver transplant Toby Warren, who opted to stay local this summer. They’ve got some intrigue if the Southwest becomes a two-bid region, but I’m not sure they or SoCal Condors have the ability to make that happen.
3. Northwest Men’s Regional Chaos Potential
First and foremost, we need a second (and maybe a third) bid in the Northwest to make this come to life, but man, the possibilities of a multi-bid Northwest regional is salivating. To speak the obvious, a three-way battle between Eugene Dark Star, Seattle Sockeye, and Vancouver Furious George is already fascinating, and likely these would be the teams duking it out for those spots.
But there is just enough intrigue in the rest of the region to make you think that upsets would not be out of the question. Switchback played Dark Star within three points in the semifinals, and SOUF played a double game point quarterfinal with Switchback.
I’m not saying either of these teams really belong near the same tier as Dark Star, Sockeye, and Furious George, but they put together decent weekends that you won’t really see, because they won’t come close to cracking the Top 25. If one of those squads catches lightning in a bottle, in a chaotic double-elimination, multi-bid Northwest regional, they could definitely deliver an upset that reshapes the bid picture in the Northwest.
4. Mixed: Burrito a Class Above
No. 8 seed (?!) San Diego California Burrito proved to be the best team in the field by quite some margin. They played just one game closer than seven points, and none closer than five, en route to a dominant 6-0 showing and tournament victory. The road to victory featured no ranked wins, but Burrito’s dominance reinforced that they’re much closer to the top-15 conversation than the fringe of the Top 25.
5. Mixed Division Seeding Makes No Sense
OK, now to the real travesty to discuss: the seeding of this tournament. What on earth am I missing? 17th-ranked California Burrito, also ranked 15th in the projected algorithmic rankings, was one of two top-select teams in the field and was the No.8 seed? They were the only ranked team in the field!
What’s more, they had a pool play clash with Flight Club, the literal only other top select team in the field. Also why was Flight Club (1-5 this season, 72nd in projected rankings) the top seed? Help me understand this. Explain it to me like I’m five (maybe four years old) because what about this makes sense?
Now beyond the pre-tournament seeding making zero sense, it is always a joy to look at the Mixed Division results, because even when seeding does make sense, it is oh so rare to see things actually go according to plan. Look no further than the semifinal round at SFI West, where Burrito and Flight Club were joined by No.6 Donut and No.9 Classy.
Meanwhile No.2 Moontower crashed out in the quarterfinals and No.3 Space Ghosts, who beat Flight Club earlier this season, lost to the top seed by nine in prequarters and finished in last place after going winless in the consolation pool. Just great, very classic stuff from the mixed division.
6. LOL: WOW
Welcome to the 2026 season, Oakland LOL. After gaining top-select status last year and losing the Southwest game-to-go, LOL started the year with nothing less than a huge bang, as they went 6-0 and throttled literally everybody at SFI West. Their ‘worst’ result was a 13-5 bashing of No.5 Rampage. They stomped top-seeded Eugene Dark Sky, 15-3 and trounced No.4 FAB, 15-5. They did not play No.3 Wildfire (more on that later).
That performance should vault LOL into the Top 20. Whether they become a true bid-earner or simply a dangerous bid-stealer at Regionals, they announced themselves in emphatic fashion.
7. Match Play Format Makes for Bad Tournaments
We went over this in the SFI East recap but what are we doing with these formats? Just run a regular tournament. You had ten teams. Two five-team pools. Three pool play games on Saturday, one on Sunday. Top two from each pool make the championship bracket. Next two from each pool play a fifth-place bracket. Last place teams get a crossover game. Why do we make this complicated?
I don’t think anyone was touching LOL this weekend, but the fact that they didn’t play Wildfire, the only team to finish 5-1, is silly. There was a real possibility we ended with ‘co-champions’ with the final ranking based on point differential. Get out of here with that.
As it happened, Wildfire lost to Eugene Dark Sky, who was both upset by Void Cat Rewind and blasted by LOL, so an LOL-Wildfire game would have probably been a strong LOL win, but why can’t we get the tournament’s top two teams to play each other in the final. It just feels like we’re overthinking this.
