Sorting the competitors into units of equal potential.
August 2, 2026 by Laura Osterlund in Recap
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The last time we had a WUCC cycle, in 2022, the division looked a lot different than it does now. And not just in a “there are different teams at these tournaments, some teams are defunct, some teams have are new to the highest elite field” kind of way, because that’s pretty inevitable. More so in the parity that exists. Any team could, in theory, win against any opponent in any given day at any given tournament. I mean, just look at US open that year, when the 11-seed, No Touching! and the 7-seed Polar Bears both made it to semifinals. And more than that, take a peek at how things shook out in regards to seeding at Nationals that year. While there were still some outliers on both sides to this trend, everyone knew that the best bet was to predict upsets and chaos.The chalk prediction was to pick anything but chalk.
Flash forward to 2026.
Now the most chaotic division at this tournament is men’s. Meanwhile, in the mixed division, we already basically knew the top dogs would make it to semis, at least. Even the doubts about Hybrid placing seventh at PEC East and their seventh seed did not eliminate them from being a pre-tournament winner prediction. The parity has diminished. The combination of every tournament leading up to this one and this weekend is showing us that in the mixed division, instead of all-out bloodbaths all of the time between every team, they just exist between certain teams. The action we have seen at US Open has further cemented the fact that we have several echelons of teams and not everybody is on the same level anymore.
Tier 1
Not just saying this because they made up 75% of the semifinalists, but Ann Arbor Hybrid, New York XIST, and Boston Slow are on a higher tier compared to other team in the mixed division.
US Open 2026: Tiering the Contenders (Mixed Div. Day Two Recap) is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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