Breaking down every team in every pool ahead of the US' premier club tournament
October 20, 2026 by Aidan Thomas and Alex Rubin in Preview
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2026 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.
The first pull of the 2026 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 no.1 seed Chicago Machine finally get their title? Despite sitting at the no.5 seed, could San Francisco Revolver become the first men’s team since, well, Revolver to nab back-to-back titles? Can Boston DiG shrug off last year’s early upset 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 to strike fear into the hearts of 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.
Ultiworld Event Page — USAU Competition Schedule — Streaming Schedule
Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D
Pool A
Chicago Machine
Pool Seeding: A1
Power Ranking: #5
Regional Finish: GL1
Overall 2026 Record: 12-4 (21-5 including WUCC)
Against the Nationals Field: 7-4 (7-5 including WUCC)
Against the Pool: 2-0 vs. GOAT, 0-1 vs. Ring of Fire
Though they’ve played in three of the last six finals, Chicago Machine is still searching for their first championship. With their eyes on gold medals, Machine brought in reinforcements. Playing alongside Daan De Marrée, who was just named the best player in the division for the second year in a row, by the way, Rutledge Smith, Nate Goff, and company are 2026 Callahan Award winner Zeke Thoreson, 2025 Breakout Player of the Year Elliot Hawkins, and 2025 Mixed Player of the Year runner-up Aaron Bartlett. If there were ever a year for Machine to push for their elusive title, this appears to be it.
Machine were one of just two teams to beat 2025 champion and tournament favorite Revolver, back at the US Open. With wins over PoNY and Truck Stop as well, Machine have the confidence that they can dispatch other elite teams when they turn on their best game.
Unlike many ultimate teams, who focus first on building consistent offense, Machine is led by their gritty and tenacious defense. Led by Johnny Bansfield, Tim Schoch, and William Wettengel, Machine mixed in multiple zone, junk, and switchy defenses to keep opposing offenses from finding neither rhythm or open space. With their new additions taking on more offensive responsibility (and bringing along offensive-minded coach Michael Lun too), Machine is turning into the most well-rounded version of themselves in this competitive window.
Machine’s biggest threats to the title are Revolver and PoNY, and while Machine do have wins over both at US Open, they also lost to PoNY in the quarterfinals of WUCC and watched Revolver win that prestigious tournament. Machine hopes those rivals peaked at WUCC, giving Chicago a clearer shot at the title, but they still face a steep uphill battle to finally overcome them. They’ve come close before, but for this to be the year they finally lift the title, they’ll need to hit a higher gear than this team has ever reached before.
Likely Ceiling: National Champions
Likely Floor: Semifinals
Raleigh Ring of Fire
Pool Seeding: A2
Power Ranking: #11
Regional Finish: SE2
Overall 2026 Record: 17-6
Against the Nationals Field: 8-6
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Machine
More than any other team in the division, Ring of Fire always seems to overperform at Nationals, reaching semis in years when they were overlooked (2014, 2016, 2023) and finding their form by the time October rolls around. Earlier this year, fans got a sneak peek of their potential when they made the final at Pro Champs.
Once there, Matt Gouchoe-Hanas put on a masterclass, totaling nine scores, including a callahan, to bring Ring of Fire to the brink of a tournament win. His ascension into an offensive driver is keeping Ring among the contenders list. In the earlier part of his career, MGH was a disc-mover rather than a shaker. He was happy to keep possession through resets and open-side throws and largely served as a release valve. Starting last year, he opened up his game to incorporate more proactive attacking skills, and this year he is blossoming into a complete player at the club level capable of getting the disc accurately to narrow windows, break-side spaces, and deep cuts. As one of just seven players remaining from the team’s 2021 title run, and now the team’s unquestioned leader, Gouchoe-Hanas playing the best tournament of his career is not the only way Ring can succeed, but it is a guaranteed way Ring can succeed.
This season has also welcomed the return of Liam Searles-Bohs, who sat out last season, the evolution of Matthew Barcellos from a dependable D-line handler into an offensive weapon, and the maturation of Josh Singleton from a cog to a difference maker with the disc. Ring of Fire have an incredible track record of developing young talent, and this year’s team is a continued showcase of that skill, with players like Henri Lessard, Owen Stout, Brayden Morrison, and Christian Belus all playing key roles.
The Johnny Cash fans face a fairly difficult road in pool play, though they at least have the comfort of a familiar foe. Ring and Machine met at Nationals in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022 and have seen each other at at least one tournament a year each year since. As a reminder of Ring’s mindset:
Ring of Fire doesn’t lose to Machine
— Justin Allen (@RingJustinAllen) August 22, 2015
While Machine is 5-3 in this matchup since the post-covid restart, Ring did beat them in earlier this year at Pro-Elite Challenge East. They’ll enter the matchup as one of the few teams with legitimate, earned confidence that they can take on the top seed and come out on top.
Ring of Fire have one of the most impressive streaks in the division: they have not missed the bracket at Nationals since 2006 (and competed at Nationals in each of those years). There’s no reason to wonder if that streak will survive – it’s just a question of how far it will go.
Likely Ceiling: Semifinals
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Toronto GOAT
Pool Seeding: A3
Power Ranking: #12
Regional Finish: GL2
Overall 2026 Record: 13-4
Against the Nationals Field: 1-4
Against the Pool: 0-2 vs. Machine
GOAT have always been a team not just of stars from Toronto, but from the whole of Canada. In this WUCC year, they brought in talent from across the city, country, and world to make the best possible team.
In Max Pettenuzzo, GOAT might have a star in the making. The Vancouver transplant manages to combine do-it-all skill with the tenacity of a bulldog. When GOAT gets into trouble, they’ll surely look to Pettenuzzo to get them out of a jam. Justin Podnar, another recent west coast college graduate, also joined GOAT this year, bringing more athletic dynamism to the downfield set with his lanky frame and competitive drive. Marty Gallant adds a springy quickness that can be impossible to cover in short spaces and is not afraid to stretch the field deep.
Not content to merely be a team of star Canadians from across the continent, GOAT also brought in some reinforcements from overseas. Connor McHale rejoins the team after playing with them last season, as does Gaël Ancelin, who played with the herd in 2022 and 2023.
Second year handler Araav Sehgal continues to grow as a thrower and a leader. Paired with the stalwart stars of this program (Phil Turner, Luc Comire, Oscar Stonehouse, James Lewis, Mike MacKenzie, etc.), GOAT has everything they need to be successful and make a bracket appearance after missing the cut in 2025.
GOAT struggled early this season, as they worked to integrate all of their new pieces. A 3-3 showing at Pro-Elite Challenge East preceded a great run of success for the herd. GOAT ran the table at Select Flight Invite in late July without giving up more than ten goals in a single game. They made the bracket at WUCC and swept the ninth place bracket after a prequarters loss to PoNY, and they clinched a spot at Nationals with a dominating 15-2 win over Dutchmen in the game to go after losing just to Machine during the tournament. With an upward trajectory, GOAT has one final weekend to showcase their best play. While they’ll face a challenging repeat matchup against Machine and a familiar foe in Furious George, GOAT have improved throughout the year and should be up to the challenge.
Likely Ceiling: Quarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Vancouver Furious George
Pool Seeding: A4
Power Ranking: #14
Regional Finish: NW3
Overall 2026 Record: 15-8
Against the Nationals Field: 2-7
Against the Pool: N/A
GOAT are not the only Canadian team arriving to Nationals with a strong roster and eagerness to prove themselves. Furious George return to Nationals after a year away and they too strengthened their team through addition. Canadian World Games star Malik Auger-Semmar is playing his first season on the west coast. Neo Debroux is making his Men’s Division debut after a few years on the elite Mixed circuit. Both players are difference makers downfield; Auger-Semmar with his initiation, flash, and finishing, Debroux with his timing, anticipation, and bail-out-ability. On the other side of the disc, and fresh off a College Championships appearance with McGill, Kai O’Donnell brought his defensive grit to Furious this year.
That’s a lot of key additions before we even get to second year star Rex Yuen, who never met an ambitious throw he didn’t think he could hit; third year cutter Nyle Lebbell, who never backs down from even the best defenders’ challenge; and third year hybrid Simon Ramirez Ortiz, whose unique style and quick disc movement acts as a perfect counterweight to keep defenses in check. With some franchise legends (Morgon Hibbert still going strong into his 40s along with Kevin Underhill, Malcolm Bryson, and Tim Tsang) still in the mix, Furious has a full roster ready to take advantage of every opportunity ahead of them.
Like GOAT, the trajectory of Furious George’s season shows continuous improvement. A 2-4 Pro-Elite Challenge West marked something of a low point before winning records at Elite-Select Challenge, Sectionals, and Regionals showed that the team had more potential. As the bottom seed in the pool, Furious will need to pull off at least one upset to make the bracket. Though the only Nationals team they’ve beaten so far is lower ranked Doublewide, they’ve been close to higher ranked teams a number of times. This will be their last chance this season to get that elusive win.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool B
New York PoNY
Pool Seeding: B1
Power Ranking: #3
Regional Finish: NE1
Overall 2026 Record: 15-3 (24-4 including WUCC)
Against the Nationals Field: 8-3 (9-4 including WUCC)
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Sockeye, 1-0 vs. Johnny Bravo
While the title-less Chicago Machine may feel the most pressure to emerge from San Diego on top, the pressure meter is not much lower on New York PoNY. Since winning their lone title in 2018, PoNY has made five of six semifinals, including two finals, but they are yet to come away with another club title.
It won’t come easy, as PoNY drew what is widely considered the deepest pool, with U.S. Open rematches against Denver Johnny Bravo and Seattle Sockeye. They beat both teams in close contests, but neither will be easy outs. “The men’s division field is pretty deep. Whoever we were gonna get in our pool was gonna be a tough out,” PoNY captain Shashank Alli said. “We’re pretty familiar with Chain and Sockeye at Nationals, we meet them almost every year at Nationals….excited for three really high quality teams.”
For PoNY the show will start with John Randolph, the #2 player in this year’s Top 25 player rankings. Randolph is a complete star for PoNY, and he remains a best-in-class defender that New York will rely on, but they’ll also want the former Brown star to anchor an offense that has been inconsistent at times in 2026. Declan Miller, Anders Juengst, and Ben Dameron will co-star along with veterans Chris Kocher and Jimmy Mickle playing big roles. Over on defense, Ben Jagt, Sam Little and Matt Labar lead a unit that has proven to be ruthless this year. At WUCC, they broke Machine five times in the early going to take a 6-1 lead and run away with the quarterfinal victory. That ruthlessness will be key, Alli said, in taking down Revolver if New York is able to work their way into that matchup.
“They’re a super talented team. They have a lot of incredible players on both sides of the ball. For any team to take them down, it’s gonna take a full 26-man effort,” Alli said. “It’s gonna be the team that can get them out of system, make them doing something that they’re not comfortable, and a D-line that is ruthless with the ball afterwards.”
Likely Ceiling: National Champions
Likely Floor: Quarterfinals
Atlanta Chain Lightning
Pool Seeding: B2
Power Ranking: #10
Regional Finish: SE1
Overall 2026 Record: 16-6
Against the Nationals Field: 5-6
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Johnny Bravo
It’s not the Chain Lightning of yesteryear (literally last year) as this team entered 2026 with a Brett Hulsmeyer-sized hole, the #21 ranked player in the Club Men’s Top 25 player rankings in 2025. Rather than look for a Hulsmeyer-esque star, Chain replaced their star in aggregate, adding breakout threats like Will Selfridge and Stefan McCall. The result was a strikingly similar ranking throughout the season, culminating in a regional final upset of Raleigh Ring of Fire.
Chain Lightning don’t have any players in the Top 25 of our player rankings this season, or even in the top 35. Selfridge, coming in at #48, is the team’s highest-ranked player. Yet Chain has produced strong results all season. That win over Ring of Fire is the season’s crowning moment, and now Chain will look to do what they haven’t done since 2011: make semifinals. Or even finish better than T-7th at Nationals.
Veterans Nicky Spiva and Adam Miller anchor the O-line, and the addition of Selfridge has added a little more dynamism. Michael Poe’s explosive initiation off the front of the stack and otherworldly bids provides another element for Atlanta, and Grady Richman is another favorite target downfield. Veteran Hayden Austin-Knab and the emerging Stefan McCall have directed the D-Line counterattack.
The on-field momentum is with Chain entering the tournament, but the biggest thing going against them may be their draw. Pool B is the deepest pool in the field. New York PoNY is a title contender, Seattle Sockeye made the U.S. Open Final, and Denver Johnny Bravo is the best bottom seed and won a national championship as recently as 2022. That puts Chain’s floor as low as any two-seed across all pools. They’ve also only played one team in that title contending tier, a 15-10 loss to Machine at PEC East, so if Chain wants to prove this ceiling prediction wrong, they’ll have to showcase a higher level of play than we largely saw in the regular season.
Likely Ceiling: Quarterfinals
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Seattle Sockeye
Pool Seeding: B3
Power Ranking: #6
Regional Finish: NW2
Overall 2026 Record: 15-9
Against the Nationals Field: 6-8
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. PoNY, 1-0 vs. Johnny Bravo
If you had to pick a team with the highest variability in possible results, Seattle Sockeye is as good a bet as any. They’re one of four teams in the field with a loss to a team that didn’t qualify for Nationals, albeit an early-season loss to Eugene Dark Star. They also have wins over Portland Rhino Slam! and Boston DiG as part of their run to the U.S. Open Final this summer.
Such volatility comes with the young roster that Sockeye will bring into the field. Seattle had four players finish between #22 and #44 in our top player rankings, and all four were prominent players at College Nationals earlier this year; Elijah Diamond (#22) and Cedar Hines (#33) spearheaded Western Washington’s quarterfinal run, while Xavier Fuzat (#41) and Carter Bayer (#44) led Texas and Washington, respectively.
Hines will play a high-touch role as center handler, Fuzat will be a hybrid threat for the O-Line, and Carter Bayer, owner of one of the best catches of the season, is as dangerous a deep threat as any team could ask for. Diamond will play on both lines in all likelihood, but he’s quarterbacked the D-Line most frequently and could play his way into All-American status with a strong performance in San Diego. Alongside Diamond, Zoli Ishikawa-Szabo (Western Washington) and Mason Stone (UMass) are young, high-impact players on the D-Line for Sockeye.
That infusion of young talent will be crucial for Sockeye, who lost their top two stars from last year’s quarterfinalist squad in Johnny Malks and Declan Miller. In Pool B, there will be no easy game, and Sockeye needed a big second-half comeback to upend Bravo earlier in the season. Chain’s playing at the highest level they’ve played at all season, and PoNY is PoNY. Making bracket is no guarantee for the U.S. Open runner-ups. But if they get there, they have the ceiling to spring an upset and make some noise.
Likely Ceiling: Semifinals
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Denver Johnny Bravo
Pool Seeding: B4
Power Ranking: #13
Regional Finish: SC1
Overall 2026 Record: 14-8
Against the Nationals Field: 5-8
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Chain Lightning, 0-1 vs. PoNY, 0-1 vs. Sockeye
There’s a little bit of a “what-if” when it comes to Denver Johnny Bravo. We haven’t really seen what feels like the complete version of this team yet. Early in the year, Bravo hinged virtually their entire offensive game plan on “Jordan Kerr go deep” or “Jordan Kerr gain big yards on an under and shoot it deep – frequently to Quinn Finer”. It wasn’t a horrible gameplan and it produced results, but it was the type of limited attack that caps a team’s ceiling. That was evident enough as Bravo didn’t record a win over an American team at U.S. Open.
Then, at Elite-Select Challenge, Bravo had to operate without Kerr and Finer, and the emergence of Nanda Min-Fink as a strong handler option alongside Jonathan Nethercutt guided Bravo to an upset of Chain Lightning and a semifinal appearance. Veteran Dennison Bechis stepped up in a big way, and Tucker Kalmus and Alex Tatum played key roles in the run, as well. We haven’t seen Bravo since, save for cruising through South Central Regionals, but if they can combine the best of what we saw at ESC with the starpower of Kerr and Finer, this team becomes a legitimate threat.
Let’s not forget, Bravo have veterans that are very comfortable in this spot. In 2023, Denver won their pool as the no.12 seed, upending the eventual national champions, Washington D.C. Truck Stop. Last year, they won their pool as the 10-seed, upsetting the no.2 overall seed, Boston DiG. And they won a national championship in 2022. They’re not going to feel like or play like underdogs or your standard fourth seed in a pool at Nationals, but at the same time, they do have to prove that they can combine the best of their stars and their late-season breakouts into a product that can compete with the elite teams in 2026.
Likely Ceiling: Quarterfinals
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool C
Portland Rhino Slam!
Pool Seeding: C1
Power Ranking: #2
Regional Finish: NW1
Overall 2026 Record: 18-6
Against the Nationals Field: 7-6
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Sub Zero
It’s been a strange season for Rhino Slam! They made a major statement at their first major tournament, knocking off a close-to-full-strength Revolver side at the PEC West final to cement themselves as early favorites. Then, missing co-stars Mica Glass and Raphy Hayes among others, Rhino ‘scuffled’ to a fourth-place finish at U.S. Open, losing winnable games on DGP to Seattle Sockeye and Minneapolis Sub Zero, the latter of whom is now a pool play opponent at Nationals.
Rhino’s only action since then was an unsanctioned tournament hosted by Revolver and Northwest Regionals. Head coach Leo Micklem noted the team tried some new combinations with players that hadn’t played much together that season, and the hope is to fuse the best parts of their 2024 title team with their young talent that is breaking out in 2026. That young talent includes Alex Hall-Witt, (17 goals at U.S. Open), Chander Boyd-Fliegel (9 goals, 16 assists), and Callahan Bosworth (14 goals, 11 assists) who have played key roles on the O-line. Hall-Witt and Bosworth are in their first year on Rhino after spending time with Eugene Dark Star.
Micklem praised his unit’s versatility and depth, along with the leadership of Raphy Hayes, Mica Glass, and Henry Ing. “Raphy is a quiet individual, but he’s a great person and a great teammate, and he takes guys like Alex and Chander under his wing…They work out what’s the system that works best for them,” Micklem noted. “The beauty is in the balance of our O-line…having a piece like Callahan Bosworth, you just have to respect that, and then you have the verticality of Chander, Raphy, and Alex. Henry and Mica have been the two O-line captains this year and have done a really good job of building out a style of offense that makes the most of the strengths of the guys we have out there.”
Rhino will now look to find their peak at Nationals, starting with Sub Zero, Philadelphia Pacmen, and Montreal Mephisto. Rhino isn’t taking it likely. “The reality is it’s Nationals, there aren’t any bad teams,” Micklem said. “We’ve been scouting all three teams as if it was a quarterfinal or semifinal matchup, because that’s the kind of respect and humility that those games deserve.”
Rhino will want to win the pool to avenge their loss to Sub Zero, as well as avoid a potential prequarter with Seattle Sockeye. They’re the only top seed with a team that beat them this season in their pool.
Likely Ceiling: National Champions
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Minneapolis Sub Zero
Pool Seeding: C2
Power Ranking: #7
Regional Finish: NC1
Overall 2026 Record: 20-5
Against the Nationals Field: 8-5
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. Rhino Slam!, 1-0 vs. Pacmen
Sub Zero will be one of the most polarizing teams when it comes to predictions. On one hand, there’s the undeniable talent, and some strong results to back it up this season, with wins over PoNY and Rhino Slam! Portland head coach Leo Micklem noted Sub Zero as a dangerous pool play opponent, after his squad drew Minneapolis in pool play for the second straight year. “With Sub Zero, we obviously lost to them on universe at U.S. Open, and we had to stage a comeback against them last year at Nationals,” Micklem said. “When we played them last year, they were already a good team, and people just hadn’t realized it yet…there’s definitely a lot of respect there.
Sub Zero then went out and added some of the game’s brightest young stars, headlined by Carleton star Nate De Morgan, Pitt center handler Micah Davis, and Wisconsin’s Zach Morton. All three have slotted into major roles alongside Paul Krenik and Gordon Larson on the O-Line, and the D-Line is bolstered by two-way star Noah Hanson and a plethora of other capable contributors.
However, Minneapolis has some major injury concerns. Will Brandt is out for the season after getting injured in UFA playoffs, and D-Line stalwart Cam Lacy is banged up. He missed regionals and is rostered for Nationals, but his availability is a question mark. For a team reliant on young talent that largely hasn’t been there before, and a team that, at least by a quick glance, maybe doesn’t have the depth of the title contenders, losing top contributors could be very difficult to overcome.
However, Sub Zero has proven they have a high ceiling, and, as at Elite-Select Challenge when they went 5-1 without De Morgan and Davis and others, they have a pretty high floor even without their elite stars. They still enter Nationals with a lot of their top-end contributors. De Morgan has proven to be an X-Factor under the lights at college Nationals, and now he’ll get the chance to do so as Krenik’s partner-in-crime at the club level.
Pacmen isn’t an easy draw by any stretch, and beating Rhino would be a substantial upset, but with wins over PoNY and Rhino on their resume, it’s hard to count Minneapolis out of a big upset or two that could push them into semifinals or beyond.
Likely Ceiling: Semifinals
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Philadelphia Pacmen
Pool Seeding: C3
Power Ranking: #8
Regional Finish: MA1
Overall 2026 Record: 16-6
Against the Nationals Field: 7-6
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Sub Zero
After a team with what feels like such a wide range of possible outcomes in Sub Zero, Pacmen feels a little more boring. The squad from Philadelphia feels like a very strong quarterfinal-level team that has not yet showcased the goods needed to punch above their weight class. Their worst loss is to Chain Lightning. Their best win by USAU rankings is no.8 Chain Lightning. Their worst loss is no.9 Truck Stop. Granted, Pacmen has not played any of the four teams that have locked down the semifinal slots the past two seasons, but they’re also 0-4 against DiG, Ring of Fire, and Sub Zero, teams also in that semifinal-challenger tier.
Pacmen has established a very high floor as a program. Outside a loss to Mephisto in their first ever tournament in 2025, their worst loss per Ultiworld Power Rankings would be to a Chain Lightning team that finished #14 in last season’s power rankings. You can attribute a lot of that high floor to the consistency with which 20-year-old Sam Grossberg handles such a high-volume workload. He posted a double-double at Nationals last year, going +18 overall with 12 goals, 10 assists, a block, and just five turnovers. He’s primed to do it again.
A major question that could re-define Pacmen’s ceiling is the play of Alex Atkins. He had by far the worst club Nationals of his career in 2025, posting just a +5 with nine goals, 10 assists, two blocks, and 16 turnovers. But Atkins has been there before; he posted a +18 in winning the title with Johnny Bravo in 2022, and +13 and +19 marks in 2023 and 2024. At his best, the ceiling he provides alongside the stable and increasingly productive Grossberg can push Pacmen to new heights. At his worst, his volatility could cost Philadelphia a shot at a program-defining upset.
Outside their shocking prequarterfinal upset of DiG a year ago, Pacmen’s wins over Chain Lightning and Truck Stop this season are the strongest in their two-year program history. Those are respectable wins which provide proof of concept that Philly could absolutely return to quarterfinals. But we’re yet to see this team trade blows with the country’s elite. Barring a favorable and unexpected bracket draw, Pacmen is going to need to do that once, maybe twice in order to crack the final four.
Likely Ceiling: Quarterfinals
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Montreal Mephisto
Pool Seeding: C4
Power Ranking: #18
Regional Finish: NE3
Overall 2026 Record: 14-10
Against the Nationals Field: 0-8
Against the Pool: N/A
It’s new territory for Montreal Mephisto, and for many on the outside, it might be wildly unexpected. After back-to-back years losing in the game-to-go semifinals in the Northeast, Mephisto lost their biggest name, Malik Auger-Semmar, to Vancouver, and entered the year on the fringes of the Top 25. They then spent most of the year in bid-earning position, ceded their bid at the last minute, but thankfully for Montreal, it stayed in-region with Portland Red Tide.
Then, Mephisto toppled Red Tide in the backdoor bracket semifinals, and they manhandled Amherst Sprout in the game to go, securing their first Nationals berth in team history. Now, Mephisto will face an uphill climb to win their first Nationals game, with a pool featuring 2024 champion and 2025 semifinalist Rhino Slam!, an ascendant Sub Zero squad, and a Pacmen squad with a proclivity for avoiding upsets.
But Mephisto has defied the odds to get here, and they won’t be backing down from the challenge. Thomas Lalonde-Landry is almost certain to notch a gravity-defying block, and Geoff Bevan, William St. Pierre, and Vincent Lemieux will provide a lot of the offensive movement, with elite goal-scoring threat Antoine Dube always a threat. The offense is efficient and effective, and with good weather in San Diego, they could stay with a lot of teams. A lot of holds and a timely break can be a good recipe for springing an upset, and one is all Montreal needs to surge into the bracket during their debut dance at Nationals.
Likely Ceiling: Prequarters
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
Pool D
Boston DiG
Pool Seeding: D1
Power Ranking: #4
Regional Finish: NE2
Overall 2026 Record: 17-7
Against the Nationals Field: 11-7
Against the Pool: 0-2 vs. Revolver, 1-1 vs. Truck Stop, 0-1 vs. Doublewide
With a consensus five premier title contenders in the men’s division, one title-hopeful is guaranteed to miss semifinals, and Boston DiG must prove they can avoid that fate. Despite great regular season performances, DiG has never even made semifinals, even as the no.2 seed last year. They’ll hope that’s different this year, and DiG has tried to prepare themselves as best they can, both in their roster makeup and in the way they laid out their schedule. The Boston-area squad opted to fly cross-country and attend the unsanctioned BATMAN tournament, rather than Pro Champs, a move that Oscar Graff noted was about a variety of reasons, including the desire to play more West coast teams.
“Those are a bunch of teams that we stylistically don’t face a lot,” Graff said. “We play Breeze, Empire, Truck, and PoNY all the time, so we get more of that small ball. The west coast teams, feel like they play lot more of big space, big boy ball…we want to make sure going into the postseason we’ve played as many styles as possible.”
DiG have also added some powerful veteran experience to both their O-Line and D-line, including a club champion in Thomas Edmonds, who has slotted into the center handler role. “Thomas came in and has already contributed a lot of really valuable ideas,” Graff noted.
Then, DiG got a late season addition in longtime Chicago Machine star Pawel Janas, who came over after playing WUCC with Chicago. At Regionals, his first tournament with his new team, Janas served as a D-Line handler. “He has a ton of veteran experience. He’s very even and very steady,” Graff said of Janas’s impact.
The new additions join a star-laden squad anchored by Tobe Decraene, who threw 20 assists at Nationals last season. 2022 club champion Calvin Stoughton, Peter Boerth, Simon Carapella, Orion Cable, and Albert Yuan all provide DiG with plenty of offensive firepower, enabling guys like Graff and Jeff Babbitt to become D-Line anchors.
It won’t be easy in Pool D, with the 2025 champs in Revolver and 2023 champs in Truck Stop standing in the way, as well as the no.16 seed, Austin Doublewide, who beat DiG way back in the first tournament of the season. “At Nationals, you’re going to have some really phenomenal games from the onset,” Graff said. “Even the last team at Nationals is capable of winning an upset. Certainly seeing Revolver, seeing Truck, it’s going to be tough, but we’re pretty settled with it. Everyone has hard pool play games.”
Likely Ceiling: National Champions
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
San Francisco Revolver
Pool Seeding: D2
Power Ranking: #1
Regional Finish: SW1
Overall 2026 Record: 21-2 (31-2 including WUCC)
Against the Nationals Field: 12-2 (13-2 including WUCC)
Against the Pool: 2-0 vs. DiG, 1-0 vs. Truck Stop
The second seed here is a formality. Everybody knows that Revolver is the team to beat; nobody has beaten them in a major tournament since 2024. Since the onset of that 2024 postseason, Revolver has lost four games: 2024 Nationals Semifinals to PoNY (15-13), 2025 U.S. Open Pool Play To Truck Stop (15-13), 2026 PEC West Final To Rhino! (15-12), 2026 U.S. Open Pool Play to Machine (15-12). That’s it – that’s the list.
This year, Revolver enters with a 31-2 record across all competitions, including an unbeaten WUCC run in August. They’ve won 25 straight games, and that doesn’t include many of the same players also racing to a UFA title with the Oakland Spiders in the middle of all that.
“We met after last season and decided we pretty much wanted to go for all of [the titles],” Revolver captain Dan Ritthaler said. “It’s just showing up every day and playing for each other, that keeps us going. One [championship] won’t make us less hungry for the next.” Ritthaler also noted that WUCC added an extra variable to the season, and they leaned on head coach Molica Anderson and their veterans when it came to preparing. One decision Revolver made was to not make the additional cross-country trip for Pro Champs, hosting the unsanctioned BATMAN tournament instead.
“We knew that with travel for Worlds, along with a big chunk of our team playing UFA Championship Weekend the following weekend, that going to Pro Champs would be grueling,” Revolver captain Mac Hecht said. “When thinking about the broad arc of the season, we still wanted to create the competitive environment that you get at Pro Champs while being able to manage the logistical hurdles we had to face.”
Revolver’s talent is enviable. They had five players in the consensus top 25 player rankings, and eight in the top 35. If you rolled out a line of Leo Gordon, Anton Orme, Robin Vickers-Batzdorf, Alex Nelson, Simon Higgins, Nathan Prior, and Eli Kerns, you’d feel pretty great about your odds on that point. That’s Revolver’s next seven highest-ranked players after the eight sitting inside the top 35, highlighted by all three Revolver captains, as well as Michael Ing, Adam Rees, Raekwon Adkins, newcomer Brett Hulsmeyer, and D-line stalwart Jason Vallee.
Revolver drew a tough Pool D, but they’re hardly blinking. Revolver captain Walker Frankenberg kept it simple: “At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what our draw is, because you got to beat the best teams to be the best team.”
Likely Ceiling: National Champions
Likely Floor: Semifinals
Washington DC Truck Stop
Pool Seeding: D3
Power Ranking: #9
Regional Finish: MA2
Overall 2026 Record: 15-8
Against the Nationals Field: 7-8
Against the Pool: 0-1 vs. Revolver, 1-1 vs. DiG, 1-0 vs. Doublewide
A champion in 2023, Washington D.C. Truck Stop have established a very high floor as a program, qualifying for quarterfinals in every Nationals dating back to 2014, the longest active streak in the division. Truck Stop started the year by bringing a skeletal version of their full roster to PEC East and took 8th place with a 2-4 record. They followed it up with an 8th-place showing at U.S. Open, where they took down Rhino Slam!, but a lackluster follow-up to the upset dimmed the outlook for the Mid-Atlantic powerhouse. Truck Stop rallied back to win a weakened Pro Champs field, but they faltered at Mid-Atlantic Regionals against Pacmen, and now they head to San Diego with as cloudy of an outlook as you can imagine.
Christian Boxley still has an argument to be considered the best cutter in the game. There’s not a defender in the world that would enjoy guarding Boxley in an end zone iso-cut situation. This year, Boxley is joined by a premier French finisher in Elliot Bonnet, and the two of them provide just electrifying cutting options for Jacques Nissen and AJ Merriman in the handling space. The D-Line has struggled to force turns at times, but Sofiene Bontemps can provide a jolt, and the counterattack is more than capable if they do get the disc.
Nobody would be shocked if Truck Stop stunned DiG, or if they reach quarterfinals and push Rhino or maybe PoNY in a hard-fought bracket game, maybe springing an upset to get back to semis. But it’s hard to ignore the upsets and inconsistencies, and a potential prequarter with a team like Ring of Fire, who played them to double game point at Pro Champs, or a hungry GOAT squad that beat Truck at PEC East, would prove tricky. Truck’s quarterfinal streak is in jeopardy, but they also have the talent to take down the top teams, so guessing where the cards fall for the 2023 champions feels like a shot in the dark.
Likely Ceiling: Semifinals
Likely Floor: Prequarters
Austin Doublewide
Pool Seeding: D4
Power Ranking: #15
Regional Finish: SC2
Overall 2026 Record: 18-10
Against the Nationals Field: 2-8
Against the Pool: 1-0 vs. DiG, 0-1 vs. Truck Stop
Doublewide’s task, as it is most years, was to earn a second bid for the South Central, which they did by the skin of their teeth. That allowed them to largely cruise in Regionals and book a trip to San Diego after missing out in 2025. Stuck in a brutal Pool D, Doublewide will probably be counted out before the first pull happens, but Austin has the talent to find a shocker and get into bracket play.
At PEC East, Doublewide took down DiG in an early-season statement. It was early season, to be sure, but DiG went on to blast everyone at that tournament, so it wasn’t like they faced a team in horrible form. At Pro Champs, Doublewide pushed Ring of Fire to universe in bracket play, showing everyone that they were more than a one-time wonder when it came to that ceiling, and they’ll be looking to tap into that potential yet again in San Diego. Matthew Armour is a steady veteran presence, and the speedy Mark Henke seemingly gets open whenever he wants.
It’s been a strong year for the Austin ultimate frisbee community, after Sol made UFA championship weekend. Now, Doublewide will look to provide an exclamation point by shocking everyone who’s already talking about Pool D like it’s a three-team pool.
Likely Ceiling: Quarterfinals
Likely Floor: Out on Day One
