2024 Club Nationals Day One Recap, Results, Highlights, and More
What a day in San Diego!
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Despite not playing at all, I’ve somehow walked five miles pretty much exclusively in the field complex, I am sore and dehydrated but ready to recap day one of the 2024 USA Ultimate Club Nationals Championships. The conditions were gorgeous temperature-wise, but the wind in rounds two and three of the day led to some sloppy, tightly contested games that we didn’t see impact rounds one and four as much. It was a day with plenty of surprises and plenty of teams meeting expectations as well. Let’s start by taking stock of how each team did before we get into any specifics and highlights.
USAU Club Nationals Pool Play Results
Men’s
Pool A
#10 PoNY (3-0) — bye into quarters
#1 Chicago Machine (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. Shrimp
#8 Seattle Sockeye (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Truck Stop
#14 Raleigh-Durham United (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
The story of Pool A is PoNY’s dominance. It doesn’t matter who’s gone this year. This team knows how to win, and they’ll be a tough out going forward. Sockeye had to come back late against RDU in round one, had the tables turned on them by Machine after being up 11-6, and played PoNY the closest of anyone in the pool, 15-12. Bit of a weird day in Pool A.
Pool B
#2 Boston DiG (3-0) — bye into quarters
#5 Raleigh Ring of Fire (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. Johnny Bravo
#11 Toronto GOAT (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Chain Lightning
#15 Minneapolis Mallard (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
All chalk in Pool B, although GOAT did give DiG a bit of a scare in the first round of games, but DiG shook off the rust and beat Ring to take the pool in the final round of the day.
Pool C
#7 Portland Rhino Slam (3-0) — bye into quarters
#9 Atlanta Chain Lightning (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. GOAT
#3 Denver Johnny Bravo (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Ring of Fire
#13 Vancouver Furious George (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
Rhino won their first two games on universe, then beat the top seed in the pool by four to finish perfect on the day. Chain Lightning’s big win over Johnny Bravo in round one was the first hint things might get weird in Pool C. Furious George are strong contenders for the brand new Brandeis TRON Memorial “Doing the Most and Getting the Least” Award, going 0-3 on -4 point differential across three games. Ouch.
Pool D
#4 San Francisco Revolver (3-0) — bye into quarters
#6 Washington DC Truck Stop (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. Sockeye
#16 Salt Lake Shrimp (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Machine
#12 Austin Doublewide (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
Revolver took care of business, including over the defending champs. Is it time for the dead dynasty to rise again? Shrimp eliminated Doublewide on universe, proving good things can happen to #16 seeds.
Women’s
Pool A
#1 San Francisco Fury (3-0) — bye into quarters
#5 San Diego Flipside (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. Iris
#11 Vancouver Traffic (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Riot
#15 Chicago Nemesis (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
Fury and Flipside played for the pool as was expected, but Flipside actually took half before things went off the rails in the second half. An 8-2 second half sealed the pool, and Traffic took care of a Nemesis team celebrating their 40th anniversary of existence.
Pool B
#2 Washington DC Scandal (3-0) — bye into quarters
#9 Portland Schwa (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. 6ixers
#8 New York BENT (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Molly Brown
#13 Pittsburgh Parcha (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
The standings don’t quite tell the full story of just how close things got to full chaos in Pool B. Schwa’s universe point win over BENT is why they get a favorable pre-quarter draw. But in the last round, BENT took Scandal to Universe, and Parcha nearly pulled off the upset over Schwa. Either one of those results going the other way would have turned things on their head.
Pool C
#3 Boston Brute Squad (3-0) — bye into quarters
#6 Denver Molly Brown (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. BENT
#10 Toronto 6ixers (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Schwa
#16 Minneapolis Pop (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
The pool of death absolutely lived up to the hype. 6ixers are still alive which is why I won’t count them as contenders for my new award, but they lost to Brute Squad and Molly Brown, and struggled against Pop for the first half before pulling away. Brute Squad finished off a thrilling comeback on a 4-1 run to beat Molly Brown and win the pool. Tough road ahead for Molly Brown tomorrow.
Pool D
#4 Raleigh Phoenix (3-0) — bye into quarters
#7 Seattle Riot (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. Traffic
#12 Québec Iris (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Flipside
#14 Washington DC Grit (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
Grit is another finalist for the Brandeis TRON Memorial “Doing the Most and Getting the Least” Award. Grit lost to Riot by three, took Phoenix to universe, and then lost on universe and got eliminated by an Iris team that did not make either of their other games very close at all. Phoenix rebounded from a rough game against Grit with an impressive showing against Riot, taking control of the game with an 8-3 run in the middle after a slow start.
Mixed
Pool A
#1 Seattle BFG (3-0) — bye into quarters
#6 Vancouver Red Flag (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. Slow
#11 Sacramento Tower (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. shame.
#14 Arizona Lawless (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
BFG took care of business blowing out Lawless and Red Flag after a slower start against Tower. Red Flag didn’t make it easy on themselves, needing universe to beat Tower, but got through where they reasonably could’ve hoped to be, and Tower got revenge for their regionals loss to Lawless.
Pool B
#7 Michigan Hybrid (3-0) — bye into quarters
#2 Austin Disco Club (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. XIST
#16 Montana MOONDOG (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Mixtape
#12 Washington DC Rally (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
Hyrbid played five very impressive halves of ultimate, beating MOONDOG and Rally handily and going up big on Disco Club before it tightened up towards the end. Disco needed two universe point wins to secure second in the pool, and MOONDOG needed universe point to secure their spot in pre-quarters. Pool B was exciting all day long!
Pool C
#3 Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust (3-0) — bye into quarters
#13 Seattle Mixtape (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. MOONDOG
#5 New York XIST (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Disco Club
#9 Huntsville Space Force (0-3) — eliminated from championship contention
Drag’n Thrust didn’t care how difficult their pool seemed on paper. They are cruising to 3-0 and a +23 point differential across three games in possibly the most dominant performance of the day across all three divisions. Mixtape’s nationals experience and pedigree likely played a role in their two close wins over Xist and Space Force, while the wheels fully came off for the Space Force to their first two games, 15-7 and 15-10.
Pool D
#8 Lexington Sprocket (2-1) — bye into quarters
#4 Fort Collins shame. (2-1) — pre-quarter vs. Tower
#10 Boston Slow (1-2) — pre-quarter vs. Red Flag
#15 Nashville ‘Shine (1-2) — eliminated from championship contention
Pool D started off with ‘Shine roaring back to upset Sprocket and ended with Sprocket on top of the pool in quarters and ‘Shine eliminated. Life comes at ya fast in mixed ultimate. Beating a crosstown rival and the defending champs is a good way to shake off a bad loss, and ‘Shine ran out of steam late in their second game against shame. and never really had any against Slow in their last one.
Rapid Fire Thoughts and Highlights
As I did for Southeast Regionals, I kept track of some of the thoughts that stuck with me the most and individual highlights from the day’s action since there's too much to cover fully now.
It is beyond unbelievable to me that we cannot find observers for every game at nationals. That is an institutional failure.
It is also unreasonable to expect to rely on volunteers as much as we do! This is a crazy event to plan and make happen, and I have so much gratitude and respect for everyone who helps bring it to life. But if we want to scale up as a sport, we have to figure out other ways to reward/compensate/incentivize people to help the community.
It sucks that there’s only one tournament per year where the scores are all constantly being updated online, but it’s great to be at that tournament when it’s happening.
Having scoreboards everywhere was really nice. It’d be great and probably quite cost-efficient to make that happen at the regional level everywhere.
Two current members of Brandeis TRON showed up. I have no idea why they were here. They didn’t know either. They just decided to come.
DO NOT CALL TIMEOUTS ON THE SIDELINE IN THE WIND IT JUST LETS THE DEFENSE SET UP ON YOU
Also, regarding timeouts, I’m coming around to the idea that maybe your only look should be to swing and reset the disc to a handler and get back in offensive flow instead of something downfield
To a lowly peasant like me, it seemed like the biggest issue people had in the wind was not setting up their stack close enough to their handlers. I lost track of how many times teams put themselves into bad situations and turned over the disc because they set up too far away and didn’t give their throwers any real options.
Anyone can play a competitive half against anyone else at this level. The depth, coaching, and top-end talent show themselves late in games.
This community is really special; it’s amazing to see high school teammates and opponents, friends, former college coaches, and so many different people all in the same space. I hope to never take it for granted.
As I tweeted about a couple of times, DiG brought a vuvuzela, which had teams even just warming up near them ready to take it away and break it. Which is fair because that would absolutely immediately make me incredibly annoyed to play against but was honestly just hilarious to see as a spectator.
As far as ambiance and vibes go, I think the best moment of the day for me was watching Molly Brown and 6ixers trade haymakers late in the game while Slow warmed up behind me doing a choreographed line dance to Ed Sheeran’s Shivers.
Shoutout to the very kind member of Disco Club who sat with me in the parking lot and just chilled out for a bit at the end of the day.
Looking Ahead to Day Two
It’s bracket play, so it’s all exciting, but there are a couple of areas of the bracket I’m extra interested in going into day two.
Men’s
The Bravo vs. Ring prequarter matchup, where the winner plays PoNY, is one of the spiciest across all three divisions. A #1 vs. #2 quarterfinal matchup looms between Machine and DiG if the top overall seed Machine can beat the bottom seed #16 Shrimp.
Women’s
Molly Brown and BENT playing for the right to match up with Phoenix in quarters is probably what I’m most excited about in this bracket, but 6ixers vs. Schwa to play Fury should also be excellent.
Mixed
Saying everything because anything can happen is cheating. I am looking forward to possible #1 BFG vs. #2 Disco Club and #3 Drag’n Thrust vs. #4 shame. matchups in the quarterfinals, with the alternatives being even more chaotic. Either way, we’ll have at least two teams outside the top four in semis.
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About the Author
My name is Noam Gumerman (he/him). I am from Chapel Hill, NC, and studied Journalism and American Studies at Brandeis University. I am a journalist by trade and have been playing ultimate for over half my life. I love nothing more than combining those two interests. Contact me for discussions, feedback, story suggestions, and more on Twitter (@noamgum/@breaksideulti now too!) or email (noamgumerman@gmail.com).