| Wildcard Wednesday: Week 4

Welcome to the fourth week of Wildcard Wednesdays. We’re just two weeks away from knowing the results of USAU’s first club season with wildcards determined by a same season strength formula. With only two sanctioned tournaments last weekend, small ones at that, not much has changed from last week’s rankings. We’ll know a lot more next Wednesday after results from Chesapeake and Heavyweights this weekend. After that, Labor Day will be the final piece of the puzzle and the last chance for teams to play their way into a wildcard slot for their region.

With Ironside and Bravo ranked first and second this week, I thought I’d throw out an interesting stat. Since 1995 only three teams have finished 2nd at Nationals and failed to win a championship at some point afterwards: Ring once (2002), Bravo once (2007), and Ironside 3 times (08, 10, 11). Can Boston or Colorado cross their names off that dubious list?

Here are the highest-ranked teams in each region, the teams that hold the place for their respective region’s automatic bid:

1. Ironside (NE) 2. Johnny Bravo (SC) 3. Revolver (SW) 4. Rhino (NW) 5. Machine (GL) 6. Chain Lightning (SE) 13. Truck Stop (MA) 14. Sub Zero (NC)

Sanctioned Tournaments this Weekend:

Heavyweights, Rockford Il- Madison Club, Machine, Voodoo, Prairie Fire
Chesapeake Invite, Poolsville MD- Ironside, Chain, Ring, Sub Zero, Southpaw, GOAT, PoNY, Truck Stop, Tanasi, Condors, Streetgang, Boost Mobile, Oakland, Cash Crop, Madcow
Philadelphia 1 Day, Philadelphia PA

Overall rank: Team, Region, Rankings Point Total

*7. Doublewide, SC 1631 – Doublewide is in very good position to earn the South Central a second bid. No one in the region has shown an ability to play with them or Bravo to this point, so they’re likely playing Labor Day next weekend for Nationals seeding and to avoid injury.

*8. Sockeye, NW 1625 – Seattle is just a shade off from Doublewide and not too far behind Chain in the new rankings. They too will take the weekend off before competing at Labor Day where they’ll hope to solidify at least two bids for the NW and some breathing room come Regionals.

*9. Boost Mobile, SW 1573 – Boost’s point total will swing fairly dramatically based on this weekend’s results at Chesapeake. Between that and Labor Day the next weekend, they’ll need solid results against highly ranked teams to maintain a top ten ranking. They’ll see Sub Zero, Southpaw and Florida United in pool play.

*10. Ring of Fire, SE 1562 – Ring has GOAT, Streetgang and Oakland in pool play at Chesapeake. Those are all teams Carolina should beat. They’ll be looking to take a swing at Ironside and new regional rival Chain on Sunday to prove their mettle.

*11. Condors, SW 1545 – Games against Chain, PoNY and Cash Crop on Saturday in Poolsville will be the first out of region competition for the Condors. Unless they can pull an upset, they’ll cross over against either Tanasi or Madcow.

*12. Furious George, NW 1527 – Vancouver will watch this weekend’s results closely. With Southpaw, Oakland, Madcow and Madison joining the rankings next week after they have enough sanctioned games, Furious could head to Labor Day with some serious work to do.

*15. PoNY, NE 1472 – New York slipped from 14 to 15 but still have a decent lead over GOAT and Streetgang at the moment. They’ll see Chain, Condors and Cash Crop in pool play at Chesapeake and will look to close out games better than they did at ECC.

*16. GOAT, NE 1391 – Toronto still owns the final wildcard slot, securing a third bid for the Northeast at the moment. Their Chesapeake pool contains Ring, Streetgang and Oakland with a possible crossover against Sub Zero or Southpaw. Winning 3 of those 4 games would likely put GOAT in a much better position this time next week.

17. Streetgang, SW 1375 – With less than twenty points separating San Diego and Toronto, their third round game at Chesapeake should be a fun one. Streetgang could see regional rival Boost Mobile or Florida United in crossover.

19. Cash Crop, SE 1363 – Games against PoNY and Condors offer North Carolina a chance to upset some established and high ranked teams. While they likely won’t upset Chain, a good game against Atlanta could also boost Cash Crop’s ranking.

20. Prairie Fire, NC 1349 – Kansas City is currently on the outside looking in. They’ll need to beat Voodoo, Madison Club or Machine at Heavyweights to have a chance at improving their current ranking.

25. Voodoo, NW 1193 – The schedule at Heavyweights probably won’t offer Seattle the opportunity to play a top-20 team until semifinals on Sunday. That team, however, will be fifth ranked Machine if seeds hold. That would be an important win.

Un-Ranked: Madison Club, NC – Madison and Machine wisely scheduled a showcase game against each other, assuming they both win their relatively easy pools, on Saturday night of Heavyweights. A rematch of those two teams could be coming in the finals as well. Madison already has wins against Prairie Fire and Inception, but they are one game shy of the five needed to be included in the rankings.

Un-Ranked: Southpaw, MA – Philly plays Florida United, Boost Mobile and Sub Zero for their first games of the season this weekend. They’ll have enough games to be included in next week’s rankings, the only question is where their results will place them.

Un-Ranked: Madcow, GL – Madcow played in a round robin in Pittsburgh last weekend, beating Zebra Muscles and Dire Wolf but losing to Oakland 15-13. Columbus not only needs to play well, they’ll also be hoping for good results from Oakland at Chesapeake.

Un-Ranked: Oakland, MA – Pittsburgh beat everyone at their round robin, but only played three games. They need seven games to be considered for a wildcard, meaning they’ll have to hope no one drops out of consolation play on Sunday at Chesapeake.
*- Current wildcard regions.

If the season ended today bids would be:
GL- 1 SC- 2 SW- 3 NW- 3 NE- 3 SE- 2 MA- 1 NC- 1