Pre-Nationals Power Rankings

Here are my power rankings among the 16 qualifying teams, along with a few notes.

Tier 1

1. Sockeye. A convincing undefeated Regionals cements Sockeye in the top spot.

2. Ironside. Ironside ran roughshod through Sectionals and Regionals, beating Bodhi 15-2 at Sectionals and beating PoNY and GOAT 15-5 and 15-8. They are definitely showing signs of gelling more and more over time. The only question mark is whether the addition of Kurt Gibson, who hasn’t been playing with them, will help them with his talent or hurt them by disrupting what Ironside has been working out together over the club season.

3. Johnny Bravo. I am still very high on Bravo, but I think Beau being an absentee member of the team can only hurt them. He looked out of sorts at Labor Day, and spending the summer away from Colorado can’t have helped him get better meshed with his team.

Tier 2

4. Jam. Jam lost to Sockeye and Revolver at Northwest Regionals to take the Northwest’s 3^rd bid. However, I still think that they are the best team outside of the big 3. The loss to Sockeye is acceptable; it’s Sockeye. The loss to Revolver is frightening for them, but they have handled Revolver fine over the rest of the season and the blustery weather in Burlington will not be present in Sarasota.

5. Chain. Chain has had some very unimpressive games in the series. The 16-14 Sectionals victory over El Diablo and the loss to a scrappy but not excellent Doublewide at Regionals are cause for concern. It remains to be seen whether their excellent regular season and talent or their spotty series is the more accurate assessment of Chain. We’ll find out in Sarasota.

6. Revolver. Revolver is a very good, but not great, team. I think they probably hit their ceiling at Regionals. Not to say that they peaked at Regionals, but I don’t see them improving to a point where they can beat more than two of the above teams at Nationals.

Tier 3

7. Ring. Ring put together a strong series to go along with a good regular season, but I can’t see them breaking into the semifinals.

8. GOAT. They had a good series, putting the hurt on Bodhi twice and giving Ironside its toughest test. I think they’ll have a tougher run at Nationals this time around though since all the other teams know the scouting report on them by now.

9. Sub Zero. Sub Zero has a fair amount of talent to go along with the sickest website in the game, but their results have not been too impressive. They were relatively poor at Labor Day, took care of business and nothing more at CHC, and went totally untested through the series. They certainly have a higher ceiling than #9, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them finish in the 10-11 range either. Best use of flash in a roster since the 2002 Brains site.

10. Truck Stop. Truck Stop will do fine at Nationals, finishing somewhere among these tier 3 positions, no higher, no lower.

11. Doublewide. I know they won South Regionals, but this is a power ranking, not a seeding. They have been inconsistent in the past. I’d like to see them do well but I don’t think it’s in the cards.

Tier 4

12. Condors. Talk about an up and down season. They’ve beaten Jam 2x, Truck Stop, and GOAT, but have lost a bunch of unimpressive games as well. I hope my Condors buddies can take better than 12^th, but I don’t predict that they will beat more than 2 top 11 teams. I do think, though, that they are much better than the bottom 4 teams.

Tier 5

13. Bodhi. Young enough to possibly pull off a couple of big news upsets, too young to finish top 10.

14. Machine. Ugh.

15. PoNY. Ugh. Riding their former Sockeye player through nationals won’t work out so well, considering he was not a big part of their success (from what I saw).

16. El Diablo. Who knows.