2014 National Championships Seeding Predictions: Men’s Division

What do you think of these seedings and pools?

Here are Ultiworld’s seeding predictions (and associated pools) for the Men’s Division at the 2014 USA Ultimate National Championships:

POOL A POOL B POOL C POOL D San Francisco Revolver (1) Chicago Machine (2) Seattle Sockeye (3) Boston Ironside (4) Austin Doublewide (8) Portland Rhino (7) Raleigh Ring of Fire (6) Denver Johnny Bravo (5) New York PoNY (12) Minneapolis Sub Zero (11) Toronto GOAT (10) Atlanta Chain Lightning (9) Kansas City Prairie Fire (13) Washington DC Truck Stop (14) Pittsburgh Temper (15) Vancouver Furious George (16)

Here is the basic reasoning for the seedings presented above.

1. San Francisco Revolver — Clear #1, defending Champions, World Champions, finished at the top of the rankings, head-to-head (H2H) win over Machine

2. Chicago Machine — Arguably had best overall regular season with tournament wins at Pro-Elite Challenge & Pro Flight Finale

3. Seattle Sockeye — 0-2 v. Revolver, #3 in USAU rankings, H2H win over Ironside

4. Boston Ironside — #2 in USAU rankings; losses to Sockeye, Bravo; wins over Revolver, Machine

5. Denver Johnny Bravo — #5 USAU, early season win over Ironside not enough to outweigh losses

6. Raleigh Ring of Fire — #6 USAU, beat Rhino to win Colorado Cup

7. Portland Rhino — #7 USAU, only losses came to Ring and Sockeye

8. Austin Doublewide — H2H over Chain, #8 USAU

9. Atlanta Chain Lightning — #10 USAU, but much more impressive resume than Prairie Fire

10. Toronto GOAT — H2H loss to Chain, strong Regionals, USAU #13, better late season performance than Sub Zero

11. Minneapolis Sub Zero — H2H loss to Chain, USAU #12

12. New York PoNY — USAU #11, 1-2 v. GOAT, poor late season results

13. Kansas City Prairie Fire — H2H loss v. PoNY, USAU #9

14. Washington DC Truck Stop — H2H over Temper

15. Pittsburgh Temper — USAU #15

16. Vancouver Furious George — USAU #18, no notable H2H

NOTES

– The top five teams are obvious. Their ordering is not exactly. I do think Ironside/Bravo will go 4/5, and, because of the seeding snake, that order doesn’t really matter. If you weigh rankings, Ironside goes #4. If you weigh H2H, Bravo goes #4. Either way, Sockeye should be ahead of both of them.

– Seems fairly clear from 6-9

– GOAT, Sub Zero, and PoNY are difficult to place. PoNY has the highest USAU ranking, but is clearly going behind GOAT after their 0-2 against them at Regionals. Sub Zero is such a tricky team to seed; should they go at #10? #12? We split the difference.

– Prairie Fire is another wild card. I think the loss to PoNY hurts them, and there’s no way they should go above #10 (or above Sub Zero), regardless of what the algorithm says.

– 14-16 pretty clear.