East Super Series: New York v Charlotte v Ottawa
Authors: Savannah Campbell, Ben Mertens, Alexander Wicken
PC: Major League Quadball
Ottawa
The Black Bears are back and likely hungrier than ever following last weekend’s matchup against Washington, which was the closest they’ve come to an upset in five years. How this will take shape against Charlotte and New York will come down to who steps up to fill the shoes of all-around freight train Darren Bell, and calm-under-pressure Norbert Buenio, and whether a week is enough time for Ottawa to recover, regroup, read up, and repeat for this anticipated Super Series encore.
There will be new faces on Ottawa’s bench this weekend, with the season debuts of beaters Marc Evrad and Meg Howden as well as chasers Pavel Popov and Lucas Pawley rostered against New York, leaving beater Lex Nakanishi to tap in for Howden against the Aviators.
Don’t let precedent or predictions pull your attention away from these games, folks—Ottawa’s cubs have grown into their claws, and the Black Bears may have some favorable size match-ups. Zack Reiken was one to watch last week in the dodgeball game, and the dynamic wing chasing of Ellie Kalutycz made more than a few heads turn. Alex Naftel gave an exceptional all-around performance, and any concerns over the decision to pull him away from the green headband to seek were immediately laid to rest by Antoine Bourassa’s energetic and fierce offense.
If Ottawa is looking to continue riding this high, they would be remiss not to sic Alex Rivoche and Lucas Pawley on the flag runner. With the Naftel siblings and Kalutycz shouldering greater responsibility in chasing and a surplus of beater experience rostered, Rivoche and Pawley have to be chomping at the bit, and ready to leverage even short windows and sights on the flag. On the precipice of an upset, retaining momentum (particularly within their beaters,) will be the name of the game for Ottawa.
The honeypot is in sight, take heart and claws up, Black Bears!
Charlotte
The Charlotte Aviators look to add some games to their win column this weekend as they face the New York Titans and Ottawa Black Bears in a Super Series in New York. Charlotte is coming off an 0-3 record in their opening series versus the Boston Forge. Despite their losing record, the Aviators are bringing a talented roster that kept a deep Forge team on their toes. The Aviator’s first game versus the Forge was a nailbiter thanks to fantastic play after the 20-minute mark. Charlotte’s beaters played scrappy and quickly won control from multiple Celine Richard beater battles to give their seeker time to get the grab. Charlotte’s seekers rival the best on any team in the league with Ryan Davis and Tony Bonadio getting the only flag pulls in the series.
Charlotte’s offense runs through playing coach Lee Hodge, who led the team in assists and was third in goals in their series versus the Forge. A major strength of this Charlotte team is its depth. Charlotte had ten goal scorers and eight players with assists across their series in Boston. However, the Aviators' offense struggled in the few minutes when Hodge left the pitch. After a hard-fought first game, the Aviators struggled to maintain the same level of gameplay, and Boston secured the sweep. In the beater game, Charlotte struggled to keep a dodgeball in the play versus Boston and will need to prioritize getting a dodgeball back on defense if they want to stop a fast and physical Titans team from running up the score. If they can match New York’s speed, Charlotte’s beater game absolutely has the depth to go all the way in this Super Series, anchored by veterans Celine Richard, Kody LaBauve, Joe Goldberg, and rookie Lauren Hirsch.
The Aviators are bringing most of their first line from their series versus Boston, but Charlotte will need to adapt to the notable absence of Mohamed "MY" Monawar. Without Monawar, the Charlotte chasers have some very fast shoes to fill. I hope to see Braxton Hale, Zachary Thompson, and Melissa Ross continue to have clutch goals and big stops at key moments throughout the series. If the Aviators want to upset the Titans this weekend, their second and third chaser lines will need to step up more across all three games. This Charlotte team is scrappy and unselfish on offense, with fantastic rebounds and sharp passes they have the ability to string together back-to-back goals which will be essential against the New York powerhouse.
The Aviators are favored to win versus Ottawa, but this Black Bears team is unrelenting and put up a fantastic fight in their recent losses to a talented Washington Admirals team. If Ottawa plays like they did in their first game versus Washington, I anticipate every game to be hotly contested. If the games come down to flag catches, Charlotte has the edge with Ryan Davis, but it will likely be determined by which team can maintain dodgeball control to give their seekers looks. If Charlotte wants to repeat last year’s sweep of the Black Bears, the Aviators will need to have three complete games. Both Charlotte and Ottawa have demonstrated very strong first games followed by weaker second and third games. The winner of their series will likely come down to which team can outlast the other in a long 6 game weekend. If Charlotte repeats their plight of having a very strong first game and two subsequent weaker games then Ottawa definitely has the potential for an upset.
Prediction
Charlotte v Ottawa: 3-0
Charlotte v New York: 0-3
New York
The Titans come into this super series with a simple goal: 6-0. Nothing but a perfect weekend will do for a team eyeing a division crown, especially since both of their rivals enter this weekend with winless records. Even a single loss in either series would complicate New York’s quest for the division crown. Fresh of a series sweep against the Washington Admirals, the Titans should enter this series confident but with a few questions to answer.
New York’s narrow win in Game 1 over Washington showed some of their cracks, but their dominant wins in Games 2 and 3 showed their high ceiling. The Titans will look to show that their Game 1 result was a fluke and dominate in both openings this weekend. Game 1 seemed like an example of everything going wrong: New York’s chasers missed multiple point-blank shots, Washington caught the flag runner, despite New York’s beaters dominating the flag runner on pitch segment of the game, and the Titans needed 10 attempts to score the series-winning goal. They pulled out the win anyways, a testament to their stifling defense and calm under pressure. Games 2 and 3 were much more complete efforts, with the Titans beaters shutting down the field and their chasers shredding Washington’s with their driving, passing, and shooting.
Helping New York’s chances is the return of Lindsay Marella, making her season debut after missing the Washington series. New York’s other chasers stepped up in her absence, but the Titans will be thrilled to have her back to add another elite playmaker and defender to the mix. This will be key to pulling off a perfect weekend.
The Aviators have been a thorn in New York’s side since they joined the league in 2021. New York has swept the Aviators in their series both years since, but Charlotte did snatch a game off the Titans in their quarterfinals matchup at the 2021 championship, and they have consistently given New York close games. Charlotte is fresh off a series against Boston that went extremely similar to New York’s series against Washington; Charlotte lost Game 1 by one goal after coming up with the flag runner, but were beaten much more handily in Games 2 and 3. I’m expecting Charlotte to come out similarly in Game 1 and go all out to get the upset. If New York can handle them in Game 1 they should take the sweep, but a Game 1 victory for Charlotte could change the tenor of the weekend.
Charlotte’s near upset came down to a few key factors. In addition to the clutch flag grab, Charlotte achieved parity with Boston in the beater game with dodgeball control moving fluidly between the two sides. Even when Boston did have control, they mostly sat in a conservative zone rather than going for a higher press. Charlotte was able to consistently win control back and use it to create no bludger situations, which produced most of their goals. I expect this weekend to be different. New York’s beaters, especially Christian Barnes, Tate Kay, Devin Lee and Tessa Mullins will have no problem meeting Charlotte higher and trying to generate presses. Charlotte may have some success passing behind the press, but with MY Monawar notably absent, I expect a lot of their attacks from behind the hoops to end in turnovers or missed shots, allowing New York to get plenty of transition opportunities. I also don’t expect Frank Minson to whiff all of his two foot shots this time around. Even if Charlotte is able to come up with the grab, I’m expecting New York to be up at least 30 if not more by the 20 minute mark, and be able to come up with the win.
If Charlotte wants to counter that, they need to prioritize holding onto dodgeball control when they have it. There are too many times when Charlotte’s beaters throw away control trying a little too hard to make a play. You can’t play scared against New York’s beaters, but you can’t get too risky either. The trouble is, Charlotte likes to play a trees style defense that requires their beaters to make a lot of throws, and their offense against Boston was heavily dependent on their beaters creating openings for them. If Charlotte’s chasers can give their beaters enough cover on both sides of the ball to allow them to pick their throws more judiciously, Charlotte is in business. The Charlotte beater core, headlined by Celine Richard, has the talent to make this tough for New York, but they need a higher level of coordination between chasers and beaters than we’ve seen this year. Ultimately, I expect the more polished New York squad to come up with the win.
New York has never lost even a game to Ottawa, and as the host team of this Super Series they’ve wisely rostered different players for the two series to take advantage of their depth. I question however the decision to leave both Kay and Lee off the Ottawa series roster. Ottawa’s near-upset of Washington last weekend was powered by the Black Bears underrated beaters making things difficult for Washington. New York will have a much stronger chaser group than Washington’s short handed roster last weekend, and New York’s other beaters are no slouches, but I think there may come a tight moment in one of these games where New York wishes they kept Kay or Lee on roster as a break glass in case of emergency option. Still, New York is the deeper, more talented, and more experienced team, and they should get the sweep, even if there is a tight moment.
Prediction: 6-0
