Fastbreak News Power Rankings: Pre-Season

Voters: Jacob Ehrlich (New York Titans), Caleb Williams (Chicago Prowl), Cameron Castilaw (Austin Outlaws), Naresh Edala (Unaffiliated), Maya Hinebaugh (Austin Outlaws), Jack Levy (Detroit Innovators), Ben Mertens (New Orleans Curse), Sierra Delk (Boston Forge), David Banas (Detroit Innovators), Nadja D’Rainah (Minneapolis Monarchs)

Pre-Season Rankings

New York Titans (146) (7)

Austin Outlaws (141) (2)

Chicago Prowl (122) (1)

Boston Forge (116)

San Antonio Soldados (116)

Minneapolis Monarchs (100)

Detroit Innovators (91)

Kansas City Stampede (84)

Charlotte Aviators (64)

New Orleans Curse (59)

Washington Admirals (53)

League City Legends (39)

Toronto Raiders (33)

Cleveland Riff (20)

Ottawa Black Bears (10)

Methodology:

Voters rank every team 1-15. For each ballot, each team is assigned a point value based on where they were placed on the ballot. Points are summed for each team across all ballots and then totals are sorted in descending order, resulting in the final ranking. First number after each team represents the total number of points the team received. Second number represents the number of first place votes (if any) the team received.

S Tier

Our S-tier teams, Outlaws and Titans, enter the season as the rankers’ (and fan) favorites to be the primary contenders for the Benepe Cup. Even if they end up on the same side of the bracket, their match-up is the one everyone’s looking forward to in Howard County. This season, to remain top two in the rankings (and our hearts), they will still need to dominate their divisional rivals.

New York Titans

Titans enter the summer as the reigning champions of their division, going undefeated in regular season games last year. After multiple finals and semifinals appearances, this iteration is hungry to finally clinch the Benepe Cup. With new leaders Tate Kay and Tessa Mullins joining veteran assistant coach Jon Jackson, Titans will need to expand their depth using other New York area leaders and perform with the weight of expectations on their shoulders. Their biggest hurdle?—facing off against Forge in their second series of the season, with multiple teammates across the two teams from USQ club teams Boston Pandas and The Warriors.

Players to Watch: Janice Lu, Shakthi Kodaswaren, Kellan Cupid

Austin Outlaws

Outlaws also begins the season as reigning champions, with a younger core eager to continue the “do crime” dynasty. To clinch another divisional title, Head Coach Jackson Johnson will look to lead his team to victory in a South Division standoff against a similarly younger Soldados- including former teammates Daniel Williams and Miguel Esparza. With the pick up of beater Maya Hinebaugh to further expand their female beater core, expect Outlaws run and gun style beater play to continue stealing any hope of victory from their opponents.

Players to Watch: Ella Jordan, Trenton Paskero, Pierce Wilson

A Tier

The A-tier teams are all expected to play competitive games with the S-tiers, and dominate all the others on their way to potential bracket runs at this year’s MLQ Championship. They snap at the heels of teams who, on paper, have stronger pieces. This summer will be about reforging their new teams, with turnover and additions from the offseason, to show they are the underappreciated S tier waiting in the wings.

Chicago Prowl

Prowl pounces into the new season ready to repeat their success against other top teams from the 2023 season- (series sweep over Monarchs and MLQ Championship wins over Soldados and Titans). On their way through the season to the 2024 Benepe Cup, Prowl will need to address their beater depth. After losing their two best engage beaters, voters decidedly placed the Prowl in third, a season after their franchise defining finals run. Until Chicago provides their answers for the losses of Matt Brown and Dany Yaacoub, third might be their ceiling for the season.

Players to Watch: Dara Gaueman, Grant Himmelman, Veronica Hoffman

Boston Forge

Forge looks to return to their former divisional champion glory after losing to Titans last July, albeit missing world class beaters Max Havlin and Lulu Xu during the matchup. Coming off a successful USQ club season with many veterans of Bosnyan Bearsharks and Boston Pandas, and with new non-playing Head Coach Harry Greenhouse shaping their new young talent, Forge will look to light a new era for their franchise. Their biggest hurdle? Time. They’ll need to quickly acclimate to new coaches and face off against divisional rivals in their 2nd series of the season in back to back series with barely any time to polish out their kinks.

Players to Watch: Tabatha Danyow, Sena Morimoto, Eli Fighter

San Antonio Soldados

Under the new leadership of co-Head Coaches David Avila and Milena Sousa, the Soldados are looking to finally take down their long-time rivals, the Outlaws, and sit atop the South Division. After the departure of the team’s leading scorer from last season in Jay Stewart, the return of Daniel Williams, Miguel Esparza, and Jess Markle should be more than enough to replace his production. With home series against Stampede and Curse making long travel a problem of the past, Soldados will be able to bring fuller rosters and establish South Division dominance around their fated matchup with Outlaws in July.

Players to Watch: Jess Markle, Alyssa Villalba, Kyle Bryant

Minneapolis Monarchs

Every Monarchs fan (and their team as well) has waited with bated breath to start a season less injured than the last one. Alexander Obanor, Emma Persons, and Matthew Bessard have hopefully rested up to help the Monarchs work to retake their division title from Prowl in an attempt to reach a Benepe Cup high with a finals appearance. To get there, they’ll need to use all their lead time in June to prepare–they play their divisional rivals in their first series on June 22. Luckily, the chemistry of USQ in Twin Cities Quadball helps them fly past the ice breaker stage in preparation for a hopefully regal season premiere.

Players to Watch: Mike Devine, Nicole Nelson, Joe Goulet

B Tier

Our B tier teams want to break their glass ceiling into A tier by not only clinching their MLQ Championship bid early, but establishing a 1st or 2nd Division finish. To do so, they’ll look to supercharge their teams’ young talent early (using chemistry built during the collegiate USQ season) and take out an underprepared top team while everyone else is still figuring out their chemistry.

Detroit Innovators

The Innovators have received most of the early buzz this pre-season. The tandem of Ryan Hsu and Rei Brodeur represent the best beater pair in the division and the team now boasts a slew of off-ball talents to play opposite Julian Theuerkauf. With the return of USNT Leo Fried and continued development from the rest of their core, Detroit has the talent to make some noise in a division that has historically been a two-team race.

Players to Watch: Ashton Glenn, Neil Peterson, Gwen Pratt

Kansas City Stampede

Perhaps the largest challenge for the Stampede this summer will be replacing veteran Sena Morimoto. Both an on and off the field leader, Morimoto provided a presence of calm and consistency to the league’s youngest team. If first year coaches Brenna Duncan and Lauren Curry can mold the raw talent of this year’s squad, they have the athleticism to make a deep bracket run at MLQ Championships. They’ll lean on the relationships formed from coaching collegiate programs Mizzou and Creighton through their most recent USQ journeys, and the chemistry formed through their multiple USNT Developmental Academy players.

Players to Watch: Derek Dearking, Lauren Smith, Danny Rendon

C Tier

The C tier enters this season relatively quiet, an unknown element due to changing leadership and lack of film for so many of the players when compared to the other tiers. The coaches of each of these franchises will need to serve a tall order, collecting all their potential and putting together an MLQ level franchise over the next few weeks. To break the curse of their low expectations, they’ll need to navigate through difficult away series and change on the fly to reach new heights.

Charlotte Aviators

After spending much of last summer developing and empowering many of their younger players, the Aviators finally look primed to move up the standings in this division and finish above fourth for this first time in their history. Unfortunately for this team, they will need to find a stand-in for USNT Beater Celine Richard as she recovers from an early season injury. While the team works on filling Richard’s shoes they have an exciting chaser core headlined by Lee Hodge, Melissa Ross and ASU standout Austin Cruz.

Players to Watch: Charlotte: Austin Cruz, Melissa Ross, Zach Thompson

New Orleans Curse

2024 looks to be the most exciting summer for the Curse in years. For the first time post-pandemic the Curse has a full 30-person roster. While this team now has a lot of inexperience, they have a knowledgeable veteran leadership in Josh Mansfield, Alex Pucciarelli, and Ben Mertens, who are ready to quickly upskill this group. While there is much excitement around this team, they may at points need to make a choice between playing their veterans and their first year players; and if they chose the latter they may drop in our rankings.

Players to Watch: Darius Housey, Shelby Cascio, Dylan DeLee

Washington Admirals

After a plethora of turnover from last year’s semi-final run, the Admirals might be the biggest unknown in the league. While they still boast a talented chaser core headlined by Shane McConaghie, Juli Nuetzel and David Littleton, there are big questions at the beater position. After losing the likes of Bernie Berges, Katryna Hicks, Zain Bhaila, and Melissa Smith, the team will be looking to lean on an extremely young beater core after Colin Bourn and Adrian Koretsky. A luxury they likely will not be afforded against the deep and talented beater cores in the East Division. What pair will step up when Koretsky and Bourn leave the field?

Players to Watch: Rachel Williams, Andrew Bowman, Juli Nuetzel

D Tier

The D rank tier contains teams who have nowhere to go but up. With new energy in every franchise, developing their parity and adjusting strategies will be the key to creating upsets at any stage in the game. A path to MLQ championships will be hard fought for any of these teams, but this is the season for upsets from the ground up.

League City Legends

The perennial bottom of the South Division, League City will be looking to prove the voters wrong this summer and shoot for the stars with their new talent. While Hayden Boyes is already a household name in this sport, he has an improved supporting cast joining him this summer. Rookie Andrew Acosta will be looking to put his name on the short list for the USNTDA, and Chris Dorsey will look to shine after an impressive season with USQ Club team Texas Hill Country Heat. With an improved beater core headlined by Baldemar Nunez and Carlos Elarba and established chasers in Jimmie Evans and Swathi Mannem, this team could quickly move up in the rankings with wins throughout the season.

Players to Watch: Andrew Acosta, Chris Dorsey, Swathi Mannem

Toronto Raiders

Canada’s hope for representation at MLQ Championship will likely come down to the Raiders’ ability to stave off a new Innovators team with new circuitry to patch up their offense. While the construction of the six-team MLQ North Division season gave Toronto an easier path to championship each year (only needing to defeat Whiteout and Riff), this season will establish the actual pecking order of the North Division. Under new leadership of Sinan Keyder, the developing Raiders will look to poach any and all victories they can to keep MLQ Championship as international as possible.

Toronto: Savannah Campbell, Emma Sherwood, Matthew Bunn

Cleveland Riff

With the unfortunate departure of Rochester Whiteout going into this season, Riff has increased their numbers with pick ups from their former North Division opponents, such as national champion Rose Mournighan. Looking to repeat upsets such as their series loss against Innovators at 2023 North Division Championships (1-1 with the third game coming down to next goal wins), Riff will look to research as much as they can, and focus their energies on their Toronto series June 8 before binding their time until they can make Detroit face the music at the super series in July.

Players to Watch: Fiona Gaffney, Peter Brechting, Lacey Hutchman

Ottawa Black Bears

Black Bears has had a difficult time each season fighting against the other East Division teams without managing to make MLQ Championships since practice squads were introduced. Still recovering from the pandemic quadball withdrawal affecting all of Canada, Black Bears enters this season with an exceedingly small roster. The hurdle for this season won’t simply be the strength of their opponents, it’ll be working within a smaller team to find a new strength in themselves.

Players to Watch: Zach Reiken, Alex Naftel, Emily Naftel