Regionals Preview: Northwest, Central, Mid-Atlantic

I wanted to post my notes about the other regions that I didn't cover in Skyd here so they don't get lost in the mix. They're not so developed but are just my thoughts on what could happen. Check out another great review of the Central region by 808 here.

Northwest

The stacked Northwest is going to be crazy this year. Polar Bears: returning champs. Bigfoot: the best of the best from Seattle. Mischief: historically top ranked, with a solid season promising the same. Blackbird: in it to win it. Team Fisher Price: a low seed going into regionals – can they pull out some big wins to snag a spot? American BBQ: they’ve got an uphill climb, but it could happen. With three bids, it’ll probably be Polar Bears, Bigfoot, and Mischief. Now who is Wolverines? Well, they won Oregon sectionals by 1 (15-14) to Dogfight. That’s not too impressive, but with Mental Toss Flycoons, the only real challengers in their pool, having a low-win season, they’ll probably win the pool, then not make it past quarters. So while everyone else is moving around the pools a bit, but I think our semis will be Polar Bears, Bigfoot, Mischief, and Blackbird, with the last spot to Sarasota between Blackbird and Bigfoot. One more to mention: Eats, Throws, and Leaves has kept under the radar this season, but in my opinion, is most likely to have an upset. It would be fun to see them in Sarasota.

Mid-Atlantic

It’s a little hard to give a prediction for this region, due to the lack of high-level matchups with teams in other regions. They sure played each other a lot, though, and from that, a few top dogs emerged. Last year, none of the Mid-Atlantic teams made it past quarters at nationals, finishing 11 (AMP) and 12 (wHagonwheel), respectively. With few significant regular season wins, it’s hard to say how 2011 will end up. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if wHagonwheel doesn’t even make it – they’ve lost every matchup this season to Cahoots. AMP does have that win against Drag’n Thrust to indicate some real strength, but it was early in the season at Philly Invite; that same tournament, they lost to Ambiguously Grey, one of the few teams to play against other top-ranked teams from other regions. With significant wins over Drag’n Thrust and Gun Totin’ Teddy Bears, I expect them to make it to Sarasota with AMP as a second. After that, it’s likely that we’ll see National Championship results similar to 2010.

Central

This region’s gonna see some beat-downs. They’ve got 3 bids, and four teams of interest. Yep, it’ll probably end up being a fight between the top four seeds for those tickets to Florida. In case you don’t know CLX and Drag’n Thrust already, they’re pretty much stomping all over everyone they play, and are sure to make it to Nationals. But the team I’m really interested in is Steamboat. Without them, it would be no question if Overhaul would make it to Natties. But with a 12-14 loss to Steamboat at sectionals, who knows? We've heard that win was a fluke, that it indicated Overhaul’s coasting into third place was over, and that Steamboat was gonna take down the two other big dogs. Basically, everyone’s saying something else, which means we really have no idea, but I think Overhaul will show up and snag that spot. They’re too determined to go to Sarasota to lose again, and they’re primed and ready to revenge their sectionals loss.