Los Angeles Astra, Oregon Soar, Arizona Sidewinders and Utah Wild did not qualify for 2026 Championship Weekend.
By Noam Gumerman
WUL Lead Writer
The 2026 Western Ultimate League Championship Weekend field is set! All four teams that qualified for 2026 Championship Weekend (Bay Area, Colorado, San Diego, and Seattle) are repeats from 2025, and finished undefeated against the four who did not (Arizona, Los Angeles, Oregon, and Utah). So what’s kept the bottom four teams in the league a step or two behind? Which of these four teams has the easiest path to Championship Weekend in 2027? What should each group work on in this offseason to take them there?
Arizona Sidewinders (3-5)
Three wins in 2026 are a huge success for Arizona, eclipsing its combined total of wins in 2024 and 2025. Despite their success this year, this roster had the potential to achieve more.Two games stick out for the Sidewinders, which, if a handful of points had gone differently, could have ended up with Arizona still in contention for Champ Weekend rather than having nothing to play for in their 20-8 blowout loss to San Diego in Week 12. Those games were a 19-16 loss to Oregon in Week 8, and a 17-15 loss to Bay Area in Week 10.
In Week 10, Sidewinders traded blows with the Falcons the entire game. They had the disc with a 13-12 lead in the fourth quarter and missed on an open huck to take a late two-goal lead. Falcons equalized immediately after and then forced a short field turnover on the next Sidewinders possession that resulted in a break and put away the game for good. Short field turnovers were the big killer, with Arizona turning this disc over five times inside their own brick mark, while Bay Area did so just once. In their tight loss to Oregon a few weeks prior, they also had more turnovers in their own red zone than Oregon did. Had Arizona played the field position game just a little better over those two games, it’s possible they’d have been in the hunt for a playoff spot. They’ve proven this core is capable of more than they demonstrated in 2024 and 2025. But their prospects in 2027 depend on their ability to grow into playing a full four quarters of ultimate on both sides of the disc, and to avoid the mental lapses that give other teams short fields.
Overall, Arizona showed their chemistry throughout the season after returning the most players of any 2026 roster. This was on full display in their home opener where they soundly beat Utah Wild by 9 points. Back this year after injury were stars Kez Gesell and Kody Lippincott, helping give Arizona some of the punch they needed. Next year, Sidewinders will need the middle portion of the roster to step up and deliver the consistency they’ll need to earn a win against the top half of the league.
Los Angeles Astra (1-7)
Despite a 1-7, last-place finish in the Southwest Conference, and being out of the playoff hunt for most of the season, there are some positive signs suggesting Astra could improve their record significantly next season. For starters, they haven’t been blown away by any teams to an extreme extent so far, unlike their last-in-conference counterparts in Utah. In fact, most of the league has been beaten equal to or more than Los Angeles with Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Arizona, and Bay Area all losing a game by at least eight points (Astra’s worst loss) on the year. Not to mention that Los Angeles pushed each of their conference rivals very hard in one of their two meetings this year, losing by one goal to each Arizona and San Diego, and by three to the Bay Area. Not bad results for a team just returning to WUL play.
It’s clear that this team has the talent to compete for a spot at Championship Weekend if a couple more things go their way. Most notable on the list of things to improve is their D-line offensive efficiency. Perhaps no metric is as indicative of a team’s overall success as their ability to efficiently punch in break opportunities, and it was a real struggle for Los Angeles to do so in 2026. In their one-point loss to Championship Weekend qualifiers San Diego Super Bloom, Astra converted just three of 17 break opportunities in the game. Over the season, they converted only 21.4% of their break opportunities – second to last in the league. That being said, Astra came into the season with a roster largely made up of rookies. Now that they have a year under their belts, their experience should lead to better execution and more chemistry in 2027.
Oregon Soar (3-5)
Like Arizona, Oregon was just a couple close games away from being in the Championship Weekend conversation. Their two-game swing that would’ve changed the course of the season was their series against Colorado Alpenglow, where they lost both games by a combined six points. There weren’t any glaring weaknesses in the Soar’s game in either of those contests. Just small moments around the edges that allowed Colorado to pull away late in both games. In fact, looking at the Soar’s inaugural season to this season, there’s improvement in nearly every statistical area. They’re scoring 60% points more than they did in 2025, giving up about one fewer goal per game, holding nearly twice as often, gaining more yards, and turning it over less.
One of the only numbers they haven’t improved on is break percentage. They’re sitting at that same ~28% mark they were at last year, and their inability to convert opportunities they generate is part of the equation that kept them out of Championship Weekend this year. The Soar remain one of the more inexperienced teams in the WUL with half the roster new to pro, and it has shown at times. They remain near the middle or towards the bottom of the league in most statistics (although, interestingly, they lead the league in huck completion percentage). Most concerningly, despite a big increase in their hold percentage, they are still second-worst in the league this season. Additionally, they also held the second-to-last O-line Defensive Efficiency in the WUL, indicating a struggle to regain possession of the disc once it’s lost. But as they build continuity and comfort playing together at the pro level, we can expect bigger and better things, like the strides Arizona has made over the last year or so.
Utah Wild (0-8)
Not much has gone right for Utah this year, as they were the WUL’s lone winless team in 2026. Wild had the deck stacked against them from the jump, replacing more than half of their roster from last year and starting fresh with a team full of pro ultimate rookies. Utah Wild were notably on the wrong side of WUL history earlier this year, when they were decimated by Seattle in that 37-10 game that saw the Tempest set several league records. The closest game they’ve been in all year was a 19-14 loss to Oregon early in the season. While they are generally the league-low number in most stats this year, the worst was break percentage, sitting at just over 12%, one of the lowest marks recorded in WUL history. With just 12 breaks total across eight games played, they’ve posted an all-time low number of breaks recorded per game across an entire season.
Despite the rough season, it hasn’t been all doom and gloom. Despite their inability to finish break chances, it’s not for lack of opportunity. Utah has forced opponents into the second-most errors while running multiple zone looks this year. WUL teams that can master a good zone have proven that it can be part of a winning formula in this league (see San Diego in 2025). If the Wild can figure out a way to lower the sheer numbers of offensive points played, and return their handler core, it’s possible that’s all Utah will need to find more success in 2027.