League News · 2026 Season

Three Teams Reach the Playoffs for the First Time

Mesquite Convention Center · August 29 and 30, 2026

Six matches over two days in Mesquite closed the 2026 regular season, and three of the six teams going to Lakeland have never been to the playoffs before. Two of them are going with a first-round bye.

The New York Wolves are in their first season and won the first match in franchise history in August. They finished 3-1 and took the East’s top seed. The Houston Bandits, in their second season, finished 3-1 and took the top seed in the West. The Las Vegas Venom also finished 3-1 and seeded second, the first postseason in the franchise’s history.

Three teams from each conference make the playoffs, and the top seed in each gets the bye. Seeding starts with match record. When records match it goes to Season Rank Total, which adds up where a team placed against the other nine in every race it ran this season, Ringer Point races excluded. That is 36 ranked races per team, and a lower total is better.

The East came down to a three-way tie. Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and South Beach all finished 2-2, and two of them could join New York. Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach carried the two best Season Rank Totals of the group, 124 and 143, and took the spots.

East Conference · Final

West Conference · Final

The heavy line marks the playoff cut. Six teams advance to the championship in Lakeland on October 3 and 4.

Saturday, August 29 · Walking Dead

Palms 23, Flight 10

South Beach put up the widest margin of the weekend in the last match of their season. Zackary McCarley took the opening Ringer Point off Hunter Williams on the sandbag, getting 200 pounds up and over the yoke to finish it. Tyler Davis handled the fan-voted race, five D-balls at 150 pounds over the yoke, like he was moving furniture.

Carolina’s best race was Jordyn Hankins in the suicide sprint Ringer Point against Kory Hendon. She was back to the start line first and stayed there. The Flight also took the first of the two Echo races on a photo finish.

Wolves 19, Wild 10

New York’s win in Mesquite locked up the East’s top seed and the bye. Jordyn Bush produced the moment of the match on the heavy snatch Ringer Point, hitting 190 pounds ahead of Thomas Sroka at 275, twenty pounds under her best and made to look like an empty bar. Brandon Ferraro took the fan-voted Ringer Point over Trey Gordon.

Atlanta got theirs from Gavin D’Amato, activated as a Super Wild Card for the three burpee back flips against Selena Swanger. New York had thrown their bonus flag on that race, which makes the win worth an extra point to whoever takes it, and D’Amato took it in what the booth called the fastest set of the season. RJ Hibbard closed out both Echo races for the Wild.

Bandits 18, Venom 18

The only tie of the weekend, and the only Grid-LOCK. Las Vegas threw their bonus flag on the heavy snatch Ringer Point and Tyler Anderson made it pay, taking 275 pounds off the floor ahead of John Young for three points instead of two. Ben Collins answered with two Ringer Point wins for Houston, the burpee back flips and then the fan-voted suicide sprint against Dakota Shackleton.

The Venom won the sprint relay to draw the match level at 18, which sends it to Grid-LOCK: a rerun of the last four elements of the sprint relay, two men and two women, on a three-minute cap. Michelle Young built the lead on the deck-to-squats, Camron Colbert held it, and Anderson closed it out for Las Vegas.

Sunday, August 30 · Hang Loose

Lions 16, Breakers 21

The match was tied 10-10 through the first four races. The first Ringer Point was a rerun of last season’s, where Loredana Niroda had beaten Eric Cardona on the handstand obstacle course. This time Cardona got through the lateral handstand walk clean, had open floor to the cones, and took the rematch.

Palm Beach took the Ladder 66-64, one made bar apart, and Joshua Newell won the heavy sandbag carry over Ryan DeMattie, a rematch of the farmers carry DeMattie took last year. That put the Breakers up 18-15 with the sprint relay left. They spent their Super Wild Card on Reece Lyons, won the race, and closed the match at 21-16.

All three of Sunday’s matches used Hang Loose, the fourth and last of the season’s match formats, and Palm Beach handled it better than anybody. Their Hang Loose rank total of 23 was the lowest of the ten teams. The win moved them to 2-2 and into the East’s third seed.

Venom 24, Flight 10

Las Vegas had to win to reach the playoffs, and they did, clinching the first postseason appearance in franchise history. They took the Ladder 54-46, and Tyler Anderson closed the match on the fan-voted 80-foot sandbag carry, 200 pounds for the men and 150 for the women. The Venom had listed Jayson DiMizio for that race and switched to Anderson at the last minute, which the fan-voted Ringer Point allows.

Carolina raced short again, missing key players for a second straight day, and produced the two best individual moments of the match anyway. Aiden Whitehead flew through the rings in the Jack and Jill. Then Cody Loeffler threw Carolina’s bonus flag on the burpee to ring touch and Jordyn Hankins beat Jayson DiMizio on it, which turned a two-point race into three. Each coach gets one bonus flag a match, it has to be thrown before the race starts, and it makes the win worth an extra point.

Carolina finished 0-4 in the franchise’s first season. Loeffler put the roster together about two months before it started and raced teams that had been building for years.

“I think a lot of people can see we’re really close, but we just need to put it all together, man.”

Cody Loeffler, Carolina Flight co-owner and head coach

Bandits 24, Wild 11

Houston needed a win for the West’s top seed and the bye, and they got it. John Young cleared the Ladder with seven seconds left and the Bandits took it 53-46. In the Ladder each team sends one player at a time down a row of four barbells that get heavier by quadrant, and a made lift scores whatever quadrant it sits in, so the fourth bar is worth four.

Fans voted the last Ringer Point to be the handstand obstacle course: up a ramp, over three hurdles, sideways down a line and around a set of cones, all of it upside down. Everyone expected Matthew Rattay. Houston sent Taylor Krippner, who was up the ramp first and never gave the lead back.

Atlanta won both Echo races behind RJ Hibbard and Gavin D’Amato, the second day running that Hibbard closed out that format for the Wild.

Sophia Davenport owns the Bandits, coaches them and races for them. Asked at the break what she needed from her team, she kept it short.

“Put on the gas and work. Simply put, put on the gas and work.”

Sophia Davenport, Houston Bandits owner and head coach

Houston finished 3-1 in their second season.

Where the Field Landed

New York and Houston hold the byes. Houston needed the tiebreak for theirs, because Las Vegas also finished 3-1 and the Bandits’ Season Rank Total of 222 beat the Venom’s 253.

Southwest Florida did not race in Dallas. Their season ended two weeks earlier at 2-2, and they have the best Season Rank Total in the league at 121. They seed third in the West because record comes before rank total, which means the West’s three seed is the fastest team in the league. Las Vegas has to get past them to reach the conference final.

The East semifinal is Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach again, five weeks after Sunday.

Full seeding, tiebreakers and the race matrix are on the standings page.

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