Summer Reflections and Team-by-Team Thoughts from the 2022 MLQ Championship

Another season of MLQ is in the books, and although it was another Austin Outlaws title in the end and another Boston Forge appearance in the finals, it was one of the most exciting and interesting seasons to date, with absolute chaos at the top of the East Division and in the middle ranks of the South Division down to the final weeks of the regular season. More often than ever before, there was no clear hierarchy and a number of series came down to the deciding game three. The MLQ North Division Championship also debuted at a beautiful facility in South Bend, Indiana, where the Minneapolis Monarchs repeated as division champions and the Toronto Raiders scrapped their way to the final qualification spot in their much-anticipated return to the league from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While you have probably heard more than enough of my voice by now and I have been lucky to share many of my thoughts throughout the season as a guest on MLQ Replay, I unexpectedly had some time to reflect on the MLQ Championship this week. Writing has always been my favorite medium to express myself, and although I feel like I have improved on camera and behind the mic, I know I have good games and bad games. I hope everybody knows I am always working to get better and when the broadcast goes clear, I am my own toughest critic. If you shoot me a personal message or find me at a tournament, I am eager to hear any feedback, substantive or stylistic, that you have.

Photo by Kielan Donahue.

Mostly, I just feel incredibly privileged to have gotten back involved with MLQ. I know people get involved with the sport for many different reasons and as a league with tryouts, MLQ is not for everyone -- USQ is the governing body that is dedicated by mission statement to serving everyone that wants to play and I am absolutely psyched for the upcoming USQ season. But I was initially drawn into the community because I believed in the potential of the game, under the rules developed by Alex Benepe, Xander Manshel and multiple generations of gameplay volunteers, to become a spectator sport at the highest level. I am a massive sports fan at heart and the middle schooler inside of me who just found out about the game has been so thrilled to watch the vision of Ethan Sturm and Amanda Dallas come to life since 2015. I know that when I am looking for purpose, when I am looking to make a difference, I can always throw myself into helping out. 

Without further ado, here are some takeaways from the 2022 MLQ Championship, beginning with the teams in the play-in bracket and progressing towards the back-to-back Benepe Cup champions.

Play-In Bracket

The New Orleans Curse made their first-ever trip outside of the South Division, competing at the MLQ Championship for the first time since 2016 and 2017, when the season-ending tournament was contested in League City, Texas. The Curse overcame long odds just to qualify for the event. After sweeping the League City Legends away from home for the first time in franchise history, they needed the San Antonio Soldados to take care of business on the road against the Legends in the final week of the regular season. With San Antonio keeper Miguel Esparza pulling up with an injury, the series went down to the wire but the Curse ultimately sealed their spot at the last minute, all thanks to their early season sweep. 

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

At the MLQ Championship, New Orleans was down a couple key players, including veteran beater Sarah Kneiling and dynamic wing chasers Dylan DeLee and Marcellus Lewis. It was difficult for the Curse to get into a rhythm on the offensive end, as they struggled to convert their transition opportunities in a fast-paced game against the Toronto Raiders and found little luck breaking down the compact Kansas City Stampede defense in a slower half-court chess match. The sure-handed ball-carrying of P.J. Mitchell and hyperactive beating of Josh Mansfield helped keep the Curse afloat -- and a quick-thinking snitch catch from seeker Sarah Yanofsky almost elevated New Orleans to a victory over the Stampede -- but the Curse unexpectedly exited the tournament after two games in the play-in bracket.

On the flip side of the do-or-die matchup with New Orleans, the Kansas City Stampede exceeded expectations with a short roster of only ten players. Led by starting keeper and head coach Adam Heald, Kansas City sliced and diced through opposing defenses in the open field and scrambled to loose balls to win broken plays. It was a supremely impressive performance from the Stampede, who proved that they could hustle their way to a victory without some of their bigger names. On the defensive end, they were organized and disciplined, packing the paint and avoiding any overcommitments. They were especially indebted to the performances of their three women, chaser Katie Branstetter, beater Brenna Duncan, and utility Keighlyn Johnson, who alternated with each other and stayed healthy in the course of shutting down their opponents with a consistently high level of activity and alertness at the hoops.

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

Not predicted to win a single game by many American analysts, the Toronto Raiders made a triumphant return to the MLQ Championship with an upset over the Curse on Saturday morning. They followed much of the same formula that carried them through the regular season in the North Division: a combination of speed and physicality in the chaser game, particularly from keeper Andrew Kusters, and a timely snitch catch from utility Corey Smithson. While sometimes lacking the organization and ball movement of their opponents on offense, the Raiders proved that they are a scrappy bunch, capable of knocking off almost any team in a standalone match. They have a clear identity, which is always dangerous for an underdog.

Over the course of the season, the Raiders also succeeded in integrating several new players, namely chasers Sarah Dykstra and Levi Medeiros, into their setup. Dykstra and Medeiros helped to open up the spaces behind the hoops for Toronto and make its offense more multi-dimensional. The experience of a long, hot season (the Raiders played more unique opponents than any team outside the finals and the Toronto core topped the league if you include the series between the Canadian national team and the Charlotte Aviators) will serve them well next summer, as many of their star players take a midseason break to make a similar trip south of the border for the IQA World Cup in Richmond, Virginia.

Photo by Suraj Singh.

The team that came the closest to advancing out of the play-in bracket, the Indianapolis Intensity, capped a roller coaster of a season with feel-good wins over Toronto and Kansas City but could not get past the Charlotte Aviators in two attempts. The Intensity jumped out to a 50-10 lead in the critical rematch but with beater Matt Brown sidelined after pulling a hamstring, Indianapolis lost its edge in the beating game against a deep Charlotte corps. Kody LaBauve, Celine Richard and Perry Wang ran rampant and blew open the score. In the chasing game for Indianapolis, it was a good weekend for Hannah Miller and Ally Manzella making backdoor cuts and converting passes around the hoops. Along with the usual work of Kennedy Murphy, Tyler Piper also brought a crucial influx of tackling at point defense. It was no mistake that Piper was subbing offense-defense with keeper Nathan Digmann by Saturday afternoon. He showed himself to be one of the cleanest tacklers at the tournament.

Quarterfinalists

Moving onto the teams that survived the play-in bracket, head coach Oliver Hodge has to be so incredibly proud of his Charlotte Aviators squad. At the culmination of a demanding season, they turned in their best team performance of the year, with some of the most balanced scoring of the tournament and an offense that relied upon moving the ball and attacking from different angles. Chasers Logan Hartman and Quincy Hildreth found their groove setting picks for each other and keeper Tommy O'Connor provided a jolt of energy off the bench in replacement of the injured Trey Pressley. Madison Burns and Melissa Ross kept countless plays alive with their hustle to loose balls and well-timed cuts. It was an equal opportunity offense, with vital contributions up and down the roster.

Photo by Willow Elser.

Ultimately, behind one of the best beating corps in the sport, the Aviators are just waiting for one of their quaffle players to take the next step as a scorer. It sounds hypocritical for someone who just spent a paragraph lavishing praise upon their teamwork but out of the well-structured offense that Charlotte has now developed, they need a go-to option. They need a chaser or keeper to roughly approximate what Nathan Digmann provides for Indianapolis or Josh Johnson gives to Austin: efficient shooting from the keeper zone line and accurate distribution to the right places at the right times. Hodge seemed to approach the role during the regular season but the UNC alum is instinctively unselfish as a player and a little undersized. Rookie and current Tar Heel M-Y Manawar, who showed glimpses of his sky-high potential throughout the season, is probably the best bet to rise to the challenge in the future.

For the Washington Admirals, it took many players to push the eventual champions, the Austin Outlaws, to a game three in the quarterfinals on Saturday night. It took the steady ballhandling and clutch midrange shooting of keeper Justin Cole. It took the explosive speed and punishing throws of beaters Bernie Bergers and Katryna Hicks. It took a committee of chasers headed by Julia Baer making up for the heavy minutes usually logged by the injured Rachel Heald. But at least for me, it was the electric performance of chaser T.J. Generette that stole the show under the lights at Troy Park. Fresh off a run to the Final Four with Maryland (which followed a thrilling rookie season off the bench for the Admirals), Generette completely outdid himself in his sophomore campaign. From the season-opening series against New York to the quarterfinals against Austin last weekend, he was the player that Washington could not afford to take off the pitch on offense. He was absolutely mesmerizing with the ball in hand, going to work one-on-one against a defender in the half court. He was a video game cheat code and he made the Admirals must-see television.

Photo by Jeannette High.

No single player could lift the Admirals past the Outlaws though, especially as the Washington offense regressed slightly from the towering highs of last season. With a few exceptions, the Admirals did not play with the pace and fluidity that many of their opponents came to expect. They missed the distribution of keeper Dale Farnan and rarely went back to the point defense pairing of John Sheridan and Justin Kraemer that generated so many transition opportunities in their regular season series against the Boston Forge. Relatively speaking, they struggled to score easy goals, which made the task of breaking down a hoop zone defense, for example, all the more mentally taxing in the end. The Admirals ultimately finished with their best-ever record and became only the second franchise to notch wins against Austin and Boston, but with title experience on the roster, Washington will want more next season.

Against the preseason predictions of yours truly, the Minneapolis Monarchs successfully defended their North Division title and finished the regular season with an undefeated record for the first time in program history. By any measure, it was a summer of forward progress for the Monarchs. Chaser Emma Persons took a giant leap as a scorer, head coach Cody Narveson claimed a third consecutive North Division MVP for the franchise playing alongside a beating partner in Gracie Johnson who could have just as easily won the award, and the city assembled one of its most talented rosters ever before a large crowd of friends and family at their home series in July. 

But with a loss in the quarterfinals to an opponent led by a Team USA beater for the second consecutive year, it would be understandable if the Monarchs were feeling a bit of deja vu in Howard County. Unable to overcome the absences of chasers Terry Carlson and Alex Obanor and reigning North Division MVP April Grabner, Minneapolis fell to the San Antonio Soldados, overrun by the turbocharged beating of Daniel Williams, Kris De La Fuente and Katherine Hayworth. They could have used the passing vision of Carlson and the field awareness of Obanor as well as the pitch coverage of Grabner, but the question that the Monarchs have to answer is the same question that the entire North Division has to figure out: How can a beating corps outside of the Northeast or Texas prepare for the faster pace of play that teams like the Soldados bring to national tournaments? It might not have an easy fix, but if any franchise can come up with a solution, it is the Monarchs.

Photo by Willow Elser.

The Rochester Whiteout played the New York Titans to a tight game one on the back of a spectacular long-range shooting performance and a heavy dose of their trademark physicality in transition defense but the North Division runners-up eventually struggled to generate offense in game two and exited at the quarterfinal stage in their return to the MLQ Championship. Absent at the MLQ North Division Championship, where the Monarchs beaters outplayed the Whiteout corps, beater Erin Parkinson helped to steady the rotation for Rochester, with key shifts in game one especially. Chaser Joseph Lombardi also brought energy and sound decision-making to the pitch whenever he subbed into the game. Rochester needed more to upset the Titans however and without the accurate service of keeper Basem Ashkar, chaser Kit Powpour was not getting the opportunities around the hoops that he thrived upon during the regular season. Priority number one for the Whiteout next year is Powpour developing the same degree of telepathic chemistry with a couple more players on the team.

Semifinalists

Another team that I was absolutely sleeping on the entire regular season that proved me dead wrong at the MLQ Championship, the San Antonio Soldados let no absence, not even an injury to Team USA keeper Miguel Esparza suffered two weeks before the tournament, get in the way of their return to the semifinals in Howard County. For the second consecutive year, the Soldados overcame doubts about their roster and placed as one of the top four teams in the country. It was arguably even more impressive in 2022. San Antonio rode the combination of Jay Stewart and Matt Blackwood, two chasers who are still currently playing at the college level for UTSA, for long stretches all the way to a pair of near upsets over the Boston Forge. Stewart proved almost impossible to contain on the wings and Blackwood picked apart opposing defenses from the point with his passing and shooting. Elsewhere on the roster, Kris De La Fuente played some of the nastiest beater shifts of the weekend alongside Daniel Williams and caught a snitch for good measure. He is consistently underrated on the national stage.

Photo by Eric Lynch.

Speaking of consistently underrated, the New York Titans gave the Austin Outlaws their toughest test of the tournament for the second MLQ Championship in a row, pushing the defending champions to the brink on Sunday morning. I was relatively high on the Titans heading into the season, picking the reigning East Division winners to finish 8-4 despite their significant roster turnover, but they undoubtedly exceeded my wildest expectations under first-year head coach Frank Minson. They entered their series against the Washington Admirals with a level of focus and the type of creative gameplan that shut down one of the most feared offenses in the sport. They followed the eye-opening performance with three businesslike wins over the Charlotte Aviators and they took a game from the Boston Forge on the road.

To highlight a few reasons why New York cruised through the regular season and ended the summer going toe-to-toe with Austin, you have to begin with the play of keeper Jon Jackson. One of the most puzzling snubs from the Team USA roster, Jackson performed like a man on a mission in 2022. He was a stabilizing presence and a willing passer on offense but he really made a difference on the defensive end. The mark defense that the Titans rolled out against the Admirals was possible because Jackson is capable of reading the game like a Pro Bowl safety and moving laterally like an NBA center who can guard 1-5. In the keeper zone, Jackson took away goal after goal with his ability to block shocks, wrap the biggest drivers and stuff alley-oops. His hoop defense was far and away the best in the league and while there are more dynamic offensive players, Jackson has turned himself into the kind of stopper that Team USA desperately needed in 2016 against Australia, arguably the only fixture that matters at the international level. 

Photo by Mike Iadevaia.

Otherwise, years of development up and down the roster paid off in the beater game for the Titans. New additions Tessa Mullins and Tate Kay and regular season returnee Devin Lee were the clear standouts, but program veterans like Kerri Donnelly and more recent positional converts like Kellan Cupid logged strong minutes throughout the season. Phill Cain took their game to another level against the Austin Outlaws and fed off the energy of the crowd. From consistently competing at a high level at Warriors practices during the USQ season or working individually on their games, a number of Titans beaters made obvious strides and the beating corps as a whole seemed to have really gelled. In the end, they could not do enough to distract the deep-lying Outlaws beater pairs playing in front of a hoop zone defense but they came the closest of any team. They could have benefitted from more aggressive drives from quick chasers like Eric Pagoada, not only as a chance to score goals but as a way to force the Austin beaters to make risky throws and relinquish their tight grasp upon bludger control.

Finalists

After one of the more frustrating seasons in league history a year ago, the Boston Forge rebounded for a division title in convincing fashion and made a return to the finals at the MLQ Championship in their first summer under head coach Tom DeMouth. To start, DeMouth deserves a ton of credit. There is perhaps no harder place to coach in the sport than Boston, where a large community of veteran players is following the season and expecting the team to win every game and an even larger contingent of young players is hoping for the chance to prove themselves on the pitch and earn roster spots. By the second series of the regular season, DeMouth established a clear and recognizable structure that worked for the Forge offense and identified the players that fit the system. He put his players in the best position to succeed.

Photo by Jeannette High.

The MQC as a whole also deserves a ton of credit for producing the players that brought Boston back to contention. If the Forge had won, the story would have been about the longevity of Max Havlin and Harry Greenhouse at an all-world level and the recovery of Lulu Xu from a devastating injury, but it also would have been about a completely new generation of chasers and beaters that had changed the timeline for the Forge. Beater Serena Monteiro, from the Tufts program, took a huge step forward in 2022 and became the obvious go-to option for Boston with Xu out of the lineup against the Washington Admirals. Chaser Andrew Steinberg, from the Brown program, finally got his chance to shine after not rostering last year or in the season opener against the Charlotte Aviators. By the end of year, he had mastered a new position on the field and he was perhaps the most consistent off-ball scorer for the Forge. And keeper Ian Scura, who led the effort to revitalize the storied Middlebury program, made the transition away from former Team USA keeper Jayke Archibald perfectly seamless. He put up some of the best numbers in the league and cemented his status as one of the most important players for the national team heading into a World Cup year.

The list could go on -- chaser Athena Mayor, also from the Tufts program, answered one of the biggest preseason questions and helped to replace the production of Grace Dastous in the course of carrying her team past its rivals from New York and winning the first-ever Fan Favorite award -- but the Forge played so together all season, more than the sum of their parts. They brought an infectious joy to the pitch when warming up and celebrating goals. Without a doubt, they could have used more physicality, especially at point defense to deter some of the shots that the Outlaws were sinking, and they were uncharacteristically sloppy on the offensive end in the finals. They need to refine their base shape to find ways to support their lone chaser behind the hoops more quickly, particularly against a free beater like South Division MVP Kaci Erwin who was aggressively shading backwards, and they also need to develop a seeker. But for a young team, 2022 brought the first taste of finals experience for Boston. I have feeling they will be back sooner rather than later.

Photo by Jeannette High.

In their sixth season, the Austin Outlaws finally surpassed the Boston Forge on the all-time leaderboard with four titles. They gained the edge on the only city that has ever rivaled their claim as the center of the sport in the United States. But they repeated as champions with a completely different formula and a much younger group of players than the all-star team that took home the Benepe Cup last year. For the rest of the league, it is scary how quickly the Outlaws have reloaded. After some early season questions and an untimely injury to Team USA beater Bailee Fields, the beating corps not only hung with the best beating pairs from the Northeast but outplayed some of the biggest names in the sport for long stretches. Playing in the college national championship game only four months ago, Kayse Bevers, Kyzer Polzin and Jack Wang accounted for the vast majority of the beater minutes alongside Erwin, who switched positions at the beginning of the season. While fending off challenges from opposing beaters and winning duels around the hoops, they took away the spaces that opposing chasers wanted to attack.

The unflappable performance from the beating corps was ultimately decisive because it allowed Augustine Monroe to stay in the quaffle game, where his services were needed down to the final goal. It is easy to forget how much beater Monroe has played in recent years, even when he is taking the field alongside deeper beating rotations headed by Team USA beaters like Hallie Pace and Cole Travis. Last season, the chasing corps for the Outlaws might have been talented enough to score consistently without Number 10 but his contributions helped to keep the Austin offense multi-dimensional in 2022. Along with breakout star keeper Sammy Garza, he moved from on ball to off ball with a fluidity that few players can match. He repeatedly recognized the weak point in the opposing defense, switched the angle of attack and converted his opportunities around the hoops. 

Photo by Jeannette High.

Somehow, the GOAT was not even the best player on his own team though. Over the course of the weekend, chaser Josh Johnson produced a performance for the ages, one of the most impressive that I have ever seen on the pitch. A second-string ballcarrier who struggled with a turnover problem for the Outlaws at the MLQ Championship last year, Johnson elevated his game and became a highly efficient operator in the half court. He shook off tackles and hit shots from outside the keeper zone at every stage of the tournament, no matter what defensive looks the best teams in the East Division gave him. He was the hardest player to stop the entire weekend and he will be called upon as a key contributor for Team USA at the World Cup next summer. You can count the number of chasers and keepers who have ever played as well as Johnson on one hand. 

Yet arguably, the story of the tournament went beyond one player. The hoop zone defense that the Austin Outlaws shifted into when the going got tough against the Washington Admirals represented a milestone for the highest level of the sport. They stuck pretty closely to the cautious defensive approach for the remainder of the tournament, and it increasingly worked for the Outlaws as they became more and more comfortable with the rotations. Now, Austin is not the first team to play a hoop zone defense and many top teams have turned to the strategy in recent years, but with personnel capable of standing up drives at the hoops and blocking shots on the top hoop, the Outlaws made the look a no-brainer. Erin McBride was particularly important, as her height and strength helped her cover any of three hoops and step up against any attacking player. A big question is whether enough teams without a player like McBride can pull off the hoop zone defense, but if they can follow the blueprint, the rulebook might need to spread the hoops even farther apart to give opposing beaters the chance to tap out defending chasers. 

Jack McGovern is the Press Coordinator for Major League Quadball.