June 2, 2026
By Evan Lepler
Three days away from so many huge games, the Week 7 that beckons is sure to send shockwaves throughout the league.
Friday alone features five games, all matching up teams that made the playoffs last summer. The action is even staggered pretty perfectly for frisbee fanatics everywhere.
Exclusively on WatchUFA.tv, there’s Carolina-DC at 7:00 PM/ET, Madison-Chicago at 8:00 PM/ET, Colorado-Salt Lake at 9:00 PM/ET, and Austin-San Diego at 10:00 PM/ET. Collectively, it’s a cascade of amazing ultimate, and that quadruple-header doesn’t even mention the headlining duel between New York and Boston, which also begins at 7:00 PM/ET and will be free to watch on UFA YouTube.
Clearly, you’ll want multiple devices ready, perhaps with “Friday Night Frisbee”’s pantheon blockbuster blasting on the big screen.
I’m not sure there’s ever been a UFA regular season matchup with more pregame buzz than New York at Boston this week. With Daan De Marrée expected to make his Empire debut, in which he’ll face off against Tobe Decraene in this league for the first time, that alone is a super juicy storyline. But the battle between arguably the two best players in the world right now—who both happen to be from Belgium—is just the tip of the iceberg.
Alex Atkins is playing like a potential MVP, with 31 scores and just two turnovers in his first five games with New York. But those remarkable numbers won’t carry the same weight if he can’t produce similar fireworks against Boston. Furthermore, Ben Jagt, John Randolph, and Jack Williams are all First Team All-UFA caliber talent, but their 2026 legacies will likely come down to how they perform against the Glory.
And from the Boston perspective, even the reigning MVP has something to prove, as Tobe Decraene must understand that he needs to play well to reinforce the notion that the Glory have the better Belgian. Then there’s two-time UFA MVP Jeff Babbitt, fresh off his 200th career block this past Sunday, who will take the field with the still not-that-distant memory of how his time with Empire came to its stunning conclusion. There’s absolutely no doubt that, for Babbitt, every single opportunity against New York is personal.
Of course, all these individual storylines are just tantalizing subplots to the greater team competition, and at 5-0 and 4-1, respectively, both the Glory and Empire are clearly elite. The two franchises have combined for three of the UFA’s last four titles, and both sides are full of championship DNA. Throughout all the intense and often unseen work that goes into being great, these athletes are presumably thinking about this game, this matchup, this opportunity.
Everything points toward an absolute epic.
As for the 13-game Week 6 slate that’s in the recent rear-view mirror, it was a strange and astonishing few days of frisbee. A bunch of college kids lit up the stat sheets, early three-goal leads were not safe north of the border, and road teams went 7-6, perpetuating an early-season trend where winning at home—nearly halfway through the season—is basically a 50/50 proposition.
The Full Field Layout
It turns out that adding individuals who just competed under the bright lights at College Nationals can make a huge freaking difference.
Carleton stars Nate De Morgan and Thomas Shope were splendid for Minnesota at Madison, Maryland standout Miles Grovic helped to carry DC to a pair of road wins, and the University of Colorado contingent seemed to impact winning everywhere. Obviously, Nanda Min-Fink had a big game for the Apex and Tobias Brooks fit in seamlessly with the Flyers, but no one across the entire UFA put together a performance anything close to Indy’s Elliot Hawkins.
On Friday night against Chicago, Hawkins threw five assists in the first quarter, then replicated that production in the second quarter. With 10 assists by halftime, he had already thrown more scores in a game than any other player in the league this season.
While Hawkins fell short of Cole Sullivan’s 2016 record of 17 assists, the 20-year-old Louisville native dished three assists in the third, two more in the fourth, and finished with 15 assists in Indy’s 23-20 victory. It was the most assists for any player in a game this decade.
“We just wanted to go play good team ball, and it just kinda happened to work out like that,” said Hawkins, shortly after becoming just the fourth player ever to throw 15 assists in a UFA game. “I don’t think I did anything; I think we did a great job as a squad and an O-line to run the set that we wanted to, and it just kinda happened like that. There was no game plan towards it. I was just excited to be back and I knew I was gonna take on a bit of a bigger role on the O-line, and it just kinda worked out like that. Never a game plan for 15 assists. I didn’t even know it was that much. I just got told. But super stoked about it.”
While Hawkins was eager to deflect credit, his unbelievable passing performance was definitely the talk of the league throughout the entire weekend. Not only did he throw 15 assists, but he also completed 8-of-9 hucks, 46-of-47 throws, and helped the AlleyCats chew up massive chunks of yardage. His 46 completions accumulated 712 throwing yards, and his catches led to 462 receiving yards. Combined, Hawkins’ 1,174 total yards was 268 more than the next best yardage performance we’ve seen in a game so far this season.
“Elliot was the star of the show,” said Indy veteran Cam Brock, whose three goals on Friday night all came from Hawkins. “Life was a lot easier having that guy out there with us [...] I definitely thought he would be special. Statistically, it was a game that we’ve never seen in the modern format of time.”
Indeed, when Cole Sullivan recorded 17 assists for the now-defunct Cannons in July of 2016, UFA rules had the clock not starting each point until the offense touched the pull. Starting in 2019, the timing rules shifted so that the clock starts when the pull is released, except for during the final minute of each quarter. Consequently, games are significantly shorter now, with somewhere between 10-30 seconds routinely coming off the clock before a point truly begins.
Statistically, the numbers illustrate that UFA games consist of fewer points than they once did. From 2015 to 2018, there were an average of 46 goals scored per game. Since 2019, that has dipped to an average of 40 goals per game. Prior to Friday, no player in the league had thrown more than 13 assists in a game since the rule shift.
So how did Hawkins do it?
“He was someone that we knew would raise both the floor and the ceiling of our offense,” said Brock. “And I think he just found himself in a lot of great spaces with people open, and he was not hesitant to throw it. I think hitting those first couple deep shots, that just gives him all the confidence in the world.”
Hawkins’ precision, athleticism, and demeanor were certainly a huge part of the story. And there was also the fact that Chicago’s defense struggled to provide much meaningful resistance.
“With regard to Hawkins, I do not think we adjusted well enough either on him or on the downfield cutters,” said Union defender Jake Rubin-Miller. “Only so much you can [do to] stop a great thrower from the mark while staying some semblance of disciplined; we could have done a way better job of containing their cutters with over the top help and physical defense. We are unfortunately still figuring out a big chunk of our defensive identity, so not that we really needed another wake-up call after our Minnesota games, but it’s good to get a kick in the tuchus to work harder to change the things we need to change. Hawkins is sick as hell; obviously a bummer to be on the other side of it, but he showed out.”
There was a moment with just under three minutes left when Hawkins, sitting on 15 assists, tossed a lateral red-zone reset to Jonathan Mast rather than taking another shot at the end zone. Mast then hit Jake Felton for the goal, Felton’s sixth of the night, rather than looking to help Hawkins pad the stats. But this sequence was truly representative of the entire game; it never felt like Hawkins was chasing numbers. He was just making winning plays.
Late in the game, Indy Coach Nathan Bussberg mentioned on the sideline that he was closing in on the record, but Hawkins said he was only concerned with the team’s success, declining the chance to play an additional D-point or two that could’ve created more assist opportunities.
“[Bussberg] told me I was two assists away from the record, and I was like, no, we don’t need it,” said Hawkins. “It’s about the team, not the individual.”
From the team perspective, we shall see if the AlleyCats’ first win of the season can be a springboard to more success. Their next six games are all against Minnesota, Madison, and Chicago, the three teams that represented the Central Division in the playoffs last season. At 1-2, the AlleyCats’ 2026 fate will likely be determined by how they fare in these next half-dozen games.
But after Hawkins’ unforgettable 2026 debut, there’s definitely increased optimism that Indy can contend.
“Now that we got Elliot Hawkins, the sky’s the limit,” said William Wettengel, who had four goals, three blocks, and 552 total yards in Friday’s victory. “We know it’s an uphill battle [going to Minnesota this Saturday.] They have great players. Their D-line’s sick. We knew it’s an uphill battle, but we’re not afraid of what’s to come [...] If we play how we did [against Chicago], it’s gonna be a super close game.”
*****
Among all the other significant storylines across the Week 6 landscape, the DC Breeze traveling to the great north and returning home with two big road wins felt like the biggest results of the busy 13-game weekend.
In both games—Friday at Toronto and Saturday at Montreal—the Breeze trailed 7-4 after the opening quarter, yet rallied back to win by margins of five and six, respectively. After losing the two first quarters 14-8, they outscored the Rush and Royal 38-21 over the final three quarters in the doubleheader sweep.
“As we’ve unfortunately shown all season, we may be a second half team,” said DC’s Miles Grovic. “Hopefully we get our act together and start playing like a full-game team. I think it takes us a bit longer to ramp up our energy, but once it gets going, we have the best energy in the league.”
With AJ Merriman sidelined by an injury on Saturday, Grovic increased his offensive output, tossing nine assists on Saturday against Montreal. If not for Hawkins’ absurd 15-assist night on Friday, Grovic’s nine dimes would have been the most for any player in the UFA so far this season.
Furthermore, these victories did not seem inevitable. The Breeze were shorthanded, the Rush were riding a three-game winning streak, and the Royal had been super competitive against DC at Carlini Field earlier in May. But in getting contributions from all across the roster, the Breeze improved to 5-2 and stayed within striking distance of the top two in the East.
“This weekend really showcased the incredible depth of our team,” said Jacques Nissen, who had 61 completions and one throwaway in DC’s pair of Week 6 road wins. “With [Christian Boxley out], both Gabe Dowd and Theo Shapinsky had great weekends. Our depth also showed on defense, where we were without Charlie McCutcheon. Micah Wagner is one of the most productive defenders in the league, and the whole team showed the ability to drive the defense on a turn, as you could see in the second half of both of our games this weekend…Late in the Montreal fourth quarter, it dawned on me that I had not touched the field the entire quarter, which is likely the only time that has ever happened in my career. I have never seen our D-line look as good as it did then, both applying pressure to get the turn and then relentlessly attacking the opposing O-line point-after-point.”
The Breeze trailed 17-15 with 2:42 left in the third quarter on Saturday against the Royal, but DC closed the game with one hold and seven consecutive breaks, blanking Montreal 6-0 in the final quarter.
“I said to AJ before the game and then again at halftime that this game was going to be won by our young players, and I think I was right,” said Grovic. “Offensively Gabe Dowd and Coby Loveranes were exceptional, but the late break train was propelled by Josh Lightner, Couper Kerns, Micah Wagner, Isaac Lee, and Wiebe VDB, who are all 23 and under. This is the youngest the Breeze have been in a long time, and I think it’s really, really good for us.”
Of course, the youth infusion is not just relevant to DC. From Hawkins with the AlleyCats to other young stars reshaping rosters and races across every division, Week 6 felt like a reminder that the UFA always shifts at the end of May. College kids just coming off competing at Nationals are typically in great shape, ready to slot in an important role, and eager to prove that they belong with the pros.
If this past weekend was any indication, it’s just the beginning of the youth making their mark on the winding road to Championship Weekend.
Coming up later today in “Seven On The Line", Austin, Boston, Minnesota, and Oakland all stay unbeaten, Carolina handles the Hustle yet again, double-overtime drama in Philly, and all the rest of the Week 6 details across the UFA.
