June 25, 2026
By Charlie Hoppes

Winning a UFA Championship is hard business. With so few regular-season games followed by single-elimination come playoff time, many truly excellent teams have fallen short. Just last year, the Chicago Union were an undefeated, record-setting juggernaut…until they were dispatched by Minnesota Wind Chill in the Central Division championship game. Several model franchises–the DC Breeze, Atlanta Hustle, Salt Lake Shred, to name a few–have never quite gotten over the hump and raised the trophy. 

So what does it take to win a championship in 2026? I looked at how the best teams in the league play to come up with foolproof ways to get to the mountaintop. Want to win? It’s important that you...

Be patient on offense

This makes a lot of sense. It really is a huge field, and possessing the disc means that your opponent can’t score. Patience is a virtue! The top five teams in completions per game (Boston Glory, Oakland Spiders, Austin Sol, Hustle, and Wind Chill) include our two remaining undefeated teams, the defending champs, the team with the biggest positive point differential, and a perennial title contender. The Glory have built on their ball-control offense from last season’s run to a championship, with their O-line possessions featuring a league-leading 8.9 completions per possession, and their D-line leading all D-lines with 7.4 completions per possession. The Spiders and the seemingly playoff-bound Madison Radicals each throw fewer than 7 hucks per game. Slowing the game down might correlate with winning–Madison (second fewest total points in their games), Indianapolis (third fewest), Boston (fourth fewest), and Minnesota (fifth fewest) average fewer than 39 points scored in their games and are lined up to make the playoffs, while the two teams that play a fast enough game to feature the most scores in their games league-wide, Colorado and Pittsburgh, are a combined 5-11. The top ten teams in completion percentage are all currently holding onto playoff spots. Just work it! Simple enough.

Actually, score as quickly as possible

Hey, no use burning out those legs! The Spiders are first in hold percentage (77.8 percent) and fourth in O-line conversion rate (61.1 percent), clearly one of the best offenses out there. And they are averaging only two clean holds that last more than a minute per game. In fact, only one clean Spiders hold has lasted more than 90 seconds all season. They are all the way down at 11th in the league with their O-line’s 7.2 completions per possession. The offenses for potential playoff teams in DC, Seattle, and San Diego throw even fewer completions per possession than that, and while they sit out of the playoff picture right now, the Toronto Rush’s offense (ninth in the league in hold percentage) sits second-to-last with 6 completions per possession. Plus, speeding the game up might correlate with winning–Carolina (3rd most total points in their games), DC (fourth most), Austin (fifth most), and Salt Lake (sixth most) are all in good position to make and perhaps compete deep into the playoffs. And the team that slows games down the most in terms of number of points scored in their games is the 1-6 Chicago Union.  Run, move it quickly, and attack vertical space. 

Well, but wouldn’t taking your time be better?

Okay, so it might be, especially if you are looking to wear out an opposing team’s offense. Per our friends at Shown Space, the Oakland D-line is first in defensive efficiency (defensive possessions that end without allowing a goal), and they punish opposing O-lines by keeping them on the field. Their D-line offense is second at 6.4 completions per possession, which is quite a high number considering how often defenses have many fewer yards to go to score than a typical O-line possession. And with a D-line conversion rate at 61 percent, good for fifth in the league, the Spiders’ patient approach on the counterattack stars as a torture chamber for O-lines that either have to play exhausted after a break, or run out a second O-line.

Find some limited openings to punish with the deep game

Completing a bunch of passes sounds easy enough, but defenses can line up block attempts when they know what’s coming. To ward that off, many of the best offenses in the league huck at a very high percentage. You’ll remember that the glacial Glory O-line throws the most completions per possession? Well, they also attempt 7.4 hucks per game and complete them at a 78.4 percent clip, third-best in the league. Boston will bide their time, then strike like a cobra when an opening presents itself. Oakland’s much faster offense only hucks 4.4 times per game, last in the league by far, but keeps the threat of the deep ball real by completing 80% of them. Of the five teams that attempt fewer than ten hucks per game, the Sol, Glory, Radicals, and Spiders should all make the playoffs, with a few deep postseason runs expected from that group, and only the Union finds themselves struggling (understandable, considering their league-worst 50.1 percent huck completion percentage). Shot selection is important for these teams. Definitely no need to just come out firing.

Or just sling it around the lot

Maybe there’s no need to come out firing, but if you have an elite thrower, why wouldn’t you ask them to come out firing? Of the top ten players in the league in huck completions per game (minimum 3 games), six of them are on playoff contenders. Jake Felton of Indianapolis and Max Pettenuzzo of Toronto each average just over two huck completions per game on a bit of a lower percentage. But Atlanta’s Austin Taylor, Salt Lake’s Chad Yorgason, and New York’s Alex Atkins all complete just over two hucks per game each, and all complete their shots right around 75 percent of the time. The Alleycats’ Elliot Hawkins is completing 4 hucks per game at a 76.1 percentage. These volume shooters can really open up opportunities elsewhere on the field for their O-line teammates. Got to let it fly!

Have a D-line that gets stops

Obviously, right? It’s no surprise that the top five D-lines in defensive efficiency (again, percentage of defensive possessions that end without allowing a goal) include the reigning champion Glory, both undefeated teams in Austin and Minnesota, and two upper-crust contenders in the Spiders and the Carolina Flyers. If the other team’s O-line doesn’t score, your team will win a lot of games; these five teams stand a combined 40-4.

But an elite D-line doesn’t need to get (that many) stops

The Empire and the Hustle aren’t getting nearly as many stops as the five teams listed above; they are 10th and 11th in the league in defensive efficiency, respectively, firmly middle of the pack. But they stand at seventh and sixth in break percentage, respectively. It turns out that converting break attempts at a high rate will go a long way towards making up for a lack of break attempts in the first place, and the Empire and Hustle are first and second in D-line conversion percentage, the best in the business. 

Fine. I have no idea what a team needs to win a UFA Championship

I mean, I have some idea. Your team needs to be one of the best in the league in hold percentage (unless you are the 2024 champion Minnesota Wind Chill). It’s really helpful if you have a defense that breaks with significant regularity (although the 2021 Flyers and 2025 Glory didn’t really have that). Suffice it to say, there are many paths to win in the UFA. And if you can win enough to make Championship Weekend, the big things still matter most. 

But against other great teams that have also won a lot, it’s about the details as much as anything–game plans, time-outs, clock management, situational play. Look at the three exceptions I listed out: the Carolina Flyers played what is still the second cleanest game in their franchise’s history in the 2021 final to complement a game plan that dramatically slowed the New York offense. The Wind Chill were famously far and away the best team in the heavy winds of 2024 Championship Weekend, a testament to both player skill and their coaching staff’s ability to navigate a very specific type of situational ultimate nearly flawlessly. And last year’s Glory came into the playoffs as a strong team and left as champions by leaning into their ability to possess the disc even in the tightest of pressure. 

And so this year, the way to win a UFA championship is the same as it is every year: be a strong enough team to make the dance through whatever means best suit your team, and then spend two straight games winning as many moments as possible, big and small. It’s harder than it looks; in a field of a half dozen realistic contenders or more, only one of these teams will be able to point to their season and tell us, that's how you win a championship.

ABOUT CHARLIE HOPPES

Charlie Hoppes has coached ultimate for 20 years, including several stints in the UFA. He was co-head coach of the New York Empire–helping to lead them to undefeated championship seasons in 2022 and 2023–and is currently a coaching consultant for the Indianapolis Alleycats. Hoppes provides individualized coaching services to players, coaches, and teams at all levels through Charlie Hoppes Ultimate Coaching & Consulting (CHUCC). Learn more at charliehoppes.com