Men's Power Rankings - September 7, 2017

This is the latest edition of the Men's Power Rankings for the 2017 season. The list was formed by a panel of 8 individuals, spanning all regions, who discuss the rankings team-by-team. Injured and inactive teams have been removed from contention. A team is considered active if either (1) the team has competed in the past three months, or (2) one player from the team has competed in the past month. 

Cisek_showalter had perhaps their most dominant win of the season at the Chicago Grand Slam. Cisek and Showalter have only dropped one match all season. Will anyone have an answer for them come post-season?

Strange Embrace moved down a spot last month after a loss to Origin Impact. With Impact's losses at the Chicago Grand Slam, Rouse and Matson reclaimed their number two spot. They will be fighting to retain this position with a West Regionals win. 

2 Guys finished as seeded at the Chicago Grand Slam and earned wins over Point Loma and Origin Impact, moving them into the top three for now. The test for these two will be at West Regionals where they will have another opportunity to take down Strange Embrace, but they also have to watch out for Point Loma and the new Bud n' Boles.

Impact inched by Origin Chaos in the Chicago quarterfinals before an unexpected loss to Golden Set. Hornacek and Drucker are still the heavy favorite to take Midwest Regionals (especially with Chaos not attending) and will hope to look stronger against those out of region teams come Nationals.

Golden Set earned perhaps their two biggest wins of 2017 at the Chicago Grand Slam en route to a superb second place finish. Brumby and Zishka showed great consistency in a few close, three-game series. With a win over the formerly #5 Anchored LI and Origin Impact, Golden Set has found themselves taking that ever-changing #5 spot.

Anchored LI had a lot of eyes on them after their Boston Grand Slam win. The success did not follow in Chicago as Alvino and Fitzgerald narrowly dropped to Golden Set in the quarterfinals. 

Unfortunately, Point Loma traveled to Chicago only to lose to the only other West team in attendance. They forced a third game against 2 Guys and that experience may be helpful heading into West Regionals this weekend. The pair is looking to potentially score an upset over Strange Embrace or 2 Guys, while also defending their #3 in the West spot.

Origin Chaos has attended three tournaments this season and has been eliminated by Origin Impact at each of them. In Chicago, their match was as close at it could be but Bohnen and Weiler again fell short. With the pair not competing at Regionals together, Nationals is their last hope for a tournament performance to match their expectations. 

Max and Cole Model didn't play in the Chicago Grand Slam this year and with Max leaving for college we will see how their play and chemistry are come East Regionals.

With Bolivia's sub-par result in Boston, it has now been about three months since they had a solid tournament performance. The real test will be at Southeast Regionals where they may face the strong mash-up of Eric Zishka and Grayson Ayres.

Nashburgh found decent pool play success but ran into Origin Chaos in the round of 16 in Chicago. The veterans fell in two to the young guns two tight games. Nashburgh has still not found much success in 2017 compared to past seasons.

A couple poor pool play performances in Chicago lead to a crazy Round of 32 match-up in Tetelestai versus Ohio Against the World. Once again the serve of Jesse Throw made a huge impact and the consistent defense of Throw and Cornelius pushed them past OATW. In the next round, Tetelestai forced Anchored LI to three but couldn't pull off the upset. Surprisingly enough, Throw and Cornelius appear to be the second seed heading into Midwest Regionals.

Once again Do a Barrel Roll found themselves on the losing end of a three-game series with a top-level team. The pair had a lead in game three versus Golden Set in the Round of 16 but could not hold off Brumby and Zishka. This team is very close to a breakthrough and it may come at East Regionals, where in 2016 they got their first solid win.

Sleeper Pick lived up to its name in Chicago, earning the 8 seed out of pool play and making it to the top 8. A win over Origin Force also gave them their first power ranked win and landed them in the top 25 for this month. 

Force was upset by the aforementioned Sleeper Pick on their home turf in Chicago. The wide serves of Pierron were too much for these guys to handle and Dolson and Hynes have moved under them and other Midwest regional contender Tetelestai.

Ohio Against the World had a dissapointing T-17th finish in Chicago after poor pool play lead them to face Tetelestai in the round of 32. Some right arm pain from Bonta and the solid play of Throw and Cornelius led to an unfortunate showing for the Ohio natives.

As they often do, Rizk and Schafer spent the month mashing up with different partners at multiple events. The pair will return to action at East Regionals.

Like Schizik, August was a mash-up month for the Albany boys. Now at U-Albany, Rock and Dariano will get lots of practice for East Regionals. 

Easily Dug found success at home in the Southeast with a tournament win, but did not find as much success on their first out of region trip. The pair could not get much going in pool play and fell in the round of 16 to the eventual champions. Their projection for this weekend's Southeast Regionals is up in the air.

Billy Buchhauser and Bryce Johnson will now be teaming after playing with a myriad of partners in 2017. Their first event was in San Francisco where they placed third and now they'll be thrown in to a much deeper competition at West Regionals.

Spector was able to win a small Connecticut event with Max Model and Abramson attended the King of the Island event on Long Island. With their close loss to Spicy Dirt in Boston, we can't be too sure how they would perform at East Regionals if they choose to attend. 

No action coming from either Zimmerman this month and we hope to see them at Midwest Regionals.

After four tournaments in July, Salty Meat took it a bit easier and mashed-up in August.

Cho's Bros has had an up and down season and we do not know what we will get going into this weekend's Southeast Regional. The team has both top 3 potential and a chance to exit well before that. 

Bullcity Spikes (formerly NC Spikes) had made their way onto the Power Ranking with wins this month over solid Southeast teams in Cho's Bros and Daddy's Crackers. As the pair is not yet Premier, we fully expect a top 3 finish in the Advanced Division at Southeast Regionals.

Honorable Mentions:

Living Weirdos - Andrew Graczyk and Chris Wilkins (Chicago, IL)

Santa Cruz Slingerz - Ryan Navaroli and William Potter (Santa Cruz, CA)

Sub-Par Team - Jacob Martinez and Josh Fragiacomo (Ventura, CA)

Unicorn Rampage - Ben Bunze and David Thole (Fuquay Varina, NC)

WE THE NORTH - Charles Henri and Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (Montreal, QC)

Removed due to inactivity or team changes:

Chico Phantoms - Taylor Johnson and Bryce Johnson (Chico, CA)

The Suite Life - Zach Zimmerman and Cody Thompson (San Diego & Long Beach, CA)

Spicy Dirt - Anthony Rentsch and Alex Harris (Amherst and Natick, MA)

Got something related to roundnet that you want to know more about? Have any topics you want to be discussed on the podcast? Contact Mike White at mwhitey17@gmail.com or @mwhitey17 on Twitter.

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