July 19, 2023
By Matt Rezin
“Player Chatter” is a series consisting of player quotes, thoughts, and feelings from around the league. All current AUDL players were sent a handful of prompts earlier this week designed to be as open-ended as possible. Additionally, players were asked to vote in a single-question, multiple choice survey.
Week 13 Survey Results
Which team will represent the South Division at Championship Weekend?
Atlanta Hustle: 82.1 percent of votes
Austin Sol: 3.6 percent of votes
Carolina Flyers: 14.3 percent of votes
Week 12 Reactions
“Shout out Dallas for getting that W! [Kevin] “KRich” [Richardson] is such a beast.” Connor Olson, Colorado Summit
“Exciting weekend with two o-fer teams getting a dub, [shoutout] Dallas and Portland.” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“Congrats to Portland and Dallas getting their first wins of the season, breaking from that Mechanix tier.” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
“I wonder if the Flyers players needed a few more airline miles to get to Gold Status. Maybe that’s why they limped in a roster for a home game.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“Toronto should be moved to the Central Division next year.” Adam O’Donnell, Toronto Rush
“With New York flying across the country and beating the supposed second best team in the league by four, on the second day of a back-to-back at high altitude, I think it’s pretty safe to say any of the top four teams in the East could easily compete for first in any other division.” James Lewis, Toronto Rush
“Shoutout fans in Colorado and Salt Lake for showing up! 2,000-plus each game I believe! New York out west was great for the league! Also Oakland's comeback win was electric.” Jeremy Hill, Toronto Rush
“Week 12 was chaos. Portland AND Dallas winning?! Only two winless teams left?! Detroit, Montreal, and Ben Jagt's sportsmanship?! And with such a wise-looking AI avatar, you'd think Jagt might have a little composure. On the other hand, he takes a mean team photo, so maybe he's not all bad?” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Bryce Merrill is goated for his halftime interview vs. New York.” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“Any team that cares about winning would let Jagt stay ejected.” Colin Ringwood, Indianapolis AlleyCats
“Coach Merrill using an integrity call to un-eject Jagt (pretty sure that's not a valid use of integrity) was probably, all-around, the most interesting thing that's ever happened to the AUDL. And to everyone saying he didn't get a warning or deserve an ejection: he spiked on a guy which is always an immediate flagrant foul. The next three spikes in Salt Lake’s collective face can easily justify a second flagrant foul, which is an ejection. The first flagrant was his warning, he played himself and got bailed out by his opponent. Just all-around ridiculous. I've never been so engaged with an AUDL game, someone get The Undertaker to throw Ben Jagt through Evan Lepler's table.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Colorado defense came out with a good strategy against New York. Bad news was they showed that strategy at last year's club final, so the Empire had lots of time to prepare.“ Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“Empire somehow gives Seattle Mixtape a run for their money as the cockiest ultimate team of all time. They used to be such a humble and great team, but now with the exception of a handful of their mature vets (Jack [Williams], Marques [Brownlee], [Jeff] Babbitt, etc), all they do is antagonize and complain.” Connor Olson, Colorado Summit
Playoff Chatter
“Playoff predictions: The Spiders lose to the Summit, who lose to the Shred. The Cats beat the Union but can't deal with the wind in Sea Foam...again. Wind Chill to champ weekend. DC beats Boston but can't deal with the Evil Empire. Mike D refuses to pay for the Flyers’ flights to Austin for the first round of the playoffs, before Atlanta beats Austin for their first ever trip to Minnesota. And then everyone loses to New York. Again. Why bother...” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“I was hopeful Atlanta would take the three spot so we could host them this season, but excited for Carolina to come to town regardless.” Kyle Henke, Austin Sol
“Austin vs. Carolina should be fun for a playoff game. Austin hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record this year, it will be interesting to see if their first one is in the playoffs.” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
Water Cooler
“[Jeff] Babbitt has to be MVP right?” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
“Sean McDougall is the MVP.” Landon Shank, Los Angeles Aviators
“Most Valuable Player - Jeff Babbitt, Rookie of the Year - Walker Frankenberg, Defensive Player of the Year - Lukas Ambrose, Most Improved Player - Garrett Martin, Coach of the Year - Bryce Merrill.” Anonymous AUDL Player (verified)
“Anyone who says on Twitter that a winning team scoring at the end of the 4th is poorly spirited is soft.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“@Clint McSherry: all I wanted was to get mentioned in an AUDL chatter and I didn't even have to play against you to get some real estate in your head ;) See you next season!” Vedant Sachdeva, Chicago Union
“Eli Jaime has been crushing it out west. That man has it.” Mike Kobyra, Atlanta Hustle
“Parlay of the week: Glory, Breeze, Union, Spiders, AlleyCats, Empire, Radicals, Hustle, Cascades, Havoc, Spiders, Wind Chill, Flyers.” Anonymous AUDL Player (verified)
