May 19, 2026
By Daniel Cohen
Every team has now played at least two games, with some having played almost half their schedule, as we’re just about a third of the way through the regular season. With a decent sample size across all four divisions, now’s as good a time as any to check in about what we know about the 2026 landscape.
Oakland looks untouchable
The first team ever to start their season with five straight wins of 10-plus goals, Oakland is nearly halfway through their schedule and looks like a lock for Championship Weekend. These five blowout victories included statement wins over Salt Lake (last year’s West Division champs) and most recently San Diego, a team that had been riding high after taking down 2025 division champion Atlanta the week prior. This has to be the deepest and most talented Oakland team we’ve seen, at least since they won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015, with an O-line currently ranked fifth in the league in efficiency and a defense breaking their opponents nearly every other D-point (48.3 percent break rate ranks second in the league). The coaching stands out too: The Evan Magsig to defense, Daniel Ritthaler to offense switch has been a revelation, as both players’ impacts have been maximized; the two are currently tied for fifth in the league in plus/minus (+23).
It feels like the two late-season road games against Salt Lake (June 27 and July 17) may be the only thing that can slow them down, but at this point the Spiders going undefeated feels like a real possibility.
Wind Chill remain Central Division favorites
The Indianapolis offseason hype is certainly starting to fade after an 0-2 start with their revamped roster. There are moments with the AlleyCats where Jake Felton is bombing it to William Wettengel and everything looks easy, but far too often they’re struggling with consistency on both sides of the disc. As for the two other 0-2 teams in the division, Chicago did put up a fight against Minnesota last week but feels very young and inexperienced, and Pittsburgh may be punchy but probably shouldn’t be slated for more than a few wins this year. That leaves Madison as the main challenger to Minnesota, at least for the moment; at 2-0, the Radicals have come out with a new-look offense and an always-good defense, a combo that allowed them to edge out one- and four-goal wins over Indy and Pittsburgh respectively.
The Wind Chill, on the other hand, have taken down Chicago twice and Indianapolis once by an average differential of 7.7 goals per game. At 3-0 and boasting the best break rate in the league (51.5 percent), their defense continues to operate at elite levels, which should come as little surprise given the roster consistency and addition of 2024 Defensive Player of the Year Lukas Ambrose, who has combined with last year’s DPOPY runner-up Justin Burnett for 13 blocks so far. Next up is an undefeated vs. undefeated, 3-0 vs. 2-0 matchup in Madison on May 31; if they can win handily against the Radicals, it feels almost certain they’ll be representing the Central at Championship Weekend for the fourth straight year.
Four-team South Division playoff race is producing must-see games
Four-team South Division playoff race is producing must-see games
Starting with Carolina at San Diego in Week 1 (Flyers won by two), we’ve seen some of the best games in the league play out between the four main South Division contenders: Atlanta, Austin, Carolina, and San Diego. After that first "Friday Night Frisbee" game, we saw Austin pull off the home upset over Atlanta in double overtime the next day. In Week 3, San Diego got revenge on Atlanta in a rematch of last year’s South Division Championship Game with a one-goal win, then last week we had another Carolina vs. Atlanta instant classic that saw the Hustle prevail in double overtime. There was even a surprise Texas battle overtime game in Week 2, when Austin narrowly eked out the two-goal win over Houston.
With three more Atlanta-Carolina games, a pair of Austin-San Diego games, and an Austin double header road trip to Atlanta and Carolina, there’s plenty more South Division action to be seen and it feels like the most wide open playoff race of any division. This is a division that has had three different champions each of the last three seasons, and San Diego would make it a fourth if they’re able to emerge from the gauntlet.
Stars are shining in the East
2025 UFA MVP Tobe Decraene has picked up right where he left off last year, and he’s arguably ascended even higher; he’s averaging over 10 scores and over 500 yards per game through his first three, both marks higher than his 2025 MVP averages (6.5 and 464). He has Boston looking like championship favorites once again, despite a narrow overtime victory in Montreal this past week (they seem to always play close games in Montreal) to get them to 3-0.
In New York, Alex Atkins has been everything the Empire have needed. He’s quickly become the centerpiece of the offense, he’s given them the explosive dimension they’ve consistently lacked in recent years—he’s averaging over two huck completions per game—and he feels locked in as a league MVP candidate, at least to this point in the season. He has the Empire boasting the number one O-line conversion rate in the league at 74.2 percent so far.
In DC, AJ Merriman’s shift to offense, alongside newcomer Sean Mott, has given the Breeze an entirely new vibe in 2026. Gone are the days of dink-and-dunk small ball; DC has ranked top five in completions per game every season since 2021, while this year they’re outside the top 10. The downfield attack is clicking, with Merriman, Mott, and frequent cross-over points by Miles Grovic fueling this Breeze squad to a 3-1 start.
Boston, New York, and DC certainly feel like “the big three” for the second straight year, but it’s also worth mentioning Malik Auger-Semmar and Christophe Tremblay-Joncas of Montreal when it comes to East Division stars. While the Royal will likely struggle to make the playoffs with just one win in their first five games, their offense looks the best it has in years thanks to the playmaking of their two primary bigs.
