Divisional Play
Beyond Pro Xball and the WNXL, 227 teams competed across 18 divisions at the third stop of the NXL season in Cincinnati— a solid turnout for a smaller market.
Heading into the event, AG Knights sat atop the 2026 D2 standings after finishing second in Tampa and winning the Mid-Atlantic Open in Maryland. Gulf Coast Ragtag Army held second thanks to a victory in Tampa and a fifth-place finish in Maryland. Corrupt and NME had also put together strong starts to the season and remained within striking distance of the top spot. Of those 227 teams, 24 entered play in Division Two Xball..
AG Knights continued to lead the way during the D2 preliminary rounds, posting a perfect 4-0 record. After disappointing 16th- and 14th-place finishes in the season’ s first two events, EAVL caught fire in Cincinnati, also going 4-0, including two 5-0 shutouts. Noobies, who rebounded from a rough opening event by reaching the finals in Maryland, stayed hot with another undefeated preliminary round. NR Factory, Gulf Coast Ragtag Army, Control, STL Threat, and Corrupt all advanced to the second round with just one loss.
The ocho rounds featured a couple of notable performances. Tenth-seeded CWE Power upset STL Threat in a hard-fought 4-3 match, while Gulf Coast Ragtag Army sent a message with a dominant 5-0 victory over BC Riot.
The quarterfinals delivered four tightly contested games. Gulf Coast Ragtag Army edged Noobies 3-2, while EAVL continued its impressive run with a 4-2 win over CWE Power. Regardless of how the weekend ended, EAVL had already done enough to make a significant climb in the season standings. AG Knights defeated a tough NR Factory squad 5-2 in a game that was much closer than the final score suggested, and Control eliminated Corrupt with a narrow 2-1 victory.
That left the final four: surprise semifinalist EAVL; Control, playing in just its second event of the season after a third-place finish in Maryland; and the division’ s two front-runners, AG Knights and Gulf Coast Ragtag Army.
Photo by Nicholas Shaw
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