Happy Valentines Day you beautiful people! 💛 

Spikeball Tour Series recently announced the 2024 Major schedule. Looks like we only have three Majors on tap for this coming season (down from five in 2023), with stops in Richmond (June 15-16), Chicago (July 13-14), and Salt Lake City (August 3-4).

While it kind of sucks that we’ll have less Majors to enjoy this year, this will create even more drama and intensity at each tournament. The stakes have never been higher.

But what teams can we expect to be challenging for Pitchers and podiums in 2024? Well, we dove into the numbers of 2023’s five Majors and The Championship to determine what teams were the best when it mattered most.

Let’s dive in.

🍺 2023’s Best Teams

🥉 Judgement Day (Gabriel Finocchi and Fredric Hinkle)

• Record (Win %): 44-9 (83%)

• Points %: 53.4%

• Victories (Podiums): 0 (4)

Our third best Major-performing team of 2023 is Gabriel Finocchi and Fredric Hinkle of Judgement Day.

We had a very difficult time including Judgement Day on this list because, as you can see, they won zero Major tournaments in 2023.

I don’t know about all of you, but a common debate between my friends and I (usually in the context of golf though), is would you rather win a single Major and not do a whole lot else the rest of your career? Or would you rather be one of the best players in the world for a decade plus, but never get over the hump and win one a Major? I’ve personally always leaned towards the Major Champion side of that debate, but I simply can’t ignore how good Judgement Day was in 2023.

Judgment Day was arguably the most consistently dominant team of 2023. Their four podium finishes was the most of any Men’s Premier team, and they had the second highest winning percentage among teams who made multiple Major appearances (shoutout TRP Moneyline (Ryder Rivadeneyra and Matthew Cole) who went a perfect 11-0 to win the Salt Lake City Major in their only appearance as a team).

Simply put, Judgement Day played some of the best roundnet we saw in 2023—they were just never able to breakthrough and sit alone atop the podium at a Major. But if Spikeball Tour Series futures betting existed, I would absolutely put some money on Judgement Day to win a Major in 2024. 

🥈 Kingdom Come (Grant Klapwijk and Matthew Cole)

• Record (Win %): 26-13 (66.7%)

• Points %: 53.4%

• Victories (Podiums): 1 (1)

Grant Klapwijk and Matthew Cole of Kingdom Come won the 2023 Spikeball Tour Series Championship, the biggest tournament in roundnet.

And when you win a tournament of that magnitude, you are an absolute lock to make this list 🔒️ 

Their victory at The Championship was an all-time great performance, defeating multiple top teams on their way to victory—Insystem in the Round of 16, Rogue in the Quarterfinals, Judgement Day in the Semifinals, and finally Critical Hit in the Championship match for all the marbles. And man can Klapwijk sure serve.

Truly one helluva run.

While The Championship was Kingdom Come’s only victory and podium finish in 2023, Klapwijk and Cole played very solid roundnet at last year’s Majors—winning 2/3 of the matches they played and winning a very strong 53.4% of points played—the same points percentage as Judgement Day who had four podium finishes. 

These guys were the real deal in 2023, and were rewarded for their efforts with the most esteemed prize in roundnet.

🥇 Rogue (Ryan Marino and Thomas Hamilton)

• Record (Win %): 35-6 (85.4%)

• Points %: 54.6%

• Victories (Podiums): 2 (2)

I don’t think anyone is going to argue with this one…

Rogue (Ryan Marino and Thomas Hamilton) is our 2023 team of the year!

Their write-up here is going to be pretty short and sweet.

• Rogue had the best Major tournament winning percentage of any team that appeared in multiple Majors

• Rogue had the best points percentage of any team that appeared in multiple Majors

• Rogue was the only team to have multiple Major victories

There really isn’t much more to say other than what Marino and Hamilton accomplished in their first season together was the best story in the sport.

Pretty scary for all the other teams that Rogue will continue to get even better as Marino and Hamilton continue to get more and more comfortable playing with each other.

With their elite combination of serving and serve receive, Rogue is undoubtedly the team to beat in 2024.

👊 Quick Hits

🏓 Introducing SpikePaddle

🏀 Best way to upset the top teams at March Madness? A little roundnet obviously

💸 Mark Cuban’s biggest regret

🏄️ California Roundnet is hosting a ASL squad event in July