Good morning ball hitting enthusiasts. We had the first major of the year in Virginia and there is a lot to unpack from the action. Who looks good? Surprises? New faces? We have it all.

Where does the name roundnet come from? Well I don’t know either, but I’m guessing Jeff Knurek invented the kit, looked down, said “wow that’s a round net” and went from there.

Below:

• 📊 Richmond Major results are in

• 🤭 Headlines

• 💪 What the heck are Powerpools?

Shall we?

🍺 The Richmond Major

Rogue took gold this year in the Premier Division after a, some may say, surprisingly dominant 6-1 performance in the new Powerpools format (explained below).

Rogue is a new team formed by Thomas Hamilton (ranked 9th; previously with Switch Hits) and Ryan Marino (ranked 15th; previously with Creamy), both teams who played in The Championship last year.

The big turning point of the tournament came when TRP Spotless found a way to return the bombing serves of Will Picone (Bad Combo), after losing the first game—flipping the momentum of the match.

Joe Bondi’s serving got incredibly hot in the second game and forced a timeout from Bad Combo. Game three was a display of ridiculous gets from Spotless, which allowed them to hold off a late surge from Will Picone to take the set 21-19 and win the match.

This match also brought us the quote of the tournament from the commentators:

“Good grief that was disgusting!”

Crazy series, crazy match. 

The semi-finals brought us a rematch from last year’s Columbus Major between Kingdom Come and Spotless, and a seemingly David vs. Goliath matchup between Rogue and Judgement Day. Both semifinals went to three game shootouts—Rogue kept positive after a thrashing 21-13 loss in the second set, and overcame Goliath in the deciding set to punch their ticket to the finals. Kingdom Come and Spotless had a three game battle of their own, where Joe Bondi’s serve became the difference and landed Spotless in the finals.

The Finals

In the first game, both teams were piling up the aces, but in the second game, Spotless couldn't get anything past Marino and Rogue ended up dominating game two winning 21-16 to seal the match and earn the Pitcher.

Thanks to their podium finishes, Rouge, Spotless, and Judgement Day earned automatic bids to play in The Championship at the end of the season.

Female and Mixed Divisions

TWINZ begin right where they left off, going an impressive 9-0 in the tournament tournament. They also came first and second in the Mixed Advanced Division.

Karah Hui also had a notable tournament with two podiums. She’s a big name to watch going forward.

New Premier Qualifiers (featuring the worst names of all time someone please vet these):

1. Slow Jamz: Kevin McClain and Thomas Hoffman

2. IputthedopeinthebackofthecarandItellhtg: Ryan Coen and Stephen Jones

3. Sucky Sucky is good: Javier Vidal and Thomas Estella (lol really boys?)

4. True Outcome: Bransen Eppes and Sam Kilinski

5. Dinomite: Auriel Wish and Charlie Camarena

6. Zebra Caked: John Buchanan and Samuel Davis

🗞️ Headlines and Storylines

📈 Much improved play compared to last season

There was a lot of talented teams in the first major of the year, and they’ve all gotten significantly better than last year. The well-roundedness of everybody was incredible to watch—not only did serving improve, but serve receive was great throughout pretty much the entire tournament.

📽️ ROUNDNETWORK provided excellent coverage

The livestream was excellent and they also produced a wonderful documentary that allowed us to understand the biggest storylines going into the season’s first Major.

😅 Rogue can serve, but is it sustainable?

Rogue’s serving was borderline unfair with both Marino and Hamilton consistently bombing serves and creating loads of momentum for their team. Out of the five main skills in round net (serving, serve receive, setting, hitting, defending), Rogue dominated serve and serve receive, but questions immediately started coming up surrounding if that is a sustainable way to win. Our opinion? They looked really impressive, and we wouldn’t be surprised if they’re one of the top teams come season’s end.

💪 Introduction to “Powerpools”

You might’ve seen on a little notation beside the top pools that said “Powerpools.”

Let’s find out:

• What do they mean?

• Why are they here?

Powerpools are upper tier groups in pool play that are determined by season points and power rankings. Each team within these pools automatically earn a top seed. For example, if there’s two power pools (eight teams) these teams will be ranked 1-8 regardless of their record.

But why? Roundnet has had difficulty with “easy matches” in pool play, so to combat this Spikeball Tour Series introduced this concept, allowing top teams to get immediate competition and eliminate blowout matches.

We’re looking forward to seeing this format become a bigger part of Majors later in the year, and are also really excited that more people will tune in earlier in the tournaments because of the great matchups that happen right away.

🔄 Team Switches

Here’s the notable list of individuals who have switched teams and to what team they switched to in the Men’s Premier Division. ➡️ 

Comparing The Championship 2022 to the 2023 Richmond Major.

👊 Quick Hits

🤼 Nebraska Wrestling takes a break in the middle of tournament to play some roundnet.

⛺ Hiking in the middle of a crevasse? You should probably play a game.

📱 Spikeball CEO leans on user generated content for their marketing strategy. You’re welcome for this newsletter, Chris.