Fast Takes with Fast Break: Minneapolis Monarchs vs Cleveland Riff
Which Purple Reigns?
Author: Nathan Podolsky
Note: Cleveland has forfeited the series due to the inability to field a valid roster. Minneapolis has been awarded three 65-0 wins. The following article was written before the forfeit was announced, and examines what a Monarchs-Riff matchup would have looked like.
The Big Picture
Over the three-day holiday weekend, the Cleveland Riff travel to Minnesota to take on the Minneapolis Monarchs. This will be the first time that the Riff visit the Monarchs; Minneapolis played away in 2019 and 2021, and the two teams met in Michigan during the 2024 North SuperSeries.
Despite a lopsided 8-1 record favoring the Monarchs across the seasons, any Minneapolis player will dread seeing the Riff on the schedule. Cleveland has never let Minneapolis run away with games, much less an entire series. In 2019, the first two games saw Cleveland flag catches and final scores within 60 points. In 2021, Cleveland sprung an unexpected upset in the series opener, handing Minneapolis their only regular season loss of the year during their run to a maiden division title. In 2024, Minneapolis swept all three games, but the Riff pulled within 60 points during the final game, their closest result of the season by far. With Cleveland coming off of their first sweep in team history against the Toronto Raiders in Week One, this series should continue the head-to-head history of close battles.
Benepe Cup Implications
Halfway through the year, the North Division standings are as follows:
T-1. Chicago 3-0 / Minneapolis 3-0
T-2. Cleveland 3-3 / Detroit 3-3
3. Toronto 0-6
At this point, no position is set in stone. However, we can make some assumptions to narrow down what is at stake for each team on Saturday.
Cleveland
The Riff are looking to clinch their spot at MLQ Championships for the first time since the Covid-shortened 2021 summer. Three more wins guarantees a spot in the play-in bracket; six total wins would ensure that Toronto, who they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over, cannot surpass their win total. That said, Toronto has the most daunting weekend of any franchise across the entire league still to come: an away SuperSeries against Minneapolis and the Chicago Prowl. The Raiders are unlikely to chalk up any wins that weekend, so one more win for Cleveland should be enough to book a ticket (it’s actually a short drive from northeast Ohio) to Buffalo and to give them a leg-up against rival Detroit Innovators for a higher seed. Two or three wins will put Cleveland in the driver’s seat to fight for their best divisional finish in a decade.
Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a team that entered the season with a stated goal of skipping the play-in bracket for the first time since 2022 and an implied goal of collecting the franchise’s third North Division title. Monarch fans likely breathed a sigh of relief watching Detroit dismantle Toronto in Canada. With three wins in the bank against the Innovators, Minneapolis can be confident going against the Raiders and need only to win twice against Cleveland now to position themselves for a top-two divisional spot. To meet their lofty title aspirations, though, the Monarchs have no choice but to win three games. Chicago looked extremely strong in their sweep of Cleveland and enter as heavy favorites against Detroit and Toronto. Asking for two wins against the Prowl is already a demanding task. A loss to Cleveland that forces a sweep against Chicago may be enough to eliminate Minneapolis from title contention. Look for the Monarchs to push hard in all three games to give themselves the best shot at a 1-seed in the Benepe Cup.
Minneapolis’s Submitted Roster
In their second consecutive home series to open the season, Minneapolis will again bring a full 21-person roster. Notably, Ryan Mehio is absent from this weekend’s player list. Mehio had a hand in 26 of 38 goals scored against Detroit (68.4%). The Monarchs will need to replace his offensive production, and it may start with this season’s first appearance of Alexander-Paul Ogbeide. Cecelia Voth is also appearing at chaser for the first time this year to provide a spark to the offense.
Two key absences stick out on the beater side: 2022 North Division MVP Cody Narveson and Nicole Nelson are not listed. Nelson was the best Minneapolis beater in their season opener, posting a +15 total plus/minus and scoring a 76.2 weighted plus/minus per drive (PMPD) when partnered with Ben Schlueter. Ryan Cleary, in his first North Division game, will likely be leaned on to replace Nelson and Narveson’s production. Rookies making their MLQ debuts for the Monarchs this weekend include Minnesota Quadball’s Talitha Anderson and Craig Tarnowski.
Cleveland has forfeited the series; there is no roster to analyze.
Storylines That Could Have Been
Case Western and Pittsburgh vs Minnesota
Cleveland rosters seven players from two regional programs: four from Pittsburgh (PITT) and three from Case Western (CWRU). Similarly, Minneapolis has seven players out of the Minnesota Quadball (MNQ) program.
The three teams enjoyed a rock-paper-scissors relationship at USQ Cup in Richmond this spring. During Saturday evening pool play, PITT took advantage of a flag catch to vault to a nail biting 155-130 win over MNQ. In the lower bracket semifinals of Division 2 on Sunday, though, PITT fell to CWRU 175-90. Finally, MNQ handled CWRU in the lower bracket finale, posting a decisive 160-80 victory. It is difficult to predict how each college team’s play style will affect the upcoming series with players absorbed into the larger MLQ franchises, but the combined firepower of PITT and CWRU will challenge the MNQ players to up their game and could preview future Midwest college tournament battles.
Keep an eye out for CWRU’s Adam Thompson and Vivian Cox, as well as PITT’s Emma Meo and Jackson Neofes, who have all already showcased their skill on pitch for Cleveland this season. On the Monarch side, the beater pair of Aidan Curley and Anderson alongside chasers Phoebe Thomas and Tarnowski may feature.
Can Cleveland capitalize with two dodgeballs?
Through six games, Cleveland has maintained dodgeball control only 29.9% of the time. This is still nearly 1.5 times more than the dismal 20.8% control rate that Minneapolis achieved in their season opener against Detroit. With Narveson, Nelson and Nathan Podolsky absent from the Monarch beater rotations, it is easy to predict a series where Riff veterans such as Austin Howe, Rae Barnes and Peter Brechting hold dodgeballs more often than not.
Despite this stat, Minneapolis still scored on 53% of possessions (48% of the time with only one dodgeball). They also stopped Detroit’s offense 71% of the time (including an inexplicable 77% of the time with only one dodgeball). Detroit made a clear gamble to play in the beater game as often as possible to preserve control, and the Monarchs punished them for it with precise passing, strong tackling and an occasional well-timed beat. Minneapolis appeared extremely comfortable playing without control and are unlikely to change their strategy; as long as they are scoring goals on offense, the exact control rate percentage matters little.
For the Riff to better the Innovators’ results, they must figure out a way to use both dodgeballs more actively in the quadball game when they have control. Their 49% scoring rate with control so far this season is likely insufficient to topple the Monarchs. This may mean playing more aggressively for turnovers on defense by beating ball carriers; it may mean engaging point defenders more often on offense to create driving and shooting lanes for their chasers. Should they make Minneapolis regret holding only one dodgeball at such a high clip, they will position themselves for success.
Will either team put beaters on the flag runner?
Minneapolis and Cleveland have played a combined nine games this summer. There have only been two flag catches in that entire set and only one by either the Monarchs or Riff (Joe Goulet in the first game against Detroit). Furthermore, their matchup last summer saw only one flag catch in three games. Whichever team chooses the correct option of the following second half strategies can end the game on their terms.
Against the Innovators, Minneapolis put any dodgeballs in their possession on the flag runner and actively looked to catch. This strategy relied on the presence of Mehio anchoring the quadball game and may not be replicable without him. Even with Mehio, the team could never fully separate from the Innovators, particularly in the second game, when the two traded goals to the point that a flag catch either way would have ended the game. Knowing that Cleveland lacks a proven seeker and is zero for six on flag catches on the season, Minneapolis may look to use their beaters to run up the score in the quadball game as quickly as possible during the second half.
Cleveland, meanwhile, put their dodgeballs in the chaser game against Chicago and took the risk of allowing a flag catch in order to try to claw back quadball points. This situation materialized because each game’s first half resulted in a difference of at least 10 goals. That said, the Prowl’s early season roster did not feature a seeker as dangerous as Goulet. Against a Monarchs offense with less firepower than Chicago but a stronger seeker, the Riff may look to keep the score tighter for 20 minutes, then deploy their beaters to the flag for a knockout blow.
Potential Future X-Factor
Pace of play
Against Toronto, Cleveland found a way to win through stout defense and intentional possessions that most often ended in a Joe Lombardi goal or assist. Against Detroit, Minneapolis showcased their superior athleticism and depth to run away with games as the clock ticked forward. This weekend, the Monarchs should make a more concerted effort earlier in games to create transition opportunities from defense. In particular, they’ll be looking to produce their first zero-dodgeballs fast break (which never occurred against Detroit). Cleveland should take the lessons from the Prowl series and apply them now: elongate offensive possessions, be calculated about using dodgeballs to score, and hustle back on defense. To reproduce their results from the Raiders sweep, they cannot afford to let the 21-person Monarchs roster run them into the ground. Ultimately, if the average quadball possession before halftime is longer than 30 seconds, the Riff can score an upset.
Forfeit Consequences
Ultimately, the mental exercise of how a Cleveland vs. Minneapolis series may have played out will stay on paper only. Given that Minneapolis now has three new 65-0 wins and is credited with three more flag catches, here are some notes moving forward:
Minneapolis will go to MLQ Championships. Technically, there is a scenario where all North Division teams finish 6-6 and Minneapolis loses on tiebreakers, but the chances are near zero. The three extra flag catches are key given that catches determine MLQ’s second tiebreaker between teams. The Monarchs’ sole focus throughout the month of July will likely be on their upcoming series against Chicago.
Cleveland will fight with Detroit for third or fourth place in the division and loses their shot at a bye to the quarterfinals. Given their inability to field a valid roster in their first series away from home and noting the strength that Detroit displayed across the border while missing Jenny Sun, David Banas, Neil Peterson and Julien Theuerkauf, the Innovators should feel confident.
One MLQ franchise never started the season. Three franchises have forfeited at least one of their series. Only one of the three scheduled SuperSeries will proceed as originally planned. Outside of the league’s three largest metro areas (Boston, New York, and Chicago), no franchise fielded a practice squad of more than 4 players. There are real questions facing the league’s future. Where does MLQ go from here?
