2024 NCT Analysis and Rankings (2024)

As we come to the end of another AMTA season, we just wanted to say how much fun it has been for us to write about the world of competitive-fake-lawyering that we all know and love. This is our seventh year of writing posts, and we hope that our posts will help continue to foster a community for mockers in coming years. Thank you to everyone who reads and comments. We hope that we have helped people learn a little bit more about the teams around the country, although we recognize that we can never give every team the amount of discussion and research that they deserve. After the National Championship, we will be looking for new contributors to help us expand our knowledge and keep writing about mock trial. If you’re interested, be on the lookout within the next month or so.

We know this is an extremely long post, so we’ll break it down.

First, you’ll see our usual Placement Predictions and Division Analysis. Next, we have Power Rankings and Team Write Ups and All-American Watch. At Mock Analysis Is My Drug, we love the AMTA Team Power Rankings, but AMTA TPR is always a year behind—at the best. This list attempts to update the power rankings to better reflect the results we’ve seen in the 2023-2024 AMTA season, based on our own competitive experiences this season. Now we want to be very clear, these are predictions. Each member of Mock Analysis Is My Drug submitted their own ranking, which was then compiled into the final result found here. As always, we expect surprises. We recognize that these types of rankings are inherently subjective, and hope this starts a conversation and gives all teams at the National Championship Tournament a bit more information about their competition. If you have additional information you’d like to add about any team or have a correction to something we said, dm us or comment below!

We also have a new mini write up this year called the All-American Watch. We wanted to highlight a member or two of each team who we think has a good chance of winning an All-American this year who does not already have one. Of course, those who already have All-Americans have a decent chance of getting another one, so we wanted to highlight those who might join the AA club!

Thank you to everyone who has made this year’s AMTA season great. We are excited to see how everyone does at this year’s National Championship - good luck to everyone competing!

Harvard University A
University of Virginia A
UCLA B

Yale University A
Patrick Henry A
Ohio State A
University of Florida A

Rhodes A
Georgia Tech A
Columbia A
Chicago B
Fordham Lincoln Center A
Indiana A

Like Chicago’s famous Bean, the Myra Bradwell division might seem shiny, but don’t be fooled: it’s also deceptively hollow (which by the way, is an insider Chicago Bean secret only the locals know). If you were betting on the podium placements of any NCT in the past ten years and wanted to keep it safe, you probably couldn’t go wrong with picking any two of the three between Harvard, Virginia, and Yale. But make no mistake: even amongst the solid, traditional power mixed in with a few recent up-and-comers, we have Bradwell on paper as being the easier of the two divisions in Chicago. Really, it comes down to a question of recent power versus TPR. Darrow has numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 in our rankings, whereas Bradwell fields numbers 2, 4, 9, 10, and 11–meaning that we predicted the 3rd best team in Bradwell’s field as weaker than the 6th best in Darrow. Hey, it’s a bit of a power gap, but anything beats 2021. Why the difference between expectations? To make a long explanation short, our analysts have the memories of a goldfish, but Tab Tzar Diane Michelak and the AMTA tab guidelines that bind her do not. Three years ago there wouldn’t be enough power in Darrow to scrape together a middle-of-the-road NCT division, but in 2024, we feel it’s just a touch stronger than good ol’ Bradwell.

But hey, we’re not here to compare apples and oranges. A NCT division by any other name would still end as bloodily. In our Final Round Favorites we’ve singled out the teams who we think stand the best chances of being the Katniss Everdeens of this year’s Mock Trial Hunger Games (oh we already used that bit? oops). Our top of the crop are a strong and steady three: Harvard A, Virginia A, and UCLA B. This particular Harvard A team is the same bones of the 2021 team that took home the Calkins trophy back in Lancaster and just barely missed out on it again in Memphis as a hybrid A and B team. We’d be very, very, surprised if the AMTA circuit has seen the last of Alexander, Price, Vanderslice and Rajan. But if anyone’s going to rain on Harvard’s victory parade, it will be Virginia A. At this point, we think Marx and the boys might be better suited to firing their content writers and spending that money on a PR agent, because we never thought we’d see the day the Cavaliers were underrated in their strength as a mock trial powerhouse. Virginia A had a formidable 9-3 record at last year’s NCT, and neither of the rapscallions Tufts B or Notre Dame A are here to foil their plans for the podium this year. Last but certainly not least is the inimitable UCLA B, who very narrowly missed out on turning the final round into an internal program scrimmage in Memphis. The only reason we’re not quite as confident in them as our other two options is the simple fact of the passage of time–many of the strongest players of last year’s UCLA B have moved on up to the A team this season, which means we don’t quite know they’re guaranteed to put up the same performance this time around.

Next, we’ve got the middle of the road: teams we expect to place, but don’t necessarily think we’ll be seeing in a Round Five this year: Yale A, Patrick Henry A, Ohio State A, and University of Florida A. All of these are teams that are typically flat-out great, but have given us some reason to question that trend continuing. Usually, a final round without Yale A is as rare as a blue moon–but this Yale A isn’t Yale A. It’s Yale B. While we have no way to confirm for certain whether the coach behind Yale’s March Madness streak, Everett Parker Noblitt, will be in Chicago, we do know that Yale has historically—and often catastrophically–had a stacking policy which forbids bid-stealing. That means that the B team that bid from DC is the B team we’ll see in April. Yale B oscillates from stellar to mediocre at NCT, so we’ll see what kind of season they’re in for this time around. As for the good old eagles/sentinels of Patrick Henry College (google produces unclear results on their mascot), usually we predict that they’re as solid as the foundations of American democracy. But a recent downturn in their B’s competitive prospects paired with whisperings of some sort of program meltdown/coup makes us wonder if they might be standing on ground as unsteady as…current American democracy. Ohio State A, as everyone who has opened Facebook between the months of February and April can recall, went 3-5 at Regionals in Dayton. We think Ohio State is more competitive than they’ve been in recent memory this season…but given that an overwhelming majority of rural Ohio legal professionals did not, we feel we should temper that excitement. As for the University of Florida, we don’t really need to explain why we’re just feeling neutral about this souther superpower–we can just point to the five judges down in Greenville, South Carolina who felt strongly enough to give the Gators #5ballots5ties.

And lastly, we come to our bubble. Those who we’d bet on being in the mix for some kind of hardware come awards ceremonies–but not necessarily being shoo-ins by any means. Rhodes A tops off that section of our list–because while their time as one of the most dominant programs on the circuit is certainly still fresh in our memories–they haven’t quite reached those peaks all that recently. Given that they didn’t do so hot at their last home field advantage NCT, we’re not sure that we can say for sure we’ll see Rhodes A on the podium this April. The rest of our bubble is actually here for the opposite reason. While Columbia A, Chicago B, Fordham LC A and Indiana A have had good, but not great NCT results in the past, we think this year they all have a chance of raising their historic ceilings. Columbia A is a name we haven't seen in the top 48 in a long, long time, but with a little bit of sugar, spice, and arguably the best coaching staff in New York state, the Lions are back and ready to remind everyone in AMTA. Chicago B and Fordham LC don’t usually muster better than middling records at NCT, but both are having good seasons. Given they’re competing against a greener-than-average NCT field, that might just be enough to put them over the top. And finally there’s Indiana A–who finished eighth in Memphis last year. While there’s been a lot of turnover and turmoil for the Hoosiers (and the banished B teamers who hoped to attend their invitational), we think the core they’ve kept is enough reason to keep them in the mix of a podium placement.

So keep your eyes on Bradwell! It might seem like a pretty straightforward division at first glance, but we expect it’ll have more polish, more sparkle, and more wild curves than you might expect–just like the newly renovated Bean.

UCLA A
University of Chicago A
UC Irvine A
Hillsdale A

University of Michigan A
University of Georgia A
Boston University A

Washington University St. Louis A
Georgetown University A
Texas A
Princeton A
Brown University A
Alabama A

The Darrow Division is nothing short of formidable. Full of well-rounded teams, this weekend we’re sure the teams of Darrow are going to show us flash, polish, intrigue and mystery—what great mock looks like from coast to coast. Expect the teams of Darrow to give the AMTA world the kind of intrigue people travel from far and wide to see. And all that means there’s really only one metaphor that’s appropriate to sum up this division. That’s right folks. This year’s Darrow Division, much like Bradwell, is also Bean-themed. Say what you will of our writers, but if there’s one thing we never miss, it’s an opportunity to relate mock trial to legume-themed displays of modern art.

So who’s at the top of the beanpole? In our “Final Round Favorites” section, we have a shocking four teams listed—almost double what we typically list for this section. That break from tradition is for one simple reason: it’s appropriate. Every single one of these teams here have a real, substantial chance at a round five, and it would be nothing less than bad analysis to put teams on your radar for the Championship in Chicago and not list all of them. Each of these teams—UCLA A, UChicago A, UC Irvine A, and Hillsdale A—have shown that they are, beyond just being some of the greatest teams in the nation this season, some of the best rosters AMTA has ever seen. We’ve seen all of of these them prove they have the chops to take ballots off one another when it comes to it—be it during this season or last year back in Memphis—meaning that even if we did rank our initial thought listings (we don’t), we’d have a rough time drawing the line here.

That high level of talent at the top means one thing for Darrow: likely, whoever shakes out at the top of the pack will have had to have the cards fall in their favor. The Darrow division has more of our top 10 teams than the Bradwell division (6 to 4), but it also has a frightening collection of our fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth place teams. That kind of clustering at the top promises some tight rounds and close splits in the later rounds, because when we see this much power at the top of the division it nearly guarantees that the top teams will play each other. Teams hoping to play the final may well hit two teams from this top group. That’s important because this season we haven’t seen that any of them is solid enough to survive two high-level matchups with a completely unblemished record. UCLA, dropped a ballot and a half to Irvine at ORCS and kept splitting at GCF. Irvine dropped to Yale, one of our expected placers in the other division. Chicago dropped to both UCLA and Hillsdale. And Hillsdale dropped to Michigan. Of course Nationals is different, but without a team that can just destroy all of the other high level teams consistently, and cleanly, we open the door to a fair amount of luck. Who sneaks through with an easier schedule and who has to muscle their way through multiple high level rounds? That’ll all be decided by the mercy of the tab cards.

That ambiguity also opens up some possibility for teams like those we have in our “expected to place” portion. Michigan A, Georgia A, and Boston University A all find themselves in the equally fun position of not only being quite close to breaking through to a final round this weekend, but also having ample opportunity to clash with some of our Final Round Favorites and ruin their whole weekend. Sure, personal glory, individual success, external validation–that’s all well and good. But we all know that deep down mock trial is an exercise in perpetuating the misery of others, and if these teams don’t get the chance to win a big shiny trophy, at least they can console themselves with taking out someone else.

So let’s take a look at these potential spoilers. The relative shortness of this section in relation to years past is worth noting. Historically there have been a lot of teams that consistently place, but aren’t really in serious contention for the final. They seem to have a safe, reliable strategy that gets them 6-8 ballots, and they go home content with placement. The best fit for that mold in this year’s Darrow field is Boston University who have been Honorable mention or better since 2019, but who haven’t been particularly close to the final in any of those years. But that’s where that style of team really ends in this division. Michigan and Georgia are teams with significantly more volatility that we expect to do quite well, and seem hungrier for risk than their Northeastern Compatriots. Michigan, for instance, was in the conversation for a final going into the later rounds last year. More ambitious teams will definitely lead to some fantastic rounds at the top–but it also might mean there’s some more unexpected collapses than we typically see.

Finally, we have our “Bubble” section–the teams we’d bet on but not the teams we’d bank on. What differentiates this listing from “Expected to Place” is the lack of reliability these teams have shown so far. Whether it’s Georgetown A, who exploded to NCT success last year but underperformed at this year’s ORCS, making us bullish about their chances (pun intentional), or Princeton A, who’s back at NCT for the first time in who-knows-when but has shown a whole lot of promise, we’ve got a lot of wild cards in the middle of this deck. These teams could put their best foot forwards, or collapse for reasons we’ll pretend we’ve seen coming all along. For the sake of our egos, we hope it’s the former.

So don’t move from the edge of your seat watching the tab cards in Darrow this weekend! Signs point to surprises on the way, and just like the popular tourist attraction only four blocks away, the Darrow Division is a must-see for the Windy City. Good luck to everyone competing!

1. UCLA A
To no one’s surprise, here they are: the University of California Los Angeles comes into this year’s National Championship field as the prohibitive favorite to take back the Richard Calkins trophy. They’re the team that has everything–a coaching staff with more championship wins than anyone else on the circuit, a talent pool deep enough to field two reliably NCT-caliber teams, and enough funding and program engagement to go to the best tournaments in the nation all year round. This year’s A team iteration might be their very best yet–as the historically showiest team in AMTA, this year Head Coach Elizabeth Smiley put together the pieces of a returning final round A team and a second-place B team and made an outright phenomenal cast. All-Americans Naiser Muldrow and Ria Debnath split closings bookended by dynamite openers All-American Michael Blaine and All-Regional Drew Ashlock, and they direct one of the most enviable witness rosters in AMTA that boasts, among others, All-American Arneet Gurtatta, All-National Emma Rose and our pick for best expert in the Nation Jad Soucar. If you want our best bet on a championship winner, here it is: we think the 2024 National Championship Tournament is UCLA’s to lose. But just because we’re singing their praises doesn’t mean that we can ship the Richard Calkins Trophy off to Los Angeles quite yet. We think the Bruin’s biggest problem right now is the way UCLA plays to a Chicago judging pool. Flash back to this January’s GCF results, where we saw UCLA drop four ballots: one to the University of Georgia, one to the University of Chicago, one to Northwestern and one and a half to a fully-stacked version of their former final-round rival: Harvard A. Don’t get us wrong–that is a FANTASTIC lineup of teams, most of whom we’d predict placing in the upper echelon of this year’s NCT field. But what worries us is the consistency of those results. No matter who they hit or what side they were on, UCLA was winning about 2 out of every three ballots each round. That’s a phenomenal batting average, but when you’re looking to guarantee a round five, it’s not quite enough. We suspect that Chicago judges, who raved over Yale A and also appraised Hillsdale A’s witnesses quite highly, might prefer a more realistic style of witnessing than the theatrics UCLA tends to deliver. But if there was ever a team to mount the hurdle of judging preferences and steamroll even the most firm cynics and fun-haters, it’d be this one. We wish the Bruins the best of luck in meeting our high expectations for them this April.

All-American Watch:
Our policy with this new portion of our writeups, the “All-American Watch” is to spotlight newer competitors and not mention any current All-Americans. That makes this tough for the Bruins since eight of the nine are All-Americans already (sorry Drew Ashlock). So we’ll be bending the rules a little bit here. While Nasier Muldrow is an All-American witness, we believe he could add an All-American attorney to his resume. His 19 rank All-National proves he can do it against the best of the best with his relatable rhetoric, insane use of the well, and sympathetic crosses that are oozing with passion. On the witness side, Emma Rose Maloney has an All-American for getting to the final round, but we believe she can get one outright this year. She is an All-Regional, All-National, and GCF award winner, so she might be the Bruins’ best shot at a triple crown come award ceremonies.

2. Harvard A
In the number two spot, we of course have the team that took second last year, vying to take over second place in the competition for most consecutive final rounds. Harvard is returning a large chunk of their final round team from last year, which also means returning a large chunk of the team that won NCT just two years ago. Expect to see familiar names like Jessica Alexander, Audrey Vanderslice, and Anant Rajan back at the top of the tab summary as they collect a frighteningly growing number of awards, just as one might have predicted they would after they broke onto the national stage as sophom*ores. With Harvard at Nationals, there is, of course the elephant in the room (or not in the room): the loss of TBC winner Travis Harper, who anchored the team as a double threat performer and as the multi-year leader. But so far, this team has proved it has no shortage of talent. Younger members of the NCT team have stepped up during the invite season and moved their way into the spotlight. For instance, Anant Rajan, erstwhile expert, has become an outstanding sympathetic witness, a role shift that may serve him well where the dramatic core of the case is carried by professionals. All season they have added the kind of cleanliness and polish that you see with older teams without losing the “it” factor their competitors had in their underclassmen seasons, leading our observers to wonder if, despite their recent losses, this may be the most talented Harvard team we have seen yet. Certainly their ORCS results are better this year than either of the last two years (although, then again, with the Ivy League’s track record of non-bidding teams making NCT finals, that might be a bad omen).

All American Watch:
As with UCLA, Harvard makes it tough to stick to our rules. But we do have an excellent candidate for All American Watch. Top performer this year, Jacob Winter was not on last year’s NCT team. But this year he has picked up several awards experting, and we think he is extremely underrated. In a case as heavy on the professional witnesses as this one is, we think he stands a decent chance of picking up an All-American.

3. Chicago A
You may remember our ORCS writeup just a few weeks ago where we didn’t brag about the Maroons of Chicago for the first time in a while. The reason we didn’t mention them is simple: it effectively didn’t really matter what Chicago did in Geneva, because thanks to the perks of hosting NCT, we knew they’d be competing for the Calkins trophy one way or the other. (Nats hosts baby!!!) But as promised, now that April has rolled around we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t give you the scoop on one of the biggest threats to win their division on the circuit. Quite honestly, not much has changed since their 2022 run to the final. Farnsworth, Zhang Mothersbaugh, Fritsch and company are incredible individually and even better together. They finished ORCS 6-2 narrowly splitting to Wash U and Michigan State: two other high-level teams that they’ll see again in Chicago. They field real, engaging and dynamic witness performances, with attorneys who are stylistically some of the most authentic on the circuit and some of the best at appealing to real lawyers. They’re also coached by one of the best mock trial minds out there in Sam Jahangir. To top it all off, this is the Maroon’s home turf. So suffice it to say–we think their odds are good here. There’s a reason they are such a reliable bid out of Geneva every single year. But being in their hometown may not be their biggest advantage. The last time we saw Chicago in Chicago, they got 7 wins out of 12 ballots–good, but not good enough for a round five. That said, we have to acknowledge that’s a weakness the Maroons are in a good place to overcome if they’d like to. If they feel they need to run some extra scrimmages to figure out what extra piece they were missing for the legal professionals of the Windy City, we’re sure Sam Farnsworth will be sending out batch emails to request them soon. The 2 year developed talent of a team that made the final round, a hometown judging pool, and some of the most dynamic content on the circuit just might be the combination that changes them from National finalists to National champions.

All-American Watch:
There are a lot of big names on this Chicago roster. Their seniors have competed at the Olympus of this activity. Their younger members are Rookie Rumble Champions. We’re sure the seniors will have something to say but we’re going with the youth for our All-American picks. Ethan Donovan and Emberlynn St-Hilaire are both capable of pulling off something special: that is if they don’t steal each other’s ranks in the process.

4. Virginia A
Let’s get right to the point. This is Virginia’s best shot at a final round in years. Virginia’s style is great at NCT— fantastic even. They thrive on consistency. Always clean, always clear, always uncontroversial, and almost always a 10 top finish. But it’s not a final round strategy. Sure they’ve gotten there a few times, but that’s primarily been thanks to once in a generation presentational talent. But when you don’t have a Grandhi or a Piacenti you need to play a different game. And that’s exactly what this year’s Virginia squad is doing. Sure the Sun-Dubnoff-Marx bench has the typical UVA skeleton, but they’ve also developed some muscle of their own. Perhaps never before has Virginia been as aggressive in round as these three— as willing to deviate from the script and take the path less taken. This newfound fire is exactly what UVA needs if they’re going to do something they almost never do— sweep other good teams. You see, in this modern age of division winners with 10 or 11 wins, it is no longer good enough to split all your high-high rounds. If you want to be in that final round, you need to sweep another top 10 finisher come round 3 or 4. And that’s something that Virginia’s style has always struggled to do— they haven’t done it since 2017. But even if this NewVA doesn’t have the pizzazz to clean the clocks of other top contenders, it might turn out that they don’t need to. Nearly all the typical contenders in the Bradwell division have had at least one eyebrow raising result this year which suggests they might be susceptible to your typical sterile Virginia punch. Honestly, looking at this division it almost seems inevitable that the winner will be decided by a round 3 Harvard v. Virginia match-up. And if their round 1 at GCF is anything to go off of, we know that might just end in a classic Virginia 2-1 that will send them all the way to the top.

All-American Watch:
2022 - Marx, 2023 - Sun, 2024 might be the year of Dubnoff. Sure it’ll be hard for her to get an All-American when she’s sharing a bench with two others. But given that Anna Dubnoff is the overall most-awarded of the three musketeers we think she’s got a shot. For the witnesses, watch out for Waldo Ansley Skipper to have the most elaborate demos in Chicago or for surprisingly jokey freshman Hovsep Seferian to continue his hot streak.

5. Irvine A
Irvine plays Mock Trial how Mock Trial is supposed to be played and it serves them well. Clean, simple cases. No petty objections. Straightforward exams. Real but engaging witnesses. They’ve mastered the formula. After graduating 4 of their 6 person A-team last year, we told you all we were a tad concerned about their trajectory. After a 2-5-1 finish in UCLASSIC, we just weren’t sure how they’d do in the meat grinder that is the Los Angeles ORCS. We were wrong on both accounts. A first bid out with a +6, 0 finish against returning NCT champs UCLA A shows the Anteaters can still Zot Zot Zot with the big dogs. The team is strong and walked out of LA as the only team in the country not to drop a ballot at ORCS. The formula is working and we think it will in Chicago as well. This is a region their team knows well. Not only have they made their trip out to GCFI these past few seasons, but they also have a seasoned Chicago vet guiding them through the process. Head coach Emily Shaw is a former UChicago mock competitor. We are certain she picked up a few tips and tricks to winning over judges in the Windy City that she can pass on to the team. Irvine is a team that just keeps getting better, and there are very few teams that we think are capable of slowing down this train.

All-American Watch:
Bonnie and Clyde. Mario and Luigi. Darwish and Jones. Senior captains Dylan Darwish and Josiah Jones are arguably the strongest dynamic duo on the circuit right now. They’ve been on the A team the last three years together. They went to Philly for TBC last June together. They awarded at GCFI and ORCS together. Jones brings the heat in the well while Darwish brings the charm on the stand. During our pre-season writeup, we told you that these two would be the backbone of the team and we were right. They have 17 awards between the two of them this season alone and we wouldn’t be surprised if they break 20 at Nats. Dylan is versatile and Josiah is powerful. What more could you want? Maybe one of the best sympathetic witnesses in the country? Sophia Hobby is an All-National and All-Regional witness and if Darwish doesn’t steal her ranks, she might steal some hearts.

6. Hillsdale A
Just a few years ago, Hillsdale College Mock Trial (HCMT for fun) took their first tentative steps onto the National stage. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, HCMT dipped their toes into NCT short prep…and only walked away with four ballots. Not bad for a first showing, but the following year, Hillsdale in Memphis proved what a year of playing Thatcherball (does anyone know what Thatcherball is? Is this about Margaret Thatcher?) can do for a team. The 2023 squad missed out on the final round by just a few ballots, dropping two to our eventual champ, UCLA, and one to Tufts B in an interest-piquing +31, +3, -4 R4 split. This year, their ORCS squad looked eerily similar to last year’s NCT dominant team, losing some strong seniors but gaining sophom*ore Patrick McDonald, who had a breakout freshman year on the B team that included inauguration as an All-National attorney. Importantly, all eight of these competitors were in Memphis last year, which means they’ll have a solid NCT prep foundation when they tackle State v. Davis.

While the Chargers would be strong with any NCT case, we expect their style to fit especially well in 2024. Hillsdale is professional, and clean– the “be more like real litigators” judges love them– and yet they don’t fall into the boring trap. There’s a reason the ultra-clean Rhodes judging pool loved them last year in Memphis. The fakest thing about their witnesses is Caleb Sampson’s mustache, and their attorneys are always conversationally lethal (anybody opening against Justin Lee should be shaking in their boots). Point is, we think this team will play well in Chicago. We can’t predict exactly what they’ll look like, because they’ve got incredible flexibility, with Justin Lee and Njömeza Pema taking home hardware as both attorneys and witnesses. But however they assign roles or divvy up statements, one thing’s for sure: they’ll be lethal. Underestimate them at your peril this April.

All-American Watch:
We wouldn’t be surprised if there was one competitor at Hillsdale who wept tears of joy when they saw the witness list in State v. Davis. Njömeza Pema is able to handle just about any type of acting at a high level, but there are a plethora of options in Davis that will tee up her engaging character expert as one of the best witnesses in Chicago. That means All-American Watch. On the attorney side, we expect this bench is well-balanced and stylistically similar enough to split ranks, but on the off chance one of them manages to break through to the top we should all pay attention (and keep an eye on the TBC field announcements).

7. Michigan A
It’s official: the Wolverines have definitively kicked their ORCS curse and cemented their place as a reliable NCT attendee (Good work gang! We missed writing about you in these posts). But as delightful as that is for Michigan and their fans across the nation, it should be very, very worrying for anyone looking to take home the Richards Calkins trophy in Memphis. If any student-run team in the country has the program infrastructure and mock know-how to break through into being a final round attendee, it’s Michigan A. Famously, A team co-captains Elanor Mancina, Gordy Gwilt and Roni Kane run one of the most successful short term-prep programs in the nation, as evidenced by the fact that between the months of September and December, there really isn’t a tab summary the Wolverines are going to fail to place on. Michigan’s five first-place invitational tournament finishes still loom in our mind from last fall, and even though they “only” placed at four invites this year, the fact that they did so with teams that were all reshuffled for each specific tournament shows that they know how to get their sh*t together and do it fast: the number one most important skill for any team aspiring to have a big finish NCT. Stylistically, the Wolverines infuse classic, building-block Midwestern Mock Trial with a west coast pizzazz–they don’t reinvent the wheel with their scripts, but they make the classics sing. If that’s just your cup of tea, then you’ve got something in common with the judging pool of Chicago, Illinois, because one of the Wolverine’s invitational placements was a third place finish for their first appearance in recent memory at Great Chicago Fire. Of course, we do have to give the requisite disclaimers here. As great as Michigan A is, breaking from podium performance to final-round excellent is hard–and even harder as a student-run team without a coach. We have them in our ‘likely to place’ category above for just that reason. The fact that this Michigan team has been to one NCT in recent memory makes them inherently an outside chance for a final. But Gordy Gwilt seems to have a magic touch with mock trial. Maybe, just maybe, that’ll get him, his team, and the weird stuffed rat they carry around to a Windy City Round 5.

All-American Watch:
First and foremost, we’re going to say something we don’t often say: Roni Kane deserves an All-American. Kane’s firm, quietly insistent opening statements are reliably some of the best performances Michigan A gives, and while sharing a bench with another All-American is a tough break, we hope the judges give Kane some love too. Also keep an eye on double threat junior Lucy Brock to snag some hardware for her larger-than-life theatrical criers or killer opening statements.

8. University of Georgia A
When you envision a perennial nationals program and their pre-tournament prep, what comes to mind? Late nights spent drafting statements? Tough scrimmages to sharpen content? Hours of meticulous demo crafting? Think again, readers, because the Bulldogs have it all figured out. After diligent research and thorough social media stalking, we found Georgia’s secret to success. It’s… liking each other? We told you at the start of the season that the Bulldogs were here to have fun and, boy, have they delivered. Whether it be posting up with the Bucee’s beaver on the way home, encircling their captains in almost-ritualistic celebration, or even swimming in the indoor hotel pool the night before competition (maybe don’t emulate this one), it’s hard to imagine any team enjoying the season more than Georgia. And what isn’t there to love? First bids out of Jackson and Memphis, two All-Nationals, and an insanely talented captain pair in Katie Gilk and Bryan Walker… hard to complain. Coming into Chicago after hot years in Memphis and Lancaster, Georgia is looking for the three-peat for placement. However, for the ~14 people that enjoy both mock trial and college football, you know that Georgia historically struggles with threes. Which brings us to our main concern with the Dawgs… a mantra we have hung from the rafters time and time again: “Too much mock, not enough trial.” Now, don’t get us wrong, Georgia is *fun* to watch. But, the southern circuit staples of out-there theories, large characters, and dramatic cross-examinations isn’t exactly the calling card of Chicago. Then again, we gave this warning approximately seven months ago and it doesn’t seem it held back the Bulldogs at all. Despite how often we complain about arbitrary scores and close ballots, the numbers don’t lie: go ahead and brace for the barking.

All-American Watch:
If you’ve done mock for more than a month, you know the phenomenon. You can be the best damn opener in the country, but if you go up and talk at the start of trial, and the judges will forget about you by the time it’s time to fill out ballots three hours later. Don’t believe us–just take a look at our actual pick for best opener in the country, Josiah Jones, who has somehow not won an All-American while competing as an opener (despite being a TBC finalist). If someone will be suffering from this disadvantage in Chicago, it’ll be the second half of Georgia’s dynamic duo, opener extraordinaire Katie Glik. Glik is nothing if not fantastically talented, so we’re putting her in here anyways–hoping she beats the odds and earns an All-American to match the one Walker picked up in Memphis. But everyone who’s paid a lick of attention to the Southern circuit has already learned Glik’s name, so let’s talk about someone new… first-year witness Alex Dean. Having four awards on the season including an All-Regional and All-National, Alex seems to have the most important trait for a prospective All-American: reliability. Dean serves as a pillar on the Bulldogs’ already tight-roster, and we expect him to flourish in Chicago with his natural credibility and authenticity.

9. UCLA B
It’s not often that a team with almost no Nationals experience makes it this high on our list. It’s not often that a B team makes it this high on our list. And yet, here we are with UCLA B ranked in our top 10. There’s good reason for that. This team has the perfect combination of experience, young talent, historic success and good coaching. After last year’s 2nd place run, they return Dyllan Balassi and Kole Alfonso, they’ve picked up Northwestern and former Wesleyan/Columbia coach Nat Warner to hone the younger talent on their roster. Believe us, they have the competitive success to back up this high placement. 7-1 at UCLASSIC, 8-0 at regionals, 6-2 at ORCS. Their 4-4 stint at Wreck is a bit concerning, but they seem to have bounced back from that, waltzing through a little tournament called the Los Angeles Opening Round Championship Series with a comfortable bid back to the top 48. One of the greatest advantages we foresee for the baby Bruins is they’re guaranteed to not be in the same division as the reigning champions because they’ll be split from their A team! Now granted, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. This is a completely different squad from the one that wowed us back in Memphis, but we think it’s far from impossible they can have similar success. If UCLA’s A team doesn’t break through, don’t count out a UCLA appearance in the final round. This B team’s coming for the top.

All-American Watch:
Dyllan Balassi is an All-Regional, All-National and, if you ask us, soon to be an All-American Attorney. He’s one of two people on this team with NCT experience and we believe that the combination of seniority, current success and overall undeniable talent makes him a top candidate. On the witness side, Alexi Melki has been on a hot streak with awards at both regionals (as part of C team) and ORCS (pulled up to B). Judges are clearly eating his old man character up and we think Chicago will too. Last, but certainly not least, is this team’s double threat Kole Alfonso. He can slay an open just as hard as he can slay an Irish accent. He’s proven he can succeed against tough competition whether it's a BTP award, Rookie Rumble final round or as part of UCLA B’s nats run last year. We think there’s a good chance he takes home an All-American. Time will tell if it’s as an attorney, witness or both.

10. Yale A
What do you get for the team that has it all? No, dear reader, we are not referring to any sort of partridge or pear tree. Instead, we are referring to All-Americans and final round appearances. And that is something that Yale has no shortage of. For those of you just tuning in, Yale is a program that at one point was the final round. From 2015-2021 if you were at Nats, Yale was the end goal. A boss battle. The final coming of the Lord. You might as well pack it up and go home if by random chance you found yourself in their division. So why aren’t they ranked higher you ask?

Well, just like the plot twist at the end of the bible (he dies), Yale A didn’t make it out of ORCS. They ended D.C. with a 4-4 record, ending their season. But Yale B did make it out, barely scraping out on a CS tiebreaker at 5-3. And, in our understanding of a policy we’ve come to understand as iron law for the Bulldogs, the team that the Bulldogs bid is the team that will compete–even if it means a heartbreaking end to the season for competitors like Maddie Levin. So how will the B team of this storied program fare? In 2023 they didn’t make it to Nationals, but in 2022 they did. Returning from that team are juniors Lauren Moore and Luke Tyson. So this wouldn’t be a team completely inexperienced on the nationals stage. And Yale has, historically, had good luck with its lower teams when they made NCT in place of higher ones. But it’s been a while since the Bulldogs have had a B team do well at NCT. In 2022, the best analogue for this team went a lackluster 4-8.

But of course the team that gets the bid goes rule isn’t the only feature of the Bulldog’s restacking policy. As we understand it A-teamers can be pulled over to B–not forbidden by the scriptures, so long as no one is replaced. And every year they have had a lower bid, they have utilized this feature. We won’t know for sure who that’ll be until they show up in Chicago, but the rumor is that it might be good ol’ EPN–Everett Parker-Noblitt, for those of you who don’t follow his blossoming rap career on spotify–and witness Fanney Bjargardóttir. The question is whether those additions, and Yale’s stellar record with hard working restacked teams will carry them through to the heights of their former success.

All-American Watch:
Here at MAIMD we love a good double threat, almost as much as we love being right. If you feel the same, look no further than Luke Tyson for All-American watch. He’s a junior triple All-National, this year as both an attorney AND witness, with his third coming from freshman year. The D.C. judges seemed to love him, so by extension the Chicago ones might too! And if we’re wrong about him awarding as an attorney, there’s always the next time (“next time” being when they announce the witness awards 5 minutes later). We’d also hate to count out Lauren Moore, one of Yale’s most endearing and reliable program witnesses right now. While we were a little heartbroken to not see Moore with the A team earlier this fall, we’re happy that she’s getting a chance to compete in Chicago and maybe earn some hardware to reflect how talented she is.

11. Patrick Henry A
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Over the last six years, Patrick Henry College has carried a throughline from one team to another. Every year, a highly recognizable team, stocked with multi-award winners. Every year, they’re smiling and praying their way up to the podium at Nationals. But this year’s team, well it’s not quite as recognizable as those of the past. Sure, you will see former All-American and steady-hand Caleb Knox at the helm. But Lauren Rule? Hope Rawlson? Ryan Olson? Evan Lopez? Josh Revoir? Haley Bock? Where did Sue Johnson find these competitors? Who are these Patriots? Well, their short record as a team together suggests they are advocates that you ought to fear. They finished a solid 6-6 at GCF, including a sweep of our 14th ranked team. They fought a brutal schedule at Regionals, taking two other NCT attendees to a draw. Then in Greenville, they drove the stake through the heart of NCT regular Emory A. The new faces give us trepidation in predicting a final round run, but we expect the signature PHC style to still be on display. Loud, bold, unorthodox character witnesses. Attorneys that script in striking performative moments. Theories that take a sharp but straightforward angle on the case. And with no B team in sight for the first time in any current competitor’s memory, we expect you will see as many coaches as you do competitors. That should be sure to bolster the inexperienced roster. So come Sunday afternoon, we expect you will see them giving praise, trophies in hand, with the next generation of competitors to know and fear having been baptized in their first NCT.

All-American Watch:
This is as hard of a call as we can make among our podium-favorites. Perhaps you will see Caleb Knox bookend his career with another All-American. But for those looking for the less obvious choice, how about last year’s Moot Court National Championship winner, Hope Rawlson? She’s burst on the scene with perfect ranks at Regionals and was one of just eight to take an All-National award in Greenville. Unusually green for a senior, we think she could be the one-hit wonder of the weekend.

12. Ohio State A
I’ll admit, dear reader – they almost had us going there for a second. After seeing Ohio State A’s stacked, juggernaut, Hubbard-Polito-Salit-Ragnone quadruple punch roster go 3-5 at Regionals and not even crack the open bid list, we too were reading the confessions, drinking the kool-aid, you name it. Regionals wasn’t predictable, but what happened next absolutely was: MT@OSU gets onto the open bid list, are told they need to go to Memphis, arrive in Memphis, promptly punch everyone in the mouth and get a bid to Chicago, refuse to elaborate, drop a Geno Smith meme in the GroupMe, and drive back to Columbus. Now, they’re preparing for Chicago, and let’s be clear: tribulations aside, they have the talent required to make a serious run at the Calkins Trophy. All-National Witness Garrett Travers will shine on the stand as Michael Ragnone paces a divot into the courtroom floors. Drew Polito and Jonathan Hubbard will take time off of being one of AMTA’s best bromances and spend three hours and spend it as some of AMTA’s best bench partners. Leah Salit will, as she has for years, balance the overwhelming and insurmountable testosterone produced by the rest of her program with a polished, realistic, and genuine opening statement or witness portrayal. Sometimes, teams have strong benches with weak witnesses or vice versa – based on the tab summaries, Ohio State is sitting pretty with a strong set of attorneys and witnesses that can compete with anyone in the country. However, just because they can doesn’t mean that they will – if you’re a team with championship dreams, there’s something a bit haunting about getting swept -1 -5 by Pittsburgh B in a competitive round. If the Dayton Regionals Ohio State shows up to Chicago, who knows what their record will be. If Memphis Ohio State does… watch out. If the GroupMe meme game is to be believed, the Buckeyes don’t forget the doubters, and they love to prove them wrong.

All-American Watch:
Ever wonder why Ohio State posts about fake lawyer cosplay like they're professional athletes? Look no further than the self-proclaimed GOAT, Jonathan [Middle Name Redacted] Hubbard. We hate to say this because of how it fuels his self-captained hype train, but we must admit Hubbard is very, very good at this activity. Many of our All-American Watch sections will tell you what the All-American is good at specifically. All-National Witness Jon Hubbard’s biggest weakness appears to be that he cannot be directed by Ohio State’s All-National Attorney Jon Hubbard. He can do it all – fiery openings, intelligent cross examination responses, clean cut objections, all of which he would promptly characterize as “free rhetoric.” If Hubbard brings his free rhetoric to Chicago, he would be our pick to All-American from THE Ohio State University.

13. Florida A

Hey you! Yeah you! Ever wondered what it’s like to be a Gator at ORCS? Close your eyes for a second anddddd….OPEN THEM!

T T T T T

Before you ask, I didn’t accidentally drop a framed picture of David Ott on my keyboard. No I replicated the symbol Florida A saw on their ballots FIVE TIMES at ORCS. Those ties are important because our Avid MAIMDthusiasts know that exactly one year ago we said that “Florida is nothing if not consistent”. And shocker to absolutely nobody, nothing has changed. Florida has figured out how to get to Nationals, even if it means tieing more ballots than they had teams this year. But it is Florida’s consistency that edges them out of the top ten of our rankings. They are going to be polished, they are going to have ridiculous demonstratives that make security guards do a once over with their magic wands, but as evident by their 5 ties, they aren't quite setting themselves apart from the competition. Don’t get me wrong, with an attorney line up of David Ott, Jack Flam, Jayden Adjodha, Evangelia Gavrilos, and Olivia Davis you should be scared walking into a round against Florida A. But the question isn’t whether or not Florida A is going to place, it's whether or not they have it in them to go to the Final Round. They have been to Nationals enough times to have a formulaic approach to digesting the case, they have the star power to write good content, but they haven’t demonstrated they have the *IT* factor that accompanies the final round contenders like Harvard and Chicago. Narrow wins against teams like Emory B and Georgia Tech A show that something needs to change if Florida wants to walk out with anything other than a single (maybe double) decker trophy.

All-American Watch:
While Florida A is known for having stellar benches and witness lineups, they are rather even when it comes to talent. Their competitor’s power goes back to what we discussed above: Florida is formulaic in this activity. But if we had to bet on one person to be an All-American come this April, David Ott is who we are going with. He has the passion to rival the best closers at NCT and the instinct to crush witnesses on the cross. He’s deserved it for a long time, and if the cards are right for the Gators, the new “nice guy of the south” might just get his crown.

14. Boston A
Mock boys mock boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when you hit BU? The answer to that question, funnily enough, is get whatever number of ballots is required for the terriers to get a juuuust even record and an Honorable Mention or low placement, as is the tradition they’ve solemnly upheld since 2021. Really, we owe Boston University a debt of gratitude. With Northwestern out of this year’s NCT field, we were worried all our jokes about always placing 10th would go to waste. Thank you, Boston University, for ensuring we don’t have to write new material. But all jokes aside–we think there’s a whole lot of reason for Boston University to see victory on the horizon as they look westward to the midwestern mecca of Chicago, Illinois. For one, this is the greenest NCT we’ve seen in a long time. Over half of last year’s field will not be in attendance, which is numbers we haven’t seen since 2018. Boston University’s standard style of classic, easy-to-follow, and above-all non-polarizing mock trial trial paid modest dividends in Lancaster and Memphis, but when matched up against teams who have never case prepped in 4 weeks it might get them a whole lot further. For another, this is the best version of BU we’ve seen in a few seasons. In addition to our shoutouts down below, they’ve got a formidable duo of experts in All-National Claire Paul and All-American Pedro Juan Orduz, as well as Attorney Sydney Jessup and Character witness Andrew Howey–all of whom can count on picking up points in most rounds and above all else, staying neutral in high-level ones. We think that this could be Boston University’s best season yet. And even if it isn’t, at least we’ll still have the chance to make the same jokes next year.

All-American Watch:
Can you believe Max Bearinger doesn’t have an All-American? As the man behind the third or fourth best podium-placement machine on the east coast the past two seasons, we were as surprised as you that that hard work and dedication hasn’t translated to a shiny little piece of glass validating Mr. Bearinger’s charismatic and authentic closing arguments. And while we’ll be looking for Mr. Bearinger to get his long-awaited due in Chicago, we’ve also got our eyes on a star that’s just on the rise. Mark our words: Sophom*ore Naudia Terry will be an All-American. She’s one of the most passionate and believably compelling Plosers on the eastern circuit right now. If Chicago isn’t her year then another season will be, but we suggest having eyes on her early.

15. Rhodes A
Toto? I don’t think we are in Memphis anymore, and neither is Rhodes A. Excluding GAMTI, this will be the first time in the past year Rhodes has sent their A team out of the land of sweet tea and porch swings and into the Midwest. We are going to do a little reversal on this writeup and start with our concerns: what is stopping Rhodes from being a final round favorite? For starters, they had a less than stellar Nationals performance last year. Some bold theory choices led to a negative record on their home field. Making matters worse, Rhodes A hasn’t really been tested against the best of the best this season. The only Nationals teams they’ve played since stacking for the season were Texas, Fordham LC, and Indiana, and Indiana was the only one they beat. While those teams are great, they aren’t quite up to par with the Harvards and Virginias Rhodes will have to conquer if they want to make finals. So what makes Rhodes strong despite these drawbacks? Institutional strength. Rhodes has a killer combination of a long history of Nats prep, a set of brilliant Mock minds on the coaching staff, and a powerhouse B team that makes for one heck of a sparring partner. The only programs that can rival Rhodes in terms of these resources are Chicago and UCLA. When it comes to round itself, Rhodes has this captivating back and forth between some real straight-laced attorneys and some real bombastic witnesses. At the end of the day, Rhodes will be good. We honestly will be shocked to see them drop more than 5 or 6 ballots. But being good doesn’t get you to the final round. Being exceptional (and a little lucky) does. Rhodes certainly has the capacity to be exceptional, we’ll just have to see how the dice roll once they venture beyond the City of Blues and into the Windy City.

All-American Watch:
It might not be this year. There’s a chance it isn’t next year. But mark our words, at some point over the next 4 years students will be citing case law with Maya Bridgeman’s name on it. In her freshman year, she has already brought in 4 witness awards including a 19 rank All-Regional and a 20 rank All-National. The triple crown is in her sights and she has the skillset to take it. She balances an incredibly engaging and likable delivery with a sense of grounded realism that isn’t always historically present in some of Rhodes’ notoriously bigger witnesses (we are looking at you Elvis impersonator). She also has a very natural attorney-witness pair chemistry with our pick for an All-American attorney: Sam Frank. Frank isn’t an incredibly decorated competitor (in fact there are attorneys on this team with more awards than him this season) but that doesn’t mean you should count him out. He has a suave presence to his performance that is incredibly rare to see. His closings won’t have moments where he is running around the room yelling or dropping legal pads, but they will be laid-back and easy to follow. We think an attorney who can bring the calm to counteract the chaos of the NCT has as good a shot as anyone at walking away with an All-American.

16. Washington University St. Louis A
In a world where big names, big moments, and big risks are seeming to pay off, Wash U has remained a stalwart on everything that makes a good mock trial team. They make good objections, their witnesses will rarely offend, and their attorneys are clear and concise. Their results show us the message every middle-grade fiction book was trying to hammer home–there’s nothing wrong with being different. Between the Bear’s winning record at GCFI and clean, definitive sweeps against their C and D bracket teams at the Geneva ORCS, there’s no question that WashU St. Louis has a system, and a system that works. But it might not be a system that keeps them all that reliable at a higher level. On Day 2 of Geneva, when the Bears had to pair off against their higher matchups, they had a narrow split -8 +1 to Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a +3 -4 split to the University of Chicago. A bid is a bid, but splits and not sweeps aren’t podium material. So, what can take this team from a podium finish to a final round threat? We think they can win by being novel and crafty with their theories and objections. Factoring in short prep, we’d expect to see Wash U demonstrate knowledge of the case that can help them differentiate in close rounds. While they will miss the presence of some of their more dynamic personalities of years past: Demsky, Stern, etc. they are still loaded with a couple incredible double threats. Lookout for the precision and performance of Elijah Weisman as he splits his final rounds between polished professional expert and matter-of-fact clinical attorney, or for Sarah Rosen as she bounces between charismatic character witnesses and emphatic attorney parts. Overall, this is the youngest and greenest WashU team we’ve seen break to the top 48 in a minute. Everyone but Rosen and Weisman are underclassmen who are just getting their feet wet for NCTs yet to come. But if we know anything about the Bears of St. Louis we expect this team to bring a solid product to Chicago. The key will be whether they can elevate their game to compete for a top spot.

All-American Watch:
Weisman and Rosen are definitely on our list for All-Americans from this squad, but we’ll throw out one more name we wouldn’t be shocked to see. William Choi is a dynamic opener and performer, and on a good weekend he could leave Chicago with some individual hardware.

17. Georgia Tech
By request of the team, we do not write about Georgia Tech.

18. Emory A
B team is for bid. Don’t let the pesky header fool you, this flock of lEagles isn’t the 3-7-2 Emory A you saw in Greenville but their younger, and more vibrant JV team who went 7-1-4 at the Bell Tower. But honestly, “team” may be a bit of a misnomer; they’re a family. A family that, quite frankly, we’re jealous (and a little afraid) of. Led by captains David Lee and Saanya Kapasi, Emory brings more energy to a courtroom than anyone on this list. You should be excited to pull them. Yes, you’re probably about to get swept, but you are going to have so much fun doing it. Trying to pick a member of this team to shout out is like picking a favorite child: it’s a painful decision and we love them all at the end of the day, but, like all good parents, we’re going to pick anyway. It’s Amaya Salter. Amaya’s character witnesses may be the most creative and hilarious witnesses on the circuit right now, and we’re convinced she’s responsible for at least 90% of that team energy we talked about earlier. Couple that with other rockstar witnesses like Hannah Hansford who are grounded by attorneys like Aiza Kidwai and the aforementioned David Lee and you can see how this becomes one happy household. But of course, after the addition of C team member Pranay Mamileti heading into ORCS, one must ask if this team intends to adopt another member into their loving home before their road trip. Whether it be A team captain Fiona Liu or All-Regional witness Rayna Gordon, a lot of talent still rests on the table for Emory (we did call them gluttons, after all). Regardless of who ends up on the lEagles bench, one thing’s for sure: B also stands for “best to avoid.”

All-American Watch:
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have your name read at every single tournament you’ve ever been to? Well, for freshman Aiza Kidwai, that’s a reality. Six tournaments, seven awards, zero spared victims. Oh, and she has a pretty sick helmet from her high school days too. While we wouldn’t be surprised to see anyone on this team AA, there’s a reason Aiza is called “little godzilla;” she will demolish you.

19. Georgetown A
The last time the Bulldogs made Nationals, no one was expecting anything standout. We were betting if they placed, it would be on the lower end–and that they didn’t it was really understandable for a team without a ton of podium appearances in their history. This time we’re not making the same assumptions. Instead we’ve been eyeing Georgetown in a “will they won't they” sort of way. With 7.5 wins at regionals and 5.5 wins at the CIncinnati ORCS (the last bid out) they’ve been a little all over the place. That being said they have a pretty star quality packed team (and word on the street is they’re dragging some B-team members up as well). In February the Bulldogs left Regionals with not one, not two, not even three, but a whopping FOUR all-regional team members to add to their ranks. With Matthew Shin and Adam Hamdan pulling in attorney awards while Naina Bhamidipati and Rohan Patel pull in their witness ranks they have over half their team consistently impressing judges. So in theory, all the pieces are there for a repeat. They have the attorney talent. They have the witness talent. But none of that mattered all that much back in March when they just barely squeaked out of Cincinnati, our numerically easiest ORCS. We can’t say quite what it is, but for Georgetown, sometimes things just fall a little flat. Georgetown is an impressive team by quite a few metrics, but they haven’t put up the stats this fall to make us 100% confident they’ll be repeating their successful performance of last season–hence the lower-end ranking we’ve given them. But then again… we wouldn’t have been last year either. Good luck Bulldogs! Go prove us wrong.

All-American Watch:
Witness awards are hard to get. Everyone (Judges especially) has different preferences on what they want to see out of a mock trial witness. All-American awards– also hard to get. All-American witness awards??? Extremely hard to get. But that’s just what we think Rohan Patel will do in Chicago. He’s been steadily racking up awards at tournaments across the country this season and we think there’s a solid chance Chicago’s NCT will soon be included in that list.

20. Columbia A
Columbia is our highest ranked team who did not compete in Memphis last year and it’s for a good reason: they’ve added a secret weapon. This year, 5 time All-American, 2 time final round witness and TBC winner Travis Harper joined the Columbia coaching staff. Our formal MockAnalysis position is that Travis Harper just might know a thing or two about lawyer cosplay. While coaching staff in itself doesn’t guarantee success, it does guarantee that Columbia will have the tools to get there. Add on UC Davis TBC competitor Jafar Khalfani-Bey to the coaching staff and their coaches have a mix of West Coast, East Coast, NCT and TBC experience that we believe will give them an edge over a lot of other teams. But enough about their coaching staff, this team has made a statement that they are here to stay. They went 7-1 at Regionals with a PD of over 100. They went 9-3 at ORCS in New Rochelle, splitting Harvard A to get there. Columbia used to be a team that we would consistently see at NCT, but they’ve struggled the past few years to return to the success of Rachel Sommers and Nick Zurawski. This is the first year since 2019 that we’ve seen Columbia return to a high placing level and we believe this is just the beginning for the new age of the Lions. But the fears are still there. This team is young. It’s about half first years and fields no competitor with actual NCT experience. A first NCT is rough for anyone, but even more painful on an all-green team. We will see in a few weeks if the experience of Harper/Khalfani-Bey can make up for the lack of experience from the competitors.

All-American Watch:
It is highly highly HIGHLY likely that Hermella Getachew flies out of Chicago with an All-American in her carry-on luggage. She has four All-Regional Attorney awards including her double-sided award at Regionals this year and her 20-rank in 2023. She has two All-National Attorney Awards from her perfect 30/30 award in New Rochelle this year and her 19/20 award in DC in 2023. 3 All Regional, 2 All-National, 1 All-American…those numbers make sense to us. Keep your eye on Getachew’s future prospects be too–she has a strong resume to be at TBC this year with or without an All-American. Our guess is it will be with.

21. Chicago B
In a year where Chicago could have sat back and taken the single guaranteed host bid to Nationals, both of their teams instead chose to buckle down and continue their streak of qualifying two teams. Chicago B may not have quite as many familiar names as their counterparts, but make no mistake - this is decisively a Nationals caliber team. They posted a clean 6-2 record at ORCS, never getting swept and losing ballots only on single-digit splits with their A and B group matchups, including fellow qualifying team Indiana A. Chicago B has the creative, well-thought-out theory approaches and deeply talented witnesses you'd expect from a Chicago team, coupled with a somewhat calmer and less polarizing style than their A occasionally has. On the flip side, they're also visibly young, especially this season, meaning they’ll be making more mistakes and avoiding more risks than a lot of the NCT field will be. There's a clear reason for that - seven of their eight members are underclassmen, and only their captains Anthony Palacios and Jack Martinez have experienced the hell that is crunch time case prep. That said, Chicago is no stranger to what it takes to put a case together in a short time period–their dominance at last year’s Rookie Rumble tells us that. All in all, we think Chicago B will benefit from both the unusually long prep and the home field advantage, and come into Nationals ready to prove themselves.

All-American Watch:
Anthony Palacios already has a collection of attorney awards to his name, including an All-Regional and All-National this year, and has experience with high-level competition both from this team and from his time spent on Chicago A. His likable, comfortable style could take him a long way towards completing the set. Also keep an eye out for witness Penelope Stinson, whose pleasant, inoffensive, Minnesotan defendant portrayal earned her a 19 rank All-Regional.

22. Texas A
And now, we turn to the curious case of Texas A. This is an objectively good team we thought was likely to bid out of Memphis but alas, things did not go their way. In brutal fashion, the Longhorns suffered through a Round 1 +14 T, a Round 2 +19 -19, and a seemingly season-ending Round 3 -5 -6. Call it what you’d like: a sign of polarizing performance, inconsistency, or plain bad luck, it doesn’t matter. Because from the depths of despair, Texas B saved the day. After going 4-2 in their first three rounds, and capturing a split against a then-undefeated Rhodes A in Memphis, their season isn’t over quite yet. But we’re a bit unsure what the rest of this Cinderella story might look like. Because on the one hand, Texas is no Lone Star squad. All-National Attorney Anu Pillai is joined by double threats like Jonathan Fredericks and Prisha Mehta, and the team’s youth this season by no means equals a lack of talent. Even if this team is closer to an A/B combination, youngsters like the 20-rank All-National Witness Jackson Nichols clearly have what it takes to lead the Longhorns to success. But on the other hand, this group has struggled all year against top teams. Since they’ve stacked, Texas A is 4-9-1 this season against teams that ended up at NCT, with three of those wins coming against a UMBC squad that was 0-9 going into Round 4 of GAMTI. And this is what concerns us about our friends in Austin. They’ve proven they can be good - but at Nationals, that becomes the standard instead of the exception. Much of their success will depend on how well they restack and how well they can improve on some of their regular season woes. But rest assured - if they do, we think they’ve got tools to cause some chaos in Chicago.

All-American Watch:
While all incredibly talented, this year’s iteration of Texas is quite young. For context, the A team they sent to Memphis fielded three freshmen, two sophom*ores, two juniors, and just one senior (at least, their respective well-curated Instagrams seem to indicate). Given the short prep of Nationals can be a culture shock to the uninitiated, we’ll look to the Longhorn’s fearless leaders to stand out in Chicago. Be on the lookout for Pillai in particular. On top of her dramatic openings and ruthless responsiveness, she’s got a wide range of witness talent on her side as well. Her co-captain (and the other half of arguably America’s favorite mock trial couple)*, junior Raj Mehta, brings charisma and confidence to the well that’ll charm even God’s grumpiest and sleepiest morning judges. Alongside the above-mentioned Nichols, these names might just make waves in the Windy City.

*We would be remiss not to recognize L’Oreal supermodel couple Jackson Kunde and Lauren Stoneman.

23. Princeton A
Princeton?! They made it to Nationals?! They led their ORCS, second to UVA?! (We kind of called it). They were our Team To Watch for ORCS, and indeed they proved quite worth watching. We touched upon it in our ORCS description, but this is a program that provides a sort of anomaly. How does one go swiftly from a 2014 final round performance to a 2016 performance of 2-6 at ORCS? What could drive a program to such depths? Indeed, since 2014, they’ve only appeared at Nationals twice, going 6-6 in 2015 and 3-9 in 2018. That means we’ve seen the Tigers try short term case prep just twice, and it hasn’t gone all that well for them either time. But this year… they’ve kind of been cooking. Going into Regionals, their program won four invites and placed at three more. They ate at regionals, going 7-1. They ate at ORCS, going 6.5-1.5 and placing third. And now they’ll be flying to Chicago. This has been a program that is building momentum. They’re bringing awarded competitors Jacob Santelli and All National Luke McSorely. They even come up with fun names for their teams–although we bet there’s someone in administration kicking themselves for having the team names be “the Nut Job” and “Ocean’s Eight” for the year they make their big comeback. Still, what could be more of a high-stakes heist than a trip into a big city with the goal of reclaiming former glory? We’re crossing our fingers for these nutjobs. This could be the year they remind us what AMTA’s been missing from Princeton Mock Trial.

All-American Watch:
If Princeton A is at a tournament, there is one name you can expect to see on the Tab Summary Sunday night. Witness award: Isis Arevalo. Arevalo is a freshly minted junior All National, but her track record doesn’t start at this spring’s Washington D.C. ORCS. She’s been cleaning up since her freshman year, always as witness, always as top of the pack. Her ability to All National in D.C. bodes well for her chances in Chicago.

24. Brown A
Just under a year ago in Memphis, all eyes were on the high-high round four of the Burch, Porter, & Johnson Division at Nationals, a long-awaited matchup between defending National Champion Harvard University and... Brown? After making it back to Nats for the first time since 2017, Brown decisively proved they belonged there, surprising onlookers and MAIMD writers alike with their unexpected run at the title. And while they didn't break through the Harvard lineup in that fateful round four, they still earned themselves sixth place and a new All-American Witness, Alex Lee. So when we look at the 2024 season, a question remains: are the Bears a one hit wonder, or a reliable program that is going to stay in the mix for a podium finish.This year's Brown, despite returning Lee and showcasing attorney standout Aniyah Nelson, has looked a little more sporadic, but has also proven an ability to win when it counts. Their competitive season results before Regionals consisted of a 5-3 showing at CUBAIT and an ominous 3-9 record at GCF, but by ORCS they flipped that into a 9-3 bid out of the unforgiving New Rochelle ORCS. They're a team composed of distinct individual styles that come together strikingly well as a patchwork whole, and while they tend to play it safe in theory and presentation, they can execute cleanly to beat the teams they need to beat. We're curious to see how those patterns will hold up at Nationals. In particular, will they be able to translate execution against weaker teams into strong showings against the best of the best, or do losses like their 1-2 to Tufts B in their A bracket round foreshadow difficulties against the top of the NCT pack? We'll have to wait and see, but if last year taught us anything, it’s this: don't count Brown out at Nationals.

All-American Watch:
This year's clear breakout star, stepping out of the shadow left by play-in success story and TBC semifinalist Michael Chandler, is opener-turned-closer Aniyah Nelson. She's been tallying up ranks all season and comes into NCT on a streak, with an All-Regional and an All-National under her belt. Nelson is presentationally strong and clear, with dynamic statements and precise witness control, and can stand out even in a deep field. Given she’ll have two bites at the apple while doubling statements for NCT, we wouldn't be surprised to see her complete the AMTA award set.

25. University of Alabama

We at MAIMD, famous for our hard hitting statistical analysis, have decided that it might be helpful to include a list of every school in the country that have made the College Football Playoff, Final Four, and College Mock Trial NCT in the same year. Below is that list:

1. The University of Alabama

That’s the whole list.

Members of the jury, this is a writeup about an “everything school.” Alabama A had been on the cusp of the NCT for years, and have finally broken through after receiving a bid from Greenville. We have a lot of ways to describe teams that make the National Championship, but the word that comes to mind for Alabama is clever. This is a clever team that has been successful this season in no small part because they approach standard case theories with innovative ways to prove the facts. This wouldn’t be possible without a talented roster, and Alabama’s got talent on both sides of the ball. Attorneys like Keyton Kodatt (All-Regional) and Daniel Braun (All-Regional and All-National) will work with engaging, realistic witnesses like Emily Fischer and Elena Dixon to systematically disassemble your case theory in real time in courtrooms around Chicago. As with all teams that are new to this stage of competition, we need to complete this writeup with an obligatory “it’s f**king Nationals,” along with all of the obligatory implications: harder case, harder fact patterns, harder legal concepts, and the hardest competition of any tournament all year. Alabama has risen to the challenge this year, and we think they will again – but their novel approach to the regular season case might pose problems for their Nationals prep. If they try to do too much in the limited time frame, the Tide might just find themselves out to sea without a life jacket.

All-American Watch:
A betting man would tell you that awards beget awards, and a safe way to speculate on All-Americans is to look at who has been successfully racking up awards throughout the season. For that reason, we would humbly gesture at both of Alabama’s closers for All-American consideration. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the #bamabenches, we’re referring, of course, are A team newbie Keyton Kodatt and the current house favorite: Daniel Braun. We told you Braun was an All-Regional and All-National attorney. What we didn’t tell you was that he was the top award recipient at both of those tournaments – a perfect 20 rank defense attorney in Jackson and a 28 rank defense attorney in Greenville. While he’ll certainly have steep competition to remain on top of the pack, Braun looks to be the heavy favorite from Tuscaloosa. Kodatt is on a similar hot streak–with triplicate awards from Soda City, Capital City, and Regionals, this sophom*ore standout is a huge asset to this year’s Alabama lineup, and another contender to keep your eye on come closings.

26. Virginia B
Don’t call it a comeback. UVA’s B team has pushed itself all the way back onto the main stage after a shocking down year that saw this squad’s 2023 season end in February. We didn’t see this ending coming for the B-squad Cavaliers just a few months ago. Middling records at Soda City and Ramblin’ Wreck, with losses to most of their upper-tier competition suggested more of the same. Their Regionals record was strong, but the competition? Not as much. In a stacked DC ORCS, however, this team exploded into first place. They shut the door on last year NCT-attendee and 7th place ORCS finisher George Washington A, and dropped their only ballot of the weekend to bid-earning UMBC. If history is our guide, this team may struggle in Chicago. Minus the Marxmen of 2022 who went 8-4 in Lancaster (under the steady hand of their eponymous leader and Coach/All-American Kevin Baker), no UVA B team has finished with a winning record in nearly a decade–a stark contrast with what their main season results have tended to suggest. Perhaps it’s because their coaching, stacking, and resources go all in for an A team push to the final round. Perhaps it’s just harder to get a less experienced team to reach the level of ultra-preparedness and refinement that UVA classically depends on to turn ballots. But although there’s some reason to pump the brakes, we’re certain that this team is stacked with future big-name talent. The two we’ve got our eyes on? A pair of All-National freshmen witnesses. One, Trevor McMillan, from the other side of the country in the Mormon-land of Utah. His counterpart, Je Young Yoo, from the other side of the world in K-Pop capitol Seoul, South Korea. If the talent can find the right angle to take, this group could keep riding high and take home a trophy.

All-American Watch:
It has to be Annabelle Claypoole. The fearless junior leader of the B team is by far their most experienced and awarded competitor. She’s likely the next in line to the top squad. Look for this anchor of the attorney bench and pride of Hoover High to make her mark.

27. Fordham LC A
After failing to get out of Regionals with only 4.5 ballots and taking their B Team’s open bid to St. Paul, things were looking rough for Fordham at Lincoln Center. An institutional NCT team failing to bid out of Regionals doesn’t usually bode well for that teams odd at bidding to NCT. After graduating a few members of those past few NCT teams (like All-American Ava Weiner), some thought that maybe Fordham was heading into a decline. At St. Paul, however, Fordham had a chip on their shoulder. They took third place with a 6-2 record, sweeping Berkeley A in Round 3 and ending an NCT streak as long as most of us can remember. They only dropped two close ballots (-1, -2) to Macalester, who took the first bid in St. Paul with a 7-1 record. Their star witness, All-American Jessica Ball, took home double sided witness awards. The Rams proved that they wouldn’t go down without a fight–and that they wouldn’t go down before Chicago. Stylistically, Fordham plays clean, primarily focusing on being loud and slow (think UVA but in the northeast). They have believable witnesses who score well. However, they are not known for their adaptability and evidentiary knowledge. They can certainly be tripped up by well-placed objections and unconventional theories. This might be the reason why Fordham always does so well at ORCS—often taking first, second, or third—but not as well at NCT. At NCT it takes not only good, clean performances to succeed, but also members who can adapt to their opponents. They do pick up ballots, but they have never been able to separate themselves from the upper echelon of teams vying for that fifth round. Since 2021, they have not broken even on wins to losses at NCT, only coming close in 2022 with a 5-7 record. Last year, though they only ended with a 4-8 record, they did face stiff competition, hitting three teams that placed (Indiana, 8th; Tufts, 6th; and Georgetown, 3rd). If they can turn some of these losses against top teams into wins or splits, then we may see Fordham with a trophy in Chicago. Is this the Fordham team to finally break through to the top ten?

All-American Watch:
Nicholas Wesley has been to NCT a few times now, so he has a lot of experience against the caliber of competitors at NCT. He’s also on a bit of a roll this season, including a Regionals award he picked up with 18 ranks. We’re saying it now: Wesley for the win at NCT.

28. Santa Barbara A
Coming into Regionals this year there were a lot of questions surrounding the Gauchos. Their six person A team that received an honorable mention in Memphis lost five of their six members and their subsequent invite results were…shaky. But this AMTA season proved all the haters wrong. The Gauchos giddy-ed up to 7-1 at Regionals, 6-2 at ORCS and proved that they were as strong as ever. They managed that, despite the turnover, because they kept the things that have always made UCSB great. Dynamic and clever attorneys? Check. Witnesses with strong responsiveness and distinctive characterization? Check. High energy and entertaining performances? Check, check, check. This is a team that across the board, top to bottom is non controversial and just does good Mock Trial. The question marks come in the form of standing out. While top to bottom they are strong, they don’t do a lot to differentiate–meaning that when their fate is in the hands of a judge not using a full range, they score a whole lot less competitively than their abilities suggest they should. That’s been a consistent problem for Santa Barbara, given 13 of their 16 ballots at regionals and ORCS were single digits. In trying so hard to keep their legacy safe, we worry that UCSB of 2024 hasn’t focused enough on how to make themselves standout. But to carry the mantle that’s the only obstacle left in their way, so we hope they solve that puzzle and shoot for a repeat appearance on that podium.

All-American Watch:
On the attorney side, Mia Wercinski is 2/2 on All-National Attorney awards. While she only has a few other awards in her two years, her ability to award against the best of the west makes her a top pick for an All-American. On the witness side, sophom*ore Alina Champon has incredible range whether it’s as a character witness or a sympathetic witness. While she doesn’t have many witness awards to her name (yet), we believe she has the chops to win one one no matter what witness role they put her in.

29. USC A
This is the third year in a row that USC has been at NCT, but the past two years have been a repeat of each other. In 2022, they finished 4-8. No All-Americans. In 2023, they finished 4-8, No All-Americans. So you might be asking why they’re so high at 29/48? Well the facts are that 2024 is a far different NCT than those we’ve seen the past couple of years. This year the NCT field is only returning 28 teams from last year. That’s a smaller number than usual, especially so when you consider a few of those teams are sending their B team (Yale, Emory, Texas). That means the number of competitors with NCT experience in Chicago will be much smaller than they’ve been in years past. Enter USC, in prime position for their best shot at a podium in recent memory. If you can say one thing, it’s that this USC team is extremely experienced. Gabby Marquez and Ashley Beers have anchored this A team the last three years and we believe they (along with their coaching staff) will learn from the mistakes of years past and have a good shot at placing. However facts are facts that they usually do much better at ORCS than they do at NCT. USC does much better the longer they have the case. We’ve seen them go to fall invites like Tobacco Road in the past where they get decimated and then manage to turn the tide come March in Los Angeles. A longer Nats prep time and a judge pool that will appreciate their no nonsense direct examinations could end the 4-8 curse–and maybe earn them some All-Americans, as a treat. We’ll see if 2024 is the year of the travelers.

All-American Watch:
Alyse Saucedo is THE name to watch for this team. We wrote about her in our LA ORCS write up. She is a three time All-Regional and is now a double threat All-National with her double-sided award in LA in March. Whether she’s delivering an opening or playing a character witness, she is grabbing everyone’s attention.

30. Indiana A
If only famed feminist cartoonist Alison Bechdel had involved herself in the world of undergraduate mock trial, she might have seen her dream realized on Friday, April 19th when Indiana A goes to NCT: because as an all-female team in Chicago’s (hopefully) gender-balanced judging pool, Indiana A is going to accomplish what some have called an impossible dream: a mock trial round that passes the Bechdel test. Let’s be clear here: while Indiana A is a compelling, nuanced, and well-rounded team that there’s so much to say about, we here at MAIMD are going to take the approach Hollywood execs take to marketing female led films, and reduce them to being impressive based on their gender alone. So let’s get into it! This #girlboss team is full of strong independent women who don’t need a (rostered) man (to be competitive at NCT). They’ve got Ana Gaston–the woman who CAN have it all–so long as ‘it all’ is an invite to the Gauntlet and Trial By Combat. Gaston left Memphis with a 30-rank All-American award as an Attorney, and this year she’s been collecting gavels both for her passionate plosings and her down-to-earth professional, and flat-out likeable expert witnesses. They’ve got co-captains Madison Rossillo and Izzy Arnold, two women to (All-American) watch. Most recently, they’ve even replaced last year’s All-American Adelaide Young Brust with Genevive Horvath, a sophom*ore who has stepped into the big heels she has to fill with a pretty commendable character witness performance of her own–including an All-National at the Geneva ORCS. So when it comes to talent, the boxes are checked. But that talent hasn’t always translated to the ballots. Ultimately, Indiana A bears the curse of many competitive breakout teams (or women trapped in STEM fields): impostor syndrome. They have fantastic highs, but when something unexpected happens, they don’t quite have the sheet ego to power through the way the top teams in this field will. We’ve seen that punish them before, like with their 5.5 ballot barely-made-it bid from Geneva. That means that questions abound about the Hoosiers and their performance this weekend. Will they shove off their fear of collapse and make Bechdel proud? Will their head coach, Zion Miller, kill again? Why didn’t we use this ‘girl power’ bit for Wellesley? We hope Indiana A rises to answer at least the first of those questions this weekend.

All-American Watch:
When we mentioned Indiana A at Regionals, we made an offhanded reference to Rosillo and Arnold–saying ‘they mock like the second coming of Sarah Stebbins and Allison Durkin, respectively.’ In hindsight…we realize that may be a little obscure. So while we highlight these two as Indiana’s rostered members most deserving of NCT tab summary attention, let’s elaborate a little on what they meant there. Sarah Stebbins was a polished, clinical, lethal weapon from Georgia Tech who earned 20+ awards during her time in AMTA, and is one of the most-awarded competitors of all time. Madison Rossillo has a passion, precision, and authenticity to Stebbins’ style that is the closest the circuit has seen in a long time. Allison Durkin was a crying witness from Yale, most famous for her performance in the 2016 final round as Defendant Skylar Sinclair–the archetypical Defendant direct. Arnold’s tearful Defendant portrayals that feel painstakingly human and authentic are reminiscent of the chills Durkin could bring down a jury’s spine. Regardless of style similarities, Arnold and Rosillo are two fantastic competitors who stand well on their own without comparison–and we hope they the hardware they deserve in Chicago.

31. UMBC A
Between 2021 and 2023, the Retrievers lost more talent than most programs do over a ten year period. Between the graduation of dynamo opener Thomas Azari, expert extraordinaire Thomas Kiley, hyper-versatile witness Natalie Murray, unquestionable contender for GOAT Sydney Gaskins and the retirement of the very man behind the machine, Ben Garmoe, the fall from grace for UMBC after their 2021 championship was a swift one. We’re not explaining this to whine about how ancient mock trial teams were better than they are today–go talk to your middle-aged coach if you want that–we’re doing it to emphasize how hard UMBC was hit at the start of the 2023 season. When they didn’t bid out of the St. Paul ORCS last March, it was hard to fault them. Empires have crumbled over less. But this adversity is exactly what makes UMBC’s parabolic competitive arc and return to the top 48 so impressive. With a little guidance from alumna Natalie Murray and Thomas Azari, these Retrievers proved these dogs do come back. UMBC bid out of the Washington D.C. ORCS with 5.5 wins, including splits with Virginia B and their rival other historically massively competitively successful Maryland program, Maryland A (neither can live while the other survives…) 5.5 often is a little too close for comfort at ORCS, but a bid is a bid and for UMBC, it’s a sign that we shouldn’t have written them off so easily. While we don’t have an exact pinpoint on the style these new Retrievers have adopted, we can only hope it’s a variation on Garmoe’s deceptively simple but meticulously executed trademark approach to the activity–one that will fill a much needed gap in the Nationals style pool. With new names like 32-rank All-National Witness Nathan Yates and 36-Rank Witness All-National Attorney Fadil Adeite, UMBC coming to Chicago this season is proof that all dogs really do go to heaven–or at least, to Chicago, Illinois.

All-American Watch:
What could be worse than being a great attorney in the former program of Sydney Gaskins? To know that no matter what accolades you reach or triumphs you achieve, you’re still standing in the shadow of one of the all-time greatest? It’s a tough place to be in, but we think UMBC’s breakout star, Fadil Adeite, isn’t going to let it stop him. With all the dominos lined up for a triple crown come April, he’s all-but made a name of his own. You’d do best to learn it.

32. Dartmouth A

“WE’RE LOSING HIM… quick push one of Epi!”
*beep, beep, beep*
“Keep. breathing. Dammit. Keep. Breathing.” *beep, beep…. Beep…. beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep*
“.... We’ve lost him.”
A sigh falls across the room. Ellen Pompeo, I mean Dartmouth alum Meredith Grey, I mean Dartmouth captain Paige Pattinson speaks up. “I don’t give up.” The music swells. Derek Shepherd, I mean Dartmouth captain Kavya Nivarthy, comes to stand by Pattinson’s side. They do compressions together, arms locked, focused, unyielding, until: *beBEEP beBEEP beBEEP*
Lexie Grey (Ben Spears) rushes into the room, breathless. Acoustic “Born in the USA” swells more.

“You did it. You saved him.”

At least, that’s how we imagine it in our head after this writer read State v. Davis and concurrently watched four episodes of Dartmouth alumna Shonda Rhimes’ writing. After years of near misses, Dartmouth has finally made it to NCT, and where’s a better place to do it than Chicago? As you probably haven’t seen the last 95 times we mentioned it in this writeup, Chicagoans treasure realistic, aggressive litigation, and that’s exactly what the Big Greens offer up. When we look at their results this year, they’ve had a steady rise to the top - despite our only invitational results being from Quaker, Dartmouth A burned through that with four awards, and then backed that up with three of those four awarding again in either Chestnut Hill or Cincinnati. The one that didn’t is already an all-National attorney. That’s no coinkydinky. But we’ve been accused of ballot-recapping in the past, and lest we end up as the Lexie Grey to the public’s wolves, we’ll tell you this about Dartmouth’s style. They’re clean. Super clean. As the Germans say, übersauber. Pattinson and Nivarthy will destroy your self-worth on cross with perhaps not the most inventive objections, but some of the best argued ones, while Guerrini-Miraldi and Misha will fight you tooth and nail against every inch of your best omission questions. The big thing holding this team back is lack of NCT experience. It’s a common problem, but nonetheless a big one. How will they hold up against more or less the same fields at Chestnut and Cincinnati, but this time in Chicago? We expect some of the Grey-Shepherd method, but don’t let go of your LVAD wires quite yet, because they might just Stevens out.

All-American Watch:
Uma Misha cannot be overlooked. She’s as good on direct as she is on cross, and any ballots you look at this year are going to tell you the exact same thing. She’s a newly minted All-Regional and All-National, and once we get to Chicago, we might move allll the way up to the top of the alphabet to all-American. But look out for the other Dartmouth Green who’s been jonesing for a shot at a case law name: Paige Pattinson. For the last two years, she’s been an All-National Attorney in Cincinnati, and now that she’s broken through the great BB (bid barrier), this might be the chance to finally cross her way into one of the big shinies.

33. University of Pennsylvania A
Two years ago, a relatively unknown team, cobbled together from three different schools, popped up in the final round of the first Rookie Rumble. From where we sit in 2024, Penn’s resurgence to the upper levels of mock trial right after Katie Volpert’s first appearance on the national stage isn’t a coincidence. We have a lot to say about Volpert as a competitor (see our All-American Watch), but anyone facing this team will quickly realize the Quakers are not a one trick pony. Everything that they do is meant to highlight their players’ strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Be it short, clean, tight crosses that highlight Daniel Kochupora’s inviting and collected natural demeanor, or perfectly written directs that highlight party rep Melody Luo’s insane believability, Penn knows how to combine their players so that the whole—8.5 ballots in rough-and-tumble New Rochelle—is even bigger than the sum of its parts. The question is how that strategy will translate to Nationals prep. Penn’s high polish game and squeaky clean content is going to be a lot harder to replicate in short prep, even if 5 weeks is the largest window we’ve seen for NCT. If they can pull it off, expect them to be able to differentiate against teams that come off as just less prepared. But that same competitive philosophy cuts against them facing higher level teams, who have the flash and responsiveness to exploit small cracks in Penn’s armor. More UVA than Harvard, steady and measured rather than big and performative, the Quakers are running with a classic NCT playbook. Whether they can replicate the perfect symphony of polish that got them this far will be the difference between whether Penn languishes towards the bottom of the field, or does a heck of a lot better than 4.5 ballots.

All-American Watch:
Katie Volpert has a double All-Regional award, a 26 rank All-National award, and she’s a serious threat for an All-American. Volpert has mastered the fundamentals in a way almost no one has. She might not be the flashiest competitor, but she doesn’t make mistakes, she never lets witnesses get away with a bad answer, and she won’t give you any room for error. Mock aficionados will see Volpert and immediately think of All-American Alex Wilkerson, a talented anchor of years past who won on realism and credibility. We think, like Wilkerson, Katie Volpert has everything she needs to win an All-American of her own.

34. Michigan State A
One could say that missing Nationals the year after making it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Often, teams that do so will lose out on their invites to more competitive tournaments, post something about going on a “revenge tour,” and dominate during their now less competitive invite schedule. Their success against worse teams acts as proof of their “we are so back” moment, only for said team to fall short of Nationals yet again (sorry if this hits too close to home, Redhawk fans). Michigan State is no such sob story. Sure, their invite season–a win at BRIC and a 5-3 performance at Hilltop–while good, wasn’t as impressive as some of our heaviest hitters. But as soon as AMTA season got going, the Spartans got working. 7-1 in South Bend, 7-1 with the first bid out of Geneva, and with a split against perennial powerhouse Chicago A, MSU looks like they’ve got the tools to succeed in the Windy City. Their style of polished, simple, straightforward mock trial works well for them, particularly in the midwest where crazy theories and aggressive styles are frightening to the balding middle-aged scorers. So, why are they ranked relatively low? The problem is, this team is somewhat unproven. Make no mistake, taking any number of ballots off of the Maroons is impressive; but aside from a Round 4 where both teams were likely to bid anyway, Michigan State hasn’t cut their teeth against top-level talent as much as you would hope for a Nationals team. For the most part, they breezed through Regionals and ORCS, hitting largely B and C teams or A teams from less competitive programs. While a team can only beat the opponents in front of them, it raises some questions about how the Spartans will hold up at a tournament when even the worst teams are quite good. Their last appearance at NCT had them at 3-9, so we’re interested to see if they can turn it around in Chicago.

All-American Watch:
Much like a Mock Trial Confession that isn’t full of hatred or painfully unfunny, talent like Taliah Blom is underappreciated, and quite rare. What makes her presentation so compelling is that it doesn’t need to rely on being flashy, or being over-the-top performative. She plays in a way that “be a real lawyer” judges will love: clear, concise, and engaging, all while sounding more like she’s really arguing on behalf of her client than doing pretend lawyer playtime. She picked up an All-National in MSU’s recent victory in Geneva, and we believe she’s got the skills to do the same in Chicago.

35. Rhodes B
Could ChatGPT design rosters, theories, and scripts to be competitive at Nationals? Likely not (this author has tried and failed). But if it did, we expect it would look a lot like Rhodes B. However, dear reader, heed this warning: AI-generated as they might appear, these lower-team Lynxes are just as dangerous in the courtroom as their organic, non-mechanical mascot.

Because in fact, one of the benefits of machine learning is that it involves using hundreds of thousands of past examples in order to make a good product - and that’s exactly where Rhodes B shines. Their style is classical, borne from a depth of program knowledge that was built on a foundation of hundreds of All-Americans, several podium placements, and more than a few Richard Calkins awards. This shows in their scripts: their character witnesses will never make a joke that offends, their attorneys will never attempt a quip likely to raise an eyebrow, and their theory will never be one that you must jump leaps and bounds to believe. They don’t need to do anything extra, because they’re just…good. Very good. And for most teams, that means that they will simply cut you to death with a thousand knives. Their parts will be cleaner, their demos nicer, and their theory clearer. However, like artificial intelligence, that can only take you so far. Against a team that can do all that and more is where we expect this team might struggle to pull away. That being said, their only losses at ORCS being -2, T, in their high-high A group matchup indicates the gap between Rhodes B and some of our higher-powered contenders may be smaller than it appears.

A.I.-American Watch:
As an artificial language model, I currently lack the data to make future predictions on mock trial competitions. However, the tab summaries you provided me list Zoe Haug as an All-National Attorney, and Megan O’Keefe as an All-National Witness. While not perfect indicators of the future, past success can be helpful in establishing who might be likely to win an All-American award. However, you may need to follow the competition or check relevant sources for updates on the outcome.

36. Penn State A
A month ago we told you that Penn State has been on the cusp of making it back to Nationals. We told you they might be more dangerous than some of the A bracket teams. We told you that with a bit of hard work it could happen. Well check, check, and check. We will officially see the Lions in Chicago, following a clean and comfortable 6 ballot bid from the Cincinnati ORCS. All signs suggest that this train is not slowing down–Penn State A came out of Regionals with 5.5 ballots, then came out of ORCS with 6 ballots. Slowly and steadily they’re increasing their count. Performing better as the field gets stronger is an accomplishment in itself but the Lions are towards the lower end of our rankings because Nationals is a different ball game. For a podium placement, the Lions are going to have to figure out how to win on a case that they’ve had for just five weeks–not one that they’ve had months to drill. While that’s a skill set Penn State used to have in spades, they’ve been out of the top 48 long enough that we wonder if the institutional knowledge that goes along with snatching a trophy is still something the Lions even recall. Add to that splits with Hillsdale B and Georgetown A in Chicago, the closest thing to NCT-level matchups we’ve seen the Lions spar with in a minute, and we’re a bit concerned that even if they do survive the disadvantage they’re at with prep, they might not be experienced enough to definitively win rounds the way you need to for a successful finish. But whether 2024 is a rebuilding year or a return to midwestern dominance, we have to say we’re happy to see Penn State A back in the mix for the final round. We hope wherever the weekend takes them, it’s one step on the road back to being some of the best in the Midwest.

All-American Watch:
If there is one person who we would bet on getting that coveted All-American title from the Lions, it would be Clarissa Theiss. She’s a newly minted double All-Regional Attorney, impressively doing so and that's nothing to sneeze at–especially on both sides of the case and especially as a sophom*ore. If Theiss is still standing out each round enough to rank on every ballot, then we wouldn’t be surprised if she’s rewarded with a little piece of glass.

37. Oregon A
We were ready to count the Ducks out this year, we were. They were out an Anna Mueller and had a mediocre invite season. So as they went into their round 4 at St. Paul against the National threat that is Michigan A, we figured this season would be just like the last: a strong team that can’t quite make the cut. 2 ballots later, Oregon is 7-1 and on their way to Chicago, laughing at our foolishness in underrating them. So what is the best mock program in the Pacific Northwest (sorry Air Force A) bring to the table? For one, Oregon’s attorney’s are clean. They aren’t going to get tripped up on an objection or flustered on cross. They are here to execute. Their witnesses are inoffensive. They dance the delicate line between engaging and offputting. Is Oregon a final round favorite? Probably not. We don’t think they’ve developed the presentational wow factor a team needs to make it to the end, and they are as green in this format as the beautiful scenery of their home state. But will they play a strong game from start to finish? You better believe it. Oregon will serve as the gatekeeper between the veterans of the Nationals playing field and the teams that are out of their depth.

All-American Watch:
What does it take to succeed in Chicago? Chicago judges LOVE a cerebral attorney. Someone who wins the battle of wits on cross and objections. Someone who is cool under pressure. Someone who doesn’t need flash to make a compelling case. Oregon has that someone. His name is Rohan Menon. Menon is surgical. He takes defendant’s apart piece by piece and uses those broken fragments to build a frankenstein’s monster of a close. If an All-American goes back to the Pacific Northwest, it might just be with him. If Menon isn’t winning one for his attorney, we think Rose Gbaanador just might for her witness. Defendants are hard to play. Sympathetic defendants even harder. Sympathetic defendants with a Nigerian accent might be the hardest. Yet Gbaanador managed to nail it and get herself an All-National award in the process. We could see a repeat at Nats.

38. Macalester A
Last year, when Macalester made their first Nationals appearance in a while but a) scraped out of ORCS at 5.5 and b) only posted a 3-9 record once there, some us were wondering whether they were a flash in the pan. And when they found themselves 4-2 facing Wisconsin A at the Madison Regionals this spring, there were surely those who thought their season might end in February. But much like the apparently not dying Mall of America, (https://www.quora.com/If-malls-are-dying-then-why-is-the-Mall-of-America-in-Minnesota-THRIVING-with-tourists) Macalester has beaten the doubters. Not only did they get to ORCS (after a tense week on the Open Bid List), they took the first bid out of ORCS, finishing their 7-1 weekend by sweeping previously undefeated Fordham LC. This year's Macalester has all the pieces to put together a stronger showing in Chicago than in Memphis, including one of the more underrated attorney benches around and a clean, competent style with a lot of attention to detail. They'll also benefit from a familiarity with the local judging pool and regional preferences, since they regularly compete in the Midwest. On the other hand, Macalester hasn't shown a ton of consistency in their ability to decisively beat high level teams - four of their eight rounds in the AMTA season so far have been splits, and that crucial sweep R4 of ORCS was a nail-biting +1 +2. We're curious to see if their experience with the short prep last year has prepared them better for this year's mad dash, or if they'll once again face the crushing path of being swept three straight times to start their Nationals run.

All-American Watch:
Macalester has two different competitors who earned both All-Regional and All-National awards this season - double attorney Amarah Friedman and expert witness David Truman are both precisely the kind of consistent powerhouses that teams want on their roster. Friedman's precise and confident style and Truman's presence and charisma throughout direct and cross could be good signs for their AA chances, although they'll have to beat a whole new class of competition if they want to continue their streaks.

39. William & Mary A
If there’s one thing the Griffins of William & Mary are probably saying right now, it’s that we’ve got them underrated – and they might be right. W&M A has battled being overlooked all year, despite cruising through Regionals and walking out of the hellish Greenville ORCS with 9 wins and a CS of 23.5. So, now, we’re going to give credit where credit is due: this is a good team with a hunger to prove that they belong among the best in the country. Captained by Kiley Smith and Alayna Knapp, W&M A are everything you want out of a Nats team: sharp attorneys, intelligent expert witnesses, a former Gladiator competitor (Victoria Smith) and rising stars like Aidan Stearns and Jordan Rein. One of the questions that gets asked about teams that are coming back to Nationals after some time away is whether or not they can handle the increased level of competition that the tournament brings. Regardless of what was thought about their team before ORCS, W&M answered the competition question definitively after R4 in Greenville: walking in with 6 wins to a brutal R4 round against Emory A, they swept the perennial Nats team +1 +1 +3 to punch their ticket–all while being put in the hellish scenario of having to swap in a roster replacement due to a last-minue drop. It’s difficult to win against a team that good, but that round alone shows that this team is capable of holding their own against the NCT field–and even doing so with one hand behind their back. If the difficulties of the case don’t pose problems, we expect that W&M may once again prove people (us included) wrong. It’s worth noting that, like many teams we have ranked in the bottom half, W&M hasn’t prepared a Nationals case in two years. Anyone who has done short case prep will tell you that it’s an incredibly difficult experience that cannot be replicated – much of this team’s success in Chicago will depend on how their roster rises to that challenge.

All-American Watch:
For some reason, only five witness awards were given out at the three-ballot Greenville ORCS. At least, that’s what the tab summary says. Sitting in the second slot, with 25 ranks, is Shaun Matthew – William and Mary’s character witness. Being a character witness is hard – being a successful, non-polarizing character witness is even harder. Shaun Matthew is genuinely entertaining and was clearly enjoyed by enough of the judging pool at Greenville to be one of the lucky five selected to become All-National Witnesses. He would be our witness pick to All-American. While attorneys are more difficult, the house money would be on captain Kiley Smith, who awarded at the notoriously tricky Chapel Hill Regional. She’s an excellent speaker, thinks quickly on her feet, and just might rise to the occasion in Chicago.

40. Iowa A
“That ended up being a pretty stressful process” is exactly what we expect Iowa said during closing ceremonies in St. Paul. The Hawkeyes just became the second ever team to bid to NCT after being swept Round 1 in the new ORCS pairing system (thanks to trailblazer Northwestern in 2022). ORCS is stressful for everyone, but having to fight through from that position is downright cruel and unusual. But that Round 1 sweep from their C-bracket match up against Washington wasn’t all bad, as it gave Iowa one of the easiest paths of the year to Nationals, allowing them to face 3 teams who didn’t break even at ORCS. And this relatively easy path was one they barely escaped, with 5 of their 6 wins coming with PDs less than 5. All of this is to say that we’re not really sure how confident we can be in Iowa’s success in Chicago. As far as we can tell, they haven’t taken even a single ballot from another team that’ll be there. Obviously, that’s a big worry if they hope to do better than their last few NCT performances which ended in rather meh results (as we’re wont to say, putting the ‘mid’ in midwest). But the fact that Iowa has some institutional experience with Nationals and even some members who still remember their NCT appearance from 2021 gives us some hope. In a relatively green NCT field, any experience can be invaluable. Furthermore, the Hawkeye's classic midwest style is often paired with some brilliantly unique theory cues that can catch any team off guard with a new case. We’re unlikely to see a run resembling their glory days from 2002-03. But hell man, maybe out there in the cornfields Iowa will pick up the torch of a dying Miami and bring love and honor back to former competitor Neal Schuett.

All-American Watch:
Iowa’s entire attorney bench is strong, from deliberate and impassioned opener Alyssa Roush to the smart and technical Spencer Cooper-Ohm. But if there’s anyone we’d have to guess is most likely to take home the gold it has got to be Rachel Winkler. She’s easily the Hawkeyes’ most awarded competitor and she’s on a roll with 19 ranks at Regionals and 20 at ORCS. Don’t be shocked to hear her name called on Sunday afternoon.

41. Wellesley A
About 1000 miles east of Indiana, there sneaks into NCT another all-woman team from perhaps one of the best liberal arts colleges in the US. All year, we’ve been raving about the triplicate of Kumar, Srikanth, and Chambers, and we know they blazed through last year as well. We said that this program would make it to NCT. But instead, it was the ORCS last-out, open-bid B team that survived NewRo. That’s not unheard of, especially in New Rochelle, seeing as it happened to the National Runners-Up last year and is actively happening to Yale this year. There’s one issue here. Both those teams had institutional knowledge, B team or B member history at NCT, and did a restack. This Wellesley B team is made up almost entirely of first years and sophom*ores. And Wellesley agreed long ago that they don’t restack. Somehow flouting that policy, Srikanth and Chambers have found their way onto the Chicago team, but it’ll yet be seen how this young team measures up to seasoned veterans on the circuit, especially without Kumar and the rest of A. The real buoyant strength of this team is in its witnesses. All-Regional Sanaa Sharma will make you cackle legitimately out loud in a way that few witnesses can, and this year Emma Zhou racked up a whopping 26 rank All-National. The issue here is whether that is enough to stand up against teams that can carry a direct on both sides of the well, and whether a team with zero NCT experience on B or the two members of A coming along can make up that difference. Either way, it’s sure to be an exciting experience in Chicago for a program that’s had this coming for a long, long time.

All-American Watch:
What can we say about Sanaa Sharma? She may pretend that her characters are running for Senate, or already elected. She may even hand you one of her world-famous campaign cards as she crab walks up to the stand. All-Regional two years in a row, Sharma is just the type of dramatic, realistic character witness that Chicago rewards. The other contender for an All-American on this team is Dhanyashree Srikanth, two time All-National attorney. Anyone who’s been in a round with her can appreciate that she might truly be an All-American level attorney ripe for the taking, ready to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Alexander and Stern here. Frankly, dear readers, we might be slightly disappointed if her name isn’t called.

42. Princeton B
After failing to bid to NCT since 2018, Princeton is sending not one, but two teams to Chicago this year. After a strong 7-1 showing at Regionals (and a B/C restack), the Tigers followed up that with another strong showing, going 6-2 at the D.C. ORCS, sweeping Maryland A (+4, +13), Haverford A (+3, +1), and Rutgers B (+9, +13). Their only losses of the weekend were two dropped ballots to UVA B (-11, -18), who also joined them on the podium at the end of the weekend. Though they lost in convincing fashion to UVA B, their victories against Haverford and Maryland are nothing to sneeze at. Both were teams with records competitive enough to bid to NCT last year, and both were ones we’d have expected to see in this year’s field. Princeton B’s history going toe-to-toe against them may suggest that they may have the chops to pick up some ballots against the big boys at NCT. This team is young and smart with a lot of energy. They are pretty adaptable and quick on their feet, while still remaining relatively clean; and they are not afraid to engage with their opponents theory. This makes them stand out, especially against teams who just stick to their scripts–although it can also lead to them potentially imploding and looking unpolished (as we suspect happened in that fateful round four against UVA B). That being said, they are not as polished as many of the teams in the field, especially those with NCT experience. We think they would have a tough time against top teams in this field who have both the flexibility and polish–hence why we’re a little more bullish on their chances. But any B team that makes it through ORCS cleanly is one that has achieved something special, especially so when they’re joining their A team at NCT for the first time in recent memory. There’s no question: Princeton B is a good team. But whether they’re a team that will do well at NCT is yet to be seen.

All-American Watch:
For attorneys, be on the lookout for second years, Sophie Glaser and Jimmy Farley. Glaser double opens and does so well. Her well-written openings helped her bring in 3 awards this year, including an All-Regional award. She also won an award at Rookie Rumble this past summer. Farley’s closings are very tailored to the events of trial (he’s not afraid to abandon the script if he needs to). He took home an All-Regional award as well. For witnesses, look out for My Charles, who could bring you to tears with her compelling emotional witness portrayals. She awarded at one invite this year and took home an All-Regional award. If any of the younger crop of tigers leave as All-Americans, we expect it will be amongst these three.

43. Drake A
Drake is a historic mock power. Out of all 700+ teams registered with AMTA, Drake A is ranked 8th on the all-time mock rankings kept on the AMTA webpage. But like many of the programs that made up the very early mock success stories (some of whom do not even have teams anymore), Drake has struggled to keep up with modern mock and its higher flash, higher performance style. In the modern era of cabinets and cocaine demos, jumper cables and jenga, Drake still plays classic mock and nobody is going to tell them they can’t. They are here to prove that you can succeed without some of the trappings we have come to expect from newer-fangled programs. You just have to be excellent at what you do. As we noted in our ORCS write up, where we predicted that we might be seeing them at NCT, Drake has been on the rise over the last few years, and this year they seem to have hit stacking gold with a highly successful A team. As we told you before ORCS, they only dropped ballots to Northwestern all season pre-ORCS. At ORCS they were never swept and dropped a single ballot each to Howard and Northwestern (again). So this is not a team that gotten to Chicago as a fluke.

So why do we have Drake ranked all the way down in the 40’s if they have been this successful? It’s for a couple of reasons. First, Drake’s success has mostly been in the Upper Midwest. That’s a highly specific judging pool that they haven’t really ventured out of it this year. Chicago, while it is geographically close to the Midwest, tends to have a judging pool that is more similar to the coastal pools. It remains to be seen whether the “do classic mock well” strategy will play as well there. As our rankings suggest, we’re skeptical it’ll be a hit. Second, Drake doesn’t have a lot of experience with the new case prep window. They haven’t been to NCT since 2015 (the first year of the new case), and even then they didn’t do super well. So their ability to handle the fast prep and maintain their consistency is a bit up in the air.

All-American Watch: Keep an eye out for Grace Brinker. She was already an All-National double threat going into ORCS and she pulled another 19 Rank Attorney award at St. Paul this year. We would be surprised if she wasn’t gunning for the podium in at least one role at Nationals.

44. University of Toronto
Just a few short months ago, Toronto was our Team to Watch out of Buffalo Regionals. We here at Mock Analysis Is My Drug don’t like to say ‘I told you so’-- but we called it. We told you they were passionate, quickly gaining experience, and likely driven by last year’s mis-steps (no ORCS bid for the True Blues in 2023). Here’s what to keep in mind as Toronto heads into Chicago. First of all, they’re a young team. These spunky Canadians have only been pretending to be lawyers together in AMTA since 2019. Institutional knowledge is always a major leg-up, but when NCT season comes around the divide between experienced and inexperienced teams only grows. NCT prep, quite simply, is nothing like ORCS season. That being said, Toronto might have the odd advantage of…getting less practice during the regular season. Canadian as they are, it doesn't look like they went to a single AMTA invitational this season, and they still managed to beat out hundreds of other teams for a spot in Chicago. For some programs, NCT is hard because they make it out of ORCS after relentless drilling, knowing the case inside and out– but Toronto just dove right into the competitive season. In past years, their style has relied heavily on in-trial adaptation and clean arguments, rather than highly-prepared, dramatic, and ultra-scripted content. That might be a good way of doing things come NCT.

All that being said, Toronto is…a little bit of a wild card. There’s not a ton of program history to look at, and they skipped out on the invite season in favor of heading straight to NCT. This team has heart, we’ll give them that. And everybody knows how much we love an underdog.

All-American Watch:
Look no further, members of the jury, than Kara London Catellier. She pulled a 20-rank All-Regional and an 18 rank All-National out of the bag this year, all while captaining this fresh young squad to Chicago. Don’t let her composure and conversational cross tone fool you. She’s someone to be feared any year, but especially this go-round: criminal defense lends itself well to her style. She’ll distinguish herself in Chicago– time will tell whether she walks away with the triple crown.

45. Georgia State A
Every March, millions of Americans watch collegiate basketball teams battle it out in a deathmatch in hopes of catching a glimpse of one of two things. Either their alma mater leaves the Madness of March victorious, or a perennial blue blood is cut down by a cinderella team thirsty for a taste of victory. Now replace millions with thousands, basketball with mock trial, and deathmatch with…well actually let's keep that the same, and you have an adequate description of what people look for in the Open Round Championships Series. This year we had it all. Perennial nationals teams cut down by seemingly weak programs and Cinderella stories galore. But if we had to pick a team that Cinderella’d the most out of all the Cinderella teams, Georgia State takes the cake. The Panthers didn’t go to the easiest ORCS, they didn’t get the easiest schedule, and for those of you familiar with Memphis mock trial, they CERTAINLY didn’t get the easiest judges. They earned their spot at Nationals. But you may be asking, “why are they just three spots below number #48?” Simply put, it's been 6 years since the Panthers have been at NCT. While an impressive 7-1 record at ORCS shows they can beat teams with 8 months of prep, we aren't so sure GSU can do the same in 5 weeks. With their 0 placements at any fall or spring invites, GSU seems to struggle to pull solid content together quickly. But what GSU has going for them is that this Nationals has the longest prep period in recent history. With All National Witness Charles Lucas and All Region Attorney Anthony Hill, they might just have what it takes to pull off a placement in Chicago.

All-American Watch:
While Georgia State doesn’t have the same decorated competitors as the Harvard or UVA’s of the world, they do have Walker O’Brien. While O’Brien wasn’t even the highest ranking witness on his team, we designated him as GSU’s All-American watch for the witnesses he beat out in Memphis. O’Brien has shown he can beat top talent taking ranks off of an incredibly talented Patrick Henry Team and Tulane team on the rise. If we had to hedge our bets on someone from GSU WALK(er)ing out of Chicago with a glass square, it’s O’Brien.

46. Southern California B
If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind that USC is good at ORCS, this year probably erased it. Squeaking in on an OCS tiebreaker, the Trojans will be sending a second team to Nats this year for the first time in (does anyone know how long?). So this year begs the question: if USC A hasn’t been able to break past 4 ballots at Nats, what can their B team do? USC B runs a tight clean case. They won’t be going for any niche arguments or overpromises in cross or statements. They are going to run what is written and they will do it pretty well. But with all that in their favor, we have to say we’re a little worried about the dynamism of their witnesses. We wonder how USC’s grounded approach to witnessing will play against the big personalities of some of the top Nationals teams. The truth is, we don’t have a lot of evidence to suggest either way. The only time we’ve seen them play a top 48 level team this season was Round 2 ORCS where they dropped -19 -5 to UCLA A–which, while not promising, is also what tends to happen even to successful, podium-ready teams who hit UCLA A. So with only that result to guide us, we don’t exactly have a lot of data here. What we do know is USC has hit a massive rut at Nationals these last few years, but who knows? maybe having a B team in the mix will up their game. After all, we are talking about the self-proclaimed Best in the West.

All-American Watch:
B team or not, Ashley Nguyen is one of the best attorneys on the west coast and now she has a 20 rank All-National award to back it up. She’s easy to listen to on statements, powerful on cross, and comfortable in trial from the first “Permission to make appearances?” to the last “[insert theme flip] find him guilty”. If USC B’s D has a rough round 1 pairing and Nguyen misses the award, we wouldn’t be surprised if Alex Kang picks one up in her place. He’s the classic formula of “P closer who does experts” but with a dash of charm that’s hard to find elsewhere in the archetype.

47. Dayton A
Regicide (rejəˌsīd): The purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity. Often associated with the usurpation of power.

Mock Analysis, like all drugs, is inherently a fruitless pursuit. We can crunch all our silly little numbers and write all our silly little paragraphs, and we will still be wrong. Not, of course, because of any lapse in judgment in our analytical reasoning (remember when we said we’d be clutching our pearls if OSU didn’t bid from Regionals…), but because sometimes the results of this activity are so random we just have to throw up our hands and accept we don’t know what’s going on. So here’s one we truly don’t get: Dayton A, a teeny Ohio program that last season attended ORCS for the first time in anyone in their program’s memory, has ended the seasons of not one but two midwestern powerhouses. In 2023, Dayton goes to ORCS, wins two ballots in their Round 1 A bracket matchup, and sends Miami’s Redhawks home on their first bidless van ride in over a decade. In 2024, Dayton A goes to ORCS, and in their Round 2 A bracket matchup, leave with a clean, unambiguous +9, +7 sweep of Henry Leaman’s painstakingly crafted Notre Dame A team. Once, fine–that’s a couple of odd judges. But two major, definitive wins at the point when reliable NCT performers should have been at their best? As Nino LaCorte said it, Dayton A’s cooking. Why? We have to admit we’re not quite sure. In round, Dayton doesn’t have a ton of flair, but is substantively tight. They make objections with passion and punch, even if it's sometimes interspersed with clumsier delivery than some of the more polished programs on this list. They’re also–as goes without saying this far down in our rankings–green as a fresh avocado when it comes to Nationals case prep. All that doesn’t quite give us a sense of the magic x factor that lets them keep surprising us, but clearly there’s something here that we’re not seeing. Who knows? Maybe the Flyers will make it a three peat, and leave us bamboozled with a UCLA sweep next.

All-American Watch:
Does Ohio mock trial need another spunky boy with a little bit of swag? No, no it doesn’t. But Drew Polito’s graduating this year and Antonio LaCorte might have to be the one to step up and fill his shoes. LaCorte’s taken home an All-National and an All-Regional for his closings, and while that doesn’t make the triple crown a guarantee, we think there’s a spark in his natural charisma and instinctual use of movement in the well that could get him there. Logan Groff also has earned some flyer fanfare striking the perfect balance between realism and comedy with his Orlov portrayal. If he sets himself up to do that again, he could really make some magic happen in Chicago.

48. Texas, Dallas
Last, but not least, comes University of Texas, Dallas. A dark horse, an underdog, a longshot, whatever idiom you prefer, the Comets are coming in with everything to gain, and nothing to lose. This is their first appearance at Nationals as far as we can tell, their ORCS record has been spotty, and they have only attended invitationals here and there. Without a real presence on the circuit, there’s just too much unknown to argue that they will make a strong run at the podium. But it’s not all doom and gloom for this team. UT Dallas got excruciatingly close at the Arlington ORCS last year, only half a ballot from swapping “Austin” with “Dallas” for the UT team making an appearance at Nationals. Potentially fueled by the same determination as the youngest child constantly coming in last at Mario Kart, they faced Arlington again at Regionals this year. They walked away with not only a bid out and six awards, but a higher placement than their proverbial jerk older brother too. Riding the high of blue-shelling UT Austin, the team clinched 5.5 ballots in Cincinnati. While Cincinnati might be the Moo Moo Meadows of ORCS difficulty, experience in the Midwest could prove hugely advantageous to their stab at the Rainbow Road in Chicago. Notoriously finicky in preferences, and famed for ruining the dreams of AMTA favorites, it seems like Midwest judges like the ride Texas, Dallas is driving. We hope the Comets will put the pedal to the metal and prove our ranking wrong.

All-American Watch:
This season, the UT Dallas squad has managed thirteen awards across two invitationals, Regionals, and ORCS. Across their trophy case, though, there has only been one repeat awarder in Sanjana Natarajan. Natarajan, a Junior double-threat, pulled off an 18-rank attorney award at the Rice Bowl, alongside All-Region witness and attorney titles at the Arlington Regional. Her versatile nature and experience make her an appealing choice for securing an All-American. If Natarajan doesn’t manage it, UT Dallas has another potential star in Allison Huang. Huang brought home an 18-rank witness award from the Cincinnati ORCS, proving she’s got whatever it is that Midwest judges are looking for in top rounds. Between these two competitors, don’t count UT Dallas out from leaving the windy city with another piece of hardware.