Cincinnati's Minimum Effort earns first bid to national championships

Minimum Effort punched its first-ever bid to the USA Ultimate National Championships and will bring a 28-player Cincinnati men’s masters roster to Aurora Sports Park in Aurora, Colorado, for the July 17-20 tournament. The team earned the berth in the first weekend of June, a breakthrough for a squad built mostly from the Great Lakes Region and anchored in Cincinnati.

The trip carries a different weight than a standard club qualification. Minimum Effort’s GoFundMe says many of the players are fathers, coaches, teachers, business owners and working professionals, and that the team is self-funded, with players covering travel, lodging, tournament fees and uniforms. The fundraiser lists tournament fees at $120 per person and Airbnb lodging at $85 per night per person for four nights, underscoring how much of the nationals push has depended on the players themselves.

Captain Matt Blansit framed that commitment simply: “We do this for the love of the game.” For a masters roster, that means squeezing high-level ultimate around work schedules, family obligations and the physical demands of a division that still draws current or recently retired club players. USA Ultimate says the 2026 Masters Championships will feature more than 2,500 athletes across seven age and gender divisions, making the field deep and the margin for error thin.

Cincinnati Ultimate said Minimum Effort had already reached the Masters Championships in 2021, but this marks the team’s first bid to the USA Ultimate National Championships. That distinction matters in a city where Cincinnati Ultimate operates as a volunteer-run nonprofit focused on growing the sport and promoting Spirit of the Game. Minimum Effort’s climb reflects more than one roster’s run through June. It points to a region that has built enough playing opportunities, volunteer support and competitive continuity to keep a masters team together long enough to reach Denver on merit.