2025 Pre-Season Analysis

Hello AMTA community!

We at Mock Analysis Is My Drug are extremely excited for the beginning of the 2024 AMTA season!

As we do each summer, we put our heads together and made some preseason predictions about which teams look like threats in the coming year. Our aim is to start a discussion about where every program stands and where they’ll go moving forward. Of course, different cases play to certain styles and since the case just recently has been released, we can’t factor that in—but we’d love to see your thoughts about whether it changes anything once it is. This post has 3 parts: (1) our MAIMD top 25 Power Rankings for the upcoming season, (2) a list of individual competitors to look out for, and (3), some predictions for this year’s tournament results.

We don’t expect that everyone will agree with us. But we at Mock Analysis Is My Drug hope that you find this post interesting and engaging as we transition into another exciting year of mock trial!

Top 25 Power Rankings

Mock Analysis Is My Drug is pleased to include our Preseason Top 25 Power Rankings. These rankings were based on a composite of the rankings of all of our contributors, based on our own competitive experiences from previous seasons as well as tab summary analysis and number-crunching. These rankings are meant to reflect overall team power from the very first invitational all the way to the National Championship. We recognize that these types of rankings are inherently subjective.

1. Virginia A
“Cavaliers? More like c”eh”valiers. Wahoos? More like Wa”who”s. UVA? More like “Poo”VA. These, and many more, are jokes we’ve been stewing on for the past four years as we’ve waited for Virginia Mock Trial to finally stumble off their parapet as the greatest coached program in the land.” (MAIMD 2024 Pre-Season Analysis, Impeachments.com)

“Eighth place is an insult to the Cavalier’s honor just short of personally calling the Honorable Toby J. Heytens a skank.” (MAIMD 2023 Pre-Season Analysis, Impeachments.com)

“Despite some high placements at invitationals, they scraped through ORCS and failed to achieve even an honorable mention at Nationals, an incredible fall from grace for a program that has finished right near the very top of their division for half a decade. Their TPR is miles underground by Virginia standards” (MAIMD 2022 Pre-Season Analysis, Impeachments.com)

“The last image we have of the 2019-20 AMTA season was Virginia A going 5-3 at the Cincinnati ORCS and failing to earn a bid to the 2020 NCT.” (MAIMD 2021 Pre-Season Analysis, Impeachments.com)

“Toby Heytens might just be laughing at all of us this time next year, reading yet another neat paragraph recycling the same three jokes, with the name Virginia written once again right under the number one.” (MAIMD 2023 Pre-Season Analysis, Impeachments.com)

It's fine, it's cool
We can say that we’d have called it, but you know the truth
We guess we’re the fool
‘Cuz Ethan Marx won the Calkins after we poo-poo’d

Here it is–the climax to our sexually explicit kinda love affair with your favorite program’s favorite program. The Cavaliers of Virginia have finally proven our nay-saying was wrong. After a near-clean sweep of a final round and a run to the final that was only thwarted by two pesky dropped ballots, Virginia finished their season much like Chapell herself: performing to one of the largest-ever crowds to gather in the Windy City. In short: UVA has finally proven we were wrong. Wrong to frown on UVA’s chances, wrong to see rebuilding years as a decline, wrong to argue this team was any worse than Virginia’s past star-studded rosters. We can’t make a new excuse, another stupid reason. Facts are facts: when we think about what we said all those years ago, we’re standing face to face with they told us so.

So who’s to blame for when we wake up to do mockanalysis / in the middle of the night / with our head in our hands / because we didn’t call it right? Virginia of ‘24 is as Virginia of ‘17, ‘07, and ‘06 was–a team grounded by the strength of its witness bench. Unfortunately for everyone on the eastern seaboard, that strength isn’t going anywhere. Virginia will return all of its witnesses from the final round team. That means copycat charismatic character witness Hovsep Seferian, expert extraordinaire and Tennessean triumph Ansley Skipper, and catch-all witness Cooper Arnold, who in his own words “play[s] sad man who is often falsely accused or horrifically beaten up [and] surprises judges when [he] show man has feelings,” will all be back to ruin your PARs next season. They’ll also be bringing back first-year Bryanna Morales, who wasn’t featured in the final round but we imagine is pretty good at this whole mock trial thing.

The sticking point for Virginia’s return to the final will come from their attorney bench. Don’t get us wrong–our best closer in the country, Ethan Marx, will be back for the 24-25 season, so mentally check off one open spot for the taking on the TBC podium and get ready to clap as you hear his name called at every high-profile closing ceremony. But AMTA has prevented Marx from performing all three attorney roles during the main season in the spirit of competitive fairness, and that means Marx will be on the lookout for co-counsel come fall. Our bets are on B-team Captain, TBC second chair, and returning Chicagoan All-American Anabelle Claypoole and one-time A-team closer Yashita Keswani to put the pedal to the metal and see if they can match the level of counsel benches past.

So if you came to us, the perpetual naysayers, looking for an excuse to frown on Virginia’s chances this year, we’ve got just one piece of advice to give you: Good luck babe! We’d have to stop the world just to stop them winning.

2. UCLA A
This time last year we boldly proclaimed that the Bruins were poised for victory, ready to take home the gold. We told you they were easily our best guess for the national champion team. We even told you that no team in the past decade has come into a season in a more dominant position than the one UCLA was in last summer. With a national championship win under their belt, eight All-Americans, one TBC competitor, and a short-lived but memorable podcast (RIP Mock Talk), the Bruins seemed unstoppable. But when it came down to it in Chicago, they ended with a respectable — but ultimately anticlimactic — fourth place finish in the Darrow division.

With eight of their nine A team competitors graduating, that fourth place finish marked the end of some legendary competitors’ careers, which means we’ll be seeing an almost entirely new UCLA A this year. Despite this high turnover, we’ve locked UCLA A into our number two spot because, as we told you last year, this is a dynasty.

Leading that dynasty is rising senior Emma Rose Maloney— the last bastion, the sole survivor, the final remaining relic from the UCLA A team that has lit up the circuit over the past few years. Clad in her iconic pink tweed set, Maloney is one of the most decorated witnesses in the country, known for her comedic southern character witnesses and her emotional party-rep portrayals. With two All-American witness awards and a recent second-place finish at Gauntlet, Maloney brings a lot of star power to the UCLA A lineup. The big question now is: who will be standing beside her?

With the six returning competitors from their B team that placed 5th in their division at nationals, and the six additional competitors who just won second place at Rookie Rumble, the Bruins have incredible depth. On the witnessing front, we expect to see All-American Fatimah Patel fill the expert-ing shoes left by All-American Jad Soucar, along with All-National Alexi Melki and All-National Rhea Jain.

The attorney front is where things look a bit more questionable. Between UCLA A and UCLA B, the Bruins are only returning two of their eight statement givers: B team opener Kole Alfonso and B team closer Hannah Le. Alfonso, who captained B team to their 5th place finish, has multiple attorney awards from invitationals, most notably from Boston Tea Party and UCLASSIC, and two All-Regional witness awards, making him a double threat. Le has competed in the Rookie Rumble final round two summers in a row and has an All-Regional attorney award from 2023. We expect these two to be big players on A this year, and with the Bruins’ recent success at Rookie Rumble we expect to see them joined by some of their standout C team competitors like Sophia Leddy, Abygale Kim, or Lydia Faris.

Although these competitors are rising stars, these benches don’t quite pack the same punch as last season’s roster, which featured All-American and TBC competitor Ria Debnath and All-American Michael Blaine. So why are we still so confident that the Bruins deserve this second spot on our list? It really comes down to their coaching team. Led by head coach Elizabeth Smiley — arguably the biggest Swiftie in AMTA —, along with two-time NCT champ Iain Lampert, the Bruins have been the most dominant team on the West Coast for years. With their fifth national championship win in 2023, they share the highest record for nationals wins in AMTA history. The Bruins’ recent summer successes only bolster this coaching team’s impressive track record. If this summer’s results are any indication of what these new competitors have in store for us this season we can expect the Bruins to make a strong push for round five in Cleveland.

3. Chicago A
This year for Chicago A is going to look an awful lot like something similar we’ve seen from Chicago in the past….

Let’s set the scene.

The year is 2021. UChicago graduates the four core members of their A team. In the ensuing scramble to fill the four open A team slots— in the absence of some of the four most talented and powerful competitors of that time— something incredible happens: Chicago can’t stop winning.

They sail through the invitational season and Regionals easily, take two bids to Nationals from Cedar Rapids, and Chicago A eats through the Tammy Doss Division, going 11-1, matching Harvard. They walk into the final round, engage in what was undoubtedly a hard fought battle (this writer couldn’t hear the footage), and miss the National Champion title by a measly 4 points.

The success was incredible. Unprecedented, perhaps. It certainly seemed difficult to be able to recover the 2020-2021 concentration of talent in a single year— but Chicago recovered it and came back with a ferocity that we’ve seldom seen in mock trial.

So, rounding up the number three slot for a second year in a row, we have Chicago A. However, this team is showing up to the AMTA round table with a distinctly different roster than before. Rather than graduating a core four of Davis Pessner, Anna Stoneman, Henry Hopcraft, and Sahil Nerurkar, as they did in 2021, they’ve graduated Sam Farnsworth, Juliana Mothersbaugh, Max Fritsch, and Judy Zhang. It’s a blow to the Maroons to lose both the top attorney in the country (as decided by TBC) and the top witness in the country (as decided by the Gauntlet) in one fell swoop.

It’s easy to look at Chicago’s domination of the upper echelons of both witnessing and attorneying and be impressed, but we draw your attention to yet another competition that Chicago swept: Rookie Rumble. As they lose the most established and powerful names of old, Chicago rounds out their recently depleted roster with fresh, new talent. The best in the country, some might say.

Chicago has an incredible ability to develop talent and to utilize that talent in effective ways. They’ve always been unique in the fact that they are ridiculously fun to watch: they attack rounds by thinking outside the box and choosing to do things that would make safer teams faint. You want to keep watching them – it’s hard not to. Facing off against Chicago isn’t scary just because you know you’re going to lose, but because you have no idea realistically what is going to face you down in that round. We may no longer have the gift of Sam Farnsworth to throw himself at the ground during a statement, but we have Emberlynn St. Hilaire to tell us that her twelve-year-old sister puts more effort into selling Girl Scout cookies than Marty Jones ever did.

Rounding out the Rookie Rumble success story, we have Penelope Stinson, an up-and-coming opener with a captivating storytelling talent on statements and an uncanny sharpness, consistency, and precision on cross. She was accompanied by Ryan Sanghavi, whose cool demeanor and upbeat attitude defuse witness tension and energy on cross— but don’t think he’ll do it at the cost of undermining his own energy.

It’s not fair to compare them to graduates of mock trial past, but there’s no doubt that with some development we’ll see a Chicago A team that matches or exceeds their incredible concentration of power and talent from benches past. Such an impressive showing from members in their early, formative years of mock trial only spells upward growth for Chicago as a program, and it’s certainly exciting to see where they’ll go. The future of Chicago is fast-paced, exciting, and perfectly balances theatricality with effective aggression. They’re the kind of program that leaves you breathless and wondering just exactly what happened. Some competitors will leave round unsure of exactly what happened: the “Chicago Trance” (name in progress) can cause an attorney enamored by the Chicago flair to completely lose track of what’s going on around them. So, Chicago, with three undoubtedly new and undoubtedly talented new competitors to take up the mantle of ‘A’, keeps our 3rd spot a second year in a row (similar to their Rookie Rumble champion status — things sure do run in cycles over in Chicago). We expect to see all three performing at the peak of their talent in Cleveland later this year.

4. Emory A
But first, some light background music to set the mood

If there’s any team having a brat summer, it’s the Leagles of Emory. Maybe you love them, maybe you hate them, or maybe you just want to be them. We don’t care, and neither do they. This summer, Emory has been able to sit back, relax, and have fun, armed with the knowledge that they have the least stressful adjustment of almost any AMTA team heading into the fall. Why? The B-Team we saw just shy of bronze in Chicago is only losing one member, and, while not to understate the importance of team mom Saanya Kapasi, the family environment of team #BATNATS is only getting stronger. Couple that wealth of competitors with talented freshman remaining from A, accomplished returning captains, and an executive board determined to redeem last year’s A-team disaster, it’s clear that Emory will be bumpin’ that all the way to Cleveland.

But it’s not just the NCT record, historic program success, or the plethora of SPAMTAs lining their shelves that makes us place Emory so high. Recently taking both 2nd and 6th at Rookie Rumble as well as 3rd in Mercer’s new Devil’s Advocate tournament, this crew has shown they’re everywhere, they’re so Julia. And summer mock trial is hard. Time commitment is the name of the game, and Emory’s showing not only that they have the talent to stand as a titan but also that their competitors are excited to put in the work to do it.

So let’s talk, talk about some individuals. To begin, returning A-Team captain and newly inaugurated President Guyberson Pierre. Armed with vengeance, GCF and CUBAIT awards, and a personality you can’t help but fall in love with, we are confident that senior Pierre will be able to rally the talented youth of Emory’s program to push beyond their scrappy underdog success of Chicago. Pierre is joined by B-Team and nationals captain David Lee, an eclectic, charismatic powerhouse of a closer nearly impossible to take your eyes off of. Looking to the future, returning C-Team captains Hank Standaert and Pranay Mamileti are both returning with all-regional awards, a C-Team bid, and ORCS and NCT experience under their belt.

Oh, and two returning freshman All-Americans. First, the fiery, sharp, tearing-shit-apart girl, Amaya Salter. Going into the NCT, we told you Salter’s witnesses just might be the most creative and hilarious on the circuit, and after seeing her pull out a real puppet at the Rookie Rumble, we’ve been proven right. And while we haven’t seen what her fall portrayals will have in store, she already knows you’re obsessed. Second, the unstoppable, formidable, utterly terrifying Aiza Kidwai. Her creative rhetoric, sharp cross-examinations, and seemingly effortless control of the room show that Kidwai’s age has no bearing on success and, if she doesn’t lose steam, she could become the greatest of all time. Don’t believe us? Aiza awarded at every. single. tournament. she attended this year.  You couldn’t even be her if you tried.

Despite the seemingly unstoppable summer, Emory faces a few challenges before they can be cemented as a club classic. If last year’s stack is any indicator, they might say something stupid. For any student-run program, the stacking process is an intense one, often plagued with personal desires, questionable decisions, and subconscious bias. While probably wasn’t the sole reason Emory A flopped at ORCS, we can’t help but speculate whether or not they fell victim to a selfish stack (I.E: Aiza Kidwai not being deemed A-Team material). The more pressing matter, however, is Emory’s pure flash. We’re shaping up to see a squad composed of risk-takers in Pierre, Lee, Kidwai, and Salter, pushing Emory towards the Lakkaraju-era of spectacle and away from the Jacoby-era of polish when they should really aim to split it down symmetrical lines. However, we hope that tamer members such as RR awarder Disha Kumar and A-Team returner Chloe Chen can anchor the Leagles and avoid Charli’s most catastrophic adage: that they’re always gonna lose to people playing safer.

5. Yale A
A crisp red apple.

A hospital waiting room.

A house prepped to be sold.

A new car.

Cold ice water at midnight.

These are all things we would compare Yale to. They’re clean. They’re crisp. They’re safe. They’re predictable. And there’s no denying it, they’re good.

But there is nothing exciting about hitting Yale.

For one, you are probably going to lose. In their speeches, they deliver concise rhetoric and a comprehensive, accurate explanation of the law. Their objection arguments are far from messy, with not a single stumble in sight. Their witnesses have methodically cracked the code to high-level great: their delivery is perfect, their characters are funny without being outlandish, their experts are professional and clearly intelligent, they have beyond fantastic criers (see José Sarmiento in our best witnesses lineup). In every courtroom, Yale displays polished talent in each and every piece of their content, and judges love it.

Besides the anticipation of a likely loss, competing against them isn’t always very fun. Their clean nature strips away any opportunity of hitting a fun defense theory that isn’t spelled out by case writers or a demo that hasn’t been used a million times before. If you’ve seen any other team prior to Yale, you’re probably seeing most of the same content. Yale will just be delivering it cleaner.

The other factor that makes competing against Yale rather unamusing is their weaponization of the rules. A note to our more outlandish teams out there: hide your egregious content, because these Bulldogs will sniff it out and swiftly put an end to it. If they’re not having fun, your team isn’t allowed to either.

Modern-day Yale is akin to teams like UVA, who dropped their only ballot of the weekend to Yale in DC. They’re military kids. Shaven heads, disciplined, reformed, and on the opposite side of the spectrum to the flashy blue-haired theater kids like UC Irvine, Emory, and Chicago.

With such consistency, it’s easy to point out those who stand out amongst these cookie cutter competitors; Justin Bernstein knew exactly what he was doing when he plucked Everett Parker-Noblitt from the bunch. He’s the flashiest of the group, an amazing speaker with a demanding presence and a heart of gold. Joining Parker-Noblitt is rising sophomore Luke McLaughlin, a Gladiator finalist who is bound to be a force to be reckoned with this competitive season. He can chexpert, he can close, he can attorney on A as a freshman, and he has amazing things ahead of him. Alongside competitors like Maddie Levin, Grace Dodd, and Richard George, we expect Yale’s talent will carry their team through consistent success in the fall season.

Given Yale’s recent stylistic shift (those of us who remember the late 20-teens Yale might be surprised by their by-the-book philosophy these days), it’s possible that the facts of this case might prove difficult for them. Maybe this crazy train case will derail the Bulldogs and return them to their wild side, or maybe they will stick precisely to the book, word for word for word for word….

Maybe their cleanliness, as seen by this year’s Nationals, will take them all the way to the final round. It’s certainly worked out for UVA. Maybe it will keep them just at the brink of a gold, silver, or bronze medal as it has for the past years. Maybe it’ll keep them out of Cleveland altogether, just as it kept their A team from Chicago.

Only time will tell. Their fate is in their hands, and all we can do is stand by and observe.

6. Hillsdale A
I saw the peak of bodybuilding. I climbed that peak. Then I saw the other peak. The leading man. The movie star. And it reminds me of this famous mountain climber, Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to ever climb Mt. Everest. The press asked him, “What were you thinking about when you looked around and you were up on this peak?” He said, “I all of a sudden saw another peak, far away. And I started planning my route. How do I get up there to that peak?

Netflix docuseries Arnold opens episode two, “Actor,” with the preceding monologue from the title man himself. For Arnold Schwarzenegger, after conquering the “peak” of bodybuilding, the natural course of action was to star in a low budget indie film entitled Hercules in New York (Hercules Goes Bananas, for those who favor the home video release). Unfortunately, after filming had completed, Arnold’s accent was so thick that producers decided to dub over all of his lines with recitation from an (uncredited) voice actor.

Hillsdale College Mock Trial would not consider their first “peak” to be competitive bodybuilding (as far as we know). Rather, back in 2022, the Chargers did the unimaginable: fought their way through ORCS and stepped onto the concrete at the famed Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, PA. Making it to Nationals, that was the first peak— and just a few years later, HCMT summited their next mountain, breaking into the final round.

Hillsdale’s success at the 2024 National Championship Tournament is undeniable. So why aren’t they breaking our top five? Our answer there starts with a closer look at Hillsdale’s path.

Round one at the Daley Center saw the Chargers facing up with the Retrievers of UMBC— a squad that’s clawing their way back to the top, but a program in the midst of rebuilding. Rounds two and three dealt them UT Dallas and Macalester, and it wasn’t until the final round of the tournament that our favorite sleekly dressed vest owners faced off against a team that left Chicago with a winning record: Georgia. The Bulldogs and the Chargers split cleanly, each bench wresting a ballot and a half from the other. HCMT’s easier-than-average schedule (see above, and an 18.5 CS) was a beaten-into-the-ground topic of conversation on MTC. But, as one reviewer allegedly wrote after an early Arnold film, “the horse had better facial expressions than Schwarzenegger.” There will always be online criticism, and this writer believes it is far more useful to take a look at results from earlier in the year. Besides, it wasn’t Hercules in New York or The Villain that gave Arnold his star power—Hillsdale isn’t done just because they faced some criticism after their first starring role.

The Chicago results suggested an ability to win against the bottom of the pack at NCT, but difficulty when it comes to the best of the best. Looking back to Great Chicago Fire X, Hillsdale was neck in neck with the best teams in the country. Two ballots off PHC and UChicago each is no easy feat. So sure, maybe this scrappy band of South Michiganites saw some easier rounds at NCT. But we suspect their struggles were largely due to still being relatively new to the short-prep format, not any lack of institutional talent or ability. When HCMT has time to polish, HCMT wins. That’s a fact. They weren’t as clean as we typically expect final round teams to be on tape, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have great ideas or natural talent.

Looking ahead to next year, we expect the Chargers to perform well, but there are some question marks. First of all, they’re graduating 50% of the final round squad, and the Hillsdale B ORCS record doesn’t immediately suggest an answer to the question of who can fill the Sampson-Herbert-Lee-Verbaarschott shoes. If A-team returners and 2024-2025 program captains Njomëza Pema, Patrick McDonald, and Abby Davis can take some raw talent from a B team that sailed through Regionals and crashed spectacularly at ORCS and whip it into shape, Hillsdale might have a shot at a great season once again. If they can’t, we might have to watch the Chargers suffer through a rebuilding year.

Arnold Schwarzenegger famously referred to one Warren Buffet as a mentor. This upcoming season, we hope the mentors and leaders over at the second-oldest co-ed educational institution in the country embrace their inner Warren Buffet. If they can, just like the Terminator, they’ll be back.

7. Harvard A
This past April, Harvard A placed 9th at NCT. For any other program, that would be cause for celebration—and we sincerely hope that Harvard has celebrated it—but for this group of competitors, anything short of the final round was disappointing. After back-to-back final round appearances, the Crimson were unable to break through the pack, just barely maintaining a top ten finish. To make matters worse, prospects aren’t looking great for a successful 2024-2025 season. Harvard graduated nearly all of their incredibly decorated A team that took them to the final round in 2022 and 2023, including superstars Audrey Vanderslice, Jessica Alexander, Anant Rajan, Braedon Price, and Jacob Winter. On top of those gargantuan goodbyes, these well-dressed Ivy Leaguers lost some of their more seasoned B competitors to post-grad life, making the question of who will step up to fill the A team shoes even more uncertain. For student-run, two-team programs like Harvard, experienced and talented competitors are essential. Losing this many A team members who competed on a high level and had a high caliber of talent can be devastating, not just because they aren’t competing, but because they aren’t teaching. What’s more, Harvard B underwhelmed us at the New Rochelle ORCS, coming away with a 4-8 record— a decent showing for many B teams, but a disappointment after the second string was the squad to gain Harvard a bid back in 2023.

But we’ll lay off for a moment because if there is any program who can turn around losing so many high-quality, All-American competitors, it’s Harvard. This program has shown many times that a group of young, inexperienced but talented members can do what it takes to be competitive for the final round. After all, the last ‘rebuilding year’ we saw Harvard A on was 2021, when Travis Harper took a batch of never-before-seen new recruits to a podium placement, a primer Harper would follow with two back-to-back round fives. This team is in a far less precarious place than that past Crimson team once was–A team returners Dariana Almonte, Brooke Jones, and Cayla Coleburn were not just fill-ins, but fundamental players on this team we did have pegged for a final round appearance. If they want to push for a final, they’ve certainly got the talent to do it.  

And that’s why we’ve still got them ranked in our top ten, despite the sheer number of strong competitors that are saying their goodbyes. We aren’t sure if any of these recently cap-and-gowned alumni will be sticking around to lend a hand in the fall season, but statistics suggest some of them probably will. If Harvard can cushion the lack of older members to teach the greener competitors with some alumni support, or just… figure out a way to teach in overdrive in the fall, they’ll likely be able to turn the lower ranks of the program into high-quality competitors. After all, when the Crimson last took home the Richard Calkins trophy, their A team was made up of a whole lot of sophomores. It doesn’t take age or AMTA experience for a Harvard team to fire on all cylinders. So don’t let out a sigh of relief yet, Northeast NCT hopefuls. You may be in for an unpleasant surprise come spring.

8. Texas A
Everything’s bigger in Texas, and that includes their Mock Trial Team. We’re talking big characters, big flashy crosses, and even bigger hearts (they’re really sweet). There’s nothing subtle about the way Texas does mock. And this year they’re doing something even bigger—they’re making history. For the first time ever, the Longhorns have cracked our preseason top 25, moving beyond just bubbling under the radar to solidify their spot among the nation’s elite. With their signature blend of emotion-driven performances and larger-than-life characters, Texas has been a perennial team to watch, but now they’re ready to take center stage. If there’s one thing these Southern mockers know how to do, it’s put on a show. This team thrives on the emotional highs and lows of a case, with a bench of attorneys who bring a level of flair that’s hard to match. Despite graduating two key players—Josianne Alwardi, a versatile double threat who excelled both as an attorney and a witness, and Kaeden Cameron, a standout attorney—Texas is returning the majority of their A team this season. That’s right, in the midst of the wipeout of some of AMTA’s strongest teams (UCLA A, Harvard A, Chicago A), the third place in the Darrow division will be returning for the ‘25 season relatively unscathed. That’s precisely why despite the fact that Texas has been a fixture at Nationals for the past three years, this is the first time they’ve truly broken into the upper echelons of our rankings. They’ve just taken a young team to half a ballot away from the final round. Perhaps an extra year of experience will be what they need to push them into the fifth round in Cleveland.

However, the reason why such a young team was given a chance to thrive on the national stage is also a reason to give some pause before locking in any lofty predictions. The Longhorns almost didn’t make it out of ORCS this past season, relying heavily on their B team to scrape by with five wins. The same B team who then merged with several members of A to create the Chicago squad. That’s blatant a reminder that, while this team has potential, there are still questions about whether they can consistently deliver at this high level. There’s no denying that Texas has talent. Prisha Mehta’s recognition as an All-American opener speaks volumes, as does the presence of other key players like TBC play-in pick Anu Pillai, the hilarious Avin French, and flashy captain Brydn Abraham. But the question remains: was last season’s success a sign of things to come, or a one-off performance? It’s a fair question, given that Texas hasn’t had many other standout results to back up their recent rise. However, with a roster that’s as versatile as it is passionate, there’s reason to believe that this team can continue to make waves. They’ve proven they can rise to the occasion, and if they can replicate that success, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Texas Mock Trial’s A team is more than just a group of skilled attorneys—they’re performers, and this year, they’re ready for the spotlight. The challenge now is to prove that last year wasn’t a fluke, but the beginning of a new era for Texas Mock Trial.

9. Rhodes A
Five times the bridesmaid, never the bride. After putting a second team through to Nationals for the first time in five years, Rhodes looks to make yet another push to the final round, where, in a sixth try since 1996, they hope to finally take home AMTA’s elusive top prize. We know the formula: realistic, hyper-confident, aggressive attorneys; paired with witnesses that take creative angles on experts and risky character choices. This year, more than any since the last final round run, Rhodes looks locked and loaded to make their big push.

Why, you ask? Perhaps it has something to do with returning not one, not two, not three, but all four All American competitors from a pair of teams that finished sixth and second in their divisions back in Chicago. Christyn Sanders, Maya Bridgeman, Kevin Caltry: an All-American Witness trio of seniors looking to write their swan song. Joining them is All-American Attorney junior Zoe Haug. Oh and by the way, they also return six more rising seniors, and eight total competitors, from their two podium runs this season. That’s twelve if you’re keeping score, which makes organization an interesting thing to watch. They’ll have too many worthy competitors for too few spots on this A team. A first world problem if there has ever been one, but nevertheless a difficult web of decisions for the Rhodes leadership to untangle.

You may notice that Rhodes is back near the top of our rankings, after not even making an appearance on this list last year.  And look, we’ll own our misses. We didn’t see this one coming. The last few years brought middling results for Rhodes at Nationals. Even heading into Regionals, we really didn’t see it. After all, this past year’s invitational results left us with more questions than answers. Sure, first at Mock at the Rock and a middle-of-the-pack result at GAMTI were promising. Less than dominating results at Grand Ole Tournament, Battle in the Bayou, Arch, and Chucky Mullins, however, gave cause for concern. And the no-shows at signature January invites like Great Chicago Fire and Ramblin Wreck were downright puzzling. In fact, that will be something to watch this year too. Does Rhodes return to the top-of-the-circuit invites, or do they stick with the more mixed levels of competition they chose this past season? There’s no doubt the unorthodox choice of tournaments led to the right result, and these competitors peaked at just the right time. Rhodes A never lost a round in AMTA-sanctioned play. And the B team? Well, their lone loss came only to Michigan, who finished a paltry 2nd in the Darrow Division.

When it comes down to it, there’s no overlooking that the fall from a final round in 2019 to the snap of AMTA’s longest running NCT streak in 2021 was swift, and the landing hard. But in the four decade history of Rhodes Mock Trial, it’s looking to be a blip on the radar. They’re not just coming back. They are back. And now the Anna Eldrdige-led ascent to the mountaintop, featuring a young and highly-invested new coaching lineup, looks to be steady, full of signature Rhodes ruthlessness, and ready to peak. Because if this year’s results match up to the talent and experience of the roster, the ceiling of this team is no less than the summit itself.

10. Ohio State A
In Old AMTA there’s a team that knows throughout the land. 10 warriors brave and bold whose fame will ever stand. And when the judge goes over, our cheers will reach the sky, AMTA fields will hear again, the Buckeye Ballot Cry.

A slightly different (and far more lame) version of this song can be heard echoing throughout the Ohio Stadium on any Saturday in the fall. But we at MAIMD are certain that just buildings away, the walls of Mendenhall shake with fake lawyers belting the lyrics of what we have dubbed the Buckeye Ballot Cry.

Those lawyers are the Buckeyes of THE Ohio State University. You have seen them at their worst, you have seen them at their best, but above all else, if you compete in the Midwest you’ve probably been beaten by them. Ohio State comes into this season with its highest ever NCT placement. Just a few months ago, while most competitors had traded their suits for sleepwear, their ties for tracksuits and their shoes for embroidered mock trial merchandise, Ohio State waited in the center of Union Square dressed to the nines waiting for their time. 8-1 was the record they had going into the final round, and they needed just two more ballots to make it to THE final round. Drew Polito, Michael Ragnone, Leah Salit, Jon “Him” Hubbard, Angela Ryan, Garret Travers, Iris Mackenzie, and Brian Dressel all sat around their cloth-covered table hoping Ohio State University would be the last team to leave Brandon Harper's mouth. But it wasn’t. It was the third to bounce off the hallowed halls of Union Station, followed by a muffled shriek as the Cavaliers realized their destiny.

Those moments are what build champions. If there is one thing that we can confidently say about OSU, when they get kicked, they bounce back harder than any team in this circuit (just ask the Memphis ORCS GroupMe). While they left Chicago with a slightly less rectangular and obtuse trophy than they may have liked, OSU comes into this season with a roster that is ready to take another shot. Leading the back is Jon “Himothy” Hubbard, a man who just added an impressive 4th place finish at Trial by Combat to his already shiny trophy case. Hubbard is an emphatic speaker that rivals the best in the country and also has an impressive witness resume that showcases likable yet sophisticated expert witnesses. Backing up Hubbard is a witness bench that is young but talented. Iris Mackenzie, Garrett Travers and Angela Ryan are all seasoned Nationals competitors with at least two years left on the circuit and a handful of trophies to top it all off.

But you may notice an absence of a particular role in our highlight reel of OSU. While many people say that Jon Hubbard could do an entire trial by himself (he literally has done it already) AMTA rules specifically bar one person benches. We can’t help but recognize that OSU lost their three A team captains and five of the six attorney spots on their nationals roster. The loss of Polito, Ragnone and Salit is what places OSU slightly lower than what you may expect of a third place nationals team. But it’s that setback, a setback similar to that of Chicago, a setback similar to that of Dayton, that we think will fuel OSU’s Buckeye Ballot Cry this April.

11. Michigan A
It’s a crisp Chicago morning on April 21, 2023, and the Wolverines of Michigan are itching to compete in round 4 of NCT. After having a nearly perfect first two days of competition, they can all but taste their program’s first-ever final round appearance. They don’t know it yet, but if they can come out on the right side of a split against Princeton, they’ll make history. With the confidence booming from their senior-laden bench, they go through a hard-fought round picking up just 1 of the three ballots. Award ceremony rolls around, and by just half a ballot the Wolverines come up just short and take second place in the Darrow Division.

Michigan was able to pull off a feat that most programs in AMTA will never be able to, capturing 9 wins at Nationals. And while a second place national finish is absolutely nothing to scoff at, the core group of seniors that Michigan A fielded this past year (Brock, Kane, Gwilt, Mancina) led a team that was capable of challenging for a national championship. Congratulations to all of them on phenomenal careers. But let’s not let the memory of what was distract us from what might be coming. What do we mean?

Something is brewing up in Ann Arbor. Just look at their past few years at Nationals. (Excluding their unexpected absence in 2022) Michigan has been on an explosive incline when it comes to National results. In 2021 they went a solid 8 - 8 for a 9th place finish. In 2023 they jumped all the way to 3rd place in their division. And finally this past year, pushing the limit that much further by finishing in second place in their division. And we think we’ve got an inkling as to why the Wolverines are seeing these incredible results. This writer likes to call Michigan the land of the double threats. Just take a look at some of the names we just listed. If you’ve been on the other end of a Gordy Gwilt cross you probably came out a little worse for wear, but he just placed at the Gauntlet. Similarly, you wouldn’t be wrong to think of Lucy Brock as an incredible witness. But you look at the tab summary from the Darrow division, and she was the highest ranked All American Attorney.

These two are shining examples of how Michigan, perhaps better than any other program, has shown an ability to develop competitors who are double threats at the highest level. So naturally, that leads us to the question of who’s up next. Well thankfully with a program like Michigan, they’ll be doing more of a reload than a rebuild. Will Akis is a name to look out for. He spent this past year as a double sided middle attorney and expert witness, and we’re expecting he’s gonna carve out a more pronounced role for himself. Alongside him, we expect his recently announced co-captains Michael Wilson (yes there’s another one) and Merin Mccallum to make some noise. Also look out for Peyton Martin. After earning herself an All National attorney award with Michigan B, she looks to be poised to make the jump to the next level. In any case, whoever ends up filling the roles left by the incredible past senior class, we’re confident the Wolverines of 2024-25 are going to be well-rounded and dynamic because that’s simply what Michigan does. And with Nationals in a midwestern state again, don’t be shocked if you see the Wolverines finally break through.

12. Patrick Henry A
“‘The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated’ - Mark Twain” - Patrick Henry A (probably). The Sentinels of Patrick Henry College (PHC) have been perennial podium finishers. Since 2018, they have a TBC winner, 5 consecutive top 10 places at NCT, and countless trophies and awards stacked up in between. Many in the AMTA community thought that in December of 2023, that streak had finally ended, as rumors popped up that PHC A had lost half its team going into the spring season, and while we at MAIMD can’t give you exact accounts of what happened or who left, we can tell you the end result was the same it always was: Sue Johnson and a team of incredibly talented mock trial performers sat in Chicago and took home a trophy, the same as every April for the last 5 years.

When we look at who PHC went up against last spring, we see a Regionals schedule with two NCT teams that in a feat of dominance PHC prevailed against and moved on. When we look at the Greenville ORCS, we see that PHC dropped 2 ballots to a Miami (FL) A team that was full of underclassmen, but again, PHC prevailed (went 8-1 the next three rounds) and moved on. And then on the biggest stage, in round 4 of NCT, the Sentinels managed to take a ballot off a red-hot Rhodes team— a ballot that cost Rhodes a trip to the final round.

The story of PHC’s 2024 seemed to be full of youth and intrigue, but the result was still the same: PHC prevailed and moved on. And that is exactly what we expect Sue’s Sentinels to do this season. While they lose veteran standout and All-American Caleb Knox, they have plenty of youth to restock and carry on, as they have done for years. That youth comes in the form of two rising sophomore stars in All-American witness Joshua Revoir, and double threat Haley Bock. We expect these young stars to continue the formula of success that has made PHC a staple of mock trial: spectacular performative moments from their attorneys, energetic and charismatic witnesses, and theories that excite but are grounded in a clear narrative and story.

What makes PHC is not just their success, but how they build a team. Constantly we see teams post fun Instagram graphics about the tournaments they’ve attended or the awards they’ve won, but there is no such behavior in Purcellville, Virginia. The other programs around the country send their teams to invitational after invitational, trying to build experience for their young members leading into the competitive season, but such is not the case at PHC. They only attend one invitational per team per semester. Whatever secret formula for success that Sue Johnson has devised is nothing short of incredible, as they field incredibly tough and polished teams every single season without needing to have drilled them at multiple tournaments. Building a team without as much experience, and without a social media page to promote recruitment seems unorthodox, but just like their character witnesses, the unorthodox method produces winners, and a lot of them.

The only thing that’s missing from PHC is a National Championship. For years the Sentinels have danced ever so close to glory, finishing third, fourth, seventh, taking home trophies year after year. But, never have they been able to break into that final round and bring home the coveted Caulkins trophy. The question remains, can this unorthodox team make champions, or just really good trial lawyers? Only time will tell, but PHC will still, until further notice, be a force to be reckoned with.

13. Princeton A
Just a few months ago, before the DC ORCS conducted its annual slaughter, we named Princeton A as our Team to Watch. It is abundantly clear that Princeton has fluctuated in success in recent years— be it coaching changes, personnel difficulties, or some third unknown factor, the Tigers have been anything but consistent. They went from a final round appearance in 2014 to a series of mediocre seasons, only making it back to the top 48 twice before Chicago, and struggling at the top when they did manage to eke through.

We don’t like to say it often (except every time we do): but we absolutely called it. Not only did Princeton A sail through with a 6-1-1 record, Princeton B came away with 6 ballots and a CS four points higher than their own A team.

In a normal situation, we would be speculating about which talented B-teamers would make the cut to fill the newly-empty A-team spots. Not so this year. The Tigers are managing the impressive feat of returning every single person from the 2024 A team that left the Daley Center with eight wins, a trophy, and an All-American (Carson He). The question for this Princeton squad isn’t whether or not they’ll have raw talent. It’s whether or not they’ll be able to replicate their success (and withstand the institutional pressure of a hungry B team and an A team with limited spots).

Speaking of the B team, PMT fans might notice that a few names have been regularly cropping up this summer. Jimmy Fraley and Sophie Glaser headed up a squad made up of three B teamers and one A teamer that took first place at Mercer Law School’s inaugural Devil’s Advocates tournament. Fraley walked away with the tournament’s only attorney award, narrowly beating out the infamous Aiza Kidwai and the not-so-infamous milk man, Ian Carson. Over at Rookie Rumble, Glaser picked up an attorney award. It begs the question: will the scrappy, young, second-string PMT competitors edge out some of the solid talent at the top? Their NCT results were in no way comparable to the top squad, but their ORCS record was, and both teams will have the advantage of NCT experience as they head down the #roadtocleveland. Princeton A can handle the best of the best, but their ultra-clean, real-lawyer-persona B team might have a special knack for winning over the ORCS-level judging pool.

So with all the odds stacked up in Princeton’s favor this year, why don’t we have them higher in our rankings? While thirteenth is by all means respectable, it’s a ranking that doesn’t predict a whole lot of upward mobility relative to their 7th place finish in the Darrow Division this spring. The reason for that call is simple: while we think Princeton has cracked the code on NCT attendance, we’re also not sure they’re changing their game plan when it comes to actually competing at Nationals. While the crisp, safe style they play is a great way to wow law-school judges at Devil’s Advocate or pass by the scrutiny of Virginian legal professionals, it isn’t necessarily a route to a final. After all, the only team that makes cleanliness their M.O. that we reliably see in final rounds are Virginia, and Princeton isn’t quite at ‘tape on the floor’ levels of inoffensive. So while we think we’ll see Princeton next April, we also think they’ve got a ways to go before they’re in the running for a Round 5.

At the end of the day, this year for Princeton brings a wealth of opportunity. We here at MAIMD hope they’ll continue their recent success— but anybody who’s managed a team knows that a repeat doesn’t come easy. Princeton has the opportunity to prove last year wasn’t a fluke. We’ll be crossing our fingers.

14. Boston A
Bye bye, Max Bearinger. Gone into the void of the graduated is Boston University’s longtime star and leader, who over the years has developed into one of AMTA’s most technically proficient and talented attorneys. This past April at the NCT in Chicago, All-American Bearinger led the Terriers of Boston University to one of their trademark 10th place—[wait, checks notes]—nay, an 8th place finish! One of Boston University’s highest placements in recent memory. So why do we have them ranked 14th? Why are we projecting them to finish 7th in their division at NCT in the storied city of Cleveland, one place higher than this past spring—despite their dear leader’s departure? Naudia Terry. In our NCT preview post, we put Terry on All-American watch, and while it was [checks notes] Bearinger who came away with the coveted slab of glass, we think Terry is poised to lead the Terriers to even greater things. With her trademark slow and powerful speaking style and her ability to build to remarkable crescendos and convey deep pathos during her closing arguments, she will be equipped to out-close anybody in the Northeast.

But, of course, one person does not make a team. This is where things get trickier for Boston–because in addition to dear Mr. Bearinger packing his bags, they’ll also be losing A team character Andrew Howey, A team expert Claire Paul and A team opener Sydney Jessup. That’s a lot of talent to replace, and to repeat a great joke for the third time in the same post, we know Perry can’t step in to fill in for all of it. But all hope is not lost for the Terriers. Pedro Orduz, their 2023 All-American expert, will be back filling out the roster for another season, and with his early-season dabbling in attorney roles, we can potentially be on the lookout to spend 2025 as a double threat. We’ve also got our eyes on Nick Fowles and Ainsley Chisman, A team returners, to see how they step up to fill the gaps left by a talented senior class.

Where Boston University has consistently shown themselves to be the cream of the crop is in their consistency. Every year, we write volumes about Harvard, Tufts, and Yale. But of the pack, BU rises above when it comes to consistently getting the job done: bidding from ORCS and securing a podium placement at Nationals. They don’t win the whole thing, they don’t write confessions about themselves, and they don’t stir up any scandals—no, they just fly under the radar, playing their signature blend of no-nonsense mock trial. They think of creative and interesting theories, but not creative for creativity’s sake; they make intuitive arguments that judges can and do get behind. And in a region where polarizing styles abound, they appeal to the common denominator. We think BU is in place to do what they’ve always done. Our ranking this year—slightly higher than usual—reflects our belief that we think they can do what they’ve always done, but just a little bit better.

15. Florida A
“You can beat the teams if you win the ballots too
They said I was a cheat, I guess it must be true
And my friends all smell like swamp or litigators
And this city (Greenville, SC) reeks of 5 tied ORCS ballots

Little did you know AMTA’s really only
An org you're just a part of
So you prep a case enough just to pay
For a courthouse down in Gainesville

Florida (!!!)
Is one hell of a team”

Sure, they don't have Emory’s flash, Georgia Tech’s 3D-printed demos, or UGA’s Southern charm, but there is something so uniquely terrifying about hitting UF. Year after year, it seems a new congregation (this is actually the word for a group of alligators) of Litigators emerges from the murky waters of north central Florida (!!!) to chomp Southern teams.

Equipped with bold witnesses, charismatic attorneys, and streamlined theories, UF’s style is incredibly palatable yet engaging, allowing them to win over Southern judges. With first place at Peach Bowl, second and third at Classic City, and fourth and fifth at Soda City, UF had one of the most impressive fall seasons in the country. Coming into the spring season, it seemed like the Litigators were aiming for top finishes across the board.

Sadly, the results of UF C and D did not live up to our expectations. In years past, UF C and D were near locks for earning bids out of Regionals. In 2024, however, neither team ended with a winning record after devastating sweeps from Furman, UMiami, and UTK. Even UF B, a perennial NCT threat, left the Bell Tower 4-8, a far cry from the team’s 2021/2023 runs (and perhaps a consequence of running attempted murder).

Luckily for our dearest Litigators, their A team did not suffer the same fate. After a pitstop in Tallahassee and getting tied up (get it? TTTTT) in Greenville, UF A finished 7th on the Bradwell podium following a 2-1 win over Emory and a tight 1-2 split against Harvard. These results speak for themselves–UF is still one hell of a program.

Perhaps UF’s greatest asset is their witnesses. They are losing crier/Romanian character Lorena Manasturean and superstar chexpert Sawyer Hyatt, but from Emma Van Dyke, who was in contention for our Best Crier, to Kazakh character witness Danny Wolcott, UF still has one of the best witness lineups in the circuit. Let us be clear–this is no knock on their attorneys. Sure, UF is graduating 4/5 A team attorneys, including opener Evangelia Gavrilos and David Ott (whose portrait hangs in MAIMD headquarters). However, the 1/5 that remains is Jayden Adjodha, who won an All National as a freshman and delivered stellar opens all season.

Adjodha, All Regional attorneys Esha Bhat and Justine Asman, and rising senior Rori Becker have more than enough talent to fill UF’s benches. Bhat, in particular, is one to look out for; she is a dynamic, polished performer, and we think she has what it takes to lead UF A to Cleveland. It’s also important to note that a significant number of UF’s upperclassmen were able to compete at Nationals in 2023 on UF B, something we can’t say for most teams above them.

An aspect of UF’s approach that we haven’t touched on yet is their team mindset, akin to Rhodes in some ways. One of the reasons we theorize that a Litigator still hasn’t competed at TBC or Gauntlet is that the nature of their program emphasizes winning as a unit, not being carried by individual standouts year to year. This is a good thing for UF–they are incredibly consistent, and they seem to find success even after mass graduations.

All of this to say, I hope you’re okay, but you’re the reason… wait, wrong song. All of this to say, we expect the Litigators to be in Cleveland and to place on the podium after burying a few teams (and regrets) down in Florida (!!!)

16. Tufts A
It seems like every year, AMTA seeks to find new ways to demolish the emotional wellbeing of high-level, competitive teams across the country. I, being the innovative writer that I am, have decided to create a new award for this event. The team that suffers the most crushing elimination tournament loss will now be awarded the “Super Bowl LI Memorial Award for Heartbreaking Defeat in an AMTA Tournament.” While the history of this award is decorated (previous holders include the 2023 Illinois A team who didn’t bid to nationals with a record of 6-2 [source: I made the award up ten minutes ago]), the current holders are undoubtedly our 16th ranked team for the upcoming season: Tufts A.

Tufts A walked out of the tab room following the second round of the New Rochelle ORCS with the belief that their season was over from that moment on. They had gone L-T-L-L-T-L for a record of 1-5 over the first two rounds. That would have been enough to earn the award on its own – but now imagine how they must have felt when, two rounds later, after sweeping their A and B bracket rounds, they were announced as the top honorable mention at this tournament, failing to bid by just half a CS point.  This is a team with a dominant past, who have historically crushed the circuit and been contenders for the final round. This year, they will return from that brutal New Rochelle near miss quite possibly not just as good as Tufts before the Demsky Departure, but better. Aidan Connors and Ian Carson will lead their A team, who will also pull talent from their outstanding B team (who were once helped by freshman Connors to a bid and placement at Nationals in Memphis).

Tufts lost just two members of its A team last year, graduating former Co-President and A team captain Margaret Veglahn and All-National crier Paige Duff. That being said, we’ve seen high-quality teams beaten down by a humiliating near miss before— and only time will tell how the Jumbos will respond. Last year we wrote that we expected Tufts to come back from a year that ended without a trophy for the A team, pulling talent from the sixth-place B team and returning stronger than ever. After filling in A with members of that high-caliber B team squad, Tufts saw its season end even earlier, with even fewer trophies. It’s impossible to diagnose exactly why— but if one disappointing result is a fluke, two in a row might begin to suggest some broader issues.

We expect that Tufts will have the raw talent to win at the highest level, but the question of whether they will looms large. Over the years since He-Who-Must-Not-Place-Higher-Than-Second graduated, Tufts has undergone a style shift – from flashy attorneys to UVA replicas, from Fatima Lawan experts to a triple accent lineup of quasi-characters. This generation of Tufts has struggled to figure out what makes them great, and, on a more basic level, who they actually are. If they can do that this year, we expect they could be a threat to win it all. If not, then the Jumbos may rest precisely where they stood in New Rochelle last year: close, but not close enough.

17. UC Santa Barbara A
The West Coast is filled with powerhouse teams. However, just the second West Coast team on our list is all the way down here at 17: UC Santa Barbara. Of the west coast teams, Santa Barbara is one of the least well known. They don’t have UCLA’s recent national title (or the famed, scary B team), the TBC and Gauntlet success of Irvine, or dominant ORCS performances like USC. Besides well-watched footage of a 2022 NCT round with Tufts released on Impeachments a few years back, UCSB is relatively low-profile for a competitive program. But what they do have that no other West Coast team has this year is momentum. UCLA is losing almost their entire A team. Irvine is losing the Darwish/Jones duo. USC is graduating multiple members from their A team. And then there’s UC Santa Barbara, who not only just picked up TBC Winner Stephen Johnson as a coach, but is returning their entire A team. They earned an honorable mention in 2023, lost all but one member of that A team and came back last year to get an honorable mention.

So, who’s on this elusive Santa Barbara squad? Normally, we’d start with some award winners (maybe an All American or two) but we believe the most noteworthy competitor here is actually someone without a whole lot of hardware. Alina Champon. She’s a double threat— a charismatic opener, fantastic sympathetic witness, hilarious character witness and credible expert. She really can do it all. Talented competitors who can both attorney and witness at a high level are a rare breed, but talented attorneys who can pull off varied kinds of witnesses are even rarer. What’s more, Champon is the only member of this team to be on both the 2023 and 2024 iterations of the UCSB team we saw at NCT, and we expect her presence had something to do with the newer faces pulling off an ORCS bid in 2024. So awards aren’t everything, and Champon is here to prove it in the flesh (although we would be surprised if she didn't get some trinkets to commemorate her talent this upcoming year).

Joining Champon will be a few names that you may have seen on some west coast tab summaries. First we’ve got two time All National Attorney Mia Wercinski. Wercinski is a phenomenal closer whose real world style provides a breath of fresh air on the west coast. Having already cleaned up at the LA ORCS two years in a row, if UCSB can capture another National bid she just might be the next great Santa Barbara All American. Then we’ve got All Regional Attorney Luke Morales and All Regional Witness Paulina Dsouza who both bring the star power. And finally, we expect to see great things from UCSB’s co captain from this past year Allison Petek. The scary thing about Santa Barbara is that they’re bringing back a core group that has now been battle tested at the highest level. With another year of experience under their belt, they’ll certainly be a team to watch.  They have the talent. They have the experience. They have the coaching. All that’s left is a coveted podium spot— and we think this team has the ability to do it in Cleveland.

18. UCLA B
This is insane. It is an extreme rarity that we have two different teams from the same program making our list. Not only that, this is the second year in a row that UCLA B takes a spot. And if you went by TPR, we’d have them about 11 spots too low. All that is to say that UCLA was and still is a powerhouse. They are one of few programs who reliably have a chance to send two programs to Nationals. So before we dive into what’s in store for the B team Bruins, let’s talk about how they’ve gotten it done.

For the past two years, UCLA B has had an incredible common denominator. Experience. From the Killedar and Bazarsky-led 2023 team, to this past year featuring 4 seniors including All American Allison Rulli and All National Dyllan Balassi. It is an absolute luxury to have competitors with that kind of wealth of experience on a B team. And as we can see, it can lead to some pretty astounding results. That being said, with the graduation of 8 people from their A team and 4 from their B team, we expect this team to get a little bit younger this year. But we’d warn against the trap of thinking that younger means less formidable.

The thing about UCLA is that they are incredible at developing their young talent. Look no further than their results at the Rookie Rumble. In an almost inconceivable fashion, they are coming off of their third consecutive appearance in the final round of that tournament. Why you might ask? Because they are good at creating standouts and doing it fast.  While they haven’t won that title just yet, it demonstrates a clear pattern of having consistently strong younger members.

There’s going to be a huge pool of candidates competing for the spots on this team along with UCLA A. So we’ve got a few names we think you could see rolling with UCLA B when stacked season rolls around. First off we’ve got Abygale Kim. Kim is a dynamite attorney in the well and a charmingly educational expert. Urja Gathoo has been consistently awarding out on the West Coast. Sophia Leddy showed off a mixture of power and poise with her opening and cross in the Rookie Rumble final that could have her make the jump from C team. And an All Regional and Rookie Rumble award for Morgan Soundy seem to be signs that she could be one of the next superstar witnesses that is the hallmark of UCLA mock trial.

UCLA mock trial is all about big moments, and their B team is no exception. So while this B team may not feature the senior leadership that has carried the past two iterations to national success, they will be a threat to take a spot in Cleveland. And if history is any indicator, they won’t just make it, they’ll threaten to make a round 5. Good luck to the B team Bruins for this upcoming season.

19. Georgia Tech A
By request of the program, we do not write about Georgia Tech.

20. Georgia A
The year is 2025, and the top 48 teams in the country are under one roof in Cleveland waiting for the start of the 40th NCT. The pressure is on, and tension among the crowd of attorney LARPers is high. A national championship is at stake, and a lot is on the line. That much pressure is enough to turn even the warmest, kindest competitors on 47 of those 48 teams cold-hearted. But there's one team that's different. They roam through the halls, prowling like a pack of wolves, or dogs… nay, like Bulldogs. They can smell fear. They're armed with southern chivalry and a certain charm unique to their neck of the woods. They’re Georgia, and their goal is simple: win ballots and make their opponents fall in love with them while doing it.

And win ballots they have. For the past 5 years, Georgia has proven that they’re a juggernaut of the East Coast. Their invite seasons in the past have consisted of a good mix of both high- and middle-level invitationals. GAMTI, GCF, Tobacco Road, and Ramblin Wreck are all invitationals where they consistently succeed. Invite schedule aside, it's clear that whatever mantra they use to stack their teams come AMTA season is working. This year, the Bulldogs swept Jackson Regionals, taking off with two ORCS bids and an A team with a perfect record after a tough weekend against steep competition. If that sounds impressive to you, then go ahead and take a look at their results from Memphis ORCS. Again, they pulled off leaving with the first bid out (something they’ve done two years in a row now, at last year’s equally difficult Greenville ORCS). To top it all off, they left Rhodes’ campus with two All National awards, one for up-and-coming witness talent Alex Dean, and one for the TBC alum and soon-to-be 1L at Drexel that we all know and love, Bryan Walker.

This all culminated to a 9th place result in the Darrow division at this year's NCT in Chicago. While a 6-5-1 record is nothing to take lightly, it's clear that these dawgs did not have it easy. They started the weekend strong but ended up with rounds against a particularly strong UT Austin, and our reigning NCT Runners-Up Hillsdale in rounds three and four. The 4.5 ballots UGA dropped in those rounds weren’t lost without a fight: the Bulldogs managed to split cleanly with the eventual division champions, taking a tie and a +12 win away from round four. In fact, these Southern stunners ended their weekend with the highest CS out of all 48 teams— a whopping 31.5.

If that's how their 2023-2024 season ended, it begs the question: is it possible for them to do it all again? Surveys say yes. However, there is one dragon shaped elephant in the room. For these past three to four years of success, there has been one common denominator: Bryan Walker. Georgia’s most recent All-American attorney and two-time TBC competitor has graduated, going to cross over the rainbow bridge to where fun mock goes to die: law school (curse you, Phil Pasquarello). Even though Walker seems to be the only member of the 2024 NCT squad who won’t be returning, his absence marks a standout loss for their program. What’s more, Walker’s commitment to Drexel means Georgia won’t enjoy the benefits of washed-up-recent-alum coaching— the sheer geographical difference won’t allow it.

Filling the Walker-shaped hole in both their program and the hearts of the American people is a legion of strong captains and awardees. While they may not seem like top dawg competitors to those unfamiliar with their teams, there are certainly names within their program that are not to be scoffed at. The aforementioned All-National Alex Dean, TBC second-chair and opener extraordinaire Katie Gilk, and a slew of younger fresh talent are obvious standouts. We expect Georgia will succeed this year, as Walker steps away leaving the program in good hands. There isn’t much else to say besides, GO DAWGS!

21. UC Irvine A
This year, keep an eye out for UC Irvine. In 2023, they were top five at NCT, leaving Memphis with both a fourth place trophy and a SPAMTA. Josiah Jones might have left the 2023 season without an All American, but he did walk away with TBC runner-up laurels just a few months later. Going into the 2023-2024 season, Irvine was a little bit of a question mark. They graduated four of their six-person NCT team, and all that remained was Jones and Gauntlet Runner Dylan Darwish. So they rebuilt. They pulled up some B, C, and D members, regrouped, and walked away from the 2024 LA ORCS undefeated. They followed that up with an honorable mention in Chicago, two All Americans for Jones and a Gauntlet 8th place finish for Darwish. You’d think they’re on the up, right? Well, it's time to regroup again. Because they’ve swung into the exact opposite position from where they were in 2023. They’re returning almost every member of their A team, with two notable exceptions: Jones and Darwish (and Julie Abing, shoutout!).

The question for this year’s Irvine Team is this: how did they recover from 2023 to 2024, and how can they translate it to 2025? One possibility is that the new members of this 2024 A team really stepped up to fill their predecessor’s shoes, and they’ll come back stronger and better this year after a little bit of NCT experience under their belts. The other possibility is that Jones and Darwish carried that team, and are leaving behind some impossible-to-fill shoes. The third possibility is that it’s a combination of both (which to be realistic, is always the case to some degree). Looking at the numbers, this stacked A team won 14 awards this winter, and 13 of them were won by either Jones or Darwish— an insanely dominant run from just two members of the team. Look out for that one other winter award winner, All-National witness Sophia Hobby. She’s one of the best sympathetic witnesses in the country, who we expect will lead their witness bench this season. In addition to Hobby, Irvine also has a wealth of young talent. Look out for Rookie Rumble award winners Khushi Patel and Stephanie Stahovich, who racked up 34 and 35 rank witness awards as attorneys and witnesses, respectively. You’ll also want to follow the trajectory of All National Attorney and All Regional witness Alexa Evrigenis— a double threat if we’ve ever seen one, and a star with a real stage to shine on next spring. Those are also just the members we think have the resume to shoutout this fall–in an A team that’s almost entirely returners, there’s always the possibility that competitors with lower award counts get a chance to show off.

In their NCT recap Instagram post, Irvine surprised us with a mock trial fun fact even we weren’t aware of–Jones’ double All-American in Chicago was the team’s first in the past six years. Having watched them compete over the past few years, we find ourselves shocked. While Jones was more than deserving of the honor (overdue, as we said in our NCT writeup), we think he’s far from alone in that regard amongst Irvine’s roster. As the Anteater A team returns to the 24-25 season with experience, we’re excited to see a whole lot more of their star-studded cast get their due recognition–and maybe some hardware to go with it.

22. Wash U St. Louis A
St. Louis: the originator of the ice cream cone, the starting point for Lewis and Clark’s expedition, and the birthplace of a famed 20th-century poet. Yes, it would have been great to compare William Choi to a strawberry scoop with extra sprinkles, or Elijah Weisman and Sarah Rosen to pioneering adventurers. But it seemed WAY more fun to weave in a conceit to a pessimistic, disillusioned, existence-dreading author. So, TS Eliot– take us away.

“I learn a great deal by merely observing you, and letting you talk as long as you please, and taking note of what you do not say”: While technically a quote from our poet of the hour, we imagine any scout scribbling notes about WashU would say the same. The Bears are sharp as tacks, precisely crafting their case theories to highlight their best arguments. WashU is not a team that will let you get away with highly objectionable evidence, and they will make it hurt if you walk into round with a scattered case theory. They’re slick, they’re highly prepared, and they let everyone know it.  

“I think we are in [the Bears’] alley/Where the dead [mockers] lost their bones”: Lurking in that alley last year was an A team that wasn’t looking to take prisoners. At the forefront were Elijah Weisman, Sarah Rosen, and William Choi. Rosen, one of the A team captains, fully embraced her assertive, responsive, and polished style all the way to an All-American. Choi joined Rosen as a Nationals captain and opener extraordinaire, and will likely be returning to tear up the circuit this year.

“For last year's words belong to last year's language / And next year's words await another voice”: After graduating two of their most formidable competitors in Weisman and Rosen, we must now listen for what voices we can expect to hear next year. And one of the best voices you could hope for comes from Gavin Cohen. Cohen will be serving as President, and will likely be repeating his role as an A team closer. He scooped up an All-National last year, and we wouldn’t have been surprised to see him snag an All-American too. He isn’t the only young talent: Roman DerManuelian, a sophomore, just left Rookie Rumble with an award to his name. Waiting in the wings as a witness is another All-National, in Chantal Ogbeifun from the B team.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”: On the flipside of their choice to play a smooth, risk-averse style is the possibility that we haven’t seen all that the Bears could be just yet. We saw flashes of it from Rosen and can sense it just below the surface for Will Armstrong, Cohen, and some of their witnessing talent, but the post-Young Stern WUMT just hasn’t embraced full performative flair. Playing it safe has worked well for a mostly seasoned A team, but with the slew of younger talent, the calculus of their strategy may need a change. Without the depth of knowledge and experience that years of competing brings, an unflappable and perfectly poised style is much more difficult to pull off–even more difficult while we’re in the midst of an uptick in top placing performances from teams with a similarly polished style. We’ll see if the Bears try to elevate their end-of-year finishes by playing it a little faster and looser with some fresh new talent.

“April is the cruelest month”; “Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity”: For the past three years, this team has cleaned up at invitationals, smashed through Regionals, and led the pack at ORCS. But in the past three years, the Bears haven’t quite made it to the top of the heap at Nationals. They finished the season with an honorable mention last year, and a 10th place finish the year before. Nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, but we imagine it’s a ways off from what these mockers would be satisfied with. If there’s one thing we’re sure of after seeing them compete, it’s that the Bears are hungry. Whether it's a new play on their style, an inventive theory, or a bold roster choice, WashU would be the ones to figure out what exactly they need to do to make it work.  

As our dear TS Eliot would say, “sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough”. And, readers, we think WashU does.

23. Southern California A
They finally did it! After two years in a row of dominating the Los Angeles ORCS before going 4-8 at nationals, the Trojans have at last broken their streak and managed to place, walking out of Chicago with a 10th place trophy and earning them a spot in our top 25 list for the first time in MAIMD history.

Anyone who competes on the West Coast knows that USC A is a bit of an enigma. Throughout the invitational season, they mostly attend non-West Coast tournaments, so when AMTA season rolls around they’re usually seeing the other West Coast teams for the first time. Yet this hasn’t proven to be any obstacle. In February, USC A breezed through the Claremont Regionals with seven wins, earning the second bid out. March saw the Trojans saddling up for another sunny Los Angeles ORCS, which is consistently ranked as one of the most challenging ORCS in the country and in recent years has ended the season for powerhouse teams like Stanford and Berkeley. Yet year after year the Trojans make the LA ORCS look like child’s play: they went undefeated in 2022, earned the first bid out in 2023 with 7 wins, and secured the third bid this year with 6.5 wins. When it comes down to it, the Trojans can more than hold their own against the best in the West.

But until this year, those closing ceremonies in Los Angeles have been the peak of the Trojans’ seasons. In 2022 and 2023 they walked away from nationals with a losing record and no All-Americans. But we predicted in our Nationals post that this year would be different for the Trojans, and we were right. Coming in with more experience than a lot of the teams in the NCT field, the Trojans proved that they had learned from their past mistakes. And it wasn’t just USC A that found success in Chicago — USC B also competed in the Windy City and earned an honorable mention in their division with seven wins. The fact that both USC teams were able to achieve successful National outcomes this year, including a B team with no prior NCT experience, is a testament to their program’s depth and their coaching team’s talent. It looks like USC has finally gotten a grasp on how to handle the Nationals case, and we’re willing to bet they’ll make an even stronger showing in Cleveland next year.

Going into next season USC A will be led by A-team staple and All-Regional attorney Ashley Beers and All-National double-threat Alyse Saucedo. While the Trojans are graduating Logan Barth and All-Regional witness Gabriella Marquez, they have plenty of talent from their B team to fill those shoes. Most notably, we expect to see All-American opener Aishat Tiamiyu join the A-team ranks.

All in all, we expect to see great things from the Trojans this year and we wouldn’t be surprised if you hear their name called out on the Cleveland podium next April (and here’s hoping the AMTA Reps remember they’re the Trojans of Southern California, NOT South Carolina this time!)

24. Northwestern A
Last year we were hopeful for Northwestern’s chances. In our 2023-2024 Pre-Season post, we wrote that “we expect Northwestern to be competing at NCT in Chicago this year and who knows, maybe with a hometown advantage they can even find their way to break that ever-present 9th place curse.” Well, dear reader, in a way we were half right: the Wildcats did in fact manage to break the ninth-at-NCT streak they’ve been on for a while now. But they weren’t competing at NCT in Chicago— come April, despite what would have been an incredibly short commute to the Daley Center, these students stayed at home.

Northwestern saw their season cut short at the St. Paul ORCS, dropping crucial ballots to the Wolverines of Michigan and a ruthless 6-2 Drake squad that would go on to take ballots off Georgia Tech and Yale in Chicago. Let’s be clear: Michigan was an unlucky draw, and Drake was a less-than-ideal R4 matchup. Every team’s job is to make it work with the pairings they’re dealt, but St. Paul was a shocking end to an undeniably talented team’s season. Earlier on last year, this squad took home a seventh place trophy at Great Chicago Fire, coming out on top against the best competitors in the country, and just a few weeks before St. Paul coasted comfortably through Des Moines Regionals with 7.5 ballots to show for it. So St. Paul ORCS was an unexpected and bitter end for Northwestern, and we expect they’ll be back for blood in 2025.

However, looking ahead to next year, the Wildcats have some rebuilding to do. There’s some obvious talent that remains: double threat, Gauntlet alum, and Air Force cadet Rand Meyer will surely be back with a smile and a thirst for vengeance. Joining him are four other members of the A team that struggled in Minnesota who we expect will only be further motivated by the end-of-season woes. We’re likely to see Meyer’s Gauntlet second chairs Claire Humphrey and Graham Umbanhowar, newly inaugurated President Ben Hempker, and freshman-on-A-teamer Tahlia Margulies Humphrey reprise their roles in the 2024-2025 season. We don’t need to tell you that’s a big chunk of the top team to bring back (four members from a talented A team is a pretty good ratio) but after a disappointing end to the season, Northwestern might be hoping to bring some fresh new ideas into the fold.

Luckily for these Wildcats, the 2024-2025 competitive year just might give them the chance to do exactly that. The Northwestern bench is a deep one: younger competitors like Jordyn Howard could bring a much-needed dynamism to an ultra-polished and sometimes stiff program, and Saamiyah Khan’s inventive character witnessing suggests an element that could push this band of merry mockers to the next level. In the past, we’ve seen Northwestern walk a comfortable line of responsiveness and polish; recent years have seen the Wildcats stray perhaps too hard towards polish, to the detriment of their in-round ability to counter talented teams’ case theories. It’s impossible to say for sure, but we think next year could be a promising year to bring them back towards a decent balance. Who knows— we think it’s even possible we’ll see them sitting pretty back at their customary 10th place finish come April.

25. Brown A
For the past two years, Brown A has flown largely under the radar. In part, it’s because of their personnel: Alex Lee, Aniyah Nelson, and their merry band of Brunonians are not personally intimidating, or mean, or boisterously outgoing. They’re damn good at mock trial, yes, but somehow the enormous reputations that accompany their Northeastern counterparts— think Harvard or Yale—have eluded them. Which is odd, because since their return to NCT-level mock trial in 2023, Brown Mock Trial has shown flashes of brilliance that ought to have us quaking in our boots. In Memphis, Brown A was the team that knocked Irvine out of contention and played Harvard A in a high-high R4 to decide the division winner. In Philadelphia, it was Michael Chandler, Kiara Moon, and their glorious coach Michael D’Ippolito who made the semis and placed 4th in a star-studded TBC field. So on the team occupying our 25th and final spot in MAIMD’s preseason rankings, we have a prediction not just for them, dear reader, but for you: you are already underestimating Brown A. Don’t.

Headlined by their All-American duo Aniyah Nelson and Alex Lee, Brown returns with no shortage of talent: look for Nicholas Kitahata to take a big leap forward this year, alongside A-team returner Christopher Bianco or even young talent like John Lee. Come February, they’ll arrive at regionals with a roster no less talented than the years before. Stylistically, Brown’s programmatic style closely resembles that of their stars: clean, clear, intellectual—but not exactly flashy. Again and again, Brown fields a remarkably streamlined, sensical theory and backs it up with excellent fundamentals and seamless scripts. It comes at a cost: you won’t see them getting wrapped up in the emotion of a case, or going for a whole lot of flash (and you’ll certainly see some recycled rhetoric), but then again neither did UVA as they stormed to a fourth national title. So why did Brown’s clean, professional style let them down in clean-and-professional Chicago? Did Kiara Moon fall ill with food poisoning? Did they plan their case around an Alex Lee demo exclusively using dry-erase markers, colored liquids, and [third thing the Daley Center banned]? Was Jack Stein’s famous old-person witness confused for an actual judge? A negative record at the Daley Center underscores that just as Brown can reach incredible highs, they can struggle against top competition. This isn’t the first time I’ve written it, dear reader, and the Brunos have probably grown tired of reading it, but Brown has not fully found a replacement for Michael Chandler and his high-risk, high-reward theatrics. We wonder whether Brown simply needs to crack the code to performing a good old-fashioned bit. But if they do—if Nelson continues to increase her showmanship, or another competitor arrives to take up the mantle, we are certain that next year Brown will be ranked a heck of a lot higher than 25. They’re the ultimate sleeping giant, a program with the talent, theory crafting, and foundations of an elite team. All that’s left is for them to put the pieces together.

We analyzed tab summaries from the past three seasons as well as compiled thoughts based on the rounds that each of our contributors have seen. From that analysis, we’ve crafted a list of accomplished individual competitors returning for the upcoming season that we think will perform particularly well. Some of these individuals made the list for taking an extraordinary number of awards this year, others may have taken fewer awards (particularly if they were overshadowed by someone who has now graduated), but based on our experiences with these individuals we think all of them will be standouts this year. Please let us know who we’ve missed—we’re certain we don’t have every elite competitor in the country on this list!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1swh4xTI83hddi8ycc-diJsgS3DptWgHGD9H0sU27mn4/edit?usp=sharing



Below, we’ve included our predictions for how some major events will turn out in the 2024-25 season. These are the result of a lot of discussion and debate among our contributors. As you would expect, and appropriate of the inherent subjectivity of mock trial, we weren’t able to reach a consensus on any of the questions. But the predictions below represent the majority opinion of our group. We’re particularly excited to revisit this list at the end of the year and see how we did! If you have other predictions like these feel free to share them.

NCT Champion: Chicago

NCT Final Teams: UVA & Chicago

Most Likely for B Team to Outplace A Team: UCLA

Most Likely to be Undefeated Through Regionals and ORCS: UVA

Most Likely to Get Two Teams to NCT: UCLA

GAMTI Champion: UVA

GCF Champion: Emory

Best Bench:
Opener: Jon Hubbard
Middle: Aiza Kidwai
Closer: Ethan Marx

Best Crier: José Sarmiento
Best Character: Emma Rose Maloney
Best Expert: Alex Lee