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...per the 98 Blades vs 98 Machine thread, which teams would be considered AAA or AA. Of the top of my head the list of teams are:

Legacy
Miracle
Flames
Lake Superior Stars
Machine
Easton Synergy
Easton Stealth
Min/Wis Elite
Blades
Magicians
RBK
Icemen
Monopoly
Edge
Rockets
Deuce
Snipers/Grinders
Skate to Excellence
Showcase teams - i.e. Vipers, Jr Wild, Jr Gophers, etc
Others, sorry if I forgot someone -

Start with the top 2, Blades and machine, then you could go stars, iceman, any order along with the duece, wings right after, if they could keep same team togetr be right with the stars and iceman. Magicians are on the right track. Midwest Elite, never know what team they are going to bring, and whos other teams players they have, never their own teams Showcase has a lot of teams, could they start making excellent teams, maybe, maybe not. what about the MN Miracle?

noonespecial wrote:Start with the top 2, Blades and machine, then you could go stars, iceman, any order along with the duece, wings right after, if they could keep same team togetr be right with the stars and iceman. Magicians are on the right track. Midwest Elite, never know what team they are going to bring, and whos other teams players they have, never their own teams Showcase has a lot of teams, could they start making excellent teams, maybe, maybe not. what about the MN Miracle?

good thread but at 15 players a team at one level you would need 285 AAA players to fill the above list. Not very realistic. Let everyone call themselves AAA to make everyone feel good. Let the true AAA teams search out and find the competition like they do. Besides it gives people on the board something to argue about.

Look at the results from the most recent 98 AAA invite tournament that didn't include the Blades and Machine, it may help with finding out who would round out the top five.

Per Easton Website Tournament Ended:
Champions - Easton Synergy
2nd Place - Easton Stealth
3rd Place - Lake Superior Stars
4th Place - Deuce

I don't believe you can classify only the Blades and Machine as the only true AAA teams, are they the two top teams. Yes, but there are also teams that compete at this level and are a few players away from the two top dogs.

Those are the only teams on the above list that were at that tournament.

del

If teams would just go to the right tourneys and find out how good they are with the team they have, this would all play out, As said before, do not load a team and go to a open tourney. If you need to ask top players, go to the invites or top tourneys and see what you have

Having kids that have and are playing at various levels of the so-called Minnesota AAA my opinion is:

If we are trying to classify teams as AAA then you have to play other AAA teams from around the country - in other words, you can't just stay at home and play against the same teams every tournament - go travel and find out if you can play against the country's Tier1 AAA Summer teams and if you can win, then maybe you deserve the title AAA.

At the 98 Level, the only teams that make a concerted effort to travel and play teams from around the country are the Machine, Blades and Icemen.

1. Machine are on top - beat the Blades twice. Won both local tournaments this year but have proven successful when they travel.Will be in Winnipeg in a few weeks.

2. Blades - lost to Machine twice, 1 win and 1 loss against Icemen, made it to semi-finals at Prospects in Toronto. Will be in Winnipeg in a few weeks.

3. Icemen - Went 5 - 1 and took 2nd in Chicago with only loss to Chicago Mission, .500 against Blades this year. Will be in Winnipeg in a few weeks.

A team that doesn't travel and plays the same teams over-and-over again isn't a bad thing and I am not trying to rip on them (I would be ripping on my own kid if that was the case) but my point is that it is hard to categorize them as AAA if they haven't sought out and played against legitimate Tier1 programs.

good way to put it

InigoMontoya wrote:Those are the only teams on the above list that were at that tournament.

Sorry let me correct that:

1st - Easton Synergy
2nd - Easton Stealth
3rd - Lake Superior Stars
4th - Deuce
5th - 99 Blades
6th - Madison Stars