Bearcats takes over No. 1, Brady Sits Down to #1 delivers the biggest score of Week 2, THE Ohio River Monsters tumble from the top, and the WRL reaches Week 3 with only seven undefeated teams remaining.
Seven days ago, the first chapter of the 2026 Wizard Redraft League season carried the title “Same Throne, New Season.” THE Ohio River Monsters had finished 2025 at No. 1 in the Power Rankings, opened 2026 with the highest score in the entire league, and immediately returned to the exact spot where they had ended the previous season. It was a perfect continuation of one season into the next.
The rest of the WRL announced "the throne was not reserved".
By the end of Week 2, Ohio River had fallen from No. 1 all the way to No. 12, Bearcats had climbed into the top spot, CHAOS had risen to No. 2, and Rum Runners had come from outside the Top 15 to land at No. 3. The highest-scoring team of Week 1 lost. The second-highest-scoring team of Week 1 lost. A game was decided by barely half a point. Another team managed just 80 points. And after beginning the year with 36 undefeated teams, only seven remain.
The road to the first Tri-Wizard Cup is only two weeks old, and already the scenery has changed.
Black Dragon: Bearcats Takes the Throne
For a second consecutive week, Black Dragon gave us more storylines than we could reasonably fit into one headline.
Bearcats entered Week 2 at No. 3 in the Power Rankings after delivering the largest blowout of opening weekend, an 89.06-point dismantling of former champion Teds Lasso. This time the opponent was No. 8 Maniax, one of the ranked-versus-ranked games we highlighted heading into the week. Bearcats did not approach 200 points again, but 164.72 was more than enough for a 164.72-135.28 victory and a 2-0 start.
More importantly, when the Power Rankings recalculated Wednesday morning, Bearcats was sitting at No. 1 with a .972 rating.
The throne has a new occupant.
Bearcats was not even Black Dragon's highest-scoring team this week. That honor belonged to Brady Sits Down to #1, and there is something beautifully appropriate about that team name appearing directly beneath a 190.50-point performance. After receiving our unofficial “ugly win” designation in Week 1 with only 126.52 points, Brady went in completely the opposite direction in Week 2, beating Music City Miracles 190.50-161.82 and producing the highest score of any team in the WRL this week. Two very different performances have produced the same result: Brady Sits Down to #1 is 2-0 and now ranked sixth overall.
Music City, meanwhile, may want to have a conversation with the fantasy football scheduling gods. The Miracles scored 174.72 in Week 1 and lost. They followed that with another respectable 161.82 in Week 2 and lost again. An 0-2 record ordinarily suggests a team struggling to score, but Music City remains No. 14 in the Power Rankings because its point production and All-Play performance tell a very different story. Two weeks into the season, the Miracles may be the best example anywhere in the WRL of why the Power Rankings exist alongside the standings rather than simply copying them.
Then came a finish that made last week's 2.22-point nail-biter look comfortable.
Diablo Valley Detectives entered Week 2 looking for their first victory. So did defending WRL champion Turd Ferguson. When the dust settled, Ferguson had survived 139.98-139.36 — a margin of just 0.62 points. It is now the closest game of the 2026 season, replacing the Boats N Hoes victory over Nauti Dawgs from Week 1. Detectives falls to 0-2 by less than a single point, while the defending champion avoids the same fate and gets into the win column at 1-1.
At the opposite end of the emotional spectrum sat Lunatics. One week after opening the season by beating defending champion Turd Ferguson, the 2023 WRL champion managed only 80.00 points in a 127.96-80.00 loss to Teds Lasso. That is not only the lowest score of Week 2; it is the lowest score produced by any WRL team through the first two weeks of the season. Teds Lasso, meanwhile, gets an important bounce-back victory after absorbing Bearcats' Week 1 beating.
Black Dragon also delivered two more reversals from the opening week. Groot, who scored only 114.38 in a Week 1 loss, erupted for 183.10 and knocked off an Aviators team that had scored 216.52 just seven days earlier. Aviators falls from No. 2 to No. 5 in the rankings. Here For The Beer experienced its own turnaround, following a tough opening loss with a 147.84-93.10 victory over Lucky Ass Ferg. Ferg entered Week 2 ranked fifth; one rough Sunday later, he is outside the Top 15 entirely.
Two weeks into a region filled with championship banners, predictability remains in very short supply.
Red Dragon: From No. 1 to No. 12
Last week, Red Dragon owned our headline because THE Ohio River Monsters had seemingly picked up exactly where 2025 ended. Ohio River scored 234.56 points, led the entire WRL, and reclaimed the No. 1 Power Ranking.
Week 2 provided the first major plot twist of the season.
E-Thugs held the Monsters to 108.80 points and handed them a 155.58-108.80 loss, a staggering reversal from the team that had scored 234.56 only one week earlier. When the new rankings were calculated, Ohio River had fallen from No. 1 to No. 12 with a .667 rating. E-Thugs, meanwhile, moved into the Top 15 at No. 13.
That does not erase anything Ohio River accomplished in Week 1. It does, however, reinforce one of the lessons that will define these early chapters of the season: with 36 teams being judged across record, total scoring and All-Play performance, one enormous week can put a team on the throne, and one bad week can send it tumbling down the stairs.
While the Monsters fell, Rum Runners went flying in the opposite direction. The Hall of Fame-led Runners entered Week 2 outside the Top 15, then delivered one of the strongest performances anywhere in the league with a 183.44-146.38 victory over Mad Scientist. Rum Runners is now 2-0 and has vaulted all the way to No. 3 in the Power Rankings at .833.
For Mad Scientist, the opening two weeks have been considerably less pleasant. We began the season by circling Ohio River versus Mad Scientist as a heavyweight opening matchup between two established FSA GMs. Two weeks later, Mad Scientist is 0-2. The first loss came against the league's Week 1 scoring leader. The second came against a Rum Runners team that is now ranked third overall. Context matters, but eventually the standings stop caring about context. Mad Scientist enters Week 3 needing to begin turning respectable performances into victories.
Red Dragon's other unbeaten team is Villains, which followed its narrow Week 1 victory over Boss Hoggs with a much more comfortable 147.68-107.00 win over Boats N Hoes. At 2-0, Villains climbs from No. 13 to No. 11 in the Power Rankings and becomes one of the final seven undefeated teams in the entire league.
Boss Hoggs bounced back nicely from that Week 1 defeat as well, producing 180.70 points in a 180.70-154.94 victory over Monarchs. Hoggs jumps all the way to No. 8 in the rankings, while the Monarchs remain fourth despite taking their first loss. That is another useful reminder that the Power Rankings are cumulative rather than a simple weekly scoreboard; the Monarchs' 196.74-point opening performance still carries weight after two weeks.
Elsewhere, Garbage Points got its first victory with a 158.78-102.00 win over Nauti Dawgs, while Coolidge Scorpions moved to 1-1 by beating Virginia Blackbeards 140.64-126.98.
Last week, Red Dragon looked like Ohio River's kingdom. Seven days later, Rum Runners sits nine positions above them in the rankings.
No throne is safe.
Gold Dragon: CHAOS Keeps Climbing
Gold Dragon may not have produced Week 2's wildest finish or its highest individual score, but it now has something neither of the other regions can claim: the No. 2 team in the entire WRL.
CHAOS followed its 171.02-point opening victory with another strong performance, scoring 177.24 to beat Southern Sirens 177.24-162.56. Two games, two victories and 348.26 combined points have pushed CHAOS from No. 7 after Week 1 all the way to No. 2 with a .935 Power Ranking.
Only Bearcats sits higher.
Unicorn Legends also remains perfect, although Week 2 came with considerably more Monday-night drama. The Legends entered Monday with the lead over Mantis Mayhem, but Mayhem still had one player whose status remained questionable all the way until game time. When that player was ultimately scratched and did not play, the comeback opportunity disappeared with him. Unicorn Legends escaped 136.72-131.64, improved to 2-0 and sits seventh in the Power Rankings.
Sometimes fantasy football victories come because your lineup erupts. Sometimes they come because the final opposing player never makes it onto the field. The standings award exactly one win either way.
Then there was Gridiron Grinders, which earns Week 2's Ugly Win of the Week with considerable room to spare. The Grinders defeated Average Joes 123.90-91.98 in a game that was never going to threaten any WRL scoring records. It was, however, enough to make Gridiron Grinders 2-0. The interesting part is what happened afterward: despite remaining undefeated, the Grinders dropped completely out of the Top 15.
That is the Power Rankings doing exactly what they were designed to do. Record matters, but it is only one-third of the equation. A 2-0 team that scores 123.90 against a league of 35 other opponents does not receive the same treatment as a 2-0 team consistently posting elite totals.
Fast Johnnie Syndicate made a stronger Week 2 statement with a 167.88-131.40 victory over The Lone Rangers, climbing into the Top 15 at No. 10. The NY Jackets provided one of the better quiet bounce-back stories of the week as well. After scoring a league-low 109.84 in Week 1, the Jackets responded with 168.12 points and defeated Totally Turtley 168.12-157.30. Crayon Crusaders also earned its first victory, edging Rochester Rabbits 139.30-134.70.
Gold Dragon therefore leaves Week 2 with three undefeated teams: CHAOS, Unicorn Legends and Gridiron Grinders. The records may look identical, but the Power Rankings already tell us their first two weeks have been anything but.
Power Rankings: Bearcats Takes Over
Two weeks are enough for the WRL Power Rankings to begin doing something Week 1 could not: measuring consistency.
Bearcats takes over at No. 1 after opening with 199.56 points and following it with 164.72. CHAOS has climbed five positions to No. 2 after consecutive performances above 170. Rum Runners has gone from outside the Top 15 to No. 3, while last week's No. 1 team has fallen eleven positions.
After Week 2, the Top 15 stands as follows:
- Bearcats — .972
- CHAOS — .935
- Rum Runners — .833
- Monarchs — .792
- Aviators — .782
- Brady Sits Down to #1 — .782
- Unicorn Legends — .773
- Boss Hoggs — .736
- Here For The Beer — .699
- Fast Johnnie Syndicate — .681
- Villains — .681
- THE Ohio River Monsters — .667
- E-Thugs — .653
- Music City Miracles — .639
- Totally Turtley — .620
The rankings also reveal how quickly the landscape has shifted. Bearcats moved from third to first. CHAOS jumped from seventh to second. Rum Runners, Boss Hoggs, Brady Sits Down to #1, Fast Johnnie Syndicate and E-Thugs all entered the Top 15 after being outside it a week ago. Meanwhile, Lucky Ass Ferg, Maniax, Virginia Blackbeards, Average Joes and Gridiron Grinders have disappeared from the list.
And then there is Ohio River. Seven days after we built an entire headline around the Monsters reclaiming No. 1, they sit 12th.
Welcome to a 36-team Power Ranking.
Seven Remain
Thirty-six teams began this season undefeated.
After two weeks, only seven remain.
In Black Dragon, Bearcats and Brady Sits Down to #1 are 2-0. Gold Dragon has three unbeaten teams in CHAOS, Unicorn Legends and Gridiron Grinders. Red Dragon sends Rum Runners and Villains into Week 3 without a loss.
That group includes the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the Power Rankings — but also Gridiron Grinders, which is 2-0 and currently outside the Top 15 entirely. It includes teams winning with overwhelming scoring, teams surviving tight games and a team that already owns our Ugly Win of the Week.
They all arrived at 2-0 differently.
Week 3 begins the process of finding out which paths are sustainable.
Week 3 Preview: The Divisions Open Up
Week 3 sends teams across their regions to face opponents from other divisions, and four games feature teams currently ranked inside the Top 15.
Black Dragon supplies two of them.
No. 6 Brady Sits Down to #1 faces No. 9 Here For The Beer in a matchup featuring two teams coming off impressive Week 2 victories. Brady owns the highest score of the week and one of the league's seven undefeated records. Here For The Beer just knocked off last week's No. 5 team and climbed six spots in the rankings. If Brady reaches 3-0, the conversation around this team changes quickly from “nice start” to “one of the teams setting the early pace.”
The other Black Dragon matchup brings together No. 5 Aviators and No. 14 Music City Miracles. Both teams arrive after Week 2 losses, but Music City may be the most dangerous 0-2 team in the league. The Miracles have scored 174.72 and 161.82 and have somehow lost both games. Aviators, meanwhile, went from a 216.52-point Week 1 explosion to a 137.42-point Week 2 loss. Something has to give between two teams whose records do not completely reflect what they have shown through two weeks.
Gold Dragon gives us No. 10 Fast Johnnie Syndicate against No. 15 Totally Turtley. Both teams sit at 1-1, both remain inside the Top 15, and Week 3 gives one of them an opportunity to establish some separation as the schedule moves beyond the opening divisional games.
Red Dragon closes the ranked slate with No. 3 Rum Runners against No. 13 E-Thugs. Rum Runners enters as one of the hottest risers in the entire league, undefeated and suddenly sitting behind only Bearcats and CHAOS. E-Thugs just accomplished something nobody else has managed this season: knock THE Ohio River Monsters off their throne. If E-Thugs follows that victory by handing Rum Runners its first loss, we may have to start talking about them very differently next Wednesday.
And that is really where Chapter Two leaves us.
One week ago, THE Ohio River Monsters looked comfortably familiar sitting atop the league they had already ruled at the end of 2025. Now Bearcats owns the No. 1 ranking, CHAOS is breathing down its neck, Rum Runners has exploded into the top three, seven undefeated teams remain, and several clubs already find themselves staring at the difference between 2-1 and 1-2 — or, in Music City's case, trying desperately to make sure strong scoring finally turns into a victory.
The first chapter told us who struck first.
The second reminded us how quickly fantasy football strikes back.
The throne has changed hands. The road to the Tri-Wizard Cup rolls into Week 3.
