First and foremost: These are not official brackets. That will come from USA Rugby and likely circulate after this weekend when all of the Competitive Regions (CRs) name their champions.
These brackets (LINK) are useful in understanding how teams advanced through playoffs and onto the national quarterfinals, aka, eastern and western regional championships. But the pairings might be different for whatever reason.
With that said, the match-ups reflected in these unofficial brackets are based on last year’s finishes at the western and eastern regional championships:
2018 CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
DIVISION I
West: 1. Pacific North, 2. Red River, 3. Frontier, 4. Pacific South
East: 1. Mid-Atlantic, 2. Atlantic North, 3. Midwest, 4. Mid-Atlantic
DIVISION II
West: 1. Frontier, 2. Pacific South, 3. Pacific North, 4. Red River
East: 1. South, 2. Atlantic North, 3. Midwest, 4. Mid-Atlantic
If the #1 vs. #4, #2 vs. #3 format is used, then the draft brackets should be correct.
The one looming question is how the western regional championships will configure their first-round games. Red River gets two seeds to account for the WPL-bound Life West, which was the only team in the Pacific North CR. A strict adherence to the #1 vs. #4 seeding matchup would pit HARC against the Austin Valkyries. These teams have played each other three times this year.