The Honolulu Hahalus came off the previous season with an Ultimus victory to their name and were looking to claim back to back rings. They were able to clinch the ASFC with a record of 11 - 5. They were able to keep most of the key elements of last seasons success in the same place and were able to bring in a couple of free agents, namely the RB Goat Tank from Berlin Fire Salamanders as well the Yellowknife Wraiths DE Stewart Hellraiser. They were the reciprocants of a bye in the wildcard round and were easily able to brush aside the Arizona Outlaws 38 - 21 in the conference round.
Sarasota Sailfish
After a poor S35 Sarasota were looking to bounce back and start to build to be a team to be feared. Two strong looking rookies were added to the team, the DE Harley Andrews and the LB Justin Cloud. The season started strongly with Sarasota winning 6 of their first 8 games, then finished the season even more strongly winning their last 5 games heading into the playoffs. However this later run of form wasn't able to give them the No.1 seed as they finished in second place behind the Chicago Butchers with a 12 - 3 record. A great win in NSFC championship round, saw them beat the Chicago Butchers 22 - 3 to book their place in the Ultimus.