It all comes down to PBR Outlaw Days for the final event of the 2026 Team Series regular season, and the pressure is at its highest as teams fight tooth and nail for positioning.

Last weekend was the highest-scoring event of the season, and the stakes are higher this weekend as teams hurry to produce at their very best.

The Thunder have the No. 1 seed locked up, but everything else is for the taking. Most notably, who between the Gamblers, Cowboys, Stampede, or even the Rattlers will secure a Day 1 bye at the Teams Championship?

On the other side of the standings, the Wildcatters, Freedom, and Mavericks are all at risk of playing in the 8th-10th elimination game on Day 1 of the Championship. It would kneecap their chances of a title, forcing them to take the hardest path possible.

If things couldn’t get exciting enough, the MVP race between Jose Vitor Leme and Paulo Eduardo Rossetto will be decided this weekend.

Here’s everything you need to know before the final event of the 2026 regular season kicks off in Kansas City on Friday:

Missouri Thunder:

The Missouri Thunder clinched the regular season championship last week for the first time in franchise history. They’ve cruised to a franchise-record 23 wins and have the chance to make more history in Kansas City.

If the Thunder go undefeated this weekend, they’d finish the regular season 26-9 with the best win percentage in Team Series history at 74.3%. If they go 2-1, they’ll tie the 2025 Freedom at 71.4% and share the record.

Furthermore, Paulo Eduardo Rossetto still has a shot at dethroning Jose Vitor Leme in the MVP race. Rossetto has already covered 25 bulls, tied for third most in Teams history. However, he’s two bulls short of Leme, who’s covered 27, and trails him by 179.45 points. Despite Rossetto’s historic season, which saw him ride a Team Series record 15 bulls in a row, his only hope is for Leme to buck off twice, if not all three, which Leme hasn’t done at an even this season. Rossetto’s margins are razor-thin; if he bucks off Friday and Leme scores, then that’s it, Leme wins his 3rd League MVP. But if Rossetto can cover all three, which he’s done like clockwork this season, there’s a chance he walks away with his first piece of Premier Series hardware.

Flanking Rossetto are Julio Cesar Marques, Felipe Furlan, and Macaulie Leather, who are all on career years already. Those three had never scored double-digit rides in a season, but now all three have ridden at least 11 and counting.

The Thunder face the 7th-place Ridge Riders on Friday, whom they’ve beaten three times already this season.

Austin Gamblers:

While 1st-place is out of reach for the Gamblers, they’ll fight to keep their 2nd-place position. At 19-13, the Gamblers are tied with the Cowboys and are a game ahead of the Stampede, who are in 4th.

They want to avoid 4th, as they’ll lose their Day 1 bye at the Teams Championship. But it would take a massive collapse from the Gamblers for that to happen. They have the second-most rides in the league at 76, giving them the tie-breaker over every team below them. They also have the MVP leader on their squad in Jose Vitor Leme, who’s close to locking up the award.

Leme currently holds the record for most rides in a regular season in Teams history with 27, and he’ll have the opportunity to extend the record to 30. Leme also has the best ride percentage in Teams history at 87.10%, and even if he bucks off all three, he’ll still have the record. But Leme can’t buck off all three, as he’s 179.45 points ahead of Paulo Eduardo Rossetto in the MVP race. He could secure his 3rd League MVP on Friday with a score and a Rossetto buckoff. Leme needs to ride at least 2-of-3 to lock it up no matter what, which he’s done at every event this season.

Their next best four of Sage Kimzey, Dalton Kasel, Kaique Pacheco, and Dener Barbosa have combined for another 41 rides, but only Kasel has ridden at least 50% of his bulls.

The Gamblers face the Cowboys in Game 1 on Friday, and the winner gets a game ahead of 3rd-place. The Gamblers will need all the firepower they can muster to beat the Cowboys and end their season how they want to.

Carolina Cowboys:

The Cowboys sit in 3rd with a 19-13 record, tied with the Gamblers. Like the Gamblers, the Cowboys would like to keep their Top 3 seed and Day 1 bye. They’ll take on the Gamblers on Friday, and a win gets them into 2nd place.

However, the Cowboys will once again be without Jess Lockwood, who’s expected back for the Championship, and chose to start Krash Hevalow against the Gamblers in his first career out.

They’re giving Guilherme Valleiras a break too, and instead giving Ezekiel Mitchell the starting nod, who has scored his first and second rides of the season in each of the last two events.

They’re only a game ahead of the Stampede and won’t win a tiebreaker, as they have just 62 total rides, so a loss in Game 1 could result in the Cowboys falling to 4th.

However, the Cowboys will have Thiago Salgado and Clay Guiton to lead them Friday. They’ve combined to ride 9-of-16 in the last three events.

The Cowboys aren’t starting their final event at full force, but the 2025 World Champions have their eyes on repeating.

Nashville Stampede:

With one event left, the Nashville Stampede sit in 4th with an 18-14 record and, for the first time this season, are on the outside looking in. The Stampede exploded out of the gate to 1st place almost immediately and kept a Top 3 spot for the rest of the season, until now, when it matters most.

The Stampede are eyeing either the Gamblers or Cowboys spot in the standings, and they’ll have an incredible opportunity to do just that on Friday. The Cowboys and Gamblers play each other, while the Stampede play the 9th-place Freedom. If the Stampede win, they’ll match the loser of the Cowboys/Gamblers game’s record and have a chance at overtaking them in the standings via tiebreaker.

All the Stampede need to do is focus on winning, and their roster is built to do just that. The Stampede lead the league with four riders inside the top 15 of the standings. Their top five riders have combined for 70 of the team’s 71 rides, making their starting five the highest-scoring group in the league. It may be unsustainable come the Semifinals and Finals of the Teams Championship, where the format becomes 6v6 and then 7v7. But regardless, the Stampede are dangerous contenders, and they’ll have to win in Kansas City first to put them in the best possible position for the Teams Championship.

Texas Rattlers:

The Rattlers have been the most bipolar team of the season, flip-flopping between good and bad event finishes the entire season. They finished 2-1 last weekend, which brought them back into 5th place with a 16-16 record, but curses them for this weekend. Only once this season have the Rattlers finished back-to-back events with a winning record. Furthermore, they’ll be resting Brady Fielder on Friday against the Wildcatters, whom they have a 1-2 record against this season.

Texas sits three games away from the Top 3 and Bottom 3 teams, making it unlikely they’ll end up with a bye or fall into the double-elimination games at the Teams Championship.

To their credit, they scored a league-high 443.95 points in a perfect game last weekend, and scored a season-high 10 rides. That production is more than enough for the Rattlers to find some stability here at the end of the season. But it’s yet to be determined if they can replicate even half of that.

The Rattlers have the best average score per ride in the league at 88.53, but their 61 total rides rank in the bottom five.

Fielder and Daniel Keeping make up 37 of those 61 rides and are the only teammates ranked inside the Top 10. Keeping has tied his career high of 17 rides and will almost certainly break that record for his best Teams season to date.

Josh Frost will start in Fielder’s place on Friday. He and the Rattler depth stepped up last weekend, and they’ll need to again in order to finish the event and the season strong.

Kansas City Outlaws:

Despite having their highest-scoring event of the season last weekend, the Outlaws won one game and sit in 6th with a 14-18 record. They’ll host the final event of the 2026 regular season, however, and will hopefully end their season on a high note. Seven of the nine host teams finished with a positive record in their home venue, and the Outlaws will need to win to avoid falling into the Bottom 3.

The Outlaws have emerged as a matchup nightmare for opposing teams, however. Led by Sandro Batista, who’s on track to have his best season ever, the Outlaws have won 8 of their last 12 games and scored 31 of their season total of 65 rides in that time frame.

Batista has covered 21-of-32 this season, including his last seven, and is one ride away from matching his career high of 22 set in 2024. He finished 3rd that season and is on track to finish 3rd this season also. Behind him are Eric Henrique Domingos and Hayden Welsh, who have each ridden at least 50% of their bulls this season. Domingos has covered nine of his last 11, while Welsh has matched five of his last 10, with two 90-point scores in that streak.

The Outlaws will miss Koltin Hevalow for the rest of the season and will be without Cassio Dias until at least the Teams Championship. But they have found some success trusting Maikon Calixton Rocha, who has scored all four of his rides this season in each of the last three events.

He’ll start again on Friday against the New York Mavericks in a crucial must-win matchup. A loss gets the Outlaws extremely close to the Bottom 3. But they’ll have the home crowd behind them for one last push before the Teams Championship.

Arizona Ridge Riders:

It seemed Arizona had stopped the bleeding after their undefeated homestand two weeks ago, but they finished 0-3 last weekend in New York. They’ll have one final showing in Kansas City to prove what kind of team they are before the Teams Championship.

Their final event begins with a matchup against the No. 1 Thunder, whom the Ridge Riders are 0-3 against this season.

It’ll be an uphill battle to end the season, especially if they want to keep their 7th-place spot and avoid the Bottom 3. But Everton Natan da Silva has led them and will continue to lead them into the Championship tournament. Da Silva has covered 18-of-28 this season and sits 5th in the standings. He’s one ride away from tying his career-high of 19 rides set last season, and just last weekend he was a career-high 90.45 on The Kraken.

However, he’s responsible for 7 of the team’s last 16 scores across the last four events. Only one other Ridge Rider, Eduardo Aparecido, has covered at least 40% of his bulls this season, and Alex Cerqueira, who they just traded for, has the worst ride percentages in the Top 35 at 31.03%.

The Ridge Riders are a game away from dropping into the Bottom 3, and after they face the Thunder, they have the Rattlers and Freedom to close out their season.

New York Mavericks:

The Mavericks went 2-1 at home last weekend, making them 8-4 across their last four events. However, they’re in 8th place with a 13-19 record and, as it stands, would compete in the 10th-8th dual-elimination game at the Teams Championship.

They’ll want to avoid that outcome, and a win against the Outlaws on Friday would put them in an advantageous position.

New York needs to be at their best, though, as they were last weekend, to finish out an already franchise-best season.

Marco Rizzo has taken a huge step forward in his second season. With 17 rides so far, one more would double his total of nine from last year. Rizzo is 10th in the standings and has covered nine of his last 11 bulls.

The Mavericks next best, Mauricio Gulla Moreira, is getting a rest Friday. The team’s next four highest-ranking riders will join Rizzo against the Outlaws. However, those four of Bob Mitchell, Leonardo Castro, Afonso Quintino, and Hudson Bolton have combined for 22 rides in 51 outs.

Bolton and Mitchell have emerged recently, and they’ll get one last weekend of competition before it’s championship time.

The Mavericks have made a complete 180 on their season, and because of that, they can escape the Bottom 3 with another strong event finish

Florida Freedom:

It’s been a rough, injury-ridden season for the Freedom, who are just nearly back to full strength. Austin Richardson will make his return after missing about three weeks of competition. They’re expecting John Crimber, João Lucas Campos, and Ethan Winckler to return for the Teams Championship, and they’ll need them. Especially Crimber, as the Freedom have fallen to 9th place with a 13-19 record and the fewest rides in the league at 47. They currently have a 29.4% ride percentage, and if the season ended today, they’d become the fifth team in Teams history to cover below 30% as a team.

Their ride deficit restricts them from winning tiebreakers, so they must put together a strong last event to escape the bottom three. They start against the 4th-place Stampede, though, and follow that with matchups against the Cowboys and Ridge Riders. The Mavericks have a combined 4-5 record against those three this season, with 2-1 records against both Carolina and Arizona.

Fortunately, Luciano De Castro, whom the Freedom traded for before last event, went a perfect 3-for-3 in his first event in a Freedom uniform. He’ll ride beside Richardson for the first time this season, giving the Freedom an all-new look.

It’ll be a dogfight, but the Freedom have what it takes to make it out of the Bottom 3.

Oklahoma Wildcatters:

It’s been a rough season for Oklahoma, who are almost certainly stuck in last place. Despite being two games behind 9th, the Wildcatters have matched their franchise record of 11 wins and can break that record in Kansas City.

Edaurdo Matos has been a bright spot for Oklahoma this season. He’s 17-for-32 and is 9th in the standings. He’s one ride away from tying his career-high of 18 rides set back in 2024. He finished that season in 6th.

Kaiden Loud, their next best, injured his leg last week and won’t start for the Wildcatters on Friday. They may not get him back until the Championship.

Besides them, only two other Wildcatters have scored more than three times this season.

They’ll take on the Rattlers first, who they’ve defeated twice already this season, followed by the surging Gamblers and Mavericks. They just need one win to earn a franchise record, but they’ll need at least three wins to escape the Bottom 3.