The 2026 PBR Team Series Season has reached its climax with all 10 teams converging on Las Vegas for a shot at the Championship Title at the PBR Teams Championship.

The Missouri Thunder, Austin Gamblers, and Nashville Stampede all earned byes on Day 1. They’ll await the Day 1 matchup results between the Carolina Cowboys and New York Mavericks, Texas Rattlers and Kansas City Outlaws, and the Arizona Ridge Riders, Florida Freedom, and Oklahoma Wildcatters in the Play-in Game.

All 10 teams have their own claims to fame and reasons for and against their ascent to a Championship, but the bottom line is that it’s anyone’s game.

For the first time in Team Series history, the Semifinal and Final matches will feature a new 6v6 and 7v7 format, respectively.

But to even get there, teams will have to battle through two days of the toughest opponents and rankest bulls the PBR has to offer.

The 2026 season has featured plenty of excitement, heartbreak, and everything in between. All that emotion will only get turned up a notch in Las Vegas. Here’s everything you need to know about the teams, players, and stats for the 2026 PBR Teams Championship.

1. Missouri Thunder: 24-11

For the first time in franchise history, the Missouri Thunder finished as the 1-seed heading into the Teams Championship. The Thunder finished the season with a franchise-best 24-11 record and tied the 2025 Austin Gamblers for the 2nd-best win percentage in league history at 68.6%.

Leading the franchise in their career year has been Paulo Eduardo Rossetto, who produced the second-best individual season in Team Series history, only behind the MVP Jose Vitor Leme this year. Rossetto rode 28-of-35, including 15 in a row, for a total of 2476.5 points and 2nd in the MVP race.

His 15 bull ride streak more than doubled his previous career-best streak of seven and is the longest ride streak in Team Series history.

Rossetto will enter the Championship Tourney having ridden nine of his last 11 bulls. He averaged 89.02 points per ride during that streak, more than half a point better than his season average of 88.45.

It wasn’t just Rossetto who had a career year, though, as three other starters did too. Julio Cesar Marques finished 11th and rode 17-of-33, nearly doubling his ride total of nine from last season.

Felipe Furlan doubled his previous career-high rides of six by scoring 12-of-29 this year. Macaulie Leather also scored 12, but in four fewer outs than Furlan. The pair finished 22nd and 24th, respectively.

Maverick Smith rounds out the Thunder’s starting lineup. He scored just seven rides this season, five short of his career-high 12, but still makes the Thunder the highest-scoring starting five in the league with 76 rides between them.

They don’t have much help from the bench, though, besides Ramon Fiorini, who’s 4-for-7 this year. He’s scored three of four since returning to the lineup in New York and finished his season with a career-high 88.6.

The Thunder had the most 3-0 even finishes at four. Their best event was Gambler Days, where they scored 889.85 points on 10-of-15 rides. Furthermore, they finished an event with a record of 2-1 or better a league-leading nine times and finished an event 1-2 or worse just twice, the fewest in the League. They’ve covered at least 50% of bulls in six events this season and lead the league with 2.40 rides and 211.12 points per game.

All of this earned the Thunder a Day 1 bye at the Teams Championship. However, no team with a bye has ever won the Teams Championship. The 1-seed Gamblers in 2023 and the 2-seed Cowboys in 2024 reached the Championship match but were upset.

However, those two teams then won the Teams Championship the season following their reserve-champion result.

The Thunder got to the Championship match last season as the 7-seed but lost to the Cowboys. Championship experience matters, and the Thunder have got that under their belt already. This may be the year that the Thunder become the first-ever 1-seed to win the Championship.

They’ll start their campaign against the winner of Day 1’s Last-Chance game.

2. Austin Gamblers: 22-13

The Austin Gamblers started their season slowly. The Gamblers sat in 6th place halfway through the year with an 8-9 record, but went on to win 14 of their last 18. They finished in 2nd place with a 22-13 record. It’s the fourth time in franchise history the Gamblers end with a Top 2 seed, and for the second straight year.

Throughout all their ups and downs, Jose Vitor Leme has been the team’s one constant. Leme won his 3rd career Teams MVP this season on a 29-for-33 ride campaign. He rode the most bulls in Teams history and with the best ride percentage ever at 87.88%.

He tied his career-long ride streak of 14 in a row this season, marking the 2nd longest ride streak in Team Series history. Furthermore, Leme was 90+ six times this season and broke Chris Shivers’ record for most 90-point rides in Premier Series history with 95 in total.

No other Gambler finished better than 20th, though.

Dalton Kasel finished 20th and covered 13-of-26. He’s the only other Gambler besides Leme to have ridden at least 50% of his bulls.

Sage Kimzey’s behind Kasel in 21st, with 12 bulls ridden this season, followed by Kaique Pacheco and Dener Barbosa in 30th and 35th with nine rides each.

Every other team in the Top 5, along with Arizona, has at least two riders with 15 rides on the season.

The Gamblers have either made it to the Championship match or were eliminated during Day 2. The Gamblers have now earned a bye in four of the five Championship Tournaments, but no team with a bye has ever won the title. In 2024, the year they won the title, the Gamblers finished 5th in the regular season. It was the only time they’d finished outside the Top 2.

If history wasn’t already against them, the MVP has never won the Teams Championship in the same season. However, their MVP, Leme, has been better than anyone ever has been, and the Gamblers will go as far as Leme takes them in Las Vegas. Leme didn’t ride in last year’s Championship Tourney, but he’s 7-for-9 in his career, and the Gamblers are 5-2 when he scores.

The Gamblers will wait to face the winner between the Texas Rattlers and the Kansas City Outlaws on Day 2. Austin has gone a combined 5-3 against both teams this season.

3. Nashville Stampede: 19-16

The Stampede got off to a 9-2 start and held onto the 1st place position for nearly half the season. However, they finished the year on a 10-14 skid and just barely wound up in 3rd place with a bye. They’re a franchise-best 19-16 overall with 76 rides in total; however, 74 of those belong to their starting 5. All five of their starters: Rogério Venâncio, Riquelmi Silva, Alan de Souza, Daniel Feitosa, and Gustavo Luiz da Silva have covered at least 12 bulls, making them the most consistent starting group in the league. They’re also the highest-ranked starting five, with everyone ranked between 8th and 23rd.

But they haven’t been as consistent recently.

Venâncio leads the team in 8th with 18-of-35 covered this season. He’s ridden 6 of his last 11, but hasn’t ridden three in a row since August.

Silva leads the league with five walk-off rides this season and has ridden 6 of his last 9, but also 6 of his last 16.

De Souza’s covered just 2 of his last 11, and Feitosa 4 of his last 12, 6 of his last 20.

Da Silva has been the team’s saving grace down the stretch, covering 10 of his last 14 after starting the season poorly.

There was a point in time when the Stampede had multiple riders in the Top 10, even some competing for MVP, but their regression as a whole has lasted longer than they’d like. The Stampede will need to re-awaken their early-season heroics that got them to where they are if they want a chance at the franchise’s second title.

The Stampede will face the winner between the Carolina Cowboys and the New York Mavericks. The Stampede are tied 2-2 with both teams in their season series.

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4. Carolina Cowboys: 19-16

The 2025 Team Series Champion Carolina Cowboys fumbled their chance at a bye in the last game of the season. At 19-16, the Cowboys needed just one more win to surpass the Stampede, but couldn’t and fell to 4th, losing the total rides tiebreaker with just 68 in total. Losing out on a bye may have saved their Championship hopes, though, as no team with a bye has ever won the title.

The Cowboys have appeared in the last two Championship matches, winning last year’s, and are primed to make their third.

Carolina was one of two teams to never finish an event a perfect 3-0, but they led the league with eight 2-1 event finishes. They accomplished this despite covering less than 50% of their bulls in nine different events.

It took a while for the Cowboys to become fully healthy, but they’ll be at full strength heading into the Teams Championship.

The 2025 Championship MVP Clay Guiton started his season 1-for-15 but finished 8-for-12. Adriano Salgado has covered 9-of-21, and Jess Lockwood rode 8-of-14, but Guilherme Valleiras and Thiago Salgado have been this team’s battery. They’ve combined for 32 rides in 60 outs. Valleiras leads the team in 10th place with the 4th-best ride percentage in the league at 62.96%.

They’ve got Keyshawn Whitehorse, João Henrique Lucas, and Ezekiel Mitchell to back them up, and all three have championship experience. They’ll need them too, as the Semifinals and Finals have changed to 6v6 and 7v7 formats, respectively.

The Cowboys won’t go away easily; they never have this season. Their collective experience and drive make them a dangerous contender to become the first team to win back-to-back Championships.

7. New York Mavericks: 15-20

The Mavericks began this season looking like they would finish last for the third straight year. Instead, they went 10-5 in their final five events to finish the season a franchise-best 15-20.

The Mavericks have never made it to Day 2 of the Teams Championship, but they can continue their historic season with a win over the Carolina Cowboys. However, last year’s Missouri Thunder were the first 7-seed to advance to Day 2, and they made it all the way to the Championship.

New York has a formidable squad ready to prove themselves on the big stage. Leading the Mavericks is Marco Rizzo in his second season. The 2026 PBR Rookie of the Year has ridden 18-of-31 this season and 10 of his last 14. However, he’s the only Maverick who rode more than 50% of his bulls.

Mauricio Gulla Moreira is the only other Maverick with more than seven rides this season, with 13, tying his career-high from last season.

The Mavericks will need to lean more heavily on Hudson Bolton, Afonso Quintino, and Bob Mitchell, despite none of them eclipsing 20 outs this season, as Leonardo Castro and Leandro Zampollo combined to ride just 10-of-48. Bolton, Quintino, and Mitchell are each riding above a 40% riding percentage, making the Mavericks one of four teams with at least five riders riding above 40%.

More than anything, a win would change the entire outlook of the Mavericks’ future with a new benchmark to build upon. It validates what the organization has been building, and it rewards the athletes’ resilience. This year is the best chance they’ve had; all they need to do is prove to themselves that they have what it takes.

4. Carolina Cowboys vs 7. New York Mavericks

History favors Carolina in their Day 1 match against New York. The 4-seed has defeated the 7-seed in every single opening match of the Teams Championship. It will be the teams’ first meeting in the Championship; however, their 2026 regular-season series is tied 2-2.

The Cowboys won the first two while the Mavericks won the final two; however, the Mavericks scored three in both wins. The Cowboys, though, haven’t lost four games in a row all season and enter Las Vegas having lost their last three. The Mavericks are also entering Vegas coming off a loss, but they haven’t lost twice in a row since early September.

The Cowboys have the deeper roster that has found a way to win no matter what the lineup looks like. The Cowboys averaged 1.94 rides per game this season, and 10 of their 19 wins this season were won with two or fewer rides.

But the Mavericks have been riding as well as anyone in their last 15 games, averaging 2.27 rides per game worth 198.54 points. If they averaged that for the season, they would rank 3rd, only behind the Gamblers and Thunder.

It’ll come down to whether or not New York can continue their hot streak, because if they don’t, Carolina can easily sneak away with a low-scoring win.

The winner will face the 3-seeded Nashville Stampede on Day 2.

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5. Texas Rattlers: 17-18

The Rattlers may have finished below .500 at 17-18, but they have consistently been a Day 3 team and have plenty of reasons to believe they’ll make it there again. They’ve finished 3rd twice and won the Title in 2023. The last two Champions were also 5-seeds. And their star duo of Brady Fielder and Daniel Keeping are the highest-ranked pair in the league, at 4th and 7th.

But the most important thing to the Rattlers’ success is the rest of their roster’s performance.

Fielder and Keeping combined for 38 of the team’s 69 season rides. João Ricardo Vieira scored another 11 of his own, but no other Rattler has more than five rides.

Therefore, it was refreshing to see the Rattlers score 10-of-15 and then 8-of-15 in their final two events to close out the season. The Rattlers have a league-high four perfect games in franchise history, and they got their 4th at Maverick Days during their season-best 10-for-15 performance. They scored 443.95 points, the second-most points in a game in Team Series History.

Qynn Andersen emerged for the Rattlers during that game, scoring 86, and was instrumental for Texas throughout the rest of the season. He’s covered 4 of his last 6, including a career-high 90. The more they get from Andersen, the further the Rattlers can travel in the tournament.

Texas averaged the most points per ride of any team at 88.55. If their roster can continue to score at the rate they finished the season at, the Rattlers are in good shape.

6. Kansas City Outlaws: 16-19

It took a while for Kansas City to figure things out, but after starting 6-14, the Outlaws managed an excellent finish to the year. They finished 6th with a 16-19 record and the 4th-most rides, 70, in the league. They’re the lowest-seeded team in history with a Top 4 ride total.

Sandro Batista is responsible for the majority of the team’s rides. He scored a career-high 23 rides in 35 outs for his second career 3rd-place finish in the MVP race. He covered 65.71% of his bulls, the 3rd-best ride percentage this season. Besides a four-bull buck-off streak, Batista never missed consecutive bulls, and he finished his season covering 9 of his final 10.

He’s not the only Outlaw to have a career year, though. Eric Henrique Domingos more than doubled his previous career high of six rides, with 13 this season. Hayden Welsh, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 draft, was exceptional in his inaugural season. He covered 10-of-19 and was 90+ three times, including a 91.35 to end the regular season.

Behind the Outlaws’ Top 3, though, are another five riders with at least 15 outs, but no more than six rides on the season. Those five combined to ride just 23-of-91. Only Koltin Hevalow, who’s 6-for-17, has covered more than a third of his bulls out of that group. But he won’t be available for the Championship after suffering a leg injury in early October.

That leaves Cassio Dias, Maikon Calixton Rocha, Heitor Santos Ferreira, and Bruno Carvalho to pick up the slack come championship time.

Like Hevalow, Dias also missed time with injury, but is expected to return for the Championship. Calixton Rocha scored all five of his rides in October and has ridden 4 of his last 8 heading into the tournament. Ferreira and Carvalho, however, have two of the four worst ride percentages of any rider with at least 20 outs this season at 18.18% and 15%, respectively.

Question marks arise, especially considering the Outlaws, as a franchise, have made it to Day 3 just once, in 2024, when they finished 3rd. However, five of the eight Championship match teams and three of the four previous Team Series Champions have been seeded 5th or lower. With the Outlaws’ sheer scoring potential, they’ve earned a spot as a dark-horse contender.

5. Texas Rattlers vs 6. Kansas City Outlaws:

The 5-seed has won three of the four opening matches against the 6-seed on Day 1 of the Championship. Since 2023, the winner of the 5-6 game has averaged four rides. The last time each team covered four in a game this season, they both lost. But the teams share a lot more in common than just unlucky losses.

Their matchup should be extremely even, as both teams share similar scoring philosophies. Both teams scored at least 50% of their bulls in four events and at least 60% in two this season. They’re each tied for 3rd in the league in both categories. The Rattlers have 69 total rides to the Outlaws’ 70, and both have Top 3 average scores per ride in the league.

Pretty much anything the Rattlers can do, so can the Outlaws. Texas holds a 2-1 lead in the season series, though. The Rattlers won the first two, while the Outlaws won the most recent. Every game in the series resulted in a narrow three-ride to two-ride victory.

While the Outlaws have the makings of a potential contender, so do the Rattlers. Texas has the slight edge thanks to the elite duo of Daniel Keeping and Brady Fielder, the only Top 10 duo in the league.

The winner will face the 2-seeded Austin Gamblers on Day 2 of the Teams Championship.

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8. Arizona Ridge Riders: 15-20

Arizona started 7-4 in 2nd place through the first third of the season, but fell off a cliff not long after. They scored a league-leading 2.45 rides per game through their first four events. That dropped to 1.83 rides per game overall at the end of the season. They finished 8th with a 15-20 record.

Everton Natan da Silva has been their only consistent rider through good and bad, touting a 61.29% ride percentage. Da Silva finished 5th in the MVP race, tying his career-high of 19 rides. However, he’s scored as many rides as his bottom seven teammates have in 59 fewer outs. Furthermore, he’s the only Ridge Rider who’s covered at least 50% of his bulls.

Behind him are Eduardo Aparecido and Elizmar Jeremias, who each started their seasons riding 8-for-11 but finished on 7-for-21 and 3-for-17 streaks, respectively.

The Ridge Riders miss Luciano De Castro, who has ridden six straight since being sent to the Freedom for Alex Cerqueira, who’s gone 0-for-6 since being traded for. At 9-of-32, Cerqueira’s ridden just 28.13% of his bulls and has the worst ride percentage of any rider ranked inside the Top 40.

Despite their woes, the Ridge Riders have a strong history of Teams Championship success. Arizona has upset an opponent at least once in three of the last four Championship tournaments. Besides losing in 2024’s initial Play-In and missing the tournament altogether, the Ridge Riders have made Day 3 every year. They finished 2nd in 2022, 3rd in 2023, and 4th in 2025.

9. Florida Freedom: 15-20

It’s been a difficult, injury-ridden season for the Florida Freedom, who finished 9th, earning the lowest seed in franchise history. They covered less than 50% of their bulls in 11 of 12 events and a third or less in eight, both league-worst statistics.

However, the Freedom are healthy now and will enter the Teams Championship stronger than when they started the season.

2x League MVP John Crimber will make his return after missing the final nine events of the season. He’s coming off a National Finals Rodeo qualification in his first ProRodeo season, and is in prime shape to lead the Freedom out of Day 1 as the first Play-In team to do so.

He’s got Luciano De Castro beside him now, after the Freedom swapped Alex Cerqueira for him from Arizona. De Castro hasn’t bucked off since joining the Freedom, riding a perfect 6-for-6. He’s 13-for-25 on the year, and is the only Freedom Rider who’s ridden at least 45% of his bulls.

Austin Richardson kept the Freedom from bottoming out throughout the season, covering 11-of-28. As did João Lucas Campos, who rode 8-of-19. No other Florida rider has more than seven rides.

We simply haven’t seen this roster perform together yet, which makes it difficult for opponents to predict their potential. However, between De Castro and Crimber, the Freedom have the most proven duo of any other Play-In team.

10. Oklahoma Wildcatters: 13-22

Despite their last-place finish, the Wildcatters won a franchise record 13 games. Their season’s mood shifted after they promoted Shawn Ramirez to Head Coach, and they finished the season strong. The Wildcatters hadn’t scored four in a game all season, but scored 4-of-5 in a game in each of the last three events.

Eduardo Matos had his best season yet, riding a career-high 19 and finishing 6th. He’s covered 54.29% of his bulls; no other Wildcatter has ridden even 40% of theirs.

Kaiden Loud is next best, finishing 29th, and right behind him is Winy dos Santos in 31st. Both have nine rides this season.

Oklahoma’s Top 3 make up 37 of the team’s 56 total rides, 66.07% of their scoring output. The other 19 rides are split between eight riders, six of whom have fielded double-digit outs. To their credit, Oklahoma has the 2nd-best average ride score in the league at 88.28 points per ride. But they’ve averaged just 1.60 rides per game, and high scores won’t help them unless they increase their ride rate.

Oklahoma is still looking for their first Championship tournament win in franchise history. Unless the Wildcatters can rally together another four-ride game, which they’ve gotten a hang of recently, they’re looking at another early exit.

Play-In:

8. Arizona Ridge Riders vs 9. Florida Freedom vs 10. Oklahoma Wildcatters

No Play-In team has ever made it to Day 2. The winner of the Play-In will then have to win Day 1’s Last-Chance game to then face the No. 1-seeded Missouri Thunder on Day 2.

But only one of these teams will make it to the Last-Chance game. Head-to-head, the Ridge Riders have the best records against the other teams in their group. Arizona and Florida have split their season series, but Arizona leads Oklahoma 3-1. The Wildcatters got the better of the Freedom this year, winning two of three matches.

However, the Freedom have received a massive boost heading into the Teams Championship with John Crimber returning.

Arizona showed flashes of an elite team early in the season, and if they can unlock that once more, they’ll have a shot.

Oklahoma can’t be written off, though, as they averaged 2.33 rides per game through their final nine games, which would rank 2nd only to the Thunder if maintained the whole season.

Last year’s Play-In game saw the three teams combine for 784 points, with the winning New York Mavericks scoring 350.25. While none of these three teams have a high-scoring reputation this season, they’re evenly matched and will have to find some way to one-up each other.