The Nashville Stampede still top the standings as the Team Series heads into Austin for Gambler Days.

Teams like the Arizona Ridge Riders and Carolina Cowboys will threaten Nashville’s crown this weekend. Others, like the Missouri Thunder and Kansas City Outlaws, will look to build on last weekend’s success and continue to climb the standings.

Jose Vitor Leme and the home team Austin Gamblers sit in the middle of the standings right now, needing that something extra to reach the top and stay there. They’ll have the best chance to make that jump at home, in front of the Austin faithful, but like always, winning won’t come easy for any team.

The best are beginning to separate from the rest as the PBR Team Series enters Austin, Texas, for its fifth event of the season.

Austin Gamblers

The Austin Gamblers will enter their homestand in sixth place, but they have been riding better than that, and have an opportunity in front of a good home crowd to rack up some wins.

Despite having the third-most points scored as a team and the MVP race leader in Jose Vitor Leme, the Gamblers hold a 5-6 record.

The team hasn’t struggled to string rides together; they’ve made three or more qualified rides in five of their 11 games and have two or more in nine. However, the losses keep piling up. Four of Austin’s six losses were by one score or less, and those four missed opportunities are what’s keeping the team from sitting at the top of the standings.

Leme is the only Gambler to have appeared in all 11 games, no other Gambler has seen more than nine outs.

Austin is a deep team, though. Sage Kimzey and Dalton Kasel are both 4-for-9, and Kaique Pacheco has covered 4-of-6.

A rotation of Callum Miller, Lucas Divino, and Dener Barbosa are there supplement that Top 4. However, those three have ridden a combined 4-for-17 this season and are responsible for the bulk of the team’s missed opportunities.

The Gamblers will know what kind of team they are after this weekend. They have three tough matchups against the Freedom, Rattlers, and Cowboys.

Arizona Ridge Riders

Besides the Nashville, no one has looked better than the Ridge Riders so far this season.

Arizona nearly defeated the Stampede on their home turf last Friday in a thrilling game where both teams rode four. Despite the deflating loss, the Ridge Riders won their next two games and proved they’re a focused and resilient squad, improving to 7-4 on the season in second place and tying the Stampede with 27 qualified rides for the season.

Their best three this season, Eduardo Aparecido, Elizmar Jeremias, and Luciano De Castro, have combined for 18 of the team’s 27 scores, and each sits inside the Top 15 of the MVP standings. Everton Natan da Silva is right behind the trio in 27th place with four qualified rides of his own.

Arizona has made at least three qualified rides in six of their 11 games; they won five of those games.

They start their weekend against the 9th-ranked Oklahoma Wildcatters, who nearly pulled off a two-score comeback on the Ridge Riders earlier this season at Wildcatter Days. They then take on the Freedom and the Thunder in two matchups that could feature teams in the top third of the standings.

Carolina Cowboys

After a season-best 8-ride weekend at Freedom Days, the Cowboys followed that with a season-worst 3-ride event last weekend at Stampede Days. They finished both weekends with a 2-1 record., however.

The Cowboys have found ways to win this season despite the turmoil that haunts the majority of their roster.

While Thiago Salgado, his brother Adriano, and Guilherme Valleiras have posted solid seasons this far, they’re the only Cowboys to do so.

Keyshawn Whitehose has been their next best, but has covered just 2-of-9 bulls this season. Their best rider from last season, Clay Guiton, is 0-for-7 since returning from injury. Four more Cowboys have two or more outs, but zero qualified rides.

The team has posted the third-least amount of aggregate points in the league, at 1592.85 on just 18 rides, but sits in third place with a 7-4 record.

They’ll get a comfortable matchup against the floundering 1-10 New York Mavericks on Friday to start their weekend. Before meetings with the Outlaws and Gamblers. Every team the Cowboys face this weekend has a losing record.

Regardless of their current issues, the Cowboys are just two games separated from the first-place Stampede and can end their weekend on top of the league.

Florida Freedom

Disaster struck the Florida Freedom last weekend in Nashville as they all three of their games and fell five spots in the standings from third to eighth with a 5-6 overall record.

The Freedom hadn’t had a winless event all of 2025, and for the first time ever, they were without John Crimber for the entire weekend. He’s been dealing with simultaneous leg and groin injuries that have kept him sidelined for five games.

Five of the team’s six losses this season came with Crimber out of the lineup, and Crimber isn’t starting Friday night against the Gamblers either.

Austin Richardson has stepped up in Crimber’s absence, riding 6-of-11 and sitting 7th in the MVP race. He’s the only Freedom rider in the Top 20, though, and the only one on the team with above a 50% ride percentage on multiple outs.

Outside of Richardson, the rest of the Freedom have made just 13 qualified rides this season. However, they do the lead the league at 89.20 points per ride, so when they do make the whistle, they make it count.

They take on the home team on Friday and then face the Ridge Riders and Stampede in what is one of the toughest schedules of any team in the league in Austin.

Kansas City Outlaws

The Outlaws had their best showing of the season so far in Nashville last weekend, finishing 2-1 and riding 9-of-15.

Sandro Batista was a perfect 3-for-3 and improved to third overall in the MVP standings. Their best rider last season, Koltin Hevalow, returned after a five-game hiatus and was 2-for-3, as was No. 1 overall pick Hayden Welsh, who improved to 28th in the standings as the Outlaws’ second highest-ranked rider.

The Outlaws have found their groove, but still need to dig themselves out of seventh place in the standings. With a 5-6 record, the Outlaws face a crucial challenge Friday against the No. 1 Nashville Stampede.

A win not only gets them to .500, but legitimizes the team as a real contender down the line. A loss, however, halts that momentum to a standstill as they’d fall deeper into the slog of the bottom of the standings.

After the Stampede, they draw the Cowboys and Mavericks in two winnable games.

Missouri Thunder

The Thunder had their first undefeated event in two years at Stampede Days last weekend and that jumped them from seventh to fourth with a 6-5 record.

Paulo Eduardo Rossetto had his first perfect weekend of the season and has ridden 8-of-11 overall. He’s second in the MVP standings, behind Jose Vitor Leme by 92.05 points.

Paired with Rossetto, Felipe Furlan gives the Thunder a terrific 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup, he’s ridden 6-of-10. Newcomer Julio Cesar Marques has been a rock-solid as well, covering 5-of-11 bulls as a member of the Thunder.

That trio, however, has made 19 of the team’s 22 qualified rides this season. The other six riders who’ve suited up for the Thunder rode a combined 3-for-23.

Relying on just three riders isn’t viable in the long run, especially if they want to make it back to the World Championship.

But for now, it has them 6-5 with plenty of momentum.

They open the weekend with the league’s other 6-5 team, the Texas Rattlers, and there’s no letting up from there. After the Rattlers, they face the Stampede and the Ridge Riders, giving them matchups with a trio of Top 4 squads.

It’s a prove it week for Ross Coleman’s team.

Nashville Stampede

It was a successful homestand for Nashville at Stampede Days. They finished their weekend 2-1 and retained their two-game lead over the league at the top of the standings with a 9-2 record.

They extended their historic winning streak to eight against the Ridge Riders Friday in a back-and-forth match that saw Riquelmi Silva save the day for the Stampede. Nashville scored four rode in that game, but would go on to score just once more in their next two.

Their winning streak would end in Game 2, but it was Silva again who saved the day in Game 3 against the Wildcatters. He was 90.9 on Big Mac to secure the win.

Despite the uncharacteristic lack of scores to end their weekend, the Stampede will enter Gambler Days as the only team with four riders in the Top 13 and two in the Top 5 of the MVP standings.

Their Championship campaign continues on Friday against a rejuvenated Kansas City Outlaws squad and then they face the Thunder and the Freedom.

New York Mavericks

The Mavericks suffered their third winless event of the season in Nashville and fell to 1-10, in last place. They are at serious risk of finishing the season even worse than they did a year ago, when they were 9-26.

Mauricio Gulla Moreira and Marco Rizzo have hung in there to lead the team, combining to ride 10-of-19, but no other Maverick has more than two qualified rides. Five Mavericks have at least three outs with a ride percentage below 20 percent.

There is talent on this roster, as Manoelito de Souza Junior, Bob Mitchell, Hudson Bolton, and Leandro Zampollo all joined Rizzo in the Top 25 in the 2026 UTB season. Collectively, though, their talent has yet to be seen this Team Series season.

Every game is another opportunity to turn things around, and they’ll get that chance on Friday against an inconsistent Carolina Cowboys team.  After that, it’s the Wildcatters and the Outlaws.

Oklahoma Wildcatters

The Oklahoma Wildcatters had another 1-2 weekend and remain in ninth place with a 4-7 record. They’ve made a league-low 16 qualified rides, for a league-worst 1413.25 aggregate points.

No Wildcatter is ranked in the Top 20 of the MVP Standings, and no Wildcatter has ridden more than four bulls.

Eduardo Matos and Kase Hitt have led the team in Kaiden Loud’s absence, showing flashes of excellence. Loud will return on Friday, though, and will be a much-needed boost to a deflated roster. Loud, despite his absence, is the only Wildcatter to ride at least 50 percent this year.

The Wildcatter roster looks a whole lot different with Loud leading the way and Matos and Hitt backing him up, but the team’s success is still yet to be seen. They’ll need more from their other primary starters Winy dos Santos and Trace Redd, too, as they’re each 2-for-9 on the year.

It’ll be a tough start to their weekend in finding success, though, as they face the No. 2 Arizona Ridge Riders on Friday.  After that, the schedule eases up a bit with the Mavericks and the Outlaws.

Texas Rattlers

The Rattlers had a much-needed 2-1 showing in Nashville after finishing a disastrous 0-3 a week prior. The Rattlers got themselves back above .500 at 6-5.

Brady Fielder was a massive part of that, riding 2-for-3. He’s now eighth in the MVP race and has ridden 6-of-11 on the year. He’s the only Rattler with multiple outs to cover more than 50 percent this season, in fact, just three Rattlers are riding at or above a 40 percent clip for the season.

Eight Rattlers have made the whistle this season, however,  totaling 19 for the team. Despite the scattered scores, Texas has the second-best average score at 88.87 per ride.

The Rattlers are unique in the sense that they’ve earned every win and loss they’ve had this season. In all of their wins but one, they’ve covered two or three bulls. In all of their losses, they’ve either been shut out or rode one.

They start with a 6-5 grudge match against the Thunder, followed by a Texas Cup game with the Gamblers. They finish with the Wildcatters on Sunday.