The Battle Court Briefing is your edge on World Jai Alai League matchups, featuring match previews, recaps, and data-driven insights powered by Rebote Analytics.

Today’s edition: Backcourter Tiers.

Today we take a look at the 18 backcourters who played significant time in the position in the Fall 2025 season and are slated to do the same in Spring 2026.

All stats in this edition are from the Fall 2025 season and ranks are among backcourters.

The best of the best. The crème de la crème. These are the backcourters who can anchor a Championship-caliber team as the top-ranked player.

Benny has established himself in a tier of his own. After showing significant improvement from the Winter 2025 season, he finished 3rd in Total Catch Rate (+0.5% from Winter 2025) and 6th in Out of Play rate (-0.1% from Winter 2025). He was also the only Backcourter to attempt at least 1 Two Wall, Splitter, Filo, Cortada, Dejada, and Three Wall.

His unique play style and ability to dictate points in the higher divisions of doubles puts Benny on the precipice of the Elite tier.

A clear delineation can be made after this tier. Amigorena and Ubilla round out the short list of the most reliable backcourt options for Division 1 doubles pairings. Division 1 asks more of the backcourt than any other doubles level (57.8% of throws). Only a small group can hold up under the pressure that comes with that kind of volume.

Total % of Throws by the Backcourter per Doubles Division

Cabrera and Kubala have played the last couple of seasons as 5th ranked players. While their numbers are slightly inflated by lower-division play, their catching prowess elevates them above their on-paper rank.

Julen and Ikeda separate themselves from the other Backcourters stylistically. In the Fall 2025 season, only 3 Backcourters had a Forehand Rate above 45%: Bradley (78.9%), Ikeda (53.1%), and Julen (45.6%).

For context, Ikeda and Julen were 2 of 11 Backcourters over 1,000 throws in the Fall 2025 season. Only 2 others topped a 30% Forehand Rate (Unda 34.6%, Manny 32.6%). The other 7 sat below 16%, including 5 below 10%.

The surprising part: they were also 2 of the Backcourters with the largest decrease in Forehand Rate year over year.

This tier contains Backcourters who have solid traits but lack consistency. With the right frontcourt pairing, these guys can play backcourt for high-level doubles teams. In the Spring 2026 season, we’ll see Manny in D1, Arta in D2, and Unda in D3.

This tier accounts for 3 of the 6 highest rates of matches with more than 3 drops. Manny (67%), Arta (70%), and Unda (91%) join Ben, Flores, and Ubilla as the only 6 backcourters with more than 3 drops in more than 60% of their matches.

Of the 5th and 6th ranked Backcourters, Bradley and Ben stand in a league of their own from a power and court coverage perspective. Both are original Magic City players from 2017 and both have made impressive strides throughout their Battle Court careers, but will need improved consistency on the catch to elevate themselves to higher tiers.

Bradley and Ben had 2 of the 7 highest Out of Play rates in the Fall 2025 season, positioning them as two prime candidates to improve with the larger court at JAM Arena.

The name of the tier says it all. As the Battle Court level of play keeps rising season to season, these are players who will have to keep improving if they want to stay rosterable in the coming seasons.

Spring 2026 is going to put the backcourt in the spotlight more than any season in recent memory. At the top, the Elite tier is still the standard. The real movement is in the middle, where volume and consistency decide who can actually hold D1 pace, and who gets exposed when the court gets bigger and the points get longer. Watch the “Too Many Drops” group early. If those error rates stabilize, the tiers compress fast. If not, the gap between reliable backcourts and everyone else will remain significant.

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