photo taken from @unrivaledbasketball and @mistbc on instagram
Mist won their first title as they faced Phantom in the Championship on Wednesday (4th March). After the 80-74 win for Mist, Breanna Stewart won MVP for the playoffs after helping the side win the championship from a two point free throw.
After the inaugural season in 2025, the competition returned for its second in 2026 after initially being founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. The League allows WNBA players to play domestically and to bypass any complications from the league’s prioritization rule for players who choose to play overseas in the offseason.
The games are all played on a full court with two ends (being slightly shorter than the ones in the WNBA) and consists of three seven-minute periods. It is then followed by a “winning score” fourth period which is played under Elam Ending conditions (ending the game by playing to a target score). 11 points are added to the leading team’s (or tied teams’) score at the end of the third period with the game continuing with no game clock but with an active shot clock. The first team to reach or exceed the “winning score” wins and the shot clock is shortened to 18 seconds for full possession and 12 seconds for resets.
Throughout the season:
The season kicked off with all eight teams playing on the same day (5th January) as Mist, Laces, Rose and Breeze all won their opening games against Hive, Vinyl, Lunar Owls and Phantom respectively. Phantom led the standings after the regular season, winning 11 games and losing just three, with a winning streak of seven in a row. Mist finished in second with 10 wins and four losses with a winning streak of four in a row. The other teams to round out the play off spots were Laces, Rose, Breeze and Vinyl in that order with Vinyl clinching the last remaining spot after five wins and nine losses.
Lunar Owls and Hive missed out on a play off spot after they both finished with four wins and 10 losses throughout the season and after point difference, Hive finished bottom in their inaugural season.
In the Semi-Finals, they headed to Barclays Center in New York City where the arena was sold out and hosted 18,000+ fans across the two games.
1on1 Tournament:
The tournament was held midseason over the week where the world’s best players stood on one court, just themselves and one aim – $200k. After facing Mists’ Allisha Gray in the final, Chelsea Gray from Rose won two out of three of the games in the final. 24 players started the tournament, with Kelsey Plum and Aliyah Boston being the other two to reach the semi final stages.
In the Final:
After losing both matchups throughout the season, Mist were coming into this as the underdogs out of the two. Both Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum were the stand out performers in the game with the two having 32 and 40 points to their name respectively. For Mist, Veronica Burton, Allisha Gray and Breanna Stewart all started the game with Tiffany Hayes, Kiki Iriafen and Kelsey Plum starting for Phantom. This was Iriafen’s second start in a row after playing the previous game against Vinyl in the Semi-Finals.
Throughout the quarters, the teams were neck and neck until the third quarter, where Mist ran away with it and went 6 ahead of Phantom – 25-19 (24, 19, 12 each in the other quarters).
Players of the Tournament:
Roses’ Chelsea Gray was the MVP from the tournament after having four game winning shots, 24.2 points per game and 6.1 assists on average per game. Defensive Player of the year was Phantoms’ Aliyah Boston. She averaged 18.9 points per game, 9.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks throughout the regular season. This was not the only award for Phantom as Roneeka Hodges got Coach of the Year after bringing her side to the number one seed in the regular season.
Second Team for 2026 All-Unrivaled saw Brittney Skyes (Laces), Aliyah Boston (Phantom) and Allisha Gray (Mist) all in the team. Laces’ Brittney Skyes saw 20.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists averaged per game in the regular season. Phantoms’ Aliyah Boston averaged 18.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game throughout the regular season. Finally, Mists’ Allisha Gray saw 21.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists averaged per game in the regular season.
In the first team, we saw Paige Bueckers, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum all take the crown after their efforts in the regular season. Breezes’ Paige Bueckers saw an average of 22.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. Roses’ Chelsea Gray had averaged 24.2 points and 6.1 assists per game as well as having four game winning shots. Finally, Phantoms’ Kelsey Plum saw an average of 22.6 points, five assists and five game winning shots throughout the regular season.
What’s Next:
The WNBA is due to start in two months on May 8th, but will it actually start? There is current controversy over the pay given to the players after some who played in Unrivaled said that they earnt more across one year at Unrivaled than they do across multiple years in the WNBA.
If the league does start, Opening up the season is Connecticut Sun vs New York Liberty and Washington Mystics vs Toronto Tempo as both start at 7.30pm ET. The WNBA draft for the 2026 season is on April 13th and includes the debut of two additional teams (Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo). The Las Vegas Aces will begin their campaign hunting for another back-to-back title with the first home game being against the same side they faced in the finals last year (Phoenix Mercury).
