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How do the leagues fit together?

ECNL, MLS NEXT, EA, RCL, WPL — which is which, and how a player moves up.

Checked November 8, 2026

Club soccer in Washington has two kinds of league: state leagues, where teams play other Washington teams, and national leagues, where a club's best teams play clubs from around the Northwest and travel to national events.

Leagues in Washington, U13 and older
  1. 1
    NationalECNL
  2. 2
    NationalMLS NEXT· Boys
  3. 3
    National, second teamECNL Regional League (ECNL RL)Elite Academy (EA)· BoysGirls Academy (GA)· Girls
  4. 4
    Top of the stateRCL Division 1WPL top divisionGA Aspire· Girls
  5. 5
    StateRCL Division 2WPL Classic
  6. 6
    StateRCL Division 3WPL Copa

Strongest at the top. How the leagues compare is read from this season's games between their teams, the same ladder our rankings use.

The state leagues

  • RCL (Regional Club League) is run by Washington Youth Soccer for the state's bigger clubs. It has divisions — Division 1 is the strongest, then 2 and 3.
  • WPL (Washington Premier League) is the other state league. Its top division plays at about the level of RCL Division 1; Classic and Copa are the divisions below. The WPL also runs a league for U8–U10.

Most competitive players start here.

The national leagues

  • ECNL has boys and girls teams, and the strongest results of any league here. Pre-ECNL is its league for U11–U12.
  • MLS NEXT is the boys' league run by Major League Soccer. Some clubs' top boys teams play in it.
  • ECNL Regional League (ECNL RL) is the ECNL's second league — often a club's second team at an age.
  • Elite Academy (EA) for boys and Girls Academy (GA) for girls are national leagues that sit around the ECNL RL level from U13 up. At U11–U12 their teams play a step higher. GA Aspire is the Girls Academy's second league.

A club picks which national leagues it belongs to, so a player reaches ECNL or MLS NEXT by joining a club that has a team there.

How a player moves up

  • Within a club. A big club usually has a team in several of these at the same age — say ECNL, ECNL RL and RCL. Moving up often means moving to the club's higher team at tryouts.
  • Between clubs. Clubs hold tryouts for next season, usually in spring. A player can try out at a club that has a team a level up.
  • Younger than U11 there are no national leagues here: RCL Division 1 is the top, and the U8–U10 WPL league sits around it.

What the level means for you

A higher league means stronger opponents, and often more travel and cost. The right level is the one where a player gets real minutes and close games — a team that wins every game by six, or loses every game by six, is not learning much.

You can see how teams at each level are doing in Rankings, and every league's table under Events.