The Ultimate Definitive Totally Serious MLC Flag Ranking

Listicles. That thing that took over the Internet and presaged the profound decline in the end-user experience of said service was a blight on digital media in the 2010s. Presidents joked about it at the WHCA dinner. Video essayists on YouTube lampshaded it. Nobody liked them.

But everyone sure read ‘em! They persist still, and today, as part of me making peace with the state of the world and continuing to reliably produce content for my hobby newsletter, I embrace the listicle for its original, intended, essential purpose: listing things in a ranked order.

MLC loves flags. It’s easy merch to mass produce, and they give them away for free at games because of the optics. I got five different teams’ flags over three days at Grand Prairie Stadium in June, and thanks to Reddit user r/MihaelJKeehl, I was able to complete my MLC Flag Infinity Gauntlet with San Francisco (the one I walked right past because I got to the first game late). They can be a fun, effective way to communicate pride in a team. Tack it up in a dorm room, hang it from a ceiling, or fly it from a flagpole at home and hope the wind doesn’t rip the flagpole off the side of your house (given my luck keeping Old Glory from flying apart, maybe not for me).

So we love flags. We love Internet-friendly numbered lists. Let’s put the two together! This is, by default, the definitive ranking of all six MLC flags from the 2025 season, mainly because this is the only one I can find.

Flags are rated on a 0-5 scale based on material, readability both up close and from distance color, and overall presentation. The unit of measure for flag quality is based on the most perfect and spectacular flag on Earth, the flag of Zheleznogorsk, Russia:

Yes, that is a bear cracking open a proton like a grapefruit. Isn’t it glorious?!

Let’s dive in.

While the Super Kings’ flag is by far the sturdiest of the six, made of a material I would feel comfortable putting in an outdoor setting, and the flag’s bright yellow attracts the eye… it doesn’t have the same thing on both sides, meaning you have to walk around it to see everything on it. Not only that, the side opposite the logo is emblazoned with the pixel-font message “Whistle for Super Kings,” which promotes an act so hostile to the people around you that it simply cannot be tolerated.

0/5 Zheleznogorsks

Legibility is a critical element of a flag. While its vertical rectangle shape is a bit odd, that doesn’t always work against a flag. The flag of Nepal is instantly recognizable by its shape, where its stacked triangles resemble half of a poorly-constructed artificial Christmas tree. (It is, in all seriousness, a wonderful flag.) The real issue here is that there are things hiding in the gradient from red to blue - specifically a couple of badass-looking eagles - that aren’t all that visible to the naked eye if this is atop a flagpole as opposed to atop a cardboard tube. You have to get in good and close to see what’s on offer, and flags aren’t for Easter eggs. Less subtlety or a brighter blue or making the eagles white would make for a marked improvement. Let us see the birds!

2/5 Zheleznogorsks

Now we’re getting somewhere. These longer rectangular designs show up really well on TV as they flutter through the air in large numbers. Orange was the only choice for the color, but there’s also a lot of empty space, like the logo is just too small. It’s a shame, because the design overall is pretty close, but it just has to be… I dunno, bigger. It’s also a one-sided flag, which makes it better suited to wall decor than flying at home. At that point, just do a pennant. (Actually, do a pennant anyway. Pennants slap!)

3/5 Zheleznogorsks

A lot of what I said about San Francisco’s flag applies here because they’re basically palette-swapped versions of each other, but New York averts the issue with San Francisco by making the logo much larger. The logo isn’t as good as San Francisco’s, but this is a flag ranking, not a logo ranking, and they get a slight edge on the Unicorns as they race in the same lane.

3.5/5 Zheleznogorsks

This is the way. Simple, clean, clear, with a big logo on both sides (patterned in such a way that I can’t see through it, Texas), it’s something that looks good on TV, on a wall, on a flagpole at home, or possibly as a piece of high-viz gear for a bike. While it may not rise to the level of some kind of masterwork, sometimes simple is better in graphic design. It does kinda feel like it’s missing… something. It’s hard to quantify what, but something that makes it feel, I dunno, less like a free flag? I still like it, though.

4/5 Zheleznogorsks

And I’d do it again.

I love this flag because even if you took the logo off, it would still work as a flag and have something to catch the eye. The striped pattern is the perfect way to leverage the Knight Riders’ color scheme - even the shimmering gold that I find a little ostentatious for both them and New York. It’s the same pattern on each side, so it can be viewed from the reverse and at least have a clear presentation of what the flag is there to represent. The logo fits into the pattern. It’s the one flag where there is neither anything to add nor anything to take away. If it were on a more robust material, I might even fly it outside my house.

Okay, maybe that’s a little much. But it’s good, I like it, you should, too, and the Knight Riders should send us all those cool plush cricket bat swords that Sir Kay runs around with.

4.5/5 Zheleznogorsks

So there you have it. That… actually wasn’t so bad. It was rather easy to write. [sigh] I’ll probably do this again, but the good news is there’s lots of cricket to write about - including players who have worn the colors and are making waves on foreign shores. Stay tuned!