Major League Pickleball 2024 Playoffs Round One Preview

by · Forbes
MLP Round 1 Playoffs, at Brookhaven CC in Dallas.MLP

The Major League Pickleball (MLP) regular season wrapped up on 10/27/24 in Miami. The playoff fields were finalized, some teams missed the cut, and regular season champs were crowned in the New Jersey 5’s and the Chicago Fire.

Here’s the playoff-qualifying teams for 2024:

Premier Playoff Teams

  1. New Jersey 5’s: 20-3 on the season, 54 points.
  2. St. Louis Shock: 19-4, 52 points
  3. Dallas Flash: 15-8, 46 points
  4. DC Pickleball Team: 13-10, 39 points
  5. Texas Ranchers, 12-11, 38 points
  6. New York Hustlers, 13-10, 36 points

Challenger Playoff Teams

  1. Chicago Slice: 13-10, 44 points plus auto-promotion to Premier 2025
  2. SoCal Hard Eights: 14-9, 41 points plus auto-promotion to Premier 2025
  3. Miami Pickleball Club: 15-8, 39 points
  4. Atlanta Bouncers: 12-11, 39 points
  5. Las Vegas Night Owls: 14-9, 35 points
  6. Frisco Pandas: 11-12, 33 points

(Note: I have combined regulation and DreamBreaker wins in to the above W/L records for simplicity; for a more exact standings visit the MLP League Standings page. Some teams ended up with better W/L records but fewer points when many of their wins were in DreamBreakers).

The top two regular season finishers have a bye for the first round of the playoffs and will go straight into the league semi-finals in round two of the MLP playoffs, set for Orlando the third week of November.

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The day after the regular season ended, the #3 seeds in each bracket were allowed to select their first round opponent, and the first weekend’s matches were set. This little wrinkle of competitiveness is an interesting addition to the MLP competition, adding a bit of spice to the playoff matchups. In the end, both #3 seeds picked the #6 seeds to face off, which may have been a good idea in one division, but perhaps not the other, as we’ll discuss soon.

Round one of the MLP playoffs will be in Dallas (where a big chunk of players are already heading for the big UPA Nationals in two weeks’ time), and much is at stake. The winners of the two Challenger ties will earn auto promotion into the Premier league next week, so these matches are some of the biggest of the players’ collective careers. All four winners will advance to the second round of the playoffs later this month in Orlando.

With the matches set, here’s a preview of this coming weekend’s action. These teams will play best out of three full matches to determine who advances, so by the end of the weekend these players will certainly be familiar with each other.

Premier Playoffs

#3 Dallas Flash vs #6 New York Hustlers

Dallas team Roster: Hurricane Tyra Black, Augustus “Augie” Ge, Jorja Johnson, JW Johnson.

New York team Roster: Lea Jansen, Jackie Kawamoto, Carson “CJ” Klinger, Jack Sock

Season Head to Head record: 1-1

Details of their meetings this season with my match notes at the time:

  • MLP Atlanta in May: Dallas d NY 4-0: NY exposed as Dallas picks up steam early in the Atlanta event.
  • MLP DC in June: NY d Dallas 3-1: Lea Jansen on fire, and Jack Sock's team moves to 2-0 on the weekend with two really solid team wins.

Player Rankings for the Season (out of 60 players)

  • Dallas: JW 4th, Jorja 5th, Ge 15th, Black 16th
  • NY: Jackie 23rd, Lea 30th, Klinger 37th, Sock 47th

Trends: Dallas went 3-2 in its final regular season event in Las Vegas, while New York got the wins it needed to clinch 6th, then lost its last three matches to close out MLP Miami 2-3.

Analysis: Dallas has wins over St Louis and New Jersey this year, didn’t suffer any real “shock” losses to the bottom-dwelling teams, and has an excellent team construction that is well setup for DreamBreakers. Meanwhile, New York was Jekyll and Hyde all year, taking really bad losses to Columbus and Utah but also taking big-time wins like their 3-1 beating of St Louis in MLP DC. The team finished with a winning record despite none of its players appearing anywhere close to the top of the individual standings. Many thought Sock as a 1st round pick was more about PR than talent, and in the end Dallas is just a stronger team from top to bottom.

Prediction: Dallas wins the first tie 4-0, then wins the second tie in a DreamBreaker 3-2 to move on.

#4 DC Pickleball Team vs #5 Texas Ranchers

DC team Roster: Dekel Bar, Vivian Glozman, James Ignatowich, Rachel Rohrabacher

Texas team Roster: Christian Alshon, Quang Duong, Tina Pisnik, Etta Wright

Season Head to Head record: 1-1

Details of their meetings this season with my match notes at the time:

  • MLP Kansas City in August: DC beat Texas 3-1: DC finally ends Texas' run of form at MLP KC with a solid win.
  • MLP DC in June: Texas beats DC 3-2: The last match of the day was suspended by darkness. When they returned Saturday morning, Texas cruised to a DB win.

Player Rankings for the Season (out of 60 players)

  • DC: Rohrabacher 9th, Ignatowich 20th, Glozman 25th, Bar 32nd
  • Texas: Alshon 10th, Pisnik 12th, Wright 17th, Duong 19th,

Trends: DC went 3-3 in their last event at MLP Miami, taking New Jersey to a DreamBreaker but losing to Orlando and NY. Texas went just 1-4 in MLP Las Vegas, albeit with a sub for the injured Alshon.

Analysis: Both team’s #1 male (Ignatowich and Alshon) have had injury issues for big chunks of 2024. The fact that Texas is in the playoffs having its #1 man missing time and its #2 man being a complete waiver wire pickup is astounding. One has to assume both Alshon and Ignatowich are back for this weekend’s big playoff push. Texas needs to return to its MLP Salt Lake City form, where they topped St Louis and went 5-1 on the weekend. On the whole, their team rankings are superior to DC’s, though Rohrabacher has been dominating play lately as her profile rises in the sport. DC plays a ton of DreamBreakers (10 of their 23 matches went to DreamBreaker), and one would think that DC has the DreamBreaker edge in terms of singles capabilities across its team, except that Texas’ sole DreamBreaker win this year was against ... DC.

Prediction: I sense these two will play three close matches, with the first two coming down to DreamBreakers that the teams split before Texas pulls away and gets an extra doubles win to take the 3rd match 3-1 to move on.

Challenger Playoffs

#3 Miami PC vs #6 Frisco Pandas

Miami team Roster: Noe Khlif, Eric Oncins, Bobbi Oshiro, Milan Rane

Frisco team Roster: Stefan Auvergne, Tammy Emmrich, Michael Loyd, Ewa Radzikowska

Season Head to Head record: Miami leads 2-1

Details of their meetings this season with my match notes at the time:

  • MLP NYC in September: Miami beat Frisco 3-1: Miami jumps from 7th place to now be in 1st place with a dominant win over Frisco
  • MLP Virginia Beach in September: Miami beat Frisco 4-0: Miami destroyed Frisco, leaving no doubt who the favorite is in Challenger right now.
  • MLP Miami in October: Frisco beat Miami 3-1: In a match with massive implications, Miami (who needed to win both its Sunday matches to go top) is upset by Frisco, who started the weekend 9th. Meanwhile, with this last win, Frisco leapfrogs both Brooklyn and Bay Area to snag the last playoff position

Player Rankings for the Season (out of 57 players)

  • Miami: Khlif 10th, Oncins 16th, Oshiro 18th, Rane 21st
  • Frisco: Radzikowska 3rd, Auvergne 29th, Emmrich 33rd, Loyd 49th

Trends: Frisco went 3-1 at MLP Miami to jump from 9th to 6th and make the playoffs. Meanwhile, Miami entered the last MLP event sitting 1st in PPG but slumped to a 2-3 finish that cost them an auto-promotion spot.

Analysis: Despite their finishes, and despite their individual player rankings (which show that on paper Frisco is a huge underdog), this tie seems like it will be closer than it should. Miami blew its chance on home turf in the final MLP event, losing its final two matches to (at the time) non-playoff teams to cost itself the spot. Frisco got blown out in Virginia Beach (going 2-5) but rebounded in Miami behind its two females (who went a combined 14-2 at the event). Miami’s fortunes rebounded at the first waiver period where they got one of the “big five” in Oshiro, and waiver-pickup Khlif has been a surprise star. They need to get out of their own way and just play to their capabilities.

Prediction: Miami squeaks out a 3-match win.

#4 Atlanta Bouncers vs #5 Las Vegas Night Owls

Atlanta team Roster: Susannah Barr, Emily Cederquist, Todd Fought, Jaume Martinez Vich

Las Vegas team Roster: Judit Castillo, Rafa Hewett, Blaine Hovenier, Chao Yi “Zoey” Wang

Season Head to Head record: Las Vegas leads 2-1

Details of their meetings this season with my match notes at the time:

  • MLP DC in June: Las Vegas beats Atlanta 3-2: LV moves to 4-0 this weekend with a back and forth affair that turned into a DB rout 21-8.
  • MLP Mid Season tourney in July: Las Vegas beat Atlanta 3-2 in the Challenger playoff semis with come-from-behind win where match points against were saved before the DB win.
  • MLP Virginia Beach in September: Atlanta beat Las Vegas 3-1: In a match pushed a day b/c of weather issues in VaBeach, Atlanta's men powered them to victory in the day's opener .

Player Rankings for the Season (out of 57 players)

  • Atlanta: Vich 2nd, Fought 6th, Barr 28th, Cederquist 50th,
  • Las Vegas: Wang 9th, Castillo 14th, Hewett 43rd, Hovenier 51st,

Trends: Atlanta dominated the final MLP event, going 4-1. Las Vegas swept its west-coast rivals to go 3-0 in its final MLP event. Both teams are hot.

Analysis: This is an interesting contrast in team strengths and weaknesses. Atlanta’s men (Vich and Fought) have been dominant all year, usually sitting at or near the top of individual event standings. Their mixed results should be better, given the addition of Barr, but she’s been “just” middle of the road despite being one of the highest ranked APP doubles players on tour. Meanwhile, Las Vegas’ team strengths are just the opposite; their women (Wang and Castillo) have driven the train this year while their lefty/righty male combo of Hovenier and Hewett have struggled. LV did top Atlanta at the mid-season tournament, albeit with two different men playing for them. Both these teams played a ton of DreamBreakers: Atlanta went to a DreamBreaker in 13 of their 23 matches this year, while LV played 11 of them (going an astounding 9-2), indicating a specific advantage due to its team construction of experienced singles players. In the end, because of the depth of men in pro pickleball, I’d rather have two better women than two better men, and I think that may be the determining factor here.

Prediction: Las Vegas wins a third match DreamBreaker to upset Atlanta.