MLP Playoffs 2025 Week 1 – Live Random Thoughts

Let’s bring it back for the weekend with a super thrilling couple of weeks of pickleball ahead of us.

One comment to make on the whole MVP situation is we don’t believe a right-side player should be winning MVP in 2025, unless it’s the way ALW was playing the right in 2024 with Mari Humberg. That means Gabe Tardio and Jorja Johnson should not be MVP regardless of how well they have played. You can only control so much of the game from the right side in 2025. Maybe that changes in the future but that’s how it is right now. It’s kind of like picking a non-Quarterback to win MVP in football.

Sunday, August 17th – Premier Quarters

9:05 pm EST – Columbus def. Dallas (3-2) – So much to say about this one but kudos to Columbus for rising to the occasion. This will sting for Dallas, but it probably doesn’t sting quite as much after they won the championship last year. We’ll have more in the takeaways.

LA def. Brooklyn (3-1) – LA was just too much for Brooklyn. Brooklyn got the women’s match but for them to find a win in regulation was going to be a tall task. They had a look to get to a Dreambreaker in the twin showdown but LA proved to be too good this weekend.

3:15 pm EST – New Jersey def. Texas (3-2) – Credit to Texas for the resiliency after going down 0-2 and winning both mixed. Taking a mixed off ALW in a win or go home setting is no joke. That being said, Alshon and Oncins showed all of their high ceiling, low floor potential in the men’s matches in this series. New Jersey is a tough Dreambreaker team and, more credit to Pisnik as she has clearly improved her singles this year, but it’s tough for her to outright win matchups. ALW is so damn clutch.

12:55 pm EST – We are about to get going today. All matches on CC. It will be fun to see what adjustments are made and also whether the unexpected teams, Brooklyn and Texas, can do anything to push the series to a third game. It feels like Texas squandered their opportunity yesterday and getting a regulation win will be very tough.

Saturday, August 16th – Premier Quarters and Challenger

11:45 pm EST – Columbus def. Dallas (3-2) – Big Dreambreaker win for Columbus. It doesn’t feel sustainable for Parris/Andrei to keep beating the Johnson’s but they have done it twice in a row here. The gender stuff may be least likely to shift but Lea/CJ got a little closer today. Should be fun tomorrow!

Also, one of us made an appearance on the Matty Pickles live stream so check that out if you have a bit of free time!

8:25 pm EST – St. Louis def. Orlando (3-1) – We see it in every sport. It is not easy to win consecutive matches in a row. The Squeeze put up a much better fight today. They came out hot in women’s and Grayson Goldin got Hayden Patriquin on tilt briefly. But the Shock are just too good for the Squeeze. They win the series 2-0 and will get their choice of matchups between bottom two seeds in the semis. No one is unbeatable

Las Vegas def. Bay Area (3-0) – Just a different class of teams. Vegas has locked in so far to start the playoffs. The finals will be a different story we have to expect.

Nashville def. California (3-1) – Nashville gets it done in 2 over California. 12-10 in the third to lock it down for the Chefs and we have to expect this team is going to give some real trouble to Las Vegas in the final. It’s a rematch of the electric Beer City final. Ewa Radzikowska the Challenger GOAT.

5:20 pm EST – LA def. Brooklyn (3-0) – Not the most thrilling of matchups so far today. LA steamrolled the finally healthy Brookyln Pickleball Team. The Brooklyn men and Rohrabacher/Bar didn’t have any time to breathe. We’ll see if they can come out any better but Dekel Bar sure didn’t get much time to find his form.

Nashville def. California (3-0) – We keep doubting Nashville and they keep getting wins. It was not particularly close and maybe it just matters that Ewa Radzikowska is super consistent and reliable. You can say the same about Anderson Scarpa, 4 veteran picklers who are getting it done.

4:05 pm EST – New Jersey def. Texas (3-0) – the scoreline looks a lot farther apart than the match. The Ranchers women had multiple game points and couldn’t close the deal, and the Ranchers men had a size-able lead at the switch until it went downhill. Those types of close losses can crush the souls of a team that has had its coach benched and is already in disarray so we’ll see how they come out tomorrow morning on ESPN2. The better teams often find a way these close matches, but that is heartbreaking for Texas.

Las Vegas def. Bay Area (3-1) – the Truong siblings got a mixed win over Tellez/Buckner but it was not enough. This will be tough for Bay Area to make into a series but they’ll have another chance later today.

Friday, August 15th – Play-In and Quarters

9:06 pm EST – Dallas def. Columbus (3-2) – It was looking dicey in the Dreambreaker but Dallas came out on top after a big 10-2 run from Augie, Jorja and Tyra after the side switch. This is exactly why the decision felt questionable at best to choose Columbus but Dallas remains in the drivers seat. The good thing for Dallas is that they won despite a loss from JW and Jorja. The good news for Columbus is that it is hard to believe Lea Jansen could play much worse than she did today. Tomorrow is a new day.

7:00 pm EST – St. Louis def. Orlando (3-0) – The gender was not close. The first mixed was close between Rane/Staksrud and Tardio/Fahey as the Shock win 12-10 after overcoming a 10-3 deficit. That won’t feel good for the Squeeze going into tomorrow. 

The more interesting matchup is coming up next with Columbus and Dallas. Dallas has very surprisingly chosen Columbus over Texas. The matchup with Columbus just seems tougher and they are a better Dreambreaker team than the Ranchers. Both teams have drama going on so this isn’t a clear situation where you want to take the broken chemistry team. It’s an odd choice and not a choice that it feels like anyone except for Dallas would have made. Dallas is still favored so we’ll see how this goes. 

4:50 pm EST – Bay Area def. DC (3-1) – Bay Area pulls out a big win with the regulation win. The newly signed, Jonathan Truong, was back in the saddle for Bay Area. These matchups feel very coin flippy outside of the saddest team in MLP, the Florida Smash. Bay Area came out on top to get into the Challenger semi-finals. Bay Area has been better since they brought in competent female play with Angie Walker and gone the sub route with Collin Johns and Jonathan Truong. We expect they will get the Las Vegas Night Owls and Bay Area has played them tight at recent events. Those Night Owls vibes are  

California def. Florida (3-1) – California mercifully ends Florida’s very sad and long season. Tough to fly all the way to San Diego for 4 Florida players to get pounded in for one match. There isn’t much to say about this other than California should be very tough in the semi-finals against Nashville. That has to be a coin flip pretty much. 

3:45 pm EST – Texas def. Miami (3-2) – the Texas Ranchers win in a Dreambreaker, 21-19, securing it on their 4^th match point. The good side is that this is exactly why they brought Kaitlyn Christian onto the roster. The bad side of it is that they needed a Dreambreaker to beat Jay Devilliers and a deconstructed Miami squad. The one game to 11 situation can be a bit tough for favorites but it’s not a good sign that the Ranchers men lost on the heels of an Alshon benching. Anna Bright wrote in her newsletter that they were not likely to pick the Ranchers and the Shock were scrimmaging with the Ranchers this morning, so all indications are the Ranchers will get the Flash. 

Orlando def. Utah (3-1) – What a day for Orlando and the people on Twitter who thought Goldin gave Orlando a better shot at a win. It’s hard to deny that was correct as Goldin served like a monster, sped everything up on his forehand and brought the energy to go 2-0, which fueled Orlando to a regulation victory over Utah. It wasn’t the best that we have seen from Connor Garnett or Tyler Loong. Garnett’s forehand counter was broken in both his games and Loong didn’t bring his usual consistency. These games to 11 can be tough to get into a groove and Orlando clearly told Goldin to let it fly and it worked. We still expect that the Shock will choose Orlando in spite of the performance from Goldin. 

11:47 am EST – The big news from last night was that Dylan Frazier is out with a hamstring injury. Grayson Goldin gets the nod for Orlando. Goldin played well in his one meaningless match for Orlando and had a strong showing with Jay Devilliers in San Clemente shortly after signing with the UPA. The doubles results were not very good earlier in the year for Goldin so we’ll see what he looks like under the bright lights of an MLP play-in match.

People love Goldin’s energy and it is undoubtedly infectious but, contrary to popular opinion, infectious energy does not win matches. One game to 11 is a different beast with Goldin’s style, though, and Orlando doesn’t even need him to win a game to get to a Dreambreaker. We liked Utah to win by a hair before the Frazier news so the Goldin news reinforces our belief there. Nevertheless, the Squeeze will feel like they have nothing to lose and that could be a scary thing for Utah.