MLP Orlando 2025 – Live-ish Random Thoughts

MLP is back and we are also back with our first live-ish blog for an event in a long time. Our past MLP live blogs were very comprehensive, but that won’t be the case this weekend most likely. However, we wanted to provide some space for ourselves to give some expanded thoughts throughout MLP’s opening weekend for 2025.

You can check out our pre-season power rankings as well as our 9 biggest questions heading into the season to get you primed for what should be an intriguing first event. 

Sunday, April 27th

8:10 pm EST – Crazy stuff in the 5’s and Shock match overshadowing some intriguing on court play. It appears Hayden said something he shouldn’t have said after he and Fahey’s mixed loss to ALW/Howells, and it got ALW got mad where she proceeded to try to get in Hayden’s face to express her displeasure. What was said and the response aside, this is the fire you only really get in MLP and that matchup is exactly what the league is all about.

Drama aside, ALW lost her second women’s match of the weekend. Remember, she lost 3 times all of last year and now has already lost twice. Losing the women’s exposes them because Zane and Megan are not a good mixed team and their 5’s men are also susceptible. They are a top 3 team but they are probably still the #3 team for the time being.

Big win for the Squeeze over the Mad Drops too. Yes, it was without AJ Koller but their number 2 mixed team finally got something done as they beat CP and Quang to clinch the match in regulation. A somewhat upset with an asterisk.

2:35 pm EST – Gutsy effort from the Mad Drops as CP got a revenge win women’s match over ALW but their men couldn’t quite get it done with super sub AJ Koller. Like the mix up in the Dreambreaker being heavy underdogs without Hunter Johnson. It didn’t work but worth the risk.

The Slice put in a good effort as well against the Ranchers with Ignatowich/Freeman getting a win against the fiery Ranchers duo. They lose 11-9 in the clinching mixed match but it gives some promise to this team. One thing that we are wondering is whether the side out scoring could promote a few more upsets of slight underdogs. We often see better teams lose a game to 11 on tour but the 2 of 3s won’t go their way.

4-0 win for Columbus against Miami. A couple of closer mixed matches but still 4-0. Columbus ends the weekend 4-2 without a single Dreambreaker played, which is quite a strong weekend. The question for Columbus is if they can play well enough to beat the top 3 teams in the league.

1:48 pm EST – The matchup of the girlies ends in a Shock Dreambreaker victory. That’s two convincing losses for Brooklyn in a Dreambreaker this weekend against higher end Dreambreaker wins. Notable to c Brooklyn’s mixed teams get wins against both Shock duos as that appears it could be their weakness.

Tough road for Chicago starting off against Dallas at the end of the weekend. They lost 4-0 in regulation. And some close games for Columbus but they ultimately get it 4-0 against Utah as they are rolling after that Texas win yesterday.

Saturday, April 26th

9:30 pm EST – Brooklyn over Orlando in regulation. Teams like Orlando need to get both wins from their legit Premier teams almost all of the time to have a chance to win and Lacy/Fed couldn’t get it done. It’s just not possible when they aren’t even top end teams necessarily to begin with.

6:10 pm EST – We just aren’t seeing upsets, which isn’t super surprising. Brooklyn beat Miami in regulation, 3-1. NJ beat Phoenix 3-1 in regulation. The Mad Drops women somehow lost badly to Miami but they win 3-1 in regulation over Miami despite having super sub, AJ Koller, filling in for Hunter Johnson. It is obvious having 4 competent players is beneficial versus not having a starting roster of competent people as a lot of these games have not been close.

It was very odd that a team didn’t want AJ Koller as their bench guy. And it is also odd that teams can have their bench people not travel with them and pick up a sub like Koller.

3:23 pm EST – Everything is pretty much going as expected this weekend and, unsurprisingly, that could be the biggest problem MLP has this year. We thought Orlando would be the best of the bottom half teams and so far that has been true. Orlando beats Utah in regulation as only Utah’s men can get a win. Genie Erokhina has been a fine Challenger player but she doesn’t have a skillset that lends to hanging with the big dogs.

Atlanta looks like they are about to lose. We have had a lot more fun side out scoring matches today and Jaume/Glozman almost made a big comeback against Zane/Meghan, but they couldn’t quite pull it out. 5’s are putting their 2nd mixed team against opponents #1s it appears, knowing they will win most Dreambreakers. It is working.

2:40 pm EST – We didn’t give enough credit to the Hogs and Collin Johns. Two good matches this morning with Columbus beating Texas in a very tight match and Dallas taking down Carolina in a close one as well. Columbus’s men still need to figure some stuff out but it’s a good sign if they can get mixed wins against two solid teams. That’s what will make them a contender.

Carolina is going to be tough but it feels like it could be a mistake to keep Emmrich with Ben. We’ll have to see but Ben with Tammy has to win more matches.

10:45 am EST – Full slate of matches on deck again today. It feels like there might be more complaints for this MLP season than any previous one but who the heck knows. The matchups aren’t as good today. The best match might be the first one of the day coming up here on Grandstand between Columbus and Texas.

Friday, April 25th

2:13 pm EST – We have to give it time and we’re not even 2 days in, but the side out scoring might be more of an issue than we thought it would be. There have been quite a few games where there is really no scoreboard pressure on teams that find themselves with big leads.

It was a huge womp whomp for Columbus to go down 2-0 to Dallas only to see Klinger/Jansen get spanked by the Johnson’s. Outside of the scoring stuff, the early returns for Columbus have been disappointing to say the least. Their gender teams are 0-4 against two of the best teams in the league. They really need a win against Carolina this afternoon to avoid a horrendous start to the year. 

The race for the bottom of the league could be fun if you are super weird. very odd strategic decision by Utah to have Tyler Loong go out first in the Dreambreaker ahead of Connor Garnett – didn’t have any sound on but curious if any reason was provided for why this choice was made. Utah also started Genie Erokhina, who is simply more seasoned than these upside women like Mya Bui, Mehvish Safdar, Victoria DiMuzio.

Utah loses in a Dreambreaker. Mya Bui is 0-4 but Miami has 2 Dreambreaker wins. Bui just isn’t ready yet and the forehand looks like it needs a bit of a retool. 

SoCal is 0-2 with one Dreambreaker loss to start the year after going down in regulation to Orlando. 

9:36 am EST – 8 matches on tap for today. Most of the CC matches are good early in the season. Dallas and Columbus to start the day should be fantastic. And we are weirdly looking forward to Orlando vs Phoenix to end the day. Dylan Frazier is now Volair sponsored. Stock down for DTF?

Thursday, April 24th

7:15 pm EST – 5’s win in regulation with a 3-1 victory over the Sliders. The Sliders men were up 9-6 before losing 11-9 and that just can’t happen against the 5’s. The side out scoring creates a big shift in dynamics for teams trying to switch on the return. Will Howells, Eric Oncins and Christian Alshon all showed today how much chaos can be created off a big serve and drive when teams are switching. It’s not our favorite brand of pickleball but this is where the game has been trending.

We’ll have to see how things play out over the first couple of events but an element that you seem to lose with side out scoring is that scary scoreboard pressure to close a game or a match. For example, the end of that 5’s match was not all that compelling as the chances of a comeback against ALW down 10-4 in side out scoring is next to none. While there may not be a huge amount of difference in the data for comebacks on match point, there is something to be said about the illusion of excitement and tension, if that’s all that it is. We’re legitimately curious to understand why people like our friend at the PPA, Connor Pardoe, so clearly believe that side out scoring is superior to rally for MLP.

Bouncers beat the Hustlers 3-1. Somehow, Helena Spiridis/Donald Young got a win – 12-10 over DiMuzio/Fought. Even though it’s a surprising win, we may see the funkiest results with these lower end Premier women matching up against one another. They don’t have the consistency of the better players when it’s one game to 11. What is the difference between DiMuzio and Spiridis at this point in time?

Also, can we please stop taking so long with challenges? This isn’t the NBA. Make a decision.

4:46 pm EST – The start of the MLP season also means it is complaint SZN as we have a bunch of new things to get used to. It was a good thought to go with host team colors for the court but this will likely be a lesson for MLP to make sure those colors fit from a TV and play perspective. The orange on the outside of the court is horrendous and it sounds like it’s not great for players on the court. The product is all about entertainment and this is not good, at least for most fans.

Texas takes their first match of the season over Brooklyn (formerly DC) in a 3-1 regulation win. The Ranchers won both gender doubles and we have to talk about the giant serving of the Ranchers men. Oncins and Alshon were blasting balls. Ironically, Dekel was complaining about their serves. Brooklyn was able to get a mixed win but Jackie Kawamoto and Riley Newman couldn’t get it done against Pisnik/Oncins, losing 11-8. We had some blowout scorelines with the Ranchers men winning 11-2 and the mixed team of Bar/Rohbacher winning 11-1. The crash and bash game for Oncins and Alshon looks scary.

In a bottom feeder battle, Miami barely pulls it out in a Dreambreaker against SoCal. Miami won 12-10 in the 2nd mixed match to push it to a Dreambreaker, where they won 21-18.

Another early complaint that hopefully gets resolved is that the MLP site is not working well.

11:45 am EST – Light schedule on the docket for day one. We only have 4 matches – 2 on Championship Court and 2 on Grandstand. The CC matches should be a lot of fun as we have Texas vs. Brooklyn (formerly DC) at 3pm EST and then there will be Columbus vs. New Jersey at around 4:45 pm EST. All of these teams are revamped from 2024 and they are all expecting to be contenders in 2025.

Grandstand will feature some expected bottom feeders with SoCal opening the season against Miami at 2pm EST followed by the NY Hustlers versus the Atlanta Bouncers. The one roster piece of note is that it looks like Helena Spiridis and Ling Wei Kong will be the women starting the season for the Hustlers. Zane Ford shared an Instagram story yesterday with Kong and Spiridis as the two females practicing with the other Hustlers men, Young and Madonia, and it appears that Dominique Schaefer is still in Peru. Unclear if this was a roster decision or a lack of availability from Schaefer.