It was a quiet, unassuming MLP event following on the tail of PPA Vegas Open, but had significant impact on the end-of-year playoffs. Held Monday through Wednesday last week, the crowds were a bit sparse, but teams still brought the energy.

Premier Highlights and lowlights of the Vegas matchups:

The St. Louis Shock showed us they deserve their position at the top, absolutely dominating and ending their regular season with 52 points. They swept Utah Black Diamonds, Texas Ranchers, and the AZ Drive. They beat second-runner Dallas Flash 3-1, and went to a Dreambreaker against Carolina, ultimately coming out on top 3-2. The Dreambreaker is the only thing that kept them from their max possible points of 53 (as we forecast in our preview edition). Be sure to catch that replay, with our own Jimmy Miller on the mic! The only team that can unseat them in the #1 seed at this point is….

New Jersey Fives went 3-1 over the event, earning 9 points and leapfrogging Texas Ranchers for the #3 spot. Their only loss was, surprisingly, to the Orlando Squeeze who came into this event in 8th place. The games weren’t terribly close, either: Fed/Tyson beat Zane/Will 25-10; Fed/Viv beat AL/Will 25-22; and Tyson/Meghan took down Zane/Mari 25-11. The 5s now have 40 points and 5 matches left to play before playoff spots are locked. At their PPM of 2.22, they could easily overtake Dallas Flash for the #2 spot and secure a bye.

The AZ Drive had a remarkable event, coming to Vegas dead last in the standings and finishing 2nd in the event. After trading Kaitlyn Christian for Jessie Irvine, they seem to have found their spark. They won 4 of their 5 matches, including upsets over Dallas Flash and Carolina, and a sweep of the Utah Black Diamonds. Overall, they’ve jumped to spot #7 and improved their PPM from 0.82 to 1.33.

Orlando Squeeze also had a strong showing, beating the Black Diamonds, Sliders, and upsetting the 5s. New teammate Meghan Dixon (traded from the Sliders) went 5-5 in her games, reuniting in mixed with Tyson whom she played with in early 2024. They’ve now moved up to 9th place, and have 6 matches left to play. Their max potential is 40 points, which does put them in playoff contention still … but they’ll need to do better than their current 1.22 PPM in Miami to have a hope.

Texas Ranchers had a couple unfortunate turns that negatively impacted their Vegas outcome. First, Christian Alshon couldn’t play (injury) so Anderson Scarpa took his place. Then, during game 3 of the cross-Texas showdown against the Flash, Etta took an extended medical timeout for apparent heat exhaustion, and decided to resign. The next day, Lindsey Newman stepped in as a substitute but went 0-2 in her games. The Ranchers dropped to 4th place and have played all their matches, and it seems likely they fall further to 6th if DC and NY play as expected. They got extremely lucky that the Mad Drops beat Orlando, the Shock pummeled AZ, and Carolina is bad again.

LA Mad Drops walked into Vegas clinging to shreds of hope, but couldn’t make magic happen, going 2-3 and dropping to 11th place. They started their season so promising, but losing Thomas Wilson was an unlucky pitfall that they couldn’t recover from. Carolina also sits on the precipice of the playoffs, and with 3 matches left, will finish with 26 points if they maintain their PPM. If they max out at 32 points, they’d still need DC and the Hustlers to lose all their remaining games to make it into the playoffs.

Here’s where Premier teams currently sit after Vegas:

Challenger highlights and lowlights:

How ‘bout those Cali Black Bears? We know, it hasn’t been a great season for the Bears, but there were some silver linings. Newbie Chris Haworth went 6-6 in VA and then 5-1 in Vegas. CBB went 2-1, beating league leader Hard Eights and the Breakers, which ended in an epic 21-4 Dreambreaker. Catch a replay of their matchup with the Night Owls against former Bear, Rafa. It ended in a loss, but was a nail-biting back & forth battle ending in a Dreambreaker.

SoCal Hard Eights didn’t have the best performance in Vegas (1-3), but played strongly in VA (5-2) and are now in first place, having played all their regular season matches. However, they could be surpassed by Chicago or Miami, who have 4-5 matches left to play, and higher PPM. Watch them sweep the Breakers.

The real winners in Vegas for Challenger were the Las Vegas Night Owls, who went undefeated (two Dreambreakers) and their regular season is now complete. Their matchup with the Breakers included a 30-32 loss in mixed. The big question now is, can they hold onto their #4 spot to be promoted to Premier in 2025?

Next Up: Miami

The final regular-season event is happening later this week in Miami, where 13 teams (7 Premier, 6 Challenger) will close out their matches and make their final push to make playoffs.

Edward Jones MLP Miami is Oct. 24 - 27 at Miami Fairgrounds

MLP Miami is also hosting a Minor League Pickleball event for amateurs, where they play alongside pros. Registration is still open! Amateurs get a courtside pass on the day they play, discounted admission for family & friends, MLP swag and more! Registration ends Oct 21st.

If you’re planning to attend MLP, you can secure your tickets at a discount using code KOTC. Amateurs can also get a discount on registration when signing up to play.

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