BREAKING: Rule updates

MLP Orlando wrapped on Sunday, and the league wasted no time revising rules for the next even, which starts tomorrow in Columbus (jump to our viewing guide).

The rules come in light of a few glaring issues (literally and figuratively) experienced at the season opener in Orlando. Here’s the rundown:

• Team Benches: No more switching benches at end change. ✨thank goodness✨We’ve talked about this one a lot; it makes no sense to have the entire bench of players, coaches, GMs, and others pick up all their belongings and shift at every end change. Now that side-out scoring to 11 has shortened the games, it makes even more sense. Teams will now choose and stick to a bench (selected by coin toss winner when they choose an end) for the duration of the match.

• Service Rule: Ahead of MLP Orlando, the service rule was loosened to allow shoulder-height drops, toss-ups, and contact at any height as long as the swing was in a low-to-high motion. A few players hitting the guts out of the ball (Alshon, for one) and the difficulty of enforcement moved the league to adjust back to the standard rule, aligning with PPA: Ball can be dropped from no higher than the hip bone, the ball cannot move upwards more than one ball length, and the paddle swing must “clearly” make a low-to-high motion.

• On-site alternates & bench players: In Orlando, many teams opted to leave their 5th and 6th players at home, presumably to save on travel costs. When teams do this, and a player goes down to injury, they have a pool of on-site alternates to pick from. Going forward, if a team without their bench player has to use an on-site alternate, they will be penalized 1 game point for each game that alternate participates in. For example, (purely hypothetically) if Hunter Johnson has a freak accident with a kitchen knife and can’t play, the team has to pull an alternate like, let’s say, AJ Koller. During the men’s doubles and mixed match in which AJ plays, the team starts down 0-1. Hopefully, this encourages teams to start traveling with their team - which would align with the league’s goal of showcasing all their top talent. Or… certain teams just won’t care and will go ahead and take the penalty.

About those Courts…

The Orlando courts in Squeeze colors did look sick, and definitely paid homage to the home team. But the bright orange was difficult to play on, and tracking the ball during game play was a challenge. It’s not an official rule change, but the league is asking each host team to use more standard, muted colors for the court in the future (yay).

Standings after MLP Orlando

The Fives top the standings after the season-opening event, but are just 1 point ahead of thus-undefeated Flash. The Fives edged out last year’s champions because they played 1 more match, but the Flash came out strong, showing their dominance last year was not a fluke. They handily won all their matches in 4 games, no Dreambreakers required.

The Shock are lower down the list, having only played 2 matches in this event; they won 1 in regulation and 1 in a DB, giving them 5 points. Expect them to catch up in Columbus, where they will be playing 6 matches while the Fives and Flash will not be present.

As a reminder, this is how standings points are calculated:

• 3 Points: Regulation win (i.e.: 3-1 or 4-0 win; no DreamBreaker needed)

• 2 Points: DreamBreaker win (i.e.: 3-2 win)

• 1 Point: DreamBreaker loss (i.e.: 2-3 loss)

• 0 Points: Regulation loss (i.e.: 1-3 or 0-4 loss; no DreamBreaker needed)

Standings points will determine seeding at the Mid-Season Tournament held once again at the Beer City Open, where teams can win additional standings points (6 points for winning, 4 for second place, 2 for third place). Top 10 teams will advance to the playoffs.

MLP Columbus is presented by The James at Ohio State. All games will be broadcast on Pickleball TV.

A partnership with Gray Media will broadcast games for Atlanta Bouncers, Carolina Hogs, Columbus Sliders, and St. Louis Shock to networks in those markets:

Thu, May 1

• ATL vs. STL (4 p.m.) on Matrix Midwest in STL and Peachtree Sports Network in ATL

Fri, May 2

• ORL vs. CAR (2 p.m.) on Palmetto Entertainment and Sports Network in CAR and FanDuel Sports Florida in FL

• CHI vs. ATL (4 p.m.) on Peachtree Sports Network in ATL

Sat, May 3

• PHX vs. MIA (12 p.m.) on FanDuel Sports Florida in FL

• STL vs. COL (2 p.m.) on Matrix Midwest in STL and Rock Entertainment Sports Network in COL

• STL vs. ORL (5:30 p.m.) on FanDuel Sports Florida in FL

Sun, May 4

• COL vs. ATL (2:30 p.m.) on Peachtree Sports Network in ATL and Rock Entertainment Sports Network in COL

Catch today’s episode, which covers ALL the drama of MLP Orlando: the good, the bad & the ugly