Clowns Take Over Grand Rapids at the MLP Mid-Season Tournament
Grand Rapids sure looked like fun this weekend. A huge shoutout must go out to Andrea Koop and Paul Richards for putting on such an extraordinary event.
This felt like old school Major League Pickleball. Prior to 2024, every MLP event named a winner. This year, MLP has changed to a regular season format. Obviously, for long-term growth of the sport, the regular season makes sense. This weekend was really intriguing because we crowned winners in both Challenger and Premier Levels.
Speaking of winners, I did very well in my predictions this weekend. In Premier, I got all four semifinalists correct and I got the winners – the New Jersey 5s – right too. In Challenger, I had three of four semifinalists correct, and I nailed the Brooklyn Aces winning the whole thing.
My editor told me to humble brag, so I did.
Complete Mid-Season Tournament results
Premier Level
Challenger Level
The Good
Say it with me. CLOSE. CALL. REPLAY. My goodness, I enjoyed watching replays using this system. We need this at every UPA event. The fans love it. The players love it. The referees love it.
Close Call Replay is a company that Kyle Selinko (owner of Boxcar Productions) and Eddie Adkins started for pickleball. It includes seven high definition, ultra slow motion (240 frames per second) cameras that can be used for challenges. It is 2024 – we need this in pickleball.
Jason Flamm
We learned a couple of things this weekend:
- A pickleball does, in fact, compress
- No matter the speed the ball was traveling, the system can always definitively pinpoint where the ball landed
Here are a couple of high-resolution shots from this weekend using the Close Call Replay system:
Hopefully the UPA figures a way to partner with Boxcar Productions and Close Call Replay in the very near future. It’s awesome knowing definitively whether a ball is in or out or whether or not someone’s big toe touched the kitchen line.
The New Jersey 5s - The team takes home the $80k cash prize and things are good.
We had some new developments this weekend. Zane Navratil got his first couple of match wins of 2024 – one with Will Howells and one with Mari Humberg (over JW and Jorja Johnson). Zane is just a great team player – because Mari is much more comfortable on the left, he has actually switched over to the right in mixed doubles to help her feel more comfortable, and it ended up working out. It’s worth mentioning that Anna Leigh Waters does the same in women’s doubles.
The 5s are such a dangerous team because with ALW, they are basically almost guaranteed to make it to a Dreambreaker. And when they make the Dreambreaker, they are deadly. Zane had the worst record in the Dreambreaker at the Mid-Season Tournament, going 9-10 in his singles points. And in the most clutch moment of the weekend, Zane didn't care about his previous points. At 18-18 in the Championship, he rattled off three straight points against James Ignatowich to get the 5s the big win.
Anna Leigh Waters and Will Howells went a combined 26-10 against other teams’ top competition in Dreambreakers. Will was especially impressive, going 14-6 for a 70 percent win percentage against Hayden Patriquin and Dekel Bar.
I see this team continuing to improve and expect them to win at least four out of their six matches in MLP Salt Lake City.
D.C. Pickleball Team - Coming in as the No. 5 seed, D.C. definitely exceeded expectations. A lot of that falls on the shoulders of Vivian Glozman, the newest member to the team.
Glozman was traded for Allyce Jones a few weeks ago and brings a ton of firepower. However, she can get a little inconsistent in the midcourt and at the kitchen line.
Glozman won 53.46 percent of her points, won five of her eight matches, and averaged a plus-3.13 points-per-match point differential. Those are very good numbers. Additionally, she went 9-7 in Dreambreakers, continuously keeping her team in it.
Dekel Bar was probably the MVP of the event, although his team came up just short. Bar won seven of eight matches, won 56.45 percent of his points, and averaged plus-5.65 point differential per match.
This is a scary team with Glozman and I think they are now favored in almost every match they play.
Brooklyn Aces - Pablo Tellez was easily the MVP of the Mid-Season Tournament for the Challenger Level. Pablo recently got traded to Brooklyn and had to step down a level to Challenger. He didn’t complain publicly and just said he was going to work hard to get Brooklyn promoted to Premier.
Pablo won all six of his matches, won 55.28 percent of his points, and averaged a score of 25-20 throughout the tournament.
Brooklyn won the entire event, despite Layne Sleeth going 1-6 in her matches. She was picked as an upside pick and continues to get better every event. I think Brooklyn will stick with her despite her stats, because she has so much potential.
The Bad
Michelle Esquivel’s disastrous call indoors on Wednesday. This was TERRIBLE.
Jason Flamm
MLP moved play indoors on Wednesday due to weather. No replay system was available as a result. The Black Bears played the Florida Smash and the Smash were up 2-1 in the match. At 17-17, Michelle Esquivel made one of the worst out calls I have ever seen.
This is the worst I’ve ever seen + it most likely directly effected the outcome of the match
— Chris Cali (@sorrynotsorrypb) July 11, 2024
If there was a hook of the year…
This is it https://t.co/t8GaIhkui6
Unfortunately, the line judge didn’t see the ball and called it out. The replay showed the ball at least a foot in. The problem is, fans at home could see the replay, but no one actually at the tournament could.
This was a bad look for Esquivel and the refs on hand, BUT we have to remember these are human beings. On the plus side of this situation, Koop and Richards had already secured an indoor venue as a backup and weather didn’t affect the timing of play.
The New York Hustlers - The Hustlers are very interesting and inconsistent. The Hustlers only got one win, and it was over an LA Mad Drops team that had two subs - and that went to a Dreambreaker. They lost 3-0 to D.C., and two of those matches were blowouts.
The Hustlers won four out of their 11 matches, and Jackie Kawamoto was the only player with a positive point differential.
In my opinion, New York will continue to be up and down. They have the ability to be a really good team and if Jack Sock can continue getting more consistent at the kitchen line, they could beat anyone at any given time.
The Ugly
Teams who went 0-2. Sure, in every double elimination tournament teams HAVE to go 0-2. That’s how these things work.
Let’s run through those teams and how bad it really was, starting with Challenger and then working into Premier.
Chicago Slice - This team was supposed to be good. They dropped Kelsey Grambeau to pick up Megan Fudge. The new roster is: Jack Munro, Megan Fudge, Allison Harris, and Brendon Long. However, Long played sick in the first match, and the Slice subbed Roscoe Bellamy in for their second match.
The Slice went 0-2, losing both women’s matches and winning both men’s matches, while Jack Munro and Megan Fudge only won one of two mixed matches. They only won two of their five matches that ended within two points.
Panic Meter: 6 out of 10. I am giving them a slight pass because Long was sick and Bellamy had to sub. But how in the world do Megan Fudge and Allison Harris lose two matches in MLP Challenger Level together? The bigger problem is that the Slice isn’t playing in the next two MLP events, and then there is another Waiver Period.
Frisco Pandas - John Cincola got a last-minute injury, so Wyatt Stone had to sub. Let’s just face the facts: Wyatt Stone is not John Cincola. The team didn’t win any of their four gender doubles matches and only Ewa Radzikowska and Stefan Auvergne won their mixed doubles matches. Both Wyatt and Alli Phillips went 0-4.
Panic Meter: 4 out of 10. With Cincola back, they should be just fine. I know the team gets along well with Phillips, but she has not had a good 2024 MLP campaign thus far. The Pandas don’t play again until the next waiver period. Do they look to pick up someone like Emily Cederquist?
Bay Area Breakers - This team was not destined for success in this tournament. They had to sub in Sam Parker, Rachel Rettger, and Grayson Goldin to join Collin Shick.
I am not surprised by either loss. However, the emphatic losses were tough. They were beaten 3-0 in both matches and didn’t win one game. The average score of their matches was near 19-25.
Panic Meter: 8 out of 10. Bay Area is high in the standings, but they have to play in MLP Salt Lake City in two weeks and then in MLP Kansas City the following week. They have a total of eight matches during that timespan - 35 percent of their season.
I am panicked for two reasons: How healthy is DJ Young? If he can’t go, they are going to have to pick up back-to-back subs in these upcoming events, and they can’t use the same player. Also, is Bay Area going to get Allyce Jones to play Challenger? Rumors are that she is VERY unhappy being traded down.
Columbus Sliders - The Sliders are officially bad. They only had four matches together in MLP Atlanta – over two months ago – and Meghan Dizon was sick and Connor Garnett couldn’t get a serve in.
Yes, they went up against tough opponents in the Squeeze and the Ranchers, but they didn’t win one game. They lost 0-3 to both teams, including Riley Newman and Brooke Buckner losing 23-25 twice in mixed doubles. I thought I messed up my stats and had to check again, but I was right - Buckner and Dizon scored 29 points in their two women’s matches, losing 29-50. Yikes. That made for a total of three blowout losses in the six matches played.
Panic Meter: 10 out of 10. A trade or two is desperately needed here. With six matches in two weeks at MLP SLC, Columbus will be playing 26 percent of its season in Salt Lake. Something needs to change before then.
Carolina Pickleball Club - Speaking of underperforming; Ben Johns didn’t win a game in Grand Rapids.
Johns looked disinterested and Carolina lost to Texas and Orlando, just like Columbus.
Not only that, they also lost 0-3 in both matches. The women had two blowout losses, while Collin and Koop also had a blowout loss. Even though I predicted Carolina to go 0-2, I didn’t think it would be this ugly.
Panic Meter: 10 out of 10. I am not sure if Ben or team management cares about winning. If not, maybe the panic level is zero. If anyone involved with this team cares about winning, a trade needs to happen quickly – and possibly more than one.
LA Mad Drops - I am not reading too much into this one. Catherine Parenteau got married and Thomas Wilson is dealing with some sort of undisclosed arm-related injury.
The Mad Drops subbed in Blaine Hovenier and Emily Cederquist. The two subs had a combined point differential of -39, and Blaine didn’t win a game. The team still managed to make a Dreambreaker.
Cederquist is still the best woman player out there who is not permanently on an MLP team. She should be picked up in the next waiver wire period. The biggest bright spot for her this weekend came when she and Jade beat Lea Jansen and Jackie Kawamoto in women’s doubles.
Panic Meter: 2 out of 10. The only reason it’s even this high is because I am worried about Wilson’s injury. Hopefully it doesn’t keep him sidelined much longer.
Utah Black Diamonds - The Black Diamonds lost to the juggernaut that is D.C. Pickleball Team. The bigger problem is they lost to AZ Drive, who were without Andrei Daescu.
Alix Truong didn’t have a good outing, losing all four of her matches while averaging a point differential of -5.5 per match. The biggest bright spot for the Black Diamonds was Tyler Loong. He won one of two gender doubles matches with Jay Devilliers and his only mixed doubles match with Callie Smith. Additionally, he did well against AJ Koller in the Dreambreaker, going 6-4.
Panic Meter: 8 out of 10. This situation is very similar to the Carolina one. If management cares about winning now, a change (or two) is needed. If not, and they really want to focus on the future and developing players, I think they stay put.
