It feels like deja vu — like season one all over again. In fact, it feels like any pickleball competition ever. If you give Ben Johns enough time, he will find a way to win.

Major League Pickleball decided to forego the third event of season two in favor of an invite-only playoff of the league’s best. Everyone was anticipating another final between the D.C. Pickleball Team and the Orlando Squeeze.

Sweet revenge for D.C. at MLP Dallas

Path to the Finals

The playoff bracket was a little confusing at first glance. Orlando and D.C. were the top two seeds and played each other for an immediate bid into the finals.

The Chicago Slice and Miami Pickleball Club were also invited to the event. They played each other in sort of a play-in match. The winner of that match would play the loser of D.C. and Orlando for the second spot in the finals. See it in bracket form below.

The Semifinals

On Monday, the Squeeze beat D.C. to earn a spot in the final. That forced D.C. to play the Chicago Slice for another chance to reach the final.

D.C. took a 2-0 lead on the Slice winning both women's and men's doubles. The Slice rallied back and won both mixed doubles games and the singles dreambreaker by two points each. This punched their ticket into the final against the Squeeze.

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The Finals

Again in the final, the Slice dropped games one and two and had their backs against the wall.

• Lacy Schneemann and Erik Lange had a huge comeback win in mixed doubles to breathe life back into the team
• Jessie Irvine and Ben Johns took care of game four to force another Dreambreaker for the Slice
• The Slice were outgunned on paper but heroic efforts from Schneemann, Lange, and Irvine carried them to a 21-18 Championship win

Schneemann earned MVP honors and the Chicago Slice, a team that could have been left out of the playoffs, beat the two defending champs to claim the season two crown.

Challenger Level Playoffs

The season two Challenger Level can be summed up with three words: Socal Hard Eights. The bright pink jerseys and dice dominated the Challenger Level all season long. The Hard Eights finished with an undefeated record across all three events.

In the playoffs, the Hard Eights received a bye straight to the finals. The St. Louis Shock played the CA BLQK Bears for the remaining spot in the finals,

In the semifinals, the St Louis Shock cleaned up in mixed doubles to take the match 3-1. After clinching the match in mixed doubles we saw a savage teardrop taunt from Genie Erokhina.

St Louis advanced to the final where they took on the Hard Eights. The Eights were ready and waiting. Game one was a thriller. It pushed past 21 all the way up to a 27-25 finish in favor of the Eights.

Games two and three were not nearly as close as playoff MVP Todd Fought racked up points for the Eights. They swept St. Louis with a 3-0 victory to complete a perfect season.

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