The MLP Virginia Beach took place at the Pickleball Virginia Beach venue over the weekend. In four days, 33 matches were played between all Challenger Level teams, representing 29% of the Challenger Level season.
The production was low-level, with no commentators at any of the matches. All matches were played on MLP YouTube. With that said, it was very entertaining because the player and referee audio was fun to listen to throughout the weekend.
Here are the standings after Virginia Beach:
(Thanks to Real Clear Stats for the graphic)
Let’s get into the action with the top takeaways:
Three teams have separated themselves from everyone else
The SoCal Hard Eights, Miami Pickleball Club, and Chicago Slice have separated themselves from the field as the best teams in the Challenger Level. In terms of points per match, they are all within .05 points of each other.
SoCal Hard Eights
The Hard Eights have the most points right now but have also played the most matches. They are in second place for points per match at 1.90 points per match.
Gender doubles are really good for the Hard Eights—they went 10-4 on the weekend, with both men and women going 5-2. Mixed doubles is where they struggle a little, 6-8. Yana and Erik are good, but Max and Irina–not so much.
The team is still very good at Dreambreakers, winning their only one during the tournament.
The Hard Eights have the easiest Strength of Schedule remaining, and I predict they will earn one of the top two playoff seeds.
Miami Pickleball Club
Miami Pickleball Club is in first place at 1.94 points per match, with five matches remaining.
Miami has had back-to-back very good events. They showed resilience, losing two matches early in the event. They won the next four matches, earning 11 points on the weekend.
Gender doubles was really good for Miami, going 8-4, and the mixed doubles pairings seemed to change every match. However, they still won 50% of their mixed matches. This is a tough team, and there is no weak link. Noe may end up being the best mid-season pickup in Challenger Level this year, and Eric Oncins may end up being the steal of the draft.
Miami has the fourth-easiest Strength of Schedule moving forward and is my other pick to take one of the top-two spots in the playoffs.
Erik Tice
Chicago Slice
The Slice have been reinvigorated with the mid season addition of Megan Fudge. They earned 14 points in their seven matches, matching the Hard Eights. Chicago is in third place, .01 points per match behind the Hard Eights, at 1.89 points.
A big reason Chicago is able to win so many matches is its ability to close out matches. Chicago was able to win eight of the 12 matches it played that were decided by two points.
The other reason they win is gender doubles. They went a combined 11-3 in gender doubles this weekend. When your gender doubles are that good, having mixed doubles go 7-7 is good enough to earn a lot of points - which is exactly what they did.
My biggest hangup on the Slice is their Dreambreakers. They went 0-2 in Virginia Beach, and Long and Harris went a combined 11-23. They will need to turn that around come playoff time because every match is going to be close.
Atlanta Bouncers
The Atlanta Bouncers underperformed expectations, with their women going 0-7.
I expected Atlanta to earn another three points on the weekend. Losing in regulation to the Smash was not expected. With one of the best Challenger Level players in Jaume Martinez Vich, they aim to get into the playoffs and get promoted.
Atlanta earned nine points in its six matches this weekend. At 1.61 points per match, they are in fourth place.
The biggest red flag this weekend was women’s doubles. Susannah Barr and Emily Cederquist were both picked up in the last waiver wire period. Even though they are new to the team, they have paired up in the past and had a lot of success.
That is why I am so puzzled by their 0-7 record in Virginia Beach. If they had even won three of their seven matches, they could have earned the Bouncers at least an additional four to five standings points.
With the last waiver period in two days, the question becomes: Does Atlanta keep its women’s team intact, hoping it improves, or does it go back to the waiver wire?
Florida Smash
The Florida Smash outperformed my expectations.
Donald Young is getting better quickly. He went 7-7 on the weekend and did alright in Dreambreakers. Travis carried the team, going 9-5 and crushing Dreambreakers, going 23-9.
I didn’t expect the Smash to do as well as they did because of their performance in New York. They are still barely in the playoff hunt. Florida is in eighth place at 1.37 points per match, only 0.1 points behind the Brooklyn Aces (who are in the sixth and final playoff spot).
The biggest issues with the Smash are their women’s doubles and Christa Gecheva in Dreambreakers. Women’s doubles went 2-5 on the weekend, and Gecheva went 10-18 this weekend in Dreambreakers.
The interesting part is that Brooklyn and Florida have the same remaining four opponents: Chicago, Frisco, Atlanta, and Miami. Florida will have to outplay Brooklyn by three points in these last four matches to earn a playoff spot.
The fight for the playoffs is heating up - five teams are fighting for three spots:
The Bouncers, Breakers, Aces, Night Owls, and Smash are all within .24 points per match of each other.
Bay Area Breakers
The Breakers had the best weekend in Virginia Beach of this group and are carrying the most momentum. Jill Braverman won 10 of her 14 matches and dominated the competition, going +64 in point differential. They are in fifth place right now, and I expect them to make the playoffs.
Las Vegas Night Owls
The Night Owls are in seventh place and falling. They went from fifth to seventh place and only earned one point per match in Virginia. The most concerning thing is men’s doubles.
Rafa Hewett and Blaine Hovenier went 0-7 in their matches, going -33 in point differential. Las Vegas dropped their previous men’s doubles team, which had won 50% of their matches together. I don’t think the Night Owls make the playoffs in their current state.
Brooklyn Aces
The Aces were okay in Virginia Beach, earning 10 points in six matches. They are in the last playoff spot in sixth place. Daniel De La Rosa was their best player in Virginia, winning nine matches out of 12. Pablo and Layne didn’t do well in mixed, only winning two matches out of six.
Despite all of this, the Aces traded Lina for Andrea Koop at the deadline. I expect the Aces to make the playoffs with the addition of Koop.
My predicted playoff teams are SoCal, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, Bay Area, and Brooklyn.
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