The Seattle Pioneers And Bay Area Breakers Win At The Daytona Beach Major League Pickleball Event

The second event of the 2023 Major League Pickleball (MLP) is in the books. MLP Daytona Beach by Margaritaville was held at the busy Pictona facility in Daytona Beach. Pictona has already hosted an APP and PPA tour event this year, but the most exciting event in the sport came into town and delighted fans with its unique team-based passion and competition.

Since we last checked in with MLP, there’s been some shuffling of the team members on the Challenger division squads. Seven of the challenger teams picked up new players to try to recharge their fortunes, while the Premier teams stood pat and tried to regroup from January’s results.

Let’s recap the season’s second event. Here’s some helpful links to follow along with the action.

Premier Division Recap

• There was just one team that made it through the group stage unblemished, and that was the 3-time winning California BLQK Bears squad. They advanced out of the group stage over the Ben Johns-led Seattle team, despite Seattle having a better Net-games record. These two teams ended up being your two top seeds in the playoffs and would meet again in the final.
• The “Group of Death” here was Group B, which featured last month’s finalists in the NY Hustlers, the Anna Leigh Waters-led New Jersey 5’s, and the SoCal Hard Eights, who got back their #1 draft pick in Riley Newman for this event. Newman was not able to tip the scales of power though, despite being the top-rated player statistically on the weekend, as the two playoff teams from Mesa (NY and NJ) moved on.
• The Mesa Champions Los Angeles Mad Drops squeaked into the playoffs despite missing Thomas Wilson, but could not return to the finals, falling to the Seattle Pioneers in the semis. The number one seed team BLQK Bears put two losses on the #1 female in the sport Waters in their semis matchup to move into the final as well.
• In the Premier division final, Seattle swept the gender doubles, then Ben Johns and Etta Wright combined to cruise to a 21-14 clinching win over Federico Staksrud and Andrea Koop to seal the victory for Seattle and get revenge for a group stage loss. This is Johns’ first time returning to the MLP winners circle since November 2021, and a first win for the rest of his teammates.

Challenger Division Recap

• As with the Premier division, just one team advanced through the Thursday group stage undefeated; the MLP Mesa Challenger winning team Bay Area Breakers. The Breakers finished the Mesa event undefeated in the group stages as well. Led by their strong Men team members Pablo Tellez and Christian Alshon, they continue to dominate.
• Seven teams finished the group stage 2-1, with only five eligible to move on to the semis. This left Mesa MLP finalist Utah Black Diamonds on the outside looking in. The 2nd seed went to the best of the 2-1 group stage teams, The Dallas Pickleball Club, who made the biggest moves in the shuffle draft, dropping Chuck Taylor for Daniel De La Rosa and then trading Megan Fudge for Jill Braverman. These moves clearly paid off as DPC finished the group stage with the biggest Net games margin.
• Columbus and Miami both finished 0-3 in Mesa, made shuffle draft moves, and both qualified for the playoffs here in Daytona. Bravo to their GMs. On the flip side, the DC Pickleball team and the AZ Drive both took a step back, going 0-3 in the group stage here despite swapping out personnel in the shuffle draft. AZ looked especially bad, going just 2-10 in individual matches in the group stage and having their two male players ranked 46th and 48th of all challenger players for the event.
• In the playoffs, the top two seeds Bay Area and Dallas advanced to the final, holding off upset attempts by semi finalists Miami and Chicago respectively. Dallas advanced with ease as both Brandon French and new acquisition Jillian Braverman went undefeated in the match. The Bay Area breakers had to go Dreambreaker to take out the Chicago Slice to advance to Saturday’s championship.
• In the Challenger final, the teams split gender doubles matches, then Bay Area took both Mixed doubles matchups to win their second straight title. They’re now 10-0 as a team in 2023 with two titles.

Other Observations from the weekend:

• Hunter Johnson did double duty, playing for his normal Atlanta team and filling in for Thomas Wilson in the Premier league. His performance was excellent in the premier league for the defending champion LA Mad Drops, but he was one of the worst statistical players in his three challenger matches.
• I wonder how long the DC Pickleball team will stick with their Sam Querrey experiment, or their team structure in general. All four of their players ranked 34th or worse on the weekend, and Querrey continues to struggle despite social media posting to the contrary.
• Through two events, the Frisco Clean Cause are dead last, having yet to win a match, and one has to question their draft strategy. They are one of just two teams that drafted two male players before a female, and with the talent pool of top females clearly thinner, it has taken its toll on their play. In group play this weekend they went just 2-11 overall and are dead last of all franchises through the first two events.

This wraps up the second MLP event of the year. The next MLP event will be at in June in San Clemente, which will wrap up the first half of the season and initiate a re-draft for the rest of 2023.

Next up on the Pro Pickleball Calendar will see a busy weekend. The APP is back in action in Mesa, the PPA has a futures event in Gilbert, AZ, and the Pickleball Slam event featuring four retired tennis giants is being held in Hollywood, Florida.