Dreambreakers and Draft Picks: MLP Atlanta's Intriguing Statlines

In a very similar fashion to all the predictions for the MLP draft picks, once again, no one guessed the final results correctly from Atlanta. Let’s take a look at some of the trends we saw compared to previous events and how teams fared based on their drafting strategies.

Let’s start with the champs: The Orlando Squeeze strategically traded down their first and second-round picks with DC (who they ironically played in the final) in order to draft Anna Bright and Andrei Daescu, respectively. They also traded their third and fourth-round picks with the Atlanta Bouncers and used those to select Zane Navratil & Rachel Rohrabacher.

Of all 12 premier teams, Orlando was the only one who selected a female, then male, then male, then female, perhaps that was part of the winning formula? Plus, three of their four players have ample pro pickleball singles experience & success, a stark difference from their challenger roster, which proved handy as both their semifinal & final matches went the distance.

Orlando Squeeze Stats

• Women's Doubles: 4-1
• Men's Doubles: 2-3
• Mixed Doubles: 8-2
• Dreambreakers: 2-0

All four Squeeze players were in the Top 10 player rankings for MLP Atlanta. Both Anna & Rachel landed them atop the player rankings with 10 victories and 2 losses, boasting the highest win percentage at 83%, followed by Julian Arnold of the Arizona Drive at 79%. Rohrabacher also had the highest women’s Dreambreaker Points Won Percentage at 71%, which was third overall, only trailing Federico Staksrud (72%) & fellow teammate Zane Navratil who had a whopping 81%.

Squeeze Singles Point Totals:

• Andrei 8/16 50%
• Zane 13/16 81%
• Anna 11/16 69%
• Rachel 10/14 71%

How important is singles experience in MLP Premier?

• Group A: only 1 match went to a Dreambreaker (Bay Area vs Texas)
• Group B had 2 Dreambreakers: Utah vs Chicago and DC vs Chicago
• Group C had 3 Dreambreakers: Arizona vs Columbus, Miami vs Brooklyn, and Arizona vs Brooklyn
• Playoffs: 4 of the 5 matches went to a Dreambreaker!

How about the other MLPs this year?

• MLP Atlanta: 10 Dreambreakers - 43% of matches
• MLP San Clemente: 5 Dreambreakers - 22% of matches
• MLP Daytona: 11 Dreambreakers - 48% of matches
• MLP Mesa: 10 Dreambreakers - 43% of matches

Orlando went 0/3 in Dreambreakers most recently at MLP San Clemente as a Challenger team and then went 2/2 in the semifinals and finals at MLP Atlanta.

Small sidebar, it was quite disappointing that teams are limited to only one challenge once the Dreambreaker starts, whether you successfully challenged a call and kept it, lost two of them, or were saving them for later in the match.

New Scoring

At MLP Atlanta, a change was made to the rally scoring “freeze” which occurred at 20-18, and instead, teams continued to earn points until they had to serve for the match upon reaching 20 points. With this in place, 31 of the 106 games played resulted in a score of 22-20 or higher, and only 5 were exactly 21-19.

Draft Results

Let’s take a look at the draft order and how teams finished:

Four teams opted to select Male, Female, Female, Male:

Chicago (Ben Johns), DC (Riley Newman), Columbus (JW Johnson), Texas (Dylan Frazier), & Dallas (James Ignatowich).

Chicago made it to the semifinals & DC were the runner up to Orlando.

Four teams opted to select Female, Female, Male, Male:

Utah (Anna Leigh Waters) , Brooklyn (Catherine Parenteau),  Atlanta (Parris Todd), & Bay Area (Lea Jansen).

Only the Breakers advanced to the playoffs.

Arizona was the lone team to select Male, Female, Male, Female with Julian Arnold first, and made it to the semifinal.

Miami chose Male Male, Female, Female with Tyson McGuffin first, and also made it to the semifinal.

Other notable storylines of the players who made the jump from Challenger (or even undrafted) to Premier:

• Christian Alshon & Connor Garnett had chances to win a title at both Challenger & Premier levels, with both of their respective teams reaching the playoffs in Atlanta.
• Pablo Tellez went 0-6 in his 3 matches…perhaps I shouldn’t have hit that one ATP against him in Danny Wuerffel’s Picklebowl, just ask Anna Bright or Jenna Bandy about it.
• Hurricane Tyra Black was the 7th best player in MLP Atlanta held an 8-3 record, showed off her singles prowess in both of their Dreambreakers and went undefeated in mixed alongside Federico Staksrud and showed off her singles prowess, which begged the question if they should have put that pairing out first against DC in the playoffs to extend the match instead of losing 0-3 with Tyson & Allison going up against Alshon & Jackie.
• Vivian Glozman showed her potential of premier level talent, although her record was 4-10, the team rallied around her strong drives and length at the kitchen line to reach the semifinals.
• Allison Harris had an impressive showing as a late substitute for the ill Mary Brascia without any prior MLP experience, despite her 4-8 record, Miami PC made it to the semis.
• Rachel Rohrabacher arguably could’ve won co-MVP alongside Anna Bright

Lastly, thank you to all the fans, especially those who traveled from Orlando, to create an incredible atmosphere, primarily on Championship Court, where the Squeeze played 4 of their 5 matches!