MLP Season 1 in Review

For the 2023 MLP calendar year, the month of July means that we are officially entering Season 2.

All 12 teams who competed at the Challenger level in Season 1 will now make the jump to Premier and have first dibs in the draft from the available pool of players. Meanwhile, the Premier teams from Season 1 will then pick from the pool of players remaining after the Premier Draft concludes on July 12th to set their new Challenger level rosters.

With 3 MLP events in the books, the Orlando Squeeze say a bittersweet goodbye to the group of players who competed in Mesa, Daytona, and San Clemente: Callan Dawson, Todd Fought, Bobbi Oshiro, & Rachel Rettger.

A strong start in Arizona earned the team 9 points, but tough battles in Florida & California put the Squeeze through more Dreambreakers than any other team in MLP and netted an additional 6 points over the two events. Hence the importance of closing out games before the rally scoring freeze kicks in, and the value of singles experience in the draft.

If you’ve ever participated in a fantasy sports league, you may be familiar with the upcoming “snake” draft format. This means the draft order from the first round gets inverted: the team who picks first overall will then pick last in the second round. So although Orlando has the third pick, their second round pick will be much later, at 22. For the teams picking 1-6, their first choice needs to be considered a cornerstone piece in constructing the foursome, as their next pick will come after the 6 following teams pick twice. In our next piece, we’ll take a look at some scenarios that could unfold in the draft from the available draft pool.

Note: The contents of this page have neither been reviewed nor endorsed by the Orlando Squeeze. All opinions expressed by Ameen Hafez are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Squeeze or their ownership group, partners or sponsors.