St. Louis goes undefeated in MLP Dallas, Earning #1 seed - Event Recap

MLP Dallas will likely be looked back upon as the best event of the 2025 MLP regular season. Five of the top eight teams were in attendance, and we got multiple very good matches in three of the four days.

The level of play between the playoff contenders gave us a glimpse as to what the MLP Playoffs may look like starting in San Diego on August 15th.

Let’s take a look at how the teams fared.

Team Standings from MLP Dallas

Overall Team Standings after MLP Dallas

Top Storylines

The St. Louis Shock Earned the #1 Seed in the Playoffs

The Shock only dropped one point all weekend - to the 5s in their last match. 

The St. Louis Shock went 11-0 in their last two events. Of the possibly 33 points they could have earned, they took home 31 points. With 74 points on the year, the St. Louis Shock earned the #1 seed headed into the playoffs.

Led by Hayden Patriquin going 21-1 in his last 22 games, the Shock are firing on all cylinders at the right time. And it’s not like the other players are getting carried. Here are the Shock player stats in the last two MLP events:

• Hayden Patriquin - 21-1
• Gabe Tardio - 19-3
• Anna Bright - 17-5
• Kate Fahey - 15-7

That is a combined game record of 72-16, for a game win/loss record of 82% - not too shabby.

And it’s not like they have only been beating up on the lower level teams.

Sure, the Shock beat Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Phoenix, SoCal, and Carolina in those 11 matches. They also beat Columbus, Dallas, Brooklyn, LA (with Ben Johns) and New Jersey.

I would not want to play this team in the playoffs.

Ben Johns and the New Mad Drops Showed Signs of Greatness

It was good to see Ben Johns smiling, caring, coaching his teammates, and generally having fun playing MLP again.

The Mad Drops got six matches of warmups together before the playoffs and overall, it went well. Sure, there were some definitely hiccups early on, especially on middle balls, but when is that not the case in newer partnerships?

The Mad Drops battled the New Jersey 5s to a Dreambreaker on Saturday, narrowly losing 22-20. On Sunday, they really showed their mettle, bringing the #2 Dallas Flash to a Dreambreaker, and went down 0-6 before clawing their way back, beating Dallas 21-18.

The Mad Drops are a scary team to play, and I am guessing they are the last team picked in the second round of the playoffs. There is a slight chance that either Texas or Orlando catches them in the standings, and then LA will be bumped to a #7 seed. If that happens, they will have to win one match against the #9 or #10 seed in the play-in round.

Hurricane Tyra Black went 10-0 on the Weekend, but the Flash still Finished Second

After struggling a bit in MLP St. Louis, Hurricane Tyra Back stormed into MLP Dallas with a vengeance. She went 12-0 in her matches, helping Dallas earn 16 of 18 points. 

The Flash feel just short of earning the #1 seed in the playoffs, earning 71 points, to the Shock’s 74. 

Of note, the Dallas Flash hosted one of the best events in MLP history. The fans were engaged, and multiple sources told me it is very likely the event set an attendance record. 

The indoor space with ample fan seating, great viewing lines, great teams, all added to the atmosphere.

Each time the Dallas Flash played, they did a blackout and had a drum line come in to introduce the team - what a neat idea and it really got the place fired up. 

Sure, there will always be complaints about any event, but the vast majority of feedback I got from both players and teams was that this was easily one of the top MLP stops of the 2025 season.

There are Four Teams Fighting for Two More Playoff Spots

There are eight teams who have already clinched a playoff spot:

1. St. Louis Shock - locked as #1 seed
2. Dallas Flash - locked as #2 seed

• New Jersey 5s
• Brooklyn Pickleball Team
• Columbus Sliders
• LA Mad Drops
• Texas Ranchers
• Orlando Squeeze

There are four teams who have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs: 

• NY Hustlers
• SoCal Hard 8s
• Phoenix Flames
• Carolina Hogs

This leaves four teams fighting for the last two playoff spots headed into MLP Salt Lake City:

• Utah Black Diamonds - 20 matches played, 23 points, 1.15 PPM, 9th in PPM
  • Play Texas, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, and Miami
• Miami Pickleball Club - 20 matches played, 19 points, 0.95 PPM, 10th in PPM
  • Play Chicago, Texas, Atlanta, New Jersey, Utah
• Chicago Slice - 20 matches played, 18 points, 0.9 PPM, 11th in PPM
  • Play Texas, Miami, Utah, New Jersey, Orlando
• Atlanta Bouncers - 20 matches played, 14 points, 0.7 PPM, 13th in PPM
  • Play Orlando, Miami, Texas, Utah, New Jersey

MLP Salt Lake City begins Thursday, July 31st. Check out The Dink Newsletter on Wednesday for a full preview.