Major League Pickleball Orlando 2026: Pools, match schedule and viewing guide

By Alex Lantz | Jul 29, 2026

We’ve reached the final week of the Major League Pickleball regular season, and there are several teams still battling for the final playoff spots.

MLP Orlando starts Thursday from the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort. There are 12 teams in the field this week.

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Group A: Brooklyn Pickleball Team, Las Vegas Night Owls, Miami Pickleball Club, Orlando Squeeze, Phoenix Flames, St. Louis Shock.

Group B: California Black Bears, Carolina Hogs, Chicago Slice, LA Mad Drops, New Jersey Fives, Palm Beach Royals.

Federico Staksrud will be making his debut for the 5s after being traded from the Orlando Squeeze at the trade deadline. It’s unclear as of this writing where Staksrud will fit in New Jersey’s lineup and who he will play with in men’s doubles and mixed doubles (assuming he plays both).

Looking to attend MLP Orlando? Get tickets here

MLP playoff outlook

Let’s start at the top: The St. Louis Shock and New Jersey 5s are tied for the top spot in the league standings with 93 points each. Both teams are in the field this week, so whichever team has the better week will be the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. That means they will get to choose their opponents in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and they will be the home team in those matches.

LA, Brooklyn looking to secure first-round bye: The Top 4 teams in the standings will get a first-round bye in the playoffs. Columbus is currently No. 3 with 83 points, while Dallas is No. 4 with 72 points, but both of those teams have finished their regular season. Los Angeles (71 points) and Brooklyn (66 points) are No. 5 and No. 6 in the standings, and are both in the field this week, so they have an opportunity to pass Columbus — LA would need to finish 3rd or better, while Brooklyn would need to finish 2nd or better.

On the bubble: This is where things get interesting and somewhat complicated. Atlanta (No. 9, 36 points) and SoCal (No. 10, 34 points) are done with their regular seasons and watching from the couch this weekend, while the following teams are in the field and still have a chance to earn more points:

California (No. 11, 30 points)
Chicago (No. 12, 27 points)
Las Vegas (No. 13, 26 points)
Orlando (No. 14, 25 points)
Miami (No. 15, 20 points)

The Top 12 teams make the playoffs, so Las Vegas, Orlando and Miami need to have good weeks and need some help from California and Chicago in order to jump inside the bubble.

Not technically dead: Carolina (2 points) and Phoenix (3 points) both need to win this week’s event to have a chance to make the playoffs, but they haven’t come close to doing that in any of their first four events.