Major League Pickleball Playoffs: First-round matchups, schedule, viewing guide and more

By Alex Lantz | Aug 5, 2026

The Major League Pickleball playoffs kick off this week from Dallas, with 8 teams in action starting Friday.

FIRST ROUND PLAYOFF FORMAT

Best-of-three match series featuring the No. 5-12 seeds.
Seeds No. 5-8 select their First Round opponents from the No. 9-12 seeds. No. 5 seed (Brooklyn) had first choice, followed by No. 6 seed (Dallas), etc.
Series winners advance to the quarterfinals in Newport Beach and are re-seeded based on regular season standings points.

The top four seeds — No. 1 New Jersey, No. 2 St. Louis, No. 3 Los Angeles and No. 4 Columbus — have a bye into the quarterfinals.

First-round matches will start at 2 p.m. Friday from Pickler Universe in Carrolton, Texas, which is the same venue that hosted Week 1 of the regular season.

Read next: The Kitchen’s Top 13 paddles on the market + in-depth reviews for each one

MLP first-round matchups

No. 5 Brooklyn Pickleball Team vs. No. 10 SoCal Hard Eights: For the second-straight season, Brooklyn dealt with injuries for most of the year. In 2025 it was Dekel Bar who missed a significant amount of time with health issues. This season they’ve been without Riley Newman (injured in a scooter accident a few weeks ago) and Rachel Rohrabacher (injured in the video board incident at MLP New York) for significant stretches. If they are fully healthy, they are one of the most dangerous teams in the league, and I suspect they’ve been overly cautious with Newman and Rohrabacher to gear up for a playoff run. Their opponents are also dealing with injuries, as Armaan Bhatia will be out this week. That leaves the Hard Eights without their highest-ranked men’s player. I expect Brooklyn to get through to the quarterfinals without much issue. 2026 head-to-head results: Brooklyn won the lone matchup between the teams, 4-0 on June 6.

No. 6 Dallas Flash vs. No. 11 Las Vegas Night Owls: Dallas is riding an 11-match winning streak heading into the playoffs, and the Flash won their last two events of the regular season. They’ve been a different team since trading for Danni-Elle Townsend and Alix Truong in June. Meanwhile, Las Vegas has been a middle-of-the-pack team throughout the season and never seriously contended in any of their events. Dallas is a heavy favorite in this matchup. 2026 head-to-head results: Dallas won the lone matchup between the teams, 4-0 on July 23.

No. 7 Palm Beach Royals vs. No. 12 Chicago Slice: Teenagers Elsie Hendershot and John Lucian Goins came up big for the Slice down the stretch, and their late-season heroics helped Chicago barely sneak into the playoff field. But even though the Slice have been playing well lately, they are still underdogs in this matchup. Palm Beach has had a solid debut season (this is first year in the league for the Royals), led by the duo of Tina Pisnik/Sofia Sewing in women’s doubles (they are 24-7). 2026 head-to-head results: Palm Beach won the lone matchup between the teams, 3-2 on July 30.

No. 8 Texas Ranchers vs. No. 9 Atlanta Bouncers: This is the closest first-round matchup on paper. Both teams have had solid weeks during the regular season — Texas finished third twice and Atlanta finished third once — but both have also turned in clunkers at times. This one seems like a tossup to me. 2026 head-to-head results: Atlanta won the lone matchup between the teams, 3-2 on June 11.