Major League Pickleball Columbus 2026: Pools, schedule, viewing guide and storylines

After a thrilling slate of matches in Dallas over Memorial Day weekend, Major League Pickleball is back in action this week.

There are 11 teams participating in MLP Columbus, which starts Thursday from Pickle & Chill, an indoor facility that has hosted several past MLP events.

Here are the teams in the field this week:

Group A: Atlanta Bouncers, California Black Bears, Chicago Slice, Columbus Sliders, Miami Pickleball Club, New Jersey 5s.

Group B: Carolina Hogs, Florida Smash, Las Vegas Night Owls, St. Louis Shock, Palm Beach Royals.

MLP Columbus storylines

Here are a few of the biggest storylines to watch this week:

• Sliders make a trade. Parris Todd was suspended for the season-opening event in Dallas, so MLP newcomer Danni-Elle Townsend and Alix Truong started the year for the Sliders. And they both had great weeks – they went 4-1 in women’s doubles, while Townsend went 3-2 in mixed with CJ Klinger and Truong went 3-2 in mixed with Andrei Daescu. That created a tricky lineup situation for Columbus. Todd had a great spring season on the PPA Tour and is arguably the No. 3 women’s player in all of pickleball right now, so it was clear she would be inserted into the lineup. What wasn’t clear was who would move to the bench — Truong or Townsend — or whether they would try to play both in some matches. We got our answer Thursday morning, as it was announced that Columbus had traded Truong + cash to the Phoenix Flames in exchange for Judit Castillo. This gives the Sliders a very strong singles player in Castillo and shows they’re committed to the Townsend-Todd lineup in doubles. Townsend told us earlier this week that she and Todd will likely play “straight up” in women’s doubles.
  
• Do the New Jersey 5s stick with the same mixed lineups we saw in Week 1? Somewhat surprisingly, New Jersey made the decision to switch up their mixed doubles lineup in Dallas. Over the past two seasons Will Howells/Anna Leigh Waters have been the second-best mixed doubles team in the league, with a record of 54-11. But New Jersey paired Khlif with Waters and Howells with Johnson last week, and the results were so-so. Khlif/Waters went 4-1, while Howells/Johnson went 2-3. We’ll find out this week whether that was just an experiment, or if they’re committed to those pairings long term.
  
• We will see a New Jersey vs. Columbus rematch this week. In what was one of the best matches in group play last week, the Sliders edged out New Jersey 12-10 in the second mixed game to earn a 3-1 win. That match allowed Columbus to win their group last week and play in the 1st/2nd place match on the final day of MLP Dallas. The two teams find themselves in the same group again this week, so we don’t have to wait long to see the sequel.

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Major League Pickleball 2026 season format

One of the complaints from fans last year was that it was hard to identify an “event winner” for each stop on the MLP schedule given that each event was just a collection of regular-season matches.

The league has since made some changes to try to make each individual event carry more weight. Here’s how the 2026 MLP season will work:

▪️All 20 teams participating in 2026 will play at one level (no more Premier and Challenger designations).

▪️All teams will participate in a collection of five of the nine regular-season events. Find the full schedule here.

▪️All events will have 11 participating teams with the exception of Orlando, which will have 12 teams.

▪️There will be one group of 5 and one group of 6 at each event; Orlando will have two groups of 6.

▪️All teams will play a total of 23 group play matches during the season (2x in a group of five; 3x in a group of six).

▪️Group play results will determine seeds based on Total Wins, with Head-to-Head and Net Games as tiebreakers.

▪️On the event’s final day, a team will play the same seed from the other group for Event Standings Points (No. 1 from Pool A vs. No. 1 from Pool B, etc.).

▪️Event Standings Points: 1st: 25 / 2nd: 18 / 3rd: 15 / 4th: 12 / 5th: 10 / 6th: 8 / 7th: 6 / 8th: 4 / 9th & 10th: 1 / 11th: 0

▪️Expanded Playoffs: Three weeks and 12 qualifying teams, based on total Event Standings Points earned.

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MLP Columbus match schedule

All matches available on Pickleball TV and the Pickleball TV app.