After 10 weeks of regular season events, the Major League Pickleball playoffs are here, starting Friday in San Diego.

The top 10 teams in the Premier Level standings and all six Challenger Level teams will be in action over the course of three days, with the final four in Premier and top two teams in Challenger advancing to the MLP Finals in New York City next week.

MLP San Diego kicks off Friday with first-round matches between the lower seeds that will determine who advances to the quarterfinals.

Here's how the seeding shook out, with the top 6 teams getting a first-round bye.

1. St. Louis Shock
2. Dallas Flash
3. New Jersey 5s
4. Brooklyn Pickleball Team
5. Columbus Sliders
6. Los Angeles Mad Drops
7. Texas Ranchers
8. Orlando Squeeze
9. Utah Black Diamonds
10. Miami Pickleball Club

Major League Pickleball Premier Level playoff format

First Round

-Seeds 7–10 face off in single-elimination matches.

-No. 7 seed Texas had the benefit of selecting their opponent, and they chose to play Miami. That means Orlando and Utah will play in the other first-round matchup.

-Winners advance and are re-seeded as No. 7 and No. 8 for the quarterfinals.

Second Round (quarterfinals)

-Seeds 1–6, plus the two First Round winners (now seeded 7–8), compete in best-of-three match series. Higher seeds (starting with No. 1 seed St. Louis) choose their opponent from seeds 5–8.

-Most likely quarterfinal matchups: St. Louis vs. winner of Utah/Orlando; Dallas vs. Texas (assuming Texas beats Miami); New Jersey vs. Columbus; Brooklyn vs. Los Angeles.

-The top four teams after the first two rounds will advance to the semifinals and finals in New York City Aug. 22-24.

-For the semifinals, the highest remaining seed will again get to choose their opponent from the lower two seeds.

Buy tickets: MLP Finals in New York City

Major League Pickleball Challenger Level playoff format

At the Challenger Level, the Las Vegas Night Owls ran away with the No. 1 seed, followed by the Nashville Chefs -- The Kitchen's MLP team -- at No. 2.

All six Challenger Level teams qualified for the playoffs, seeded 1–6 based on regular season standings points.

1. Las Vegas Night Owls
2. Nashville Chefs
3. California Black Bears
4. D.C. Pickleball Team
5. Bay Area Breakers
6. Florida Smash

First Round

-Seeds 3–6 face off in single-elimination matches. The high seed (California) opted to play Florida, which means D.C. will play Bay Area with Las Vegas and Nashville awaiting the winners.

Semifinals

-Seeds 1–2, plus the First Round winners, compete in best-of-three match series. Las Vegas will get to select their opponent from the lower two seeds.

-Semifinal winners will advance to the Finals in NYC.

Major League Pickleball San Diego schedule

*All times PT

Major League Pickleball San Diego Premier Level first-round analysis

No. 7 Texas Ranchers vs. No. 10 Miami Pickleball Club: The last time we saw Texas they were without star player Christian Alshon, who was benched for the final event of the season at MLP Salt Lake City, according to multiple sources. The team never commented publicly on Alshon's absence, but he said on social media that he intends to play for the Ranchers this week. If that's the case, it's hard to see a path to victory for Miami, who limped into the playoffs after trading away Noe Khlif and Milan Rane at the trade deadline. Even if Miami is able to force a Dreambreaker, Texas would still be heavily favored in that scenario.

No. 8 Orlando Squeeze vs. No. 9 Utah Black Diamonds: This one could go either way in my opinion. Through the first two events of the season, Orlando was 9-2. Since then they are 8-10, including Mid-Season Tournament matches. Which team will show up in San Diego? And while Orlando seemed to be stuck in neutral for the second half of the season, Utah finished strong at MLP Salt Lake City after acquiring Etta Tuionetoa at the trade deadline. I actually put Utah one spot ahead of Orlando (despite their seeding) in my final MLP power rankings because of how they each finished the season. I'd give the Black Diamonds the slight edge in this one, but if good Orlando shows up it should be a close match.

Major League Pickleball San Diego Premier Level likely quarterfinal matchups

We won't know for sure who the top seeds will choose to play until Friday afternoon, but this is the most likely scenario.

No. 1 St. Louis Shock vs. No. 8 Orlando Squeeze/No. 9 Utah Black Diamonds: Regardless of who St. Louis ends up playing, the Shock will be heavy favorites. Every line for St. Louis is top tier, led by the men's duo of Hayden Patriquin and Gabe Tardio, who were easily the best men's doubles pairing in the league this season with a 27-2 record overall. I'd be surprised if this series went to a third match.

No. 2 Dallas Flash vs. No. 7 Texas/No. 10 Miami: I'm penciling in Texas as Dallas' opponent here, and it will be an uphill battle for the Ranchers to make this a close series. Given the behind-the-scenes drama involving Alshon, it's hard to think Texas will be playing their best ball of the season this weekend, which is what they would need to be competitive in this matchup. Dallas won the season series 2-0, but to the Ranchers' credit both matches were pretty close. The first meeting on May 24 (when Texas had Etta Tuionetoa) went to a Dreambreaker, which Dallas won 22-20. The Flash won the second meeting on July 26 (when Texas had Kaitlyn Christian) in regulation, although both mixed matches were close and if either of them flipped in Texas' favor, that match was headed to another Dreambreaker. Still, it's hard to go against the defending champs in this one.

No. 3 New Jersey 5s vs. No. 5 Columbus Sliders: I'm guessing the 5s will want to avoid Los Angeles (who I think is one of the favorites to win it all), which leaves Columbus as their most likely opponent. Columbus showed they have a high ceiling with a win over Dallas last month, but they have been inconsistent throughout the season. I think everybody would agree that the men's doubles pairing of Andrei Daescu and CJ Klinger has underperformed, going 16-8 (66.67%) together. But they are still a dangerous pair, and the Sliders' women's duo of Parris Todd and Lea Jansen were playing well together toward the end of the season. New Jersey, meanwhile, has consistently been a step below the top two (St. Louis and Dallas), but a step above everybody else throughout the season. They've had some good moments since trading for Noe Khlif at the deadline and inserting him into the starting lineup over Zane Navratil, but that move has been somewhat controversial and it means the 5s will be under the microscope in this series. If it goes poorly, that will be the move that everybody points to. I think New Jersey will make it out of this round, though -- they do have Anna Leigh Waters, after all.

No. 4 Brooklyn Pickleball Team vs. No. 6 Los Angeles Mad Drops: I feel for Brooklyn here. After playing much of the season without a fully healthy roster, now they likely have to play the team everybody wants to avoid in their first playoff series. The good news for Brooklyn is Dekel Bar is expected to make his return after dealing with an illness and then an injury for the past couple months. It remains to be seen if he'll be 100%, though, as he hasn't played in a competitive setting since June 1. For the Mad Drops, we only have a handful of matches to go off of since they traded for Ben Johns, but I think you could see Johns becoming more comfortable playing with Catherine Parenteau in mixed and Hunter Johnson in men's doubles throughout their 6 matches together (and them becoming more comfortable with him). In their last match of the MLP Dallas event, the Mad Drops took down the Flash in a Dreambreaker. If that version of LA shows up, they can beat anybody, and they are my pick to win it all.