The Shock Dominate and the Johns Bros Call it Quits - MLP Columbus Recap

The second event of the 2025 MLP season took place this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio. Pickle & Chill hosted the event, and drama was everywhere.

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Let’s get into the action.

Team Standings 

Standings for just the Columbus event:

Overall standings, including the two events thus far in the 2025 season:

St. Louis and Dallas have clearly established themselves at the top of the leaderboard.

Player Standings

Top 20 player standings after MLP Columbus:

For a full list of standings, including mixed doubles vs. gender doubles, and Dreambreaker stats, please visit my publicly available 2025 MLP stats page.

Top Storylines from MLP Columbus

The Johns brothers caused major chaos and let their teammates down

In the name of ‘protecting pro players’, Ben and Collin Johns both withdrew from the event, after playing in (and losing) two matches. Instead, their teammates had to play with alternates for four more matches, losing all of them.

This story was covered extensively, but essentially, Ben and Collin played two matches for the Carolina Hogs, and then quit on their team. They cited ‘lighting concerns’ and ‘safety issues’ when they both withdrew.

Ben cited his childhood eye injury that caused problems while playing indoors. It is still unclear why Collin withdrew, considering he always wears eye protection glasses, despite any lighting issues.

This will be the most talked about subject in pickleball podcasts and media within the next week.

The Hogs went 0-6 in Columbus, losing in a Dreambreaker without Ben and Collin. 

The most wholesome moment from MLP Columbus happened when Martin and Tammy Emmrich beat Vivienne David and James Ignatowich, 14-12, in a mixed doubles match, to bring it to a Dreambreaker. Tammy jumped up and Martin caught her after the huge win.

The Hogs are now 0-8, with two Dreambreaker losses. They have 2 points in their 8 matches, making for a 0.25 points per match (ppm). They are in last place and are looking like they may need a miracle to make the playoffs.

For a complete rundown on the situation, check out The Dink article breaking it all down.

The St. Louis Shock dominated the competition

St. Louis went 6-0 and literally lost one game out of the 24 they played. This event didn’t have the top contenders in it, like MLP Orlando. The Flash, 5s, Brooklyn, and Ranchers were not at the event. This was the Shock’s event to make a statement, and did they ever.

The Shock were favored in all of their matchups this weekend, but Orlando and Columbus posed the biggest of threats. Instead, they beat both squads 4-0, on their way to 18 points out of a possible 18 points. 

If that X post doesn’t scare the other teams in the league, I don’t know what will. I don’t see how the Shock lose many matches this year. Fahey is much better in doubles than she was in 2024, and she is a top 3 singles player in Dreambreakers.

St. Louis should have won all of their matches in Columbus, but things rarely go according to paper. Except the Shock did exactly that - they won every match they were favored in and didn't drop a point. 

The Orlando Squeeze is the best surprise of MLP 2025

Crazy stat about the Orlando Squeeze: In 2024, they finished in 9th place, with 28 points, and missed the playoffs. In 2025, the Squeeze has played 11 matches, and have already earned 25 points, three less than they had all of last year. They are in 3rd place in terms of points per match (ppm).

In my mind, there are three big reasons why the Orlando Squeeze are having such success:

First, Federico Staksrud is playing extremely well, he is captaining the team, and he is bringing a ton of energy. I can’t recall a time in MLP history where Fed was as engaged, he is now. I saw him running on the court coaching his teammates between points, cheering on his teammates, and always bringing energy. Oh yeah, he is 9th overall in player standings, with a 77% game win percentage. He is also winning 71% of his Dreambreaker points.

Secondly, Samantha Parker is playing lights out. Parker was one of the biggest question marks in the 2025 draft, with skeptics (including myself) wondering if she would fit in. Well, fit in she has. I was very wrong about my skepticism. She is winning 50% of her games and is 32nd in player standings, which is very respectable for the least experienced player.

Lastly, the steadiness, energy, and super high floor of both Lacy Schneemann and Dylan Frazier is very underrated. Both players are a little bit on the subdued side, but they are both super steady and play their role well. Dylan plays the right in men’s, and Lacy plays the left in women’s. They then have to switch sides in mixed and play a completely different game. 

The Squeeze are charging full speed ahead and look like they can compete at the top level.

It feels like the playoff teams are already set

I know, I know. We are two events in. However, we have had 54 matches in the last two weeks, which equates to 27% of the total 200 Premier Level matches.

Six teams are below the 1 point per match (ppm) level:

• Atlanta Bouncers (0.89 ppm)
• Phoenix Flames (0.88 ppm)
• NY Hustlers (0.71 ppm)
• SoCal Hard Eights (0.5 ppm)
• Utah Black Diamonds (0.33 ppm)
• Carolina Hogs (0.25 ppm)

The team in 10th place (last playoff spot) is the Chicago Slice, and they are at 1 ppm, which is .11 ppm better than Atlanta.

Could one of these teams currently out of the playoffs either make some personnel changes or get better, or both?

Out of the list of six bottom dwelling teams, I think the Bouncers and Flames have the best chance of getting into the playoffs, but it’s going to be an uphill battle.

A lot more upsets in Columbus show certain players are already getting better

There were very few upsets in Orlando, but I counted eight big upsets in Columbus this weekend:

Thursday

• (Flames) Tyson McGuffin/Jessie Irvine beat (Hogs) Ben Johns/Tammy Emmrich, 11-8
• (Flames) Tyson McGuffin/Jessie Irvine beat (Sliders) Andrei Daescu/Parris Todd, 11-8

Friday

• (Bouncers) Todd Fought/Jaume Martinez Vich beat (Hogs) Ben/Collin Johns, 11-7
• (Bouncers) Viv Glozman/Jaume Martinez Vich beat (Hogs) Ben Johns/Tammy Emmrich, 11-1
• (Hustlers) Donald Young/Helena Spiridis beat (Miami) Noe Khlif/Milan Rane, 11-9
• (Miami) Noe Khlif/Jay Devilliers beat (Shock) Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio, 11-6

Saturday

• (Hogs) Tammy Emmrich/Zoey Weil beat (Sliders) Viv David/Callie Smith, 11-4
• (Hogs) Tammy/Martin Emmrich beat (Sliders) Viv David/James Ignatowich, 14-12

Ben Johns was upset three times before his withdrawal from the event. 

The Hogs earning a Dreambreaker with three subs against the Sliders was probably the biggest upset on the weekend.

Noe and Jay beating Hayden and Gabe was also another crazy result. If that didn’t happen, the Shock would have won 24 out of 24 games.

Up Next

The next UPA event is the Veolia PPA Atlanta Pickleball Championships (Slam), which begins May 12th at Life Time Peach Tree Corners. The next MLP event is MLP Austin, which starts May 23, at the Austin Pickle Ranch.