If you are new to Major League Pickleball, the playoffs might confuse you at first. There is no fixed bracket like you see in most sports.
Instead, teams actually get to choose who they want to play next. It sounds strange, but once you understand it, the whole playoff race becomes a lot more fun to follow.
Here is how it works. Twelve teams make the playoffs based on regular season points. They get ranked from seed No. 1 down to seed No. 12. The top four seeds earn a reward for their strong season, the reward being a bye straight into the quarterfinals. That means seeds 1 through 4 skip the first round completely and get extra time to rest while everyone else fights it out.
The real action starts with seeds 5 through 12. These eight teams head to Dallas from August 6 to 9 for the first round. But instead of a random draw, the higher seeds get to pick their opponent. Seed No. 5 goes first and chooses which team they want to face from seeds 9 through 12. Then seed No. 6 picks from whoever is left, and so on until all eight teams are paired up.
Why does this matter? Because picking your opponent is a real advantage. Teams can study the matchups and choose an opponent they believe suits them better, instead of leaving it to chance. Every first round match is a best-of-three series, so there is still room for a team to fight back after a slow start.
The advancing teams from the Dallas bracket progress to the Semifinals in Newport Beach the following week. At that stage, the four surviving squads join the top four seeded franchises that earned first-round byes. The unique drafting format resumes for the Semifinal matchups, with the No. 1 overall seed holding the initial selection authority to choose their opponent from the remaining field.
Following the Newport Beach bracket, the final two advancing teams travel to New York City at the end of August to compete in the Finals, where the league champion is crowned.
It is a format built for drama. Every choice a team makes can shape their entire run, and fans get the fun of guessing who will pick who before it even happens.