This Is What Happens When You Doubt Ben Johns

[00:00:00] I saw a couple bizarro things that happened. We saw red cards or blue cards. We saw Jeannie Arachina flip off Kate Fahey, but this was still my favorite. Wait, what? We had birdwatching and I didn't see it? Jeannie Arachina flipped off? I had birdwatching. Stop. It was like a... Dude, I cannot believe. How did I miss the birdwatching? This is unbelievable. You know what, Nico?

[00:00:26] I almost didn't agree with that. We got birdwatching inception.

[00:00:36] All right, guys. Welcome back to another episode of PicklePod. We had the very first MLP event of the year with a new format, new teams, all that stuff. But first, we had a wild episode with Gabe Tardio and Aiden Patrick Quinn last week. So I think we should probably go through some of the comments from that one because there were a lot. What do you say, Nico?

[00:00:58] Let's do it. And I will say the episode was completely polarizing. I think you either loved it or you hated it. There was no in between. And in the words of Carter McGregor, I'd like to apologize to absolutely fucking nobody.

[00:01:13] The episode was maybe my favorite episode to record ever. And as many people pointed out in the comments, there was some potty language, some cursing or whatever you want to say. So why don't we get into that? Literally, the last comment that I saw that came in last night says, your language is fully disgusting, bad representatives for pickleball. I've never heard language like that in any other professional sport, low class, not professional. Zane, what do you have to say about that?

[00:01:41] You know that meme of that one guy that clearly doesn't speak English that just goes, okay. Hi. Okay. That. No. We got to overlay that. You don't know that meme? It's a great meme. It's a great meme. Well, yeah. All right, come on. Like, you can dislike the language but never heard language like that. Give me a break. And especially in any other professional sport. I feel like you've heard language like that in every other professional sport. Exactly.

[00:02:10] I believe this person just doesn't watch sports. I don't know. But literally the comment right before that says, this has been one of my favorite episodes for me. All of you were so funny and it just looks so natural as you flow through the interview. Definitely enjoy it. Thanks, fellas. So I do it for this guy. I do it for Rob Rodriguez. Sorry, I'm not doing it for Dylan K. Rank. But yeah, so, you know, back and forth we get these comments all together or, you know, all throughout YouTube.

[00:02:35] But I think my favorite, Zane, is how many people are genuinely concerned for Gabe Tardio and his gambling addiction? Honestly, I could see that. I was concerned for him. He's like, dude, it's so much fun. He's just watching YouTube videos of gambling. We actually got to like, yeah, I agree with them on that one. I don't agree with them on the language stuff necessarily. But yeah, we got to get Gabe a little more locked in or maybe a little less locked in. I don't know.

[00:03:06] He's got an addictive personality. One of the top comments is, Gabe, we got to kick the gambling habit, brother. I would tend to agree with that. Nobody tell him about Polymarket. I've been a Gabe fan since he hit the scene. He's now my number one with this. Quote, you're one of those idiots I was talking about statement. Absolutely brilliant. And unfortunately, he was talking about me. So yes, I am one of those idiots that I'm sure have made a terrible prediction. Gabe called me out. Happy to hear it.

[00:03:38] So my question for you is, do you think that now this podcast is one of our better recently, I think it's got like 30,000 views on YouTube already. Do you think that we gained more viewers as a result of this podcast or lost more viewers? And do you think anybody in the comments that said, I'm never listening to one of your episodes again is actually never listening to one of our episodes again?

[00:04:04] No, I think I would say we may be out of all the people that watch this that will probably never watch another episode. Maybe that's like one person. Right. And maybe put your money where your mouth is. Just like, let us know. Yeah. By the way, if you watched that last episode, commented that you're never watching again and are currently listening to this, there's the fucking door. All right. You guys can go. Get out of here. We don't get out of here. Dude. Oh, speaking of that. I think my favorite was let's see if I can find this one.

[00:04:33] Uh, speaking of somebody who, who didn't, uh, didn't want to listen. So Barb, which could not be a better name for this comment. Barb says seven minutes in may come back to this later, but not impressed to which mysterious karma comments, not an airport. No need to announce departure. I was like, that's perfect. It dunked on Barb. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It was fun. Definitely polarizing. Check it out. If you haven't already, uh, we need a,

[00:05:04] I think we needed an F bomb counter for that one. It's definitely got to be well over a hundred. I would say. Oh yeah. Uh, for sure. I think, you know, we recorded the podcast after the, right after the podcast, I was like, man, Gabe, you were on a roll to the point where I think you started every single sentence with the effort. So I get it. If that's not your cup of tea, but, uh, let's just say it was, it was a ton of fun and I think a ton of people liked it. So, um, maybe more of that. If not, you know, you'll see, I don't think Zane and I are going to be blasting F bombs repeatedly

[00:05:31] by ourselves here, uh, in our studios, but love to get people like that back on. And I think pickleball, I would much rather have that kind of personality, uh, than no personality. Right. Like, and I think that's what the sport wants, what the sport needs. Here's the thing. The, the episode absolutely accomplished an objective of getting to know Gabe and Aiden and who they really are. And now you either love them more or you hate them more. And like, but you, but you know who they are. And so from my perspective, I think that's a pretty successful episode.

[00:06:02] Exactly. All right. They are who they thought we were. Wait, they are who we thought they were. Who do you think? I don't know what that, I'm losing. I'm, you know, I'm trying to keep up with the whole, uh, the whole meme, uh, culture that we have here, but you know, you're thinking of who do you think you are? I am. That's what you're thinking of. No, but I'm thinking of is that NFL coach. Uh, I, from like the, the Hawks back in the day and he's like, they were, they are who they thought we were. You never heard that one.

[00:06:31] No, I know exactly what you're saying, but you butchered it. So I decided to make a Pete Weber reference. I'm out. All right. I don't, I don't watch enough bowling. Uh, speaking of you being out, you know, this, this segue sounded better in my head, but we're going to run with it. Uh, so huge controversy over in the Philippines this weekend at a pretty big event. Uh, Puk Yun and Gwang Yun. Two players. Not really known for controversy.

[00:07:01] No, those are great. Gwang Yun, he put out a video. Gwang Dong for all you whites listening. QB, whatever you want to call him. Uh, whatever you want to call him. I say his name correctly. Actually, just know if I say the name correctly, Gwang Yun, I'm talking about Quang Dong. Okay. Quang Dong. Um, so anyway, he and Puk Yun were basically, they're, you know, arguably the top two or certainly

[00:07:30] two of the top four Vietnamese, uh, singles players. You've also got Hien Truong and Li Hwang Nam in there, and that's a good sort of cohort. They were scheduled to play the final of this event in the Philippines. And what happened is actually wild. You want to run through it? Nico, you did a video on this. Look, okay. Zane, I know that you have like a higher level of professionalism, so I'm going to give you what my understanding was, and then you go ahead and fact check me, uh, because I'm pretty

[00:08:00] sure I got it completely wrong. So basically... All right, well, that's a great preface for this. Yes. Yes. So my understanding is there were two ball sponsors for the same tournament, the Wicca ball and the Zoccer ball, right? Um, and basically, um, after I was asking, I tried to get my facts from Bao Duong, how to pronounce his name, Bao Yun, anyway. How... QD's brother.

[00:08:29] I'm asking him, uh, hey, what exactly happened? And I think he made me more confused, uh, than I was initially. And my understanding is that the Wicca ball didn't necessarily, they didn't have enough quantity of the ball that they were originally going to use in time. So they used a different ball. So either they used the Zoccer ball or they used a Wicca ball with 40 holes versus 48. So I, so to basically put this in perspective, guys, there's a ball that's like maybe like

[00:08:57] a lifetime or a Vulcan ball. And then there's a ball that's like, sorry, there's a ball that's like a Dura or a Vulcan or a, or a Franklin, right? There's a 40 hole ball. And then there's the lifetime ball. Wicca makes the ball just like the lifetime ball. And so Fukyun or however you pronounce his name, I apologize if I'm butchering it now. Now during the tournament is using the 40 hole ball, what he's used to, what he's familiar with.

[00:09:24] And QD is using the 48 hole ball. So they're using two different balls throughout the tournament. They meet in the finals and they can't agree on which ball to play with. And so they, they try to come up with a bunch of different ways. Like, Hey, we should play with this one. No, we'll put the other one. No, maybe they even said, Hey, we'll play one game with one. Well, the other actually don't think they ever said that they got to the point where like, maybe we'll flip a coin, no coin flip.

[00:09:49] And they just decide because of this controversy and what Val wanted to make very clear was to no fault of the players, the tournament decided we're just going to award double golds to these two players. Like we're not going to play a finals, which is insane. They're both going to get goals. I'm not sure if they both get the same amount of rankings points or prize money or how that works. My guess is yes, but they, they, they, they have double gold, no actual final being played.

[00:10:19] How did I do? What, what did Zane fact checker find that I missed out? Do you know? No, I mean, that's based on my sources. That's what I had heard as well. And my source for this one was pickle Asia, uh, blog. So apparently they were partnered with two brand, two different balls. Zocker was day one and Wika was day two.

[00:10:44] Both were 40 whole balls, but QD apparently was using 48 whole balls. Anyway, like Zane, I guess, let me ask you this. So I'm just imagining, you know, every tournament ever, like you go, if you're an amateur, you go to the tournament 10, you grab the basket that has the balls. If you are a pro, you just show up on the court and the referee has the balls.

[00:11:13] Like what happened with QD to where all of a sudden, every time he played his singles matches, he used a 48 whole ball. Did he say, Oh, thank you. But actually here's the ball we're going to be playing with. And it looks completely different. And then at what point did every other player that he played against throughout the quarters and semis not question this? How is that possible? Yeah. I don't know. That's, that's a phenomenal question because the referee should be the one showing up with the ball unless they're doing something differently in the, in the Philippines on, on that.

[00:11:41] But it's an interesting one because Wika being the ball sponsor, I don't know why they would use their 40 whole ball when their whole, I think stick is their new QD signature ball. Right? So I could totally see, you know, QD showing up and be like, we're the sponsor. This is the ball. You have the wrong ball. And if I'm a referee and like some of that kind of checks out, like, like if you're the sponsor. My name is on this ball guy.

[00:12:11] Like, Hey, I would know what ball we're using. And I, I think they were supposed to use the 48 whole ball, but just like lifetime pickle balls. Like they didn't have enough of them or something. They didn't have enough. And like, that's every time I post a video with a lifetime pickleball, everybody's like, Hey, I don't even know where to get this ball. I've had never had problem. There's going to like pickleball central, uh, and getting a lifetime ball, but apparently they're really difficult to come by. And maybe that's the same with the QD 48. So that was tough. Um, I took a massive L, uh, in this whole interaction as well.

[00:12:41] Uh, um, so, Oh boy. So I'm talking to bow. Duong QD's brother, 15, 16 year old guy, uh, who also, by the way, shout out one goal with QD. Uh, yeah. Did you see his Instagram story? No, he had the entire crowd chanting bow. It was actually pretty electric. He's got to make a post out of that. Cause that was, that was sick. He might actually be more marketable than QD by a lot.

[00:13:07] I think at this point, Duke needs to, their dad needs to maybe switch, uh, focus from QD to bow. Um, and the people, the people love bow. I mean, people, I think bow, interestingly enough, like QD is, is, you know, maybe better known or, or more well-liked like in Vietnam. I don't have any way to, of gauging that, but the people love bow here in the States. He's got like a hundred percent approval rating.

[00:13:35] Um, so, so bow in the middle of our conversation, I'm asking him about the ball and to, to, um, the preface this, I asked her, bow was looking for a partner in APP Sacramento and we almost played together. Uh, he thought I was joking. I thought he was joking. And so I was like, Oh, we'll run another one. You know, some other time. He's like, let's do it. So he just goes, yo, Nico, are you playing the dragon tournament? And I go, what's the dragon tournament? Should I be?

[00:14:03] And I'm thinking, Oh, we're going to play, play this tournament together. And his response is, yeah. Dragon D is nuts across your face. And then immediately tells me he's going to go post this in every, uh, pro pickleball. Which he did post it in the KOTC discord. So I'm here to get ahead of it, uh, before anybody else sees it. Uh, yeah, I did get completely owned by bow.

[00:14:32] Uh, congratulations to you. That is, that is a win. Uh, good, good, good work. How did I not see it coming? Come on. You gotta, you gotta come post that in the pro pickleball talk discord, the discord that me and Nico are balling out. And guys, if you want to join that, uh, I think we'll try to put a link in the description or you can go to, uh, I think my, uh, bio or any of my recent YouTube videos. It's a fun community. Me and Nico are, are in there talking some smack. Uh, yeah. Join the pro pickleball talk discord. It's a good time.

[00:15:02] And bow, please your grand entrance. If you can hear this needs to be another screenshot of that in the pro pickleball talk discord. I, I, I eagerly await your arrival. Yes. Tag bow dong. If you're listening to this. All right. Should we get to, uh, MLP? Yeah, let's do it. It's great. Great opening MLP weekend. Uh, first off question for you, Zane.

[00:15:29] It's the first weekend of the new, what everybody would basically be calling is like the formula one format for major league pickleball where every weekend is a mini tournament. Where you earn points, not for individual wins, but for your place in the tournament one through 11. Was it a huge success? Like everybody thought it was going to be. What did you think about the tournament format?

[00:15:53] So at the risk of alienating our audience that also didn't like it when we said the F word, I'm going to drop an inside reference that only you, me, and the people who we want to enjoy this are going to enjoy. Basically, it was me watching MLP this weekend was like the Randy Marsh in front of the computer meme. Okay. If you don't get that, don't Google it. Don't Google it.

[00:16:22] Don't Google it. No, it was, it was absolutely, uh, exactly what MLP needed. I mean, and it made every single one of the pool play matches count. You drop a random pool play match. You are not winning the championship. And the fives found that in the first round with the, uh, with the Columbus sliders. Like, yeah. So every single round Robin match counts.

[00:16:47] The Sunday matches are at least the first and second, third and fourth matches are super interesting. But even the five, six and seven, eight, like have serious ramifications. So, um, absolutely in love with the format. Good. Me too. All right. Same thing. I tweeted out yesterday on a, I don't know what it was called super Monday or championship Monday. Anyway, the last day of the tournament, they had to figure something out for Memorial day. Cause it was different. So Memorial day, Monday, whatever you want to call it.

[00:17:16] Um, but I said, this is the first time I think in pickleball history that I have watched a bronze medal match ever. Right. Never did I ever watch it, uh, in PPA. Never will I ever watch it. I actually am on the, we should eliminate bronze medal matches of PPA train. I've been on that for years. Uh, and I think that if you don't, we did get that done. Was that there's, I think there's, um, um, the, the pro player council passed no bronze matches for the fall. So I think we are done with bronze. Good. Good.

[00:17:45] Because nobody's watching that. And it's to me, I just like feel so bad for the players that are like have to stay an extra three days because they get to play a semi meaningless bronze match. Anyway, bronze matches and MLP are actually fun. Um, so I had a great time all weekend and to give you guys a recap, here's what happened in the tournament. First off, you have the favorites, the fives and the shock with everybody's thinking they're going to the finals. This is a finals preview. It was a pretty stacked field.

[00:18:13] I think four of the five best teams in major league pickleball will all at this event. Uh, and the only one who isn't is Brooklyn. Brooklyn's in that conversation too. So exactly. Brooklyn is your only team that, uh, has, in my opinion, a puncher's chance of winning the title. That was not there. Um, we'll see it's a long season, but, uh, throughout pool play, we had the Columbus sliders going in and, uh, losing relatively early.

[00:18:40] So defending champs getting absolutely rolled in a dream breaker by the Orlando squeeze to which you then also had seven. 21 to said, okay, we're going to talk about Alex strong, uh, in a bit here because she played great all weekend, but I'd never seen anybody sell a dream breaker as bad as she did. I think it was like three missed returns, like a miss servant of the net. Like it was tough for her. Uh, and I think Columbus might have some dream breaker problems. Um, but they, um, so they lose early.

[00:19:08] They ended up playing against the, uh, New Jersey fives and they, and they beat the New Jersey fives making a tie for first place in their pool with Columbus getting the head to head, advancing to the finals. You had the shock steamrolling everybody, uh, until they meet in the last day of pool play, the, um, LA mad drops to which they go up to zero losing a dream breaker mad drops, make

[00:19:34] it to the finals mad drops against the sliders, not shock versus fives mad drops win it in a dream breaker to take the time. No, they don't. Did they win a dream breaker? Now I'm forgetting. No, it was three, one in the final one. Mad drops win three, one over the Columbus sliders. And, uh, and they're your weekend one champion. And I will say my pulse is still up and I can't believe we have like nine more weeks of this. So I'm excited. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:20:02] So there, I think a lot of things to unpack there first, I would say, let's go through, let's go through the different teams in order. That's kind of the way that I've, you know, went through my recap video of this week. Cause I didn't really know how to format it this week. It was a little something different. So I think the best way to discuss this is kind of go in order. And first being the mad drops, the mad drops had a weird weekend that they ended up winning. They were dropping random matches just left and right, right?

[00:20:29] Ben Johns and Jade Kawamoto losing like 11 to four against Jeannie Irekina and Pablo Tejas. Ben and, and Max Freeman losing their first match to, uh, Tama and Connor Garnett, like 11, and five and then Max and Catherine losing some random games, like 11, one to, to Dylan and Leah or, and stuff like that, like random losses all around.

[00:20:52] But then in the match that counts most, Ben and Jade are down zero two. They lose both gender to the shock and Ben goes absolutely beast mode. And then, you know, it can't be understated how good of a support Jade was in that role, right? When your guy is just taking over, like make a lot of balls and that's the Kawamoto special.

[00:21:18] So, um, Ben absolutely takes over, dominates the match against Hayden and Anna and sends them to Max and, uh, and Catherine to get the job done over Gabe and Kate and then get the job done in a dream breaker. And there's a few things that we, we got to talk about first. You and me need to take the L on the Hayden upside, uh, conversation, I think. That, that was like 9.0 pickleball.

[00:21:45] I, I watched it and I was the first time I was like legitimately afraid. Like I felt it was like Thanos came in to fight the Avengers and just completely fuck them up. Like the shock is, is your Captain America and Thor. And then Ben Johns is just like squeezing them by the head. I don't know what's happening. He's like, it was insane how good Ben Johns was. I was literally afraid. Yeah, no, it was interesting. It got me thinking like, all right, so where did I come to that conclusion from that Hayden's got the highest ceiling?

[00:22:13] Well, we actually get to, so here's where this came from. We actually get to see Hayden's ceiling more frequently than we get to see Ben's. I don't think we've seen Ben's ceiling in years because Ben has the best partners. Ben doesn't need to play to his ceiling. Ben needs to play to a, a reasonable level and run with his partners in a way that is a sustainable win.

[00:22:39] We haven't seen Ben as an underdog that needs to redline for years, probably, right? I mean, a little bit in MLP last year, but we saw that, right? And it was a good reminder of like, all right, Ben, when his back is against the wall, which is almost never, when he is an actual underdog in a match, he's got that. He's got that gear. So I think that came from like, look, we have not seen that gear in, in years.

[00:23:08] So forgive us and we'll admit when we're wrong. All right. We'll admit when we're wrong. I think Ben absolutely proved that his ceiling is not only is his floor higher than Hayden's, his ceiling's higher than Hayden's. I stand by my logic. However, we'll admit, we'll, we'll admit when we're wrong. Exactly. I don't know if you're, I don't know if you're going to double down, Nico. You should. Look, I am always one to double down, especially when I'm backed into a corner. But I also tweeted on Sunday after that shock match, I think I owe Ben Johns an apology.

[00:23:38] So Ben Johns, if you're listening to this, because I know you are a regular listener of the Pickle Pod. I apologize for all the slander. I take back nothing when it comes to singles. But when it comes to doubles, you are still the goat. You have always been the goat. And I think the, to me, within this is why I love this MLP season, is that you have a great point about Ben not needing to redline ever.

[00:24:02] And what happened last year is that I think when you saw Ben in MLP, there's a fine line. I think when Ben thinks he's going to lose or know he can lose, he basically gives up. When Ben is going to win, he doesn't have to play super hard when he's with Annaly Waters and Gabe. He doesn't always have to redline or almost never. We have this perfect situation where he's like, if I try hard, we will win. And now that's what he's doing. So last year's Ben is gone.

[00:24:31] This year's Ben is a different animal. It's insane. And I think I said the biggest move, the biggest plus change for any team in MLP, it wasn't getting Anna Bright back. It wasn't signing Georgia Johnson. It wasn't a trade. It was pairing Ben Johns with a Kawamoto and not Catherine. I don't think Ben likes playing with Catherine. And this, I can, for sure.

[00:25:01] I looked last year, Ben against Anna Lee was like 2-11, 3-11, 4-11. He plays with Catherine. It seems like he just gives up. I'm not sure why, but he's playing with a Kawamoto now. And it's a different Ben. So I think that that is the greatest move that has happened all year. Yeah, for sure. And also, I think Catherine is one of the few ladies that seems more comfortable on the left. And that's a perfect fit with Max Freeman on the left in Mixed. So, yeah.

[00:25:31] Now, I still think that everything pretty much had to go right for them to beat the Shock. Yeah. To be honest. Right? Like, I think the Shock ladies win that 9 out of 10 times. I think the Shock guys win that 8, 7, 8, 9 times out of 10. I think that Anna and Hayden only, you know, will avoid the matchup against Ben and Jade next time. Right?

[00:25:59] And then I think that, I don't think that Gabe and Kate regularly lose to Catherine and Max either. Not only that, I think that, you know, the Dreambreaker lineup for the Shock might be better as well. So I do think that a lot of things had to go right there. So I don't think we want to necessarily overreact to the Mad Drops. But I think this certainly moved them.

[00:26:26] I think there's no more teams if we're doing like a tier ranking. Right? There's no teams in S tier after this weekend. Right? You had the Shock and the Fives in S tier. They probably moved down to high A tier. You had the Mad Drops in A tier. And they're probably high A tier with those other two teams as well. And then, honestly, you probably have to move Columbus upwards. So let's talk about Columbus. Danny Townsend stole the show this weekend.

[00:26:54] Playing the left side with Alex Trong, who played awesome and is undoubtedly the best substitute in MLP. Who's about to see herself out of a lineup spot. So, because Paris was out due to her suspension. Remember, she got suspended for that event in Japan where Ignatowich, Ryan Fu, and Vivian Glossman got their contracts terminated. So anyway, Danny's going to play the left with Paris on the right.

[00:27:23] She plays a great left with CJ in Mixed. She's an unbelievable fit for that team. And makes the doubles lineup much better than when Leia was playing. However, Leia, much better singles player. And we saw them get absolutely smoked in their one dream breaker against the Orlando Squeeze. 21 to 7. I mean, they have dream breaker problems. They don't have a lot of problems. I mean, they don't have really any other issues, it seems like. I don't.

[00:27:52] They don't have a single specialist in women's. They don't have anybody on the bench that can come in. I think Paris is obviously going to be an upgrade. But I'm not sure they want to go to dream breakers very frequently for the rest of the year. But outside of that, they made the finals. Is there more of a nobody-believes-in-us team than the Columbus Sliders, which is crazy to say, considering they just won the fucking championship? They won the championship.

[00:28:21] I think after this weekend, we can say that they upgraded their second-best female player. And people still don't think that they're good. It's crazy. They made the finals. Without merit. Without Paris. Exactly. With their sub. No other team could even come close to doing that. No other team. Especially your number one female. You take Anna Bright off the shock and put Elsie in.

[00:28:49] And Elsie played great when she came in sub minutes. But that's not happening. No other team can do that. The Sliders are built different. But I still think nobody believes in them. Yeah. Interestingly, like. I don't know. I mean. Look, they chose to get rid of Leia for a reason. But. I mean. I would imagine an Alex Trong for Leia. Would be a trade that could be on the table. And have Leia coming in for your dream breaker.

[00:29:19] Right? Because I don't. I don't see how Alex Trong. She played amazing. She absolutely needs to be like. In a lineup. I don't see how she gets play time. Right? She's not taking Danny's spot with CJ. Or with Leia. I'm sorry. Or with Paris. And she's not taking Paris' spot with Andre or with Danny. So she's going to be just. And she's not coming in for singles either. So. I'd imagine they should move her for a. For a singles specialist. And then that team is scary. Because you got.

[00:29:49] Even scarier. Right? Like. It patches up their biggest issue. Which is the dream breaker. Then you're looking at a dream breaker lineup. Of let's say. Paris. Leia. Alex Crum. Subbing in for Andre. And then. CJ. So. That's a good team. I mean. That team is great. Yeah. So I definitely think. Alex is a trade chip. People are saying. Is she actually going to. Move to the bench once Paris is back. Absolutely. Yes. She is good. But she is not Danny Townsend. She's not Paris Todd. And.

[00:30:18] Having Leia come into the sliders. As a bench roll. I think. I'd be rolling over my grave. Before I think I ever see that. I can't imagine that coming from Leia. But like. If you're. If you are the ranchers. And the sliders say. Hey. We're going to. We'll give you Alex and some cash. For Leia. Like. You got to listen. Right? Yeah. I mean. But they probably got to be looking to do that. For. For somebody or another. Right? Yeah. There's. You know. And Zane. There's not that many. Women's single specialists. I think the biggest one is Jeannie Bouchard. Who was.

[00:30:48] Notably absent. From her team's. First place win. I don't know where she was. But. Outside of Jeannie. Most all the other players in the top 10. Are. Are not single. I mean. Maybe Isabella Dunlap. You. You get her. From Miami. I'm not sure. But. I think they do need somebody. I don't know who it is though. Yeah. So I think the main other thing to. To probably chat about. Other than main other team. Would be the fives. Who. You know. Had a. A switch up. Obviously they've got.

[00:31:18] Georgia and Anna Lee. Who. I would be surprised. If they lose a single match. This entire year. It'd be a pretty big upset. If they did. They obviously go undefeated. On the weekend. Not too many. Particularly close matches. Matches. But. The other three lineup spots. Kind of struggles. Right. And. You know. Struggle is relative. For Anna Lee. Right. So. She and Noe. Lost their match. To the sliders. Against Alex Trong. And Andre Deescu. So they would go. Four and one. On the weekend. But. You know.

[00:31:49] If Anna Lee. Loses a match. The fives are in trouble. Right. And then. On the other hand. That might be great. If Will and Georgia. Are meshing. Which they. Didn't really seem to be. They went two and three. On the weekend. So. And then not to mention. Noe and Will. I think went one and four. On the weekend. So. The other three spots. Have some figuring out to do. Now what I'm super surprised about. Is. Will and Anna Lee. Have been the best. Mixed doubles team. In MLP. For the last two years. I'm pretty sure.

[00:32:18] They finished the last two years. Each with the best record. That feels like. If it's not broke. Don't fix it. Yes. They had a couple of losses. In playoffs and whatnot. But. Like. Yeah. That was a little. Surprising to me. And I'd be. Somewhat surprised. If we didn't see that. Sort of switch. Back. And then put no way. With Georgia. Yeah. Oh. Two things. One is. The shock men. Were so bad. That I found myself saying. Zane would have won that. Zane would have won that. I'm like. I. So. Shout out to Zane. Maybe they made a mistake.

[00:32:48] With this trade. But. That's. That's one thing I thought. I was like. They really. I think they. They're better on paper. I'm not sure what's happening. But. They didn't look good. And I think that their record. Is going to end up looking much better. Than it actually is. Because I think that they can beat. A lot of the lower teams. But. They seem to lose against. Every team that's good. And then. I think. The. Last year. First. MLP. Of the season. The shock. Switched their mixed lineups. Anna Bright played with Gabe. And Kay played with Hayden. Didn't work out well.

[00:33:18] They lost more than they did. For the next. The rest of the year combined. So I think you're gonna have the same exact situation. Where I think we see. Anna Lee and Will. For sure. In the next tournament. I think you give it one tournament. We got. They got five more to play. But if Anna Lee. And Will Howes are not together. Next tournament. I think that that's gonna be a huge. Shock. To everybody. So we'll see. But. I guess. To me. The biggest question is. We've never really seen. We haven't seen a lot of Georgia. Playing mixed.

[00:33:47] With anybody besides J. W. Does she have the style. To work with. No way. To work with. Will. Is she. Perhaps an overrated. Mixed doubles player. Like is it possible that. This move. Eight hundred thousand dollars. On Georgia. Is a big mistake. No. Not possible. Right. She's. If you look at it. In. Comparison. Like who else was there to get. Danny. Or Jamie. Who's on the slice with us.

[00:34:17] Right. Like. There really wasn't. Anybody else that was. Available. And also. Georgia. Like. You wouldn't argue. That she's not better. At these events. Than Megan. In all three events. So like. Yeah. It was. It was. It was worth it. I think it's just a little bit. Of figuring out. And I do think that Georgia. Has one thing going for her. I think Anna's said this. And. She is. Other than Anna Lee. Probably the most difficult. Girl. To speed up at. In mixed doubles. Right. So she's got lockdown hands. On. On her side. So.

[00:34:47] Yeah. I mean. I think that they'll probably. Figure it out. I think it. Makes sense to switch the lineups back. But no. There's. I don't think there's an argument to be made. That getting Georgia was a mistake. I. I think that. For $800,000. I. To me. It's like. Yes. Georgia is a plus. On your team. For sure. She's an upgrade over Megan. She was. Arguably. You know. The best female available at that time. I mean. Obviously. Maybe Danny. Eventually becomes a better pickleball player. Who knows. But Georgia is young. Georgia is proven.

[00:35:18] But. For $800,000. Not making it. To the finals. Going two and three. And mixed. It's got to get better. Or else. At the end of the year. We can only say that. That was a bad move. And I guess the biggest question. That everybody's asking is. Did they need to spend so much money. On a. On another female player. Or. Did they need to. Ship will. Or no way. Or improve. Maybe their number one. Men's player. To have more of a force. Yeah. No. I mean. That's an interesting. Interesting question. Like.

[00:35:48] The only way. Georgia is a. Like. Failure. Is when you compare it. To the dollar amount. You know. Spent. Is it worth it? But like. It was. It was an upgrade. Was it worth the upgrade? Right. That's the. The main question. And. Yeah. I mean. But. When you look at the guys. Who else could they have. Gotten in that position. I think. Dylan. Was a free agent. Was Dylan the first guy. Off the board. Or in Dekel. Oh. Yeah. There weren't a lot of good choices. In the draft. The question is. Could you have figured out. A way to trade for Christian Alshon. Right. You know. He.

[00:36:18] He got traded for Dylan Frazier. Like. What could you have done? I don't. You know. I think. I think Christian had like. Stock at an all time low. When he was traded. So. That might have been the move. That you needed to do. Trade will. Or no way for Christian. I'm not sure. And then you keep. Megan. Save some of that money. Not like they need to save money. But. I don't know. We'll see. And we'll see if they make another move. But. If they don't win. One of the next couple tournaments. That they're in. And. You think you got to see a move somewhere. Like they're. They're a win now team. And you don't spend $800,000. To come in.

[00:36:48] Fourth. Yeah. For sure. Speaking of. Speaking of $800,000. No. Only thing that taught that. Is 1.2 million dollars. For a third place. Anna Bright. Shock. So. So. So. The. Shock. They. They steamroll through their first. Four matches. Um. And. And then they come. They lose. A tight one. Uh. To. The LA Mad Drops. That end up. Beating. The fives.

[00:37:18] Get third. But. For the shock. And I think for everybody that. That knows the shock. This is. Not success. Uh. You spent so much money on Anna Bright. You are. I think the. The prohibitive favorites. Of MLP. Uh. And. You're not. Uh. And two. They didn't win it. So. Zane. What are your thoughts. Uh. After watching. Uh. One weekend of the shock. I think the shock.

[00:37:47] Are still the best team in MLP. I think that they have some. I think that they have a. Somewhat of a matchup problem. Against the Mad Drops. Even going back to. To last year. They. They lost to the Mad Drops. In uh. In Dallas. I believe. In a really good match. But I also think that. They match up well. Against just about. Everybody else. And. I. I. Think that. A lot. Like I said. A lot. Had to go right. For them to. To lose. To the. To the Mad Drops. So. I still think. The shock. Are the team to beat. But. You know. If there's one thing. About the shock.

[00:38:17] It's that they love. Uh. Choking. When. When things get. Get important. So. They love. The worst thing. For the shock. Is that it's not just. A regular season. That there is. Like a semi-finals. Or finals. Uh. They love to make it. All the way. Till the match. Before the finals. And then lose. And so. That's what they did this week. That's what they did last year. That's what they did two years ago. The shock. Are who they thought we were. They are. Fuck. I. I butchered that twice. They are who we thought they were. They are who they thought they were. No. They are. They are.

[00:38:46] They are who we thought. They are who we thought they were. They are. Were. Oh my gosh. Guys. It's 5.52 a.m. In Reno, Nevada. Uh. So. Might still be half asleep. Um. But. No. I. I. I agree. Um. I still think that they're the best team. They also make me the most nervous. Maybe because I have been a fan of that team. You know. I think maybe now I need to be more agnostic. But I'm not. Um. I like the shock. And I get nervous. A lot. Yeah. But. As a fan.

[00:39:16] Who's your favorite team now? Are you on the sliders bandwagon? That's a great question. I think I'm still. I'm still a shock. Fan. The thing is. It's hard about being a shock fan. Is that they're just so good. That. You know. It's like rooting for Anna Lee. And the PPA. Right. You're just like. This is kind of boring. Right. I want to see an upset. Or whatnot. Um. We were watching. I'll tell you. So we were watching the shock. Play the mad drops. On Sunday. And. I'm with my wife. And I'm like. All right. Let's just win this. Uh.

[00:39:46] In. Regulation. My wife's like. I'd like to see a dream breaker. Like. This would be fun. I'm like. Oh. Okay. Whatever. Um. And so she's just rooting for the mad drops the whole time. And then eventually they win in a dream breaker. And I'm like upset. Like. I've gotten to the point. In MLP. Where it's like. Other sports. Where you're like. You're like. Your team loses. And it's like. Don't talk to me for the rest of the day. Uh. So. You know. Our marriage is on the rocks. Because of. The five dream breaker. Or sorry. The five. The mad drops. But. I still think. I like the shock. They're. They're. They're my team. Love Kate Fahey. Um.

[00:40:16] But. I think there's going to be a lot of people. Myself included. That are kind of riding. The sliders bandwagon. Not because. They are defending champions. I want to make this very clear. I think. Columbus sliders. Probably. Doubled their fan base last week. Because of Danny Townsend. Like. Yeah. I think she's that electric. She's that fun. And. I. I pointed out. And Zayn. I want to get your thoughts on this. Going back to the sliders for a second. I feel like Danny. Played. Women's doubles.

[00:40:46] The way Ben Johns plays mixed doubles. Yes. And I don't think. I've never seen that before. It was insane. Like. Like. I. I have seen Anna Lee. Take over a little bit. But. She was like. 80% of the court. Hitting dinks. It was like a guy. Playing mixed doubles. Which. Was so fun to see. One. Is like. Is that sustainable? Obviously. I don't think you do that very much with Paris Todd. Uh. When you're playing with Paris. But. Should women's doubles. Look more like that? Should men's doubles. Look. Look more like that? Where. The player's taking more of the court.

[00:41:16] Or. Or is this. One and none. She plays more like a guy. Right? She's one of the few ladies that's got. The one handed backhand. Plays right on the line. Counters one handed. And. Looks to really take balls out of the air. So it makes sense. She plays. Like a guy. Like a. A guy sort of style. Right? Right? So. That's not. Super surprising. I think that she's. Currently a one of one. In women's doubles. In that way. Uh. Not too many people. I mean. Zoe Wong does this a little bit. Because she's got the one handed backhand.

[00:41:44] Not too many of the ladies are. Holding the line. Rocking the one hander. So it. Helps to be able to play. I think a little bit more. More court. So is it sustainable? I say this. Like. I think there's a very. Long track record. Of. Players. Coming in. Having a spike. The book gets out on what to do. They have a little bit of a regression. And then. They continue to get better. So if you look at the. Like the. The curve of somebody's results. And I think Tama is riding this. Same wave right now.

[00:42:14] It's up. Players start to talk. Figure out. Like. Alright. You know. You got to dink. Tama forehand cross court. Or whatever. There's a little bit of a regression. When the. The rest of the league. Figures out. Then. Once the player. Figures out. Alright. This is what the league. Is doing to me. They just continue their. Upwards. Ascent. So I think that. Danny is at the first. Peak right now. I think there will be some. You know. Communication on. Kind of what to do. To neutralize Danny. She'll take a slight. Step back. And then. It's off to the races. I. So.

[00:42:44] I think that. And don't get me wrong. This is not me saying. Like Danny and Tama. Are shit players. I think that they're going to have. A slight step back. And then continue to. To just. Rocket forward. Because right now. They just have the advantage. Of being. Somewhat. Unknown. And they're obviously like. Getting way. Way. Better as well. So. Yeah. And. And the thing is. Both of those two players. Are now starting to play. With. And against. The highest caliber. Of pickleball player. In the world. So. They're only going to get better. You know. Everybody's saying.

[00:43:14] Danny has not experienced. Anna Lee. And Anna Bright. And all these players. Week in and week out. Now she's going to. And. If there's one person. That's good for MLP. It's her. And I'm sure you saw. Like. After point one. I think against Anna Lee. She drops this celly right here. Like. Literally right off the bat. And I'm like. All right. She's not afraid. She's here for the moment. I love it. And I think most people do too. That's electric. I actually didn't see that. How was that? Yeah. It was like. It was like. One point in. In their match. I'm pretty sure it was against Anna Lee. Just. Goes like that.

[00:43:44] And I was like. How is MLP not posting that on Instagram? Yeah. Seriously. I mean. Yeah. I don't know. But it was probably the highlight. Like. I saw a couple. Bizarro things. That happened. We saw. Red cards. Or blue cards. For. Using your phone. Multiple times. On the sideline. I saw. I think we saw. Jeannie Arachina flip off. Kate Fahey. But this was still my favorite. Wait. What? We had bird watching. And I didn't see it. Jeannie Arachina flip off. Yeah. Stop. It was like. Oh no.

[00:44:14] Oh no. Here comes Zane the virgin. Oh my goodness. I can't believe he's got these guys. Is he got a costume closet? For those of you who are listening on Spotify. You're not missing out at all. Yeah. Oh boy. Dude. I cannot believe. How did I miss the bird watching? This is unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. You missed it. And it was.

[00:44:44] It was even called out on the broadcast. It says. Against the shock. Kate Fahey like blasts the ball. Hits Jeannie Arachina. I think she screams also. The Kate Fahey scream in her face. Method. And it's the shortest bird. It's just like this. And then down. It's just boom, boom. Real quick. But yeah. You missed it man. Go back and watch it. That's going to be in the next recap video. I don't get too many bird watching opportunities. So that's got to go in the next one. I missed it. I'm pissed.

[00:45:13] That's why I need more people to join the pro pickleball talk discord. Nico. If you see this stuff. Why didn't you drop it in the discord? I would have got my binoculars out and everything dude. Unbelievable. That's exactly why I didn't do it. This is the. You know what Nico? We got. We got. Bird watching inception. Unbelievable. So. We got some wild stuff happening. Two things that I want to ask you about that. Speaking of like rules and maybe non pickleball play.

[00:45:42] One is the blue cards for the cell phones. What is that? And two. Have they already made a rule to change the. The line. The bogus line challenges. Cause that was tough. I had you heard. Now the announcers get frustrated and Howard Hepworth was every single time. He's like. St. Louis shocker challenging the in ruling. And I swear he was going to swear. But I mean, I think that they should just like. I think that there should be some referee discretion. If it's a clear, if it's an egregious one,

[00:46:12] I think they should like give him a. A technical or something like, and have some, have some use of judgment there. Right. If the ball's out by three feet and you're doing it, give him a team up or give him a mark or a blue card or whatever the fuck. Also like why? I've got the blue card versus orange card. Just like, let's just do like, I'm all for the unique elements of pickleball, but this is a something that we already have. Right. People.

[00:46:38] Everybody knows everybody in the world knows yellow card versus red card. I still don't know. And this is mostly because I refuse to learn it. Which one is which? I think the blue card is like the yellow card and the orange card is like the red card. I believe. Um, but I mean, that's a 50, 50 guess. I refuse to learn it. Like this is one where we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Just do yellow versus red. I think the phones on the bench make sense.

[00:47:07] I don't think you should have players with their phones on the bench, but like a social media person, maybe they're just not supposed to be on the bench. I don't know. But like, yeah, I suppose like if you're on the bench, don't use your phone. So I get it. Like you don't want the players like, you know, texting away, whatever. I get it. Yeah. I don't know. Uh, I was confused. I, I, I don't think you need, uh, electronics on the bench either. Uh, and yeah, I, I think that, um, I think discretion makes sense.

[00:47:36] Maybe now that they have the like AI line calling, they just anything more than six inches or 12 inches out. It's just an automatic yellow card. We'll just, maybe we can just start calling them yellow cards here and then we'll, we'll make it, we'll make it happen. The more that we just disregard what the card color is, the more people may be able to that. All right. Deal. Yeah. Man, I am super not convinced of the owl AI. And I, I put it in my video. I'm like, yeah, they looked like they were generally within a couple of inches of where the ball landed, but they're not fucking good enough. Like,

[00:48:06] like they're like, yeah, it's, it's 98% accurate. Well, when you're looking at the, the entire pickleball court, we only care about the 2%, right? Like there was one that, that Anna Lee challenged against the shock and it looks pretty clearly in from the broadcast. And it was like, you know, an inch and a half out on the owl AI. I'm like, this is not solving anything. And it definitely doesn't help when you don't have the side by side of the actual cameras with what the AI is saying. Like nobody trusts the AI right now. Also,

[00:48:36] it's only as good as the actual cameras that are giving it the input. So like we need to look behind the curtain on this before we just blindly trust it. And I am a tin hat skeptic of this for sure. And I have been, I would love to be proven wrong. I would love for that to be like a clear, like, yep, this is accurate, but I, this is not Hawkeye. No, it's not. It is so weird. It just like, if you were to say like, take Hawkeye and make it pickleball.

[00:49:04] This is exactly what I expected to look like. Like no offense to the sport that we all love, but like Hawkeye just looks amazing. Every time it comes in, I trust it implicitly. It looks fantastic. It's clean. It's clear. Done. It's been like that for forever. And this, I looked at it and I was like, one is like, did they have to design this, this graphic as it's happening for this specific ball? Like manually, it didn't look, I would much rather just have close call replay at that point. Like, I guess I'm complaining and complaining and complaining. I'm like the worst of us, you know, but yeah, I don't know. I also,

[00:49:33] I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it. I think, is this the same system they use in the PPA finals or was that a, like, I don't think so. I think, I don't think they did something where it was quick and they, they got, you know, the, the calls faster, but I don't remember seeing the graphic until this weekend. I don't know. Yeah. I don't either. They've been, yeah, I don't either. So, but it's better. Is it? Okay. This is a question. Is this better than a random person in the truck putting a, an arbitrary circle dot on, on a pickleball next to the line?

[00:50:01] Cause I know that that dot is not, was generated manually. Right. I think this is worse. I think this is, this is worse than that, to be honest. Oh my goodness. Cause at least you have somebody who's like, yeah, I don't know. They're both bad. Just like, why are we, once this stuff exists, let's use it. But until then, let's not pretend like it exists and then use it like the red dot and the, and the, the owl. Like let's just have somebody actually watch the replay. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Also. Yeah. We,

[00:50:30] we got to either turn it down to one line challenge per game or, or, or give them a technical for egregious line calls. Cause that was inevitably going to be figured out by, by the players. You just get another free timeout. So another thing in MLP, uh, was kind of the increase in importance of being able to play singles. All right. For a couple of reasons. One, there's no difference in points for a regular win or a dream breaker. When it comes down to tiebreakers,

[00:50:59] but not points. Also, now we have six players on a team that can all play. And you have single specialists. Um, I think it might've been Eric, our guy, Eric Tice, uh, pointing out that the dream breaker and singles is so much more important. Now, whether or not that is a good thing is to, to be determined. I, I like it, but we got to see John Lucian goings. We got to see Gabe Joseph. We did not get to see Jeannie Bouchard, but we saw some singles specialists. What are your thoughts on kind of the new rule change?

[00:51:29] Do you like having the single specialist? And do you think the dream breaker has the right amount of importance or have we now kind of, uh, given too much to the dream breaker? Well, let me ask you this. Does anybody dislike a dream breaker? No, I think everybody loves it. People can say like, I don't like watching singles, whatever, but like everybody loves a dream breaker. So no, I, I, I don't think there's, I don't think you can have too much importance in something like that. Right. Um,

[00:51:59] so I like it. You want good quality singles. The couple of guys that came in and did this did very well. Gabe Joseph for, for the mad drops, uh, John Lucian Goins for, uh, St. Louis shock was replacing Gabe Tardio. Alex Crum replaced, uh, Andre Descu in singles for the sliders. I think it's, I think it's electric. They're there. They are really like the closers in baseball. And I think that they need their, uh, you know, intro or,

[00:52:28] or walkout song or something like that. Cause it's a huge risk, right? The person is not played all day. The nerves are at their highest for sure. But then again, you could be practicing singles the entire day. So I don't know. It's better quality on the court adds more strategy. I'm all for things that increase the quality of play and add more strategy. All right. I tend to agree. I, I liken it as to a penalty shoot. Out in soccer. And a lot of the people will say,

[00:52:57] we don't like shootouts because it's not what we've been doing the whole game, right? I'm just shooting a ball from 15 yards away. It's not actually soccer. It's just a kick, right? And how does this determine what just happened for the last 90 plus minutes? And so I think the argument against the dream breaker is we've been playing doubles the whole time. Why is this singles thing going to now impact everything? Why is a player that's never played going to actually determine the game? But singles is a part of pickleball.

[00:53:24] It's a fun part of pickleball and singles dream breaker is 10 times more fun than any other singles that I've ever seen. So I agree. And I also liked the fact that there are single specialists because the last thing I need to see is, you know, like a Riley Newman. And I hate to dunk on Riley repeatedly for his single skill or lack of, but I don't need to see him, you know, flounder around on a singles court to decide an important match. I'd much rather have Chris Hayworth come in and see if he can beat Ben Johns. Right.

[00:53:53] And that's what we would call it with John Lucian Goins. And he had a tough time against Ben Johns, then did absolutely fantastic when he played against, was it Will Howell or no, no way. I think it was no way. I'm all, I'm all for it. I like the, the single specialists. I think some of these teams need to really reconsider whether or not they have them on the bench. Um, Zane, I, I think my, my biggest question is, are you surprised that John Lucian Goins came in for Gabe Tardio and not Hayden?

[00:54:22] I don't know. I mean, I don't think the difference between Gabe and Hayden are, is that big of a difference. Yeah. It could be either one of them. I don't, I'm sure that they know better than anybody else on that. Of course. I, I think it's, everybody was expecting Gabe. I, I think I said last week with Hayden, it's going to be a, you're going to take this ball out of my cold dead hands. And I, I could not ever imagine a universe where Hayden gives it up to anybody. And I think that's the biggest difference between Hayden and Gabe is Gabe is kind of just like,

[00:54:52] so nonchalant that he's like, all right, somebody want to come in and take my spot. You think they're better? Fine. And, um, that's a lot of pressure for a guy like, you know, 18 year old John Lucian Goins, but, uh, it was fun. Yeah. You dealt with it well, I think. Yeah. So Zane, um, we've gone through the first tournament. We have, I think nine more to go or eight more to go. We got every weekend except 4th of July weekend, got another tournament. But after tournament one,

[00:55:20] I want to get your updated power rankings for the top five teams. And we will, we will incorporate more than five teams. If you think, or anybody else thinks that there are more than five teams that are capable of winning this title. Yeah. I think there's a pretty clear power five and it's, it's super, super tight. And so I think, I think I'm going to err on the side of not overreacting to one weekend.

[00:55:50] I'm still going to go shock. Number one. I think that a loss to the mad drops is abnormal. I'm going to go. Say the fives. I'm going to go fives. Number two, because I do think that they're going to probably switch the lineup back. They made a tactical error. In my opinion this week, I think there'll be better the other way. And look, they were a clear number two last year and they've improved since. So I think they're number two still. I think even though the mad drops beat them,

[00:56:19] the fact that the sliders were so good, uh, puts them for me at number three, cause they did really well without Paris. I think that they don't, when dream breakers against any of this top five, unless they move Alex strong. But I think that they've got very good doubles. We've got mad drops in the four spot. There are still some questions like Max and,

[00:56:45] and Catherine didn't do incredibly Catherine and Jade. I don't think are the favorite against any of the other top four teams, but they do have a good, really good dream breaker lineup. And then I think Brooklyn, but you know, Brooklyn with Christian Dekel, Jackie and Rachel Rohrabacher, uh, Chris Hayworth on the bench for them in singles. That's scary team too. We just haven't seen them. I think they're, you know, probably in that number five spot.

[00:57:15] I don't know. So, so actually, my question here then is we played a whole tournament. Is that your same top five? Is that the same or did anything change this weekend? Um, yeah, I think, uh, I think I, I probably moved the mad drops down after winning the whole thing. I think I probably moved the mad drops down one after winning the entire thing. Oh my gosh. That's funny. yeah, but you can't take winning the entire thing in a vacuum. I think that like,

[00:57:44] there are so many little nuances to it and everything had to go correct for them to win the entire thing. In my opinion. I think so too. I, this is hard for me because I would, I would also put shock. Number one, here's, here's the thing is I think the fives have some real issues with their guys. I think they have to figure that out, um, sooner rather than later, whether or not it's the partnership, whether or not it's them getting better strategy. I'm not sure what's happening, but they're not playing very well. I, I kind of flip.

[00:58:09] I think about them and I think about the mad drops and I still put the fives ahead of the mad drops because I trust Anna Lee more than I trust Ben throughout the course of an MLP season. So Zane, I, I'm going to take a detour here really quickly on the power rankings because this question was, or the statement was brought up by Matt Manassi two weeks ago in PPA. And then he doubled and tripled down on it last night. And he said,

[00:58:37] Ben is the reason he said, Anna Lee is elite, but Ben is the reason why they win mixed doubles. Not Anna Lee. I mean, uh, I don't know if he said not Anna Lee, but he said, she is the reason that they're so good. Uh, if I can find the exact tweet, here it goes. I said, I'll be it. We all know ALW is elite, that Ben Johns is the real and main reason for their dominance in mixed doubles. He takes up more of the court. He hits more shots and produces less errors. He is the difference maker. I guess people can argue it if they want.

[00:59:07] And I want, um, so my, my thoughts are those two play against each other in a playoff match. I trust Anna Lee more than I trust Ben. And I trust Anna Lee to take Ben's. I think Anna Lee is going to take his lunch. Like she has been for the last year, but one, what is your thoughts there? You know, if it's one of those opinion polls and it's like strongly disagree, slightly disagree, neutral, slightly agree, strongly agree. I would probably put that in the slightly disagree category.

[00:59:34] I think that the Delta between Ben and the next guy is probably smaller than the Delta between Anna Lee and the next girl. Now, when you look at who those players actually are, the matchups get interesting, right? If Ben and Anna Lee had to split up, you're looking at Ben and Anna Bright, which is a clear number two. And then who does Anna Lee actually partner up with?

[01:00:00] I would expect Ben to have good success with Anna Bright against Anna Lee and whomever. But, uh, Anna Lee also plays, I think a good chunk more of the court than most of the other ladies, even with Ben, you compare Ben and Jade to Ben and Anna Lee. So anyway, I don't have, I would say slightly disagree. All right. I, I think I strongly disagree.

[01:00:25] I think that Anna Lee can take Will Howells and be the number one mixed doubles team in all of MLP. And if you had Ben Johns take the female equivalent of Will Howells, he probably quits. Um, so, that's where I think like MLP teams are different than PPA teams, right? Also don't sleep on Willie in, in mixed. Willie is a very good, arguably a better mixed player than he is a men's doubles player. And he's good. I'm not. And I apologize, but I apologize, Zane.

[01:00:54] I know if there's one thing that you love is Willie, uh, whether it be Willie McKinnon, um, Willie Howells or any other Willies, um, I got a soft spot in my heart for any Willie, for any Willie. Yo, pause, um, anyway, so back to power rankings here. I'm going shock. I'm going to go, I'm going to go shock sliders. Fives, mad drops, Brooklyn. And Brooklyn is a team. It is like a unknown,

[01:01:24] right? Like, yeah, they have potential to be scary because if they make a dream breaker, like they could be possibly the best dream breaker team. So with Christian and Chris Hayworth on, you know, as a dream breaker team, that's, that's tough. So, yeah, that's crazy though. Cause you got two ladies that don't play singles, but they're very good singles player. Rachel and Jackie are great singles players, but imagine saying that they're the best dream breaker team with two players that don't even play. I think you're, I think you've got a good argument. Like Christian and,

[01:01:52] and Chris are two top five men's singles players. The ladies bring them down a little bit, but it's just hard to know how good Rachel and Jackie really are. They've had great dream breaker results over the last couple of years, but yeah. So we'll see. Um, but excited to get Paris back, see what that team can do at full strength. See if Ben Johns can sustain his greatness for the course of an MLP season. And I think he can, you know, I look back and I was trying to do comparisons between Ben and Anna Lee.

[01:02:22] And obviously the last two years have been tough, but he was on the hogs. Uh, and, and he was playing with Hunter, which I don't think meshes very well with him. Didn't like playing with Catherine. Uh, but you know, three years ago, he was like 23 and two in mixed doubles and was just dominating MLP. So we'll see what Ben we get for the rest of the season. Uh, Zane, is there anything that we have to look forward to storylines or, uh, are you guys going to be in Columbus this year? We are.

[01:02:49] We're in Columbus and there are the rest of the nine teams are all playing. So you get a first look at the other nine teams that didn't play in Dallas this week, uh, in like two days in Columbus. So yeah, uh, it'll be, it'll be exciting. MLP is back baby. So I think we got one more thing and then I'm heading over to a slice practice right now. So let's rock a guess my duper. Guess my duper. All right. We've got somebody, this looks like the U S open play.

[01:03:19] Somebody not at college nationals. All right. We got the hat guy. He's pretty smooth with it. Yeah. Gives up. Why defense ATP and a poach. This has got to be in, I bet you this is like the five Oh plus 35 plus division or something like that. Oh yeah. Yeah. Looks like my division. No, they move their feet. Hey, I don't need to move my feet. My good hands. All right.

[01:03:49] Does not mess around with Apple. Okay. That didn't look like it should be destroyed. Oh, okay. And it was, okay. They lost. And they lost. All right. I mean, that guy's, that guy's a good player. Again, we saw a couple of like highlights. That's gotta be like the 35 plus five Oh division or something at the U S open. I'll go 5. 1 8.

[01:04:20] Okay. Here's my thoughts. I think this guy is like a, like a 19 plus four, seven five. But if he is like a 35 plus and playing in the 35 plus division, you already said 5.1. I'm going to go 5. Oh, one C three. Okay. Let's do it. 4.7. Oh my goodness. It's only 79% reliability. So John, you got to get some, Oh, he's 52.

[01:04:50] Damn. Yeah. That guy is a good moving, a young looking 52 year old. Like, yeah, for sure. So congratulations to you just for being in great shape for seven. If I would have just gone with my gut of what that actually looks like, you know, I hit it on the head. So I'm going to take that as a win. He, John is obviously not afraid to play younger players, which is what will cause your duper to maybe go down a little bit. If you stick in the 50 plus, I'm sure you'll end up being a five one or whatever Zane said in no time. All right. Well,

[01:05:20] Nico, how do they submit their videos for guests? My duper. Cause I, great question. Uh, we're still working on the best way, but if you flood, my inbox is probably the best place to go. Uh, find me on Instagram or Tik TOK or Facebook. I am Nico, the lefty. Um, send me a ping. I need the video. do not immediately share the person's duper. Sometimes they're like, here's a video for guests. My duper where they're there. They're a five, three. I'm like, this doesn't help me because now I can't guess. So,

[01:05:51] uh, chat with me, send it. And, um, we will see you on the next guests. My duper. Yeah. And do not send it to me. I will not answer. Send it to Nico. He will not answer. He doesn't even answer me as we all know. So, uh, every morning at five 30 AM, relax, Nico, relax. You're like a needy girlfriend. Here's the other thing is if you join the easiest way, Hey, fuck off. The easiest way to get Zane to reply to guess my duper.

[01:06:18] This is a cheat code is put it in the pro pickle ball discord. If you go there, guarantee Zane will see it. Anything you want Zane to see, he will see. Wait, we should change. We should change the submission to just putting clips in the pro pickleball talk discord. That's not a bad idea. Done. Put it in the pro pickleball talk discord. Put it, get you, join us now, subscribe to this pod, subscribe to the discord or whatever. Join it. Uh, stay out of my DMS. You can, I'll just, uh, invite you, uh,

[01:06:48] kindly to go to that discord. All right. Nice. I'll create a channel for that in our, in the discord. So perfect. Sweet. All right. Well, that feels like pickle pod. Pickle pod. All right.