Major League Pickleball (MLP) is hosting its eighth regular season stop of the 2026 at a brand new venue this week. Life Time North Shore is a brand new facility that recently opened and is hosting its first MLP event.

Located in the northern suburbs of Chicago, the venue is another indoor venue hosting MLP this year. After the sunshine of Grand Rapids and San Diego, I am guessing the players are looking forward to not having to cake on the sunscreen this week.

Top Storylines

Who will win the event with the top four teams not playing?

The Shock, Fives, Sliders, and Mad Drops are all not playing this week in Chicago. The Mad Drops, Shock, and Fives are three of the four teams who have won an event.

The other? The Dallas Flash, who just won MLP San Diego last week. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Pickleballtv (@pickleballtv)

I would say the odds on favorite in MLP Chicago to win the event is Dallas, with Brooklyn seemingly hampered by injuries. Riley Newman posted on his IG that he is a game time decision and Rachel Rohrabacher is still dealing with the effects of the videoboard incident in New York from last month.

Could another surprise team sneak in there to win the whole thing?

The race for the top four seeds is on

The New Jersey Fives and St. Louis Shock have seemingly locked up two of the four top seeds. The top four seeds are very important, as they earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs, in Dallas. The top four seeds head straight to Newport Beach and get a week of rest.

The Sliders are in the clubhouse with 83 points.

The LA Mad Drops have one event left (Orlando) and currently have 71 points - if they can earn 13 points or more in Orlando, they will lock up a top four spot.

The Brooklyn Pickleball Team has 48 points, but plays in both Chicago and Orlando. Their max points is 98, but that would only happen if they win both events. In order to guarantee a top four spot, they need 36 points, so they need to average finishing second overall in both MLP Chicago and MLP Orlando.

My prediction: The Fives, Shock, Sliders, and Mad Drops end up being the top four seeds.

The race for the last spot in the playoffs has heated up

I am using 31 points as the mark to hit for the last playoff spot (this is my best educated guess and I could be off).

The Columbus Sliders, Florida Smash, and Bay Area Breakers finished their season after MLP San Diego. They will be joined by the Utah Black Diamonds, Atlanta Bouncers, SoCal Hard 8s, Texas Ranchers, and Dallas Flash after MLP Chicago. A total of eight teams will have played their final regular season matches by Sunday, with 12 still to play in MLP Orlando next week.

Of the teams that are ending their season this week, here is the number of points needed to hit my magic number of 31 points:

• Utah Black Diamonds - 14 points (so must finish third or better in MLP Chicago - likely eliminated from the playoffs after this event)
• Atlanta Bouncers - 3 points (must finish eighth or better)
• SoCal Hard 8s - -2 points - seemingly already locked up a playoff spot
• Texas Ranchers - -11 points - Have secured a playoff spot, but hoping for a top 5-8 seed 
• Dallas Flash - -16 points - Same as Ranchers above

There are a few other teams playing in Chicago with playoff bids on the line:

• Phoenix Flames - Need 29 points to hit 31, so need to average 15 points per event in the last two events, and have two total points all year
• Miami Pickleball Club - Need 21 points to hit 31, so need to average 10.5 points per event in the last two events
• California Black Bears - Need 16 points to hit 31, so need to average 8 points per event in the last two events - they earned 8 points in San Diego
• Chicago Slice - The same as the Black Bears, but momentum is not going the same direction
• Las Vegas Night Owls - Need 9 points to hit 31, so need to average 4.5 points per event in the last two events

Weather Outlook for MLP Chicago

The weather outlook doesn’t matter much at all, as Life Time North Shore is an indoor facility. So even if the Windy City has some weather issues, play won’t be affected.

How to Watch MLP Chicago & Broadcast Schedule

All Times are local Central Time

All matches available on Pickleballtv and the Pickleballtv App, in addition to:

Sunday, July 26

• MSG Network all day (11AM - 6PM ET | 10AM - 5PM CT Local)

Group Breakdown by stnadings points with rosters

Group A

• Brooklyn Pickleball Team - 5th - 16 points per event
  • Riley Newman, Christian Alshon, Jackie Kawamoto, Rachel Rohrabacher, Chris Haworth, and Hannah Blatt
• Texas Ranchers - 8th - 10.5 points per event
  • Eric Oncins, Lea Jansen, Layne Sleeth, Nico Acevedo, Rafa Hewett, and Kaitlyn Christian
• California Black Bears - T13th - 5 points per event
  • Sahra Dennehy, Pablo Tellez, Dylan Frazier, Jalina Ingram, Martin Emmrich, and Dylan Frazier, (Luca Mack on IR)
• Miami Pickleball Club - 16th - 3.33 points per event
  • Anouar Braham, James Delgado, Estee Widdershoven, Isabella Dunlap, Anderson Scarpa, and Rika Fujiwara
• Phoenix Flames - 19th - 0.67 points per event
  • Jonathan Truong, Daria Walczak, Cam Chaffin, Wyatt Stone, Alexa Schull, and Alli Phillips

Group B

• Dallas Flash - 6th - 11.75 points per event
  • JW Johnson, Danni-Elle Townsend, Alix Truong, Augie Ge, Brooke Buckner, and Ivan Jakovljevic
• SoCal Hard Eights - 9th - 8.25 points per event
  • Meghan Dizon, Armaan Bhatia, Cailyn Campbell, Will Mackinnon, Rafa Lenhard, and Naomi Nguyen
• Las Vegas Night Owls - 10th - 7.33 points per event
  • Roscoe Bellamy, Zoey Wang, Liz Truluck, Callie Smith, Gabe Joseph, and Clayton Powell
• Atlanta Bouncers - 11th - 7 points per event
  • Jaume Martinez Vich, Jay Devilliers, Jessie Irvine, Mari Humberg, Keilly Ulery, and Donald Young
• Chicago Slice - T13th - 5 points per event
  • Zane Navratil, Jamie Wei, Elsie Hendershot, Emma Nelson, AJ Koller, and John Lucian Goins
• Utah Black Diamonds - 14th - 4.25 points per event
  • Etta Tuionetoa, Yuta Funezmizu, Allyce Jones, Tama Shimabukuro, Victoria DiMuzio, and Tyler Loong