Anna Bright recently posted about problems she identified with MLP DreamBreakers, and her ideas to tweak them to make them more exciting. Personally, I think DreamBreakers are the single most exciting event in pro pickleball. There is just nothing better than a 20-20 DreamBreaker score, with everything coming down to each single point determining the outcome. We will all long remember the awesome Chicago vs. California DreamBreaker from MLP Orlando, which decided the last playoff spot by a score of 25-23. It just does not get any better than that.

 

But, DreamBreakers do have some issues. Bright was spot on in pointing out two issues with DreamBreakers, that could use a fix. First, as she pointed out, the format makes men more important than women. Because men are posted in the lineup in the first and second spots, and women in the third and fourth slots, men end up playing more points than women. Most DreamBreakers are decided during the third rotation. Everyone has played two rotations, for a total of eight points each. So, after two rotations, 32 total points have been scored. If one team has not won after each player has played twice, then when entering the third rotation, the score is anywhere from 20-12 to 16-16. The vast majority of the time, the outcome will be determined during the next four to eight points, all played by the men. DreamBreakers can sometimes make it to the third player, but while those are the most exciting DreamBreakers, they are also the rarest.

 

The second critique made by Bright was that we now rarely if ever see men vs. women matchups in DreamBreakers. She sites some memorable DreamBreakers from years ago, where women did well against men, and she laments that we just do not see those any more. Bright is 100% correct that men vs. women matchups are great to see and that they are non-existent in today’s game. But, the reason is that every team has learned that there is one best strategy to employ, and every team does it; which is to set your lineup man/man/woman/woman. No team in 2026 deviated from that lineup.

 

Now that we have identified the problems, how do we fix them? How do we encourage the possibility of man vs. woman matchups, and increase the strategy of DreamBreakers? Here is where I differ from Bright. Her suggestion is that the home team sets the matchups, while the visiting team then sets the order of play. Let’s take that awesome Chicago vs. California DreamBreaker and use it as an example of how this would work. If Chicago is the home team, they would set the matchups. Bright believes teams would set a lot of men vs. women matchups. Suppose Chicago does that and chooses John Lucian Goins vs. Zoey Weil, Zane Navratil vs. Sahra Dennehy, Jamie Wei vs. Pablo Tellez, and Elsie Hendershot vs. Dylan Frazier. California now gets to choose the order of those four matchups. California would obviously choose to have Tellez and Frazier play one/two, with California choosing to have their women play three/four against the Chicago men. In other words, if the home team ever chooses men vs. women matchups, the visiting team will ALWAYS respond by placing their men one/two. The result would be that the home team will never choose any men vs. women matchups. The home team would always choose a lineup of man vs. man and woman vs. woman. Thus, Bright’s suggested fix will not work.

 

But all is not lost. Again, Bright is spot on in her criticisms of current DreamBreaker rules. And the good news is that there is a fix for both problems she identified. We can add strategy, encourage men vs. women lineups, and set the rules so every team does not make the exact same choices every time. With a very small tweak.

 

The solution is to have the first two players in the first rotation only play two points instead of four. Instead of the first rotation being 4/4/4/4, it would be 2/2/4/4. After the first rotation, it would be back to 4/4/4/4.

 

How does this change things? It would have subtle but significant effects. Take a team with very strong male singles players, like Brooklyn. Their DreamBreaker lineup is Christian Alshon, Chris Haworth, Hannah Blatt, and Jackie Kawamoto. With a 2/2/4/4 opening rotation, do they stick with Alshon and Haworth going one/two, knowing they sacrifice because they play two fewer points? Or do they play one or both women up front, so the men play four points in the first rotation?

 

By playing a 2/2/4/4 format in the first rotation, the math on DreamBreakers changes significantly. Now, after two rotations, instead of 32 points having been played, only 28 will have been played. In close DreamBreakers, this means when player #1 steps up in the third rotation, a tied match is 14-14, not 16-16. Scores entering the third rotation now would commonly be 14-14, 15-13, or 16-12. The effect is that the deciding point will come later, with the first player rarely being involved in the winning point. Instead, the winning point will come later, and much more often to players three and four in the rotation.

 

Now we come back to the strategy. Using Brooklyn again, do I want my best player (Alshon) only playing two points in the first rotation and then having it be unlikely he will play the deciding points in a close DreamBreaker? Should I move him down? If so, how far? To spot #2, where he is more likely to play key points in rotation #3, but still only play two points in rotation #1? Or do I move him to spot #3, so he plays four points in rotation one, and may well play key points at the end?

 

The correct strategy with an opening rotation of 2/2/4/4 is far from clear. Different teams will play different strategies. Another tweak to increase uncertainty and excitement is to have both teams submit DreamBreaker lineups in secret. If doubles ends in a 2-2 tie, have a five minute break, for players to warm up for the DreamBreaker. During that time, each team writes down their DreamBreaker lineup, and submits it to the referee, with no knowledge of what the other team is doing. It would be like baseball, where each manager submits a lineup card, not knowing the lineup of the opposing team. Once each team submits their lineup, the referee would then call to the court the first player on each team’s lineup card. Only then would the other team, and the fans, know who is playing. After the first two players are done with their points, the referee would then announce the next two players. Again, this would create suspense for the fans, as they would not know who is coming out to play until it is announced.

 

Imagine St. Louis against New Jersey. Perhaps both teams play it safe and it is announced that the first matchup is Federico Staksrud vs. Hunter Johnson. But after they are done, the referee announces “next up is Anna Leigh Waters against Hayden Patriquin.” The crowd would go wild.

 

Secret lineups, suspense, men playing sometimes but not all the time against women, women playing just as many points as men; this small tweak leads to all of that. Think about it. Use the 2/2/4/4 format, put yourself in place as coach of your favorite MLP team; how would you set the DreamBreaker lineup? It is not an easy choice. Men in the first slots, but playing fewer points and maybe not the key points? But the second spot is still really important and will decide a lot of matches. Do I put my best player second? But wait, the third slot plays more points and will also decide close matches, so do I put best player third? And the fourth slot, what do I do with that one? Fourth plays more points and can help the team get a lead, but only plays the third rotation in a very close match. Dang it, these lineup choices are difficult!

 

Kudos to Bright for bringing attention to the DreamBreaker issues. The DreamBreaker is one of the best things about MLP. But, it does have the two issues Bright pointed out. Fortunately, there is an easy fix that will create more strategy and excitement. Let’s implement 2/2/4/4 scoring for the first rotation, and watch DreamBrekaers get even better!

 

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