In 2024, the Las Vegas Night Owls were one win short of achieving promotion to the Premier level, falling in the Challenger level quarterfinals to the Atlanta Bouncers.

They had a similar win-or-go-home situation on Sunday and completely rewrote the script, taking the deciding match against the Nashville Chefs in a DreamBreaker to claim the Challenger level title and secure promotion to Premier in 2026.

Nashville actually led 2-1 going into the final mixed doubles game, but the Night Owls’ Brooke Buckner/Pablo Tellez battled past Ewa Radzikowska/Marshall Brown to bring on the DreamBreaker.

And in that singles contest, Las Vegas—also featuring MLP rookie James Delgado and Zoey Wang—dominated by a 21-9 score line. Tellez was especially impressive, outscoring Brown 4-0 in the first rotation (and 7-1 overall) to give the Night Owls a lead they would ride all the way to the triumph.

Night Owls coach Steve Deakin spoke about what this title means to him and the organization.

“This is one of the most special moments of my pickleball career with these four unbelievable athletes,” he mentioned. “These guys battled hard every single day. We had our backs against the wall today. They showed that it’s not about the pickleball—it’s about what's upstairs—and we pulled through and crushed that DreamBreaker. That’s what champions do.”

With promotion (and the title) secured, Las Vegas will join 16 other squads at the Premier level in 2026.