No Mercy: The St. Louis Shock Annihilated the Fives
No Mercy: The St. Louis Shock Annihilated the Fives
Grand Rapids was expecting a war. What it got was an execution.
The New Jersey 5s came into the final of the Edward Jones MLP Mid-Season Tournament as the #1 team of the entire regular season — undefeated by reputation, with Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson forming the most feared women's doubles duo in the league. The St. Louis Shock, the #2 seed, had every reason to make it a close match. Instead, they swept 3-0 without letting New Jersey catch a breath: 11-6, 11-3, 11-8. Three sets, three blows, zero drama over who deserved the trophy.
How we got here
Twenty-four teams, a double-elimination bracket, and five straight days of pickleball at Belknap Park, alongside the historic Beer City Open. Beyond the usual 20 MLP franchises, this edition added four guest squads — Team Australia, Team Canada, Team Europe, and a College All-Stars team stacked with the best of the collegiate circuit — to round out the biggest field of the year.
New Jersey arrived as the regular-season #1 seed with 21.75 points, St. Louis right on their heels at 20.75. Everything pointed to these two being the best of the weekend, and that's exactly how it played out — the problem for the 5s is that "reaching the final" and "winning the final" turned out to be very different things.
The stories the road left behind
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It wasn't all about the scoreline. Grand Rapids also delivered the kind of moments that make a tournament feel human, not just a bracket of results:
Jay Devilliers (Atlanta Bouncers) took five stitches to the side of his head on Friday — and came back to the court that same day to help his team survive in the consolation bracket. That's the kind of commitment that separates a professional from a mere competitor.
The Paddletek One Point Challenge ran alongside the main event with $25,000 on the line in the amateur bracket, capped by a Pro vs. Amateur final worth $20,000 — a smart way for MLP to bring its recreational player base into the biggest event of the year.
Former NFL wide receiver Eric Decker showed up competing in the adjacent Beer City Open, more proof that the crossover between pickleball and other pro sports keeps growing.
The road to the final: who else brought the fight
New Jersey didn't cruise into the final. They had to get past the Columbus Sliders in the semifinals, a team that played with tactical solidity all weekend. On the other side of the bracket, St. Louis ran into an LA Mad Drops squad that's earned a reputation in 2026 as a tough out for anyone — Ben Johns himself has been a driving force for that team all season — but the Shock got past them and carried their momentum straight into the final.
Texas Ranchers closed out the podium in the third-place match against Columbus, while Dallas Flash also left a strong impression on their run through the consolation bracket, taking down Atlanta Bouncers with authority.
The atmosphere: fans showed up
Beyond the scoreline, Belknap Park felt like the league's biggest summer event is supposed to feel: packed stands, sustained energy across all five days, and the kind of buzz that only happens when all 20 franchises — plus four guest squads — are in the same city at the same time. MLP is coming off a 2025 season with double-digit attendance growth, and everything suggests Grand Rapids kept that momentum going.
The controversy: why move the final to another channel?
Here's something a lot of fans have written in to comment on, and fairly so: the final aired exclusively on FOX, a departure from how most fans normally follow the league — through Pickleballtv, MLP's own streaming platform, available on Fubo, Samsung TV Plus, Roku, FireTV, and Plex. Moving the biggest match of the weekend to a linear TV channel different from the one fans already have set up in their routine left more than a few people unable to watch the finale live.
We understand this kind of decision usually comes down to distribution deals and an effort to reach bigger audiences beyond the sport's already-converted fanbase — a valid strategy, and probably a necessary one if the league wants to keep growing beyond its current base. But it's also true that once fans get used to following a league on one channel, switching it right for the final creates friction — and that friction was loud on social media this weekend. The league's owners know their own business reasoning behind the call; what we can say is that fans haven't stopped talking about it.
What it means going forward
For St. Louis, this title lands at the perfect moment: right as the trade window closed this same weekend, with several teams reshuffling pieces ahead of the August playoffs. A statement win like this — sweeping the regular season's best-positioned team without dropping a single set — sends a clear message to the rest of the league: the road to the 2026 title runs through St. Louis.
For New Jersey, the task now is the same one every great power faces after a beatdown like this: prove it was a bad day, not a trend, before the postseason begins.
MLP's calendar continues with stops in San Diego, Chicago, and Orlando before the final stretch. If St. Louis plays the rest of the summer the way it played this final, the conversation about who's the best team of 2026 may already be settled — a little earlier than anyone expected.
No Mercy: The St. Louis Shock Annihilated the Fives
Grand Rapids was expecting a war. What it got was an execution.
The New Jersey 5s came into the final of the Edward Jones MLP Mid-Season Tournament as the #1 team of the entire regular season — undefeated by reputation, with Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson forming the most feared women's doubles duo in the league. The St. Louis Shock, the #2 seed, had every reason to make it a close match. Instead, they swept 3-0 without letting New Jersey catch a breath: 11-6, 11-3, 11-8. Three sets, three blows, zero drama over who deserved the trophy.
How we got here
Twenty-four teams, a double-elimination bracket, and five straight days of pickleball at Belknap Park, alongside the historic Beer City Open. Beyond the usual 20 MLP franchises, this edition added four guest squads — Team Australia, Team Canada, Team Europe, and a College All-Stars team stacked with the best of the collegiate circuit — to round out the biggest field of the year.
New Jersey arrived as the regular-season #1 seed with 21.75 points, St. Louis right on their heels at 20.75. Everything pointed to these two being the best of the weekend, and that's exactly how it played out — the problem for the 5s is that "reaching the final" and "winning the final" turned out to be very different things.
The stories the road left behind
LOVE PICKLEBALL?
Get Dink Authority Magazine updates, new editions, pro stories and event alerts.
We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
It wasn't all about the scoreline. Grand Rapids also delivered the kind of moments that make a tournament feel human, not just a bracket of results:
Jay Devilliers (Atlanta Bouncers) took five stitches to the side of his head on Friday — and came back to the court that same day to help his team survive in the consolation bracket. That's the kind of commitment that separates a professional from a mere competitor.
The Paddletek One Point Challenge ran alongside the main event with $25,000 on the line in the amateur bracket, capped by a Pro vs. Amateur final worth $20,000 — a smart way for MLP to bring its recreational player base into the biggest event of the year.
Former NFL wide receiver Eric Decker showed up competing in the adjacent Beer City Open, more proof that the crossover between pickleball and other pro sports keeps growing.
The road to the final: who else brought the fight
New Jersey didn't cruise into the final. They had to get past the Columbus Sliders in the semifinals, a team that played with tactical solidity all weekend. On the other side of the bracket, St. Louis ran into an LA Mad Drops squad that's earned a reputation in 2026 as a tough out for anyone — Ben Johns himself has been a driving force for that team all season — but the Shock got past them and carried their momentum straight into the final.
Texas Ranchers closed out the podium in the third-place match against Columbus, while Dallas Flash also left a strong impression on their run through the consolation bracket, taking down Atlanta Bouncers with authority.
The atmosphere: fans showed up
Beyond the scoreline, Belknap Park felt like the league's biggest summer event is supposed to feel: packed stands, sustained energy across all five days, and the kind of buzz that only happens when all 20 franchises — plus four guest squads — are in the same city at the same time. MLP is coming off a 2025 season with double-digit attendance growth, and everything suggests Grand Rapids kept that momentum going.
The controversy: why move the final to another channel?
Here's something a lot of fans have written in to comment on, and fairly so: the final aired exclusively on FOX, a departure from how most fans normally follow the league — through Pickleballtv, MLP's own streaming platform, available on Fubo, Samsung TV Plus, Roku, FireTV, and Plex. Moving the biggest match of the weekend to a linear TV channel different from the one fans already have set up in their routine left more than a few people unable to watch the finale live.
We understand this kind of decision usually comes down to distribution deals and an effort to reach bigger audiences beyond the sport's already-converted fanbase — a valid strategy, and probably a necessary one if the league wants to keep growing beyond its current base. But it's also true that once fans get used to following a league on one channel, switching it right for the final creates friction — and that friction was loud on social media this weekend. The league's owners know their own business reasoning behind the call; what we can say is that fans haven't stopped talking about it.
What it means going forward
For St. Louis, this title lands at the perfect moment: right as the trade window closed this same weekend, with several teams reshuffling pieces ahead of the August playoffs. A statement win like this — sweeping the regular season's best-positioned team without dropping a single set — sends a clear message to the rest of the league: the road to the 2026 title runs through St. Louis.
For New Jersey, the task now is the same one every great power faces after a beatdown like this: prove it was a bad day, not a trend, before the postseason begins.
MLP's calendar continues with stops in San Diego, Chicago, and Orlando before the final stretch. If St. Louis plays the rest of the summer the way it played this final, the conversation about who's the best team of 2026 may already be settled — a little earlier than anyone expected.
