Recap: PLL All-Star Game

Inaugural events are hard to ignore when you are in the first year of inception. For the PLL, the inaugural All- Star game was an opportunity to showcase the sport and league on the biggest platform in the biggest entertainment city in the world, Los Angeles. The PLL All- Star game was held last Sunday night, July 21stat Banc of California Stadium at 8 PM. Finally, a chance to showcase not only the best players in the world but the best of the best, in an All-Star game that was sure to attract some unfamiliar eyes. As the days leading up to the game went on, more content and information about the game began to be released. As I mentioned previously in another post, there were going to be rule changes about faceoffs which sparked some immediate conversation. There was a couple other exciting announcement that came about to help spark the conversation and popularity of the event.

The first was the unveiling of the jerseys for both teams. As seen below, the jerseys were focused around a tie dye theme with one team representing the dark side and the other representing the colorful side. To go along with the theme of players showing off their style when walking in to the locker room much like the NBA, the jersey designers certainly took no short cuts in impressing the players and fans in this regard. Another announcement brought on from the inaugural PLL All-Star game was the addition of bonus competitions that would be held after the All- Star game.

The five different skills competitions that were held were fastest player, freestyle competition, goalie competition, accuracy challenge, and the fastest shot competition. These events have been done for years in other leagues at a smaller scale to some extent, but the PLL did an incredible job of making it interesting and fun to watch. From little things like having the competing players change back into their original club jerseys from the All-Star jerseys to having the fastest player competition be done while cradling with a ball, the PLL has shown time and time again they are willing and aggressively looking to be creative and evolve as a sport and a business. In the end, through many highlight reel level goals and insane feats of athleticism, Team Baptiste won by a score of 17-16. What could have been a boring, halfhearted effort of an All-Star game quickly turned into a very exciting game in which the true competitiveness and drive of the players shined. Not only did this competitive drive and motivation show in this game, it has also been shown throughout the entire season as their support continues to drive the league in the right direction. All in all, to no surprise, the PLL put on a tremendous event that exceeded everyone’s expectations, much like how they have been each and every weekend so far this summer.