WinterMAX – our annual PickleballMAX pickleball tournament held between Christmas and New Year’s Day – has been a staple in the Cincinnati area since 2017. What started as a 70-100 player tournament run on Excel spreadsheets at CourtYard Sportsplex has exploded into a tournament of over 430 players using PickleballBrackets and DUPR registration integration at The Pickle Lodge in West Chester, Ohio.
Shown below are 10 observations and/or best practices from our vantage point behind the tournament desk at our most recent WinterMAX pickleball tournament in December, 2024.
1. Singles is Exploding in Popularity
This year (2024) was our first year to include singles competition. For the first seven years of WinterMAX we stuck to the traditional gender doubles and mixed doubles events – in part because of our access to fewer courts. This year, however, there were 92 singles players competing on a Friday. On a Friday!
2. A Well Run Tournament + Great Venue = Tournament Success
Over the course of three days, WinterMAX played host to 432 players, 28 events and 881 total matches on 17 climate-controlled, cushioned indoor courts. Players came from 11 states (Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Tennessee). Ages ranged from 13-74. We handed out 144 medals. By all accounts, it was a rousing tournament success.
3. We Used DUPR Ratings During the Registration Process to Minimize/Eliminate Sandbagging
As tournament directors and tournament desk operators, we go to great lengths to make brackets as fair as possible. Nobody wants players sandbagging.
Prior to the integration of DUPR and PickleballBrackets (which was finalized in late summer/early fall of 2024) registration for tournaments was based solely on a player’s “self-rating” on their PickleballBrackets profile. As you could guess, a self-rating is prone to abuse as some players may opt to sandbag (populate a lower self-rating than they truly are in hopes of winning a medal) when it comes to tournament time.
However, in late summer/early fall of 2024, PickleballBrackets and DUPR integrated. This integration now allows for the software to check a player’s DUPR rating before they can register into a certain skill bracket. Quite simply, the software does not allow for a player to register for a lower skill level than their DUPR rating indicates.
Although a tournament director does, indeed, have the flexibility to make exceptions, no exceptions were made for WinterMAX. Not a single one. This worked well for those who had DUPR ratings at the time they registered. It marked a significant improvement in the registration process.
4. Self-Ratings Were Still Used for those that Did Not have a DUPR Rating at the Time of Registration
Several players did not have a DUPR rating at the time of registration. They had no prior tournament experience. They had no league history. For these players, the only option was to use the self-rating they populated on PickleballBrackets.
5. DUPR Ratings were Updated in Real Time
It was interesting to see DUPR ratings for tournament participants updated as matches completed. The chances are very strong that DUPR ratings increased for those winning their respective brackets, and, as a result, they will be forced to play up in skill at their next tournament. This, of course, assumes the next tournament also uses DUPR ratings during the registration process.
6. Round Robin Pools were Created Based on [Team] DUPR Ratings
To make round robin pools as competitive and equal-in-skill as possible, team DUPR ratings were used. A team DUPR rating is calculated by averaging each team’s two individual DUPR ratings. There were a few instances where I modified pools ever-so-slightly so as to make sure that there wasn’t an overabundance of players/teams from the same Pickleball Club competing in the same pool. But for the tournament director to be able to make these slight modifications, players must populate their pickleball club on their profile. The tournament director does not have visibility to city and state in these bracket creation screens – just the pickleball club.
7. Byes into Pre-Medal Rounds for Uneven Pools is Determined by Point Differential Percentage (PD%)
There were a couple of events where we had an uneven number of teams in each pool. For example, in one event we had two pools consisting of 6 teams and one pool consisting of 5 teams. Because we advanced two teams from each pool into a single-elimination bracket, the two “best” overall teams were awarded byes in the quarterfinal matches.
In this event example, the “best” teams from each of the three pools finished 5-0, 5-0 and 4-0 respectively. However, one of the 5-0 teams did not earn the bye. That is because if there are uneven pools, wins as a ranking factor is not used to determine byes. Although the number of wins does rank you within your pool, it is disregarded to determine byes. Instead, point differential percentage (PD %) is used for all the number one teams from each pool. It wouldn’t make sense to use number of wins or point differential because the pool(s) with more teams would be unfairly rewarded because they were allowed to play more games.
8. Court Monitors / POD Captains are Invaluable
A tournament – and the efficiency of a tournament – is determined in large part by volunteer court monitors and POD captains. These individuals cannot be thanked enough. They keep the matches flowing and on-time.
9. Questions about the Brackets (Skill Level) others are Playing should be Addressed to the Tournament Director Before the Tournament Begins!
Please don’t wait until after losing to ask the tournament director why a particular player was playing a particular event. Kindly ask well prior to the competition. Which leads me to, perhaps, the most important observation and best practice.
10. Be Kind to Others and Give Each Other the Benefit of the Doubt (Including the Tournament Director)
When I do a Pickleball 101 clinic, I always end the clinic by telling these eager newbies that 99% of pickleball players are kind, helpful and nice. However, as in life, there is always that one or two individuals that ruin it for the overarching community of players.
Pickleball tournaments are no different. If someone is playing at a level that you believe is below their skill level, please give that player (and tournament director) the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they are dipping their toes into the tournament scene for the first time with no DUPR rating to go by and they just didn’t know where they should place themselves.
Final Thoughts
These were just a few thoughts during our most recent WinterMAX tournament. We run several tournaments every year and each one is a little unique. These ten overarching observations and best practices should help you understand a bit more about the process of running a tournament.
If you would like to have PickleballMAX handle registration and run the tournament desk at your next tournament, please do not hesitate to reach out.
About Todd
Todd is the talent behind PickleballMAX. He knows pickleball and demonstrates it on the court as a 4.5 – 5.0 player. In addition to creating content and running the PickleballMAX business, Todd is IPTPA Level II certified. As an instructor at the Ohio Pickleball Academy, he instructs students and runs adult and youth clinics. He also manages tournament desks throughout the tri state for tournaments ranging from 100-500 participants.