Study the rules carefully and make sure all your team members are briefed ahead of time. Practicing the scoring system will give you a leg up on those that don’t. Send any questions you may have ahead of time to: brettboston@me.com.

The rules are below. Please share them with your team members.

Click here to download Rules PDF file.

Pool Play

• Captains submit the 4 designated teams before each match. Teams can change for the next match and for playo:s, but no substitutions are allowed during a game, except to replace an injured player.
• Each match in pool play will consist of the 5 games listed below. All 5 games are played for each match. A team can win 3-2, 4-1, or 5-0.
• Women’s Doubles – Men’s Doubles – Mixed A – Mixed B – TeamMaker™
• Each game is to 21 using Major League Pickleball’s rally scoring. Win by 2 points.
  You must win on your serve.
• Play continues until one team reaches 21 using rally scoring.
• Two time-outs per game
• Switch sides at 11 points

TeamMaker™ – The Fifth Game

• The TeamMaker™ is similar to Major League Pickleball’s dream breaker, but in TeamMaker™, teams play doubles rather than singles. The order is as follows: Women’s Doubles – Men’s Doubles – Mixed A – Mixed B
• Switch teams every 4 points (or every 4 serves when scoring is “frozen”)
• Teams must rotate into games in the pre-determined order
• Each game is to 21 using Major League Pickleball’s rally scoring. Win by 2 points.
  You must win on your serve.
• Two time-outs per game
• Switch sides at 11 points

Court Positions

• Players on a team choose a side of the court to play – left or right.
• Odd-even serving, i.e., the right-side player serves when the score is even, and the left-side player serves when the score is odd.
• Unlike side-out scoring, the team will only get one complete serve. The team continues to alternate servers (odd/even) until they make an error, and then the opponents get the serve AND a point.
• Players remain on their original sides of the court and may only change sides (right or left) after a time-out or during the side change after the first team reaches 11 points.
• Please let your opponents know you have switched to avoid confusion.

Play-offs

• Play-off seeding will be based on wins and losses from all pool play matches.
• Wins v. Losses
• 1st tie-breaker is head-to-head
• 2nd tie-breaker is total points

Note: Games that extend beyond 21-19 (e.g., 24-22), will be scored as 21-19 in the
standings.

Medal Rounds

• In brackets, with only one pool of teams, the 1st- and 2nd-place teams will play for
  gold and silver medals. The 3rd- and 4th-place teams will play for bronze medals.
• The medal match format will be the same as pool play, except that all matches do
  not need to be completed. As soon as a team wins 3 of the 5 games, the match is
  over.
• In brackets with multiple pools of teams, teams will be seeded, and specific teams
  will advance to a single elimination bracket, where the format is the same as the
  pool play, except that not all matches have to be completed.