Pickleball Tournament Observations & Best Practices

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 has exploded into a tournament of over 430 players using Pickleball.com and DUPR registration integration.

Shown below are 10 observations and/or best practices from our vantage point behind the tournament desk.

1. Singles is Exploding in Popularity

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. However, we now get around 100 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 hosts over 400 players, and over 800 total matches on 17 climate-controlled, cushioned indoor courts at The Pickle Lodge in West Chester, Ohio. Players come from many states (Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Tennessee). Ages range from 13-75. By all accounts, it’s a great tournament!

3. We Use DUPR Ratings During the Registration Process to Minimize/Eliminate Sandbagging

WinterMAX 2024 was the first tournament in which we exclusively relied on a player’s DUPR rating to determine which skill bracket they were assigned during the registration process.

As tournament directors and tournament desk operators, we go to great lengths to make brackets as fair as possible. Nobody wants players sandbagging.

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Prior to the integration of DUPR and Pickleball.com, registration for tournaments was based solely on a player’s “self-rating” on their Pickleball.com profile. As you could guess, 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, Pickleball.com (PickleballBrackets) and DUPR integrated. This integration 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, we rarely make exceptions. This works well for those who have DUPR ratings at the time they register. It has marked a significant improvement in the registration process.

4. Self-Ratings Are Still Used for those that Do Not have a DUPR Rating at the Time of Registration

Some players do not have a DUPR rating at the time of registration. They might not have any prior tournament experience. They might now have any league history. For these players, the only option is to use the self-rating they populated on Pickleball.com.

5. DUPR Ratings Are Updated in Real Time

It is interesting to see DUPR ratings for tournament participants update as matches are 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 Are Created Based on [Team] DUPR Ratings

To make round robin pools as competitive and equal in skill as possible, team DUPR ratings are used. A team’s DUPR rating is calculated by averaging each team’s two individual DUPR ratings. There are a few instances where I modify pools ever-so-slightly to make sure that there isn’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 the 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 are usually a couple of events where we have an uneven number of teams in each pool. For example, in one event, we might have two pools consisting of 6 teams and one pool consisting of 5 teams. Because we advance two teams from each pool into a single-elimination bracket, the two “best” overall teams are awarded byes in the quarterfinal matches.

For example, the “best” teams from each of the three pools finish 5-0, 5-0, and 4-0, respectively. However, one of the 5-0 teams does not earn the bye. That is because if there are uneven pools, wins as a ranking factor are 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.

Related Articles

• 400+ Funny & Clever Pickleball Team Names
• Check This Out Before Registering for Pickleball Tournaments
• DUPR Pickleball Ratings
• It’s not the Medals. It’s the Memories
• Organizing a Pickleball Tournament?
• Pickleball Tournament Calendar 2026
• Pickleball Tournament Desk Feedback
• Pickleball Tournament Formats
• Top 10 Tournament Preparations

For more information about tournaments or how we can help you with yours, see our Tournament page.

Final Thoughts

These are just a few thoughts that we experience during a tournament. We run several tournaments every year, and each one is 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.