2019 Season Updates

Schedule

Note: This is a preliminary schedule; some venues and dates may change

Tournaments

The 2019 Tour Series will consist of 3 Tour Stops and a Grand Slam in each region. Each region will also receive an additional Bonus Tour Stop. Bonus Tour Stops will be run independently by local roundnet leaders giving us the ability to bring quality events to high potential areas. Prizes and points will be awarded in the same manner of traditional sanctioned events.

The 2019 season will again include a number of two-day events, where Sunday features a coed tournament. In addition to the coed tournament, we are also going to use Sundays as an opportunity to test new rule and equipment modifications in a tournament setting.

Registration for tournaments will will open roughly two months before the tournament date and will be listed under the 'Events' tab above as well as posted on Spikeball's social media platforms.

Divisions

All 2019 sanctioned events will include a Premier and Women’s division (as long as there are at least 8 teams signed up). Grand Slam events with at least 16 premier teams will have a Pro Division for the top 8 teams.

Restrictions:

• Premier qualified players are not allowed to play in the Intermediate division.

When a Premier division is present:

• Premier qualified teams are not allowed to play in the Advanced division.

• A Premier player that meets the following criteria over the previous 12-month span is not allowed to play in the advanced division:

  • Top 4 Premier finish (or Advanced if there was no Premier division)

  • Top 8 Premier finish 2 times

  • Top 2 Advanced finish 2 times  

Premier Qualification and Re-qualification

Qualification:

• Players qualify for Premier by finishing in the top 2 teams of a sanctioned event’s Advanced division. Only the top two teams earn Premier, even if one or both of the top two teams had a Premier player on the roster.

• Players remain qualified for premier for one year from the date of qualification.  

Requalification:

• Compete in the Pro Division of a sanctioned event.

• Win (or earn a bye) in the first round of bracket play of a sanctioned event’s Premier division.

  • When there is a Premier division, players cannot re-qualify for Premier through the Advanced division.

  • If there is no Premier division, the top 8 teams from the Advanced division will qualify/re-qualify.

Format

Pool Play

We want more pool play games to be able to be played to 21. We are aiming for pools of 5 - 6 teams with games to 21 and a cap at 25. Based on the number of registrants this is not always possible. In cases where we need to make pools of 7 or 8, games will be played 15 with a cap at 21. If there is a mix between pool sizes within a division (ie there's a pool of 6 and a pool of 7) games will be played to 15 with a cap at 21. See example.

Grand Slam Tournaments with at least 16 registered Premier teams will use the Pro Division format. In this format, the top 8 teams according to points (see seeding section below) will be eligible for the Pro Division. The lower ranked Premier teams will play in a standard Premier division. In the Pro Division, teams will be organized into pools of 4 and will play a best of 3 series against each team in their pool.

Bracket Play

We will be using single elimination for all brackets and playing out for more places. If you lose in the first or second round you’ll automatically drop into a feed-in consolation bracket. As such, every team will be guaranteed at least two bracket play matches.

Seeding

The Premier and Women’s division will utilize an objective, points-based seeding system in 2019. We will calculate individual ranking points for each player. The sum of a teams’ individual points will be used for seeding purposes. At this time, there is not enough data from other divisions to make this format work accurately, though we will take any objective data available into consideration when seeding. 

How are individual points calculated?

Players receive 50% of the points their teams’ earned in the 2018 season. Players’ points are valid for a 12-month span and are subject to an exponential decay with a half-life of 6 months.

Example

Let’s say your team earned 50 points for reaching the quarterfinals of a Tour Stop in 2018. From that event, you get 25 points toward your rank and your partner gets 25 points. That part’s pretty simple.

We also know that the most recent results are the most meaningful. Due to this, the points you earn are depreciated over time. In this case, your 25 points would be worth 19.84 points 2 months later. A 6-month half-life means that 6 months after you earn the points they’re worth half of what they originally were.

Original Point Value x (½)^(Months since points earned/6) = Depreciated Points

25 x (½)^(2/6) = 19.84

Regardless of your teammate, points count toward your rank, so you don’t have to be playing with your permanent teammate to earn points for yourself. After 12-months, points no longer count.

Points

In 2019 there will be two distinct points systems. The Advanced system will track points earned at independent tournaments and in the advanced division of sanctioned Spikeball tournaments. The Premier system will track points earned at sanctioned events in the Premier and Women’s division only.

Advanced Points

The Advanced points are based on the number of teams participating. Points can be earned from independent tournaments or through the advanced division of sanctioned Spikeball tournaments. Learn more about submitting points from independent tournaments.

Premier Points

The Premier points are based on the type of event and the strength of the competition. This system is used to track the Pro/Premier and Women’s divisions at sanctioned events.

• In the case there is a Pro and Premier division, Premier rankings will start where Pro rankings end.

  • For example, if there are 8 teams in the Pro Division, first place in Premier would be considered 9th place and so on.

• In the case there are not enough teams to run a premier division, then only the top 8 teams will earn Premier Points. Teams 9 - 16 will earn advanced points according to their position (ie Tied for 9th = 1st place Advanced points)

• At least 8 teams must be registered for a division to be eligible for points at an event.

• When T-5, T-7 etc., base points will be the average (ie T-5 is the average of 5-8 points = 50)

• Regionals freeze - as of Sept 5th
  • The top 32 players playing in an event by their depreciated points "numerator" (instead of as of the week after for East and Midwest).
  • The top 32 players points "denominator" so that all four regions multipliers are calculated against the same threshold.  

Total Points = Base Value x Event Type Multiplier x Strength Multiplier

Check out points for all possible multipliers here.

Base Value Points:

Advanced division qualifying teams (ie teams moving into the premier division for the first time) will be given points for placing in the top 3. These points are not subject to any multipliers.

• 1st = 1.5

• 2nd = 1

• 3rd = .5

Event Type Multiplier

Tour Stop = 1

Grand Slam and Regionals = 1.2

Nationals = 2.2

Strength Multiplier

Tournaments have varying degrees of difficulty based on the teams that participate. To make our rankings more accurate we’ve added a strength multiplier to the points system. The strength multiplier is determined by looking at the percentage of total ranking points compared to the maximum amount of points.

Premier: We compare the points of the top 32 players in the highest division to the top 32 players overall. (If there are fewer than 16 teams we look at the points of all players in the highest division)

Women's: We compare the points of the top 10 players in the highest division to the top 10 players overall.

Prize Structure  

Women’s and Open champions (highest division) have payouts based on the number of registered teams in the respective divisions. There will be a 1.2 multiplier for Grand Slam and Regional Tournaments.

Open total teams = The sum of teams in Pro, Premier, and Advanced

Nationals

Nationals will feature a Pro Division. Only 16 teams will qualify for the Pro division. The top two teams from each Regional Championship will earn a spot. If a team does not accept their bid from regionals, it will fall to the next highest placing team. Remaining spots will be determined by taking the sum of the top 5 Premier Points earned at sanctioned events (without depreciation). Ties will be broken by cumulative season points.

SRA Board

We are excited to add two new members to the 2019 SRA Board, the man behind Golden Gate Roundnet, Taylen Peterson, and Alli Kauffman, 3-time women's national champion and driving force of the Lancaster roundnet community. The current board consists of:

• Skyler Boles
• Shaun Boyer
• Harding Brumby
• Ezra Dantowitz
• Chris Hornacek
• Alli Kauffman
• Taylen Peterson
• Jack Scotti
• Mike White

Season Update Notes

We're excited to roll out these new initiatives and believe they will help our sport continue to grow and improve. Like anything new, we know there will be some kinks to work out along the way and appreciate your support and patience as we do so. At times, we may need to make some adjustments to this outline. We also know that tournament directors need the ability to make adjustments when unique circumstances deem it necessary. We are absolutely pumped about the direction we're moving and the future of roundnet! We hope you are too!

If you have any ideas, concerns, or questions, please feel free to contact us at tournaments@spikeball.com.