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Top Divisions

Premier Status

What is Premier?

Premier is an exclusive division within the Spikeball Tour Series for the top 1% of roundnet players. Players can earn Premier when finishing in top spots at Spikeball Tour Series events. The Premier Division elevates the development of roundnet, allowing us to showcase the best athletes and providing beginner and intermediate players a goal to aspire to.

How do I earn Premier?

  • Top 3 non-premier teams in Contender division at Challengers, top 6 non-premier teams at Majors, and top 8 non-premier teams at The Spikeball Championship.
    • Minimum Team Count - If there are 8 - 19 teams in the Contender division only 1 team will earn Premier. There must be 20+ teams in Contender for 3 teams to earn Premier at a Challenger, 6 to earn Premier at a Major, and 8 to earn Premier at the Championship.  
  • Players cannot earn premier with a current premier player.
    • Exception: In EU Challengers where there is a Gold Division (EURA selective division of top players), non-premier teams/players will earn premier if they meet the requalification guidelines (ie earn top 50% bracket seed or win a match in a full round of bracket).
    • Exception: Players cannot qualify for premier with a player that has "Gold Status" by the EURA.

How do I requalify for Premier?

  • At Challengers and Majors, earn a bracket seed in the top 50% or win a match in the first full round of bracket play (ie a round with no byes).
    • If there are 33 teams, the top 16 seeded teams after pool play will requalify. Teams 17 - 33 can requalify by winning a match in the round of 32.
  • At the Championship, qualify for the Pro Division or in the Premier division earn a bracket seed in the top 50% or win a match in the first full round of bracket play.
  • All players that earn or re-qualify for Premier in 2023 retain Premier status through 2024.
  • All players who participated in the Open Pro Division at the Championship will retain Premier status for two years following their participation.

What are the restrictions?

  • Premier qualified players are not allowed to play in divisions below 4.5
  • When a Premier division is present
    • Premier qualified teams are not allowed to play below 5.0
    • A Premier qualified player can play 4.5 if they:
      • Did not compete in any 2023 Pro Division
  • If a Premier player competes in 4.5 and gets top two they a restricted from playing 4.5
  • Premier players can play in the two highest skilled divisions offered & in any non skill based division (it High School/Youth) as long as they meet the age requirements.

Who is currently Premier?

Premier Format + Info

Seeding

  • Points from a previous season are worth 50% of their value in the following season. Points last for one season after they are earned. All points earned in the 2023 season are worth 50% in 2024 season.

    • Points are awarded to each player.
    • Seeding takes the sum of top 3 individual points from 2023 season (50% original value) or 2024 season (100%).

Pool Play

Majors

  • Teams snake seeded into pools based on points
  • Two-game matches, cap at 25

Challengers

To be determined by Challenger hosts.

Bracket Play

Majors

  • Based on the number of teams in the division, the top teams (as determined by the sum of player points) will be snake seeded into power pools
    • 9 - 23 Teams = 1 power pool, 4 teams
    • 24 - 43 Teams = 2 power pools, 4 teams each (8 teams)
    • 44 - 63 Teams = 3 power pools, 4 teams each (12 teams)
    • 64+ Teams = 4 power pools, 4 teams each (16 teams)
  • Teams within the power pool will earn the top seeds and are guaranteed a spot in the Premier Gold bracket.
    • For example, if there are two power pools, those teams will earn seeds 1 - 8.
    • Teams will be ranked by game losses (low to high), head to head, point differential ratio (high to low). This is standard seeding, not slotted.
  • The top two teams from each regular pool will qualify for Premier Gold bracket - seeded by pool play performance - game losses (low to high), head to head, point differential ratio (high to low). This is standard seeding, not slotted.
    • If more than 32 teams would qualify for A bracket then the single top seed from each regular pool will advance and the rest of the seeds (up to 32) are filled from across the pools.
    • If 2 or less pools, no bracket split.  
  • Teams not qualifying for Premier Gold bracket will play out in Premier Silver bracket, seeded by pool play performance - losses (low to high), head to head, point differential ratio (high to low). This is standard seeding, not slotted.
  • Bracket is single elimination, best of 3 matches, games to 21.
  • One round of consolation counts for points.

Challengers

To be determined by Challenger hosts.

Projected Schedule

Majors

Saturday

Pool Play: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Round of 32: 1:30 PM

Round of 16: 2:45 PM

Round of 8: 4:00 PM

Semis: 5:15pm

Finals: 6:30pm

*times are estimated, listen to annoucements at each event

Challengers

To be determined by Challenger hosts.

Team Points

Majors

Open Pro Division

16-team division.

In order to qualify for the Open Pro Division at a Major, teams will have to be in the top 16 of the teams registered for the event at registration close based on the teams’ combined individual points.

Women's Pro Division

Along with the Open Pro division, we will be implementing a Women’s Pro division at Majors!

To have a Women's Pro division at Majors, there will need to be at least 20 Women's teams signed up for the event. The top 12 teams will qualify for the Women's Pro division based on the combination of the team's individual players’ points (taken from their top 3 finishes).

However, if there are fewer than 20 teams registered, we will combine the Women’s divisions and put the top x teams into power pools again, like in 2023.

Mixed Advanced 5.0+ Division

In 2024, we will be moving from traditional teams of two to teams of four players -- two female players and two male players. Registration for Mixed at the Majors will be open to everyone!

Pool Play

  • Pools will be groups of 4 or 5
  • Games will be to 15 cap at 21
  • Each confrontation will consist of one round of play
  • Each team of 4 will select 2 pairs, an “A” pair and a “B” pair
  • Each “A” pair will play the other team’s “A” pair and likewise for the “B” pairs
    • A and B pairs DO NOT have to stay the same throughout Pool Play. Teams ARE allowed to switch pair compositions between matches.

For each Pool Play match, both teams of 4 meet at the net, with the lower seeded team coming into Pool Play choosing their A & B pairs first. 

Once the lower seeded team picks their pairs, the higher seeded team gets to pick their pairs and subsequently, which pair will compete against each pair.

Each net will then play one game of rock, paper, scissors to determine choice of serve/receive, or starting positions.

Bracket Play

For the single-elimination bracket stage, teams will be seeded based on their overall combined records. Within each bracket match, teams will again designate pairs as their “A” Pair & “B” Pair.

Both Pairs will play BOTH of the opposing Pairs in 1 game to 21 (AvA, BvB, AvB, BvA). This will result in up to 4 wins or losses. A team must win at least 3 out of 5 matchups to move on.

Tiebreakers

In the event of a tie after the two rounds of play, the teams will play a single game tiebreaker in which teams will rotate a player (male OR female) onto the field every 5 points.

The lower seeded team will be the first to pick the Pair that starts the game and the rotation. Then, the higher seeded team will counter-pick their starting Pair and their rotation.

When rotating players, teams MUST keep 1 male and 1 female on the court at all times. This means that men can only rotate in for a man and a woman can only rotate in for a woman. The two teams face off in 1 game to 21 to decide who moves onto the next round.

Here is an example of setting up for the Tiebreaker game:

Team A - #1 Seed

Buddy (M)

Clark (M)

Ali (F)

Olivia (F)

Team B - #2 Seed

Ryan (M)

Thomas (M)

Kalin (F)

Sarah (F)

  • As the lower seed, Team B selects their Pairs first

  • Team B chooses to send out Ryan and Sarah

  • Team B then chooses the rotation of: Kalin - Thomas - Ryan - Sarah

  • Team B then relays their lineup to Team A because Team A is the higher seeded team

  • Team A chooses to send out Clark and Ali first

  • Team A then chooses the rotation of: Buddy - Olivia - Ali - Clark

 

The Mixed Pro Points system will help seed teams for the Mixed Pro divisions at the Majors and the Championship. For more details:

The Championship

Open Pro 6.0+ Division

16-team division. The top 3 teams at each Major will receive an auto bid for the Pro Division. The rest of the spots are given to teams based on the sum of top 3 team points from the 2024 season.

Tiebreakers

  1. (if applicable) Head to head bracket play record from 2024 Challengers and Majors
  2. Record from 2024 Challengers and Majors against (same) teams that have earned Pro Auto Bids (doesn't matter whether or not they accepted them)
  3. Most points earned from a single event
  4. (if applicable) Highest finish at 4th event. Keep extending if necessary.  

Women's Pro 5.0+ Division

16-team division. The top 3 teams at each Major will receive an auto bid for the Pro Division. The rest of the spots are given to teams based on the sum of top 3 team points from the 2024 season.

Tiebreakers

  1. (if applicable) Head to head bracket play record from 2024 Challengers and Majors
  2. Record from 2024 Challengers and Majors against (same) teams that have earned Pro Auto Bids (doesn't matter whether or not they accepted them)
  3. Most points earned from a single event
  4. (if applicable) Highest finish at 4th event. Keep extending if necessary.  

Mixed Pro 5.5+ Division

The Mixed Pro Division at the Championship will be made up of eight, four-person squads. They will play on Sunday, October 13, 2024.

The winners of the Mixed Advanced 5.0+ division at each of the Majors will earn an automatic bid to the Mixed Pro 5.5+ division at the 2024 Championship. One bid is reserved for a dedicated European team, which will be determined by the European Roundnet Association and the ETS events.

One bid is reserved for the top 2 European pairs. If either of the pairs choose to not play with each other, an additional bid will be added so that both of the top 2 European pairs get to play in the Mixed Pro division at The Championship. If either of the 2 top European pairs are not able to participate in the Championship, their bid will not drop down further.

The other spots will be filled by the Mixed points race, organically. The top teams by points will have the opportunity to choose another pair to play with.

Teams of two will have the opportunity to earn points in Mixed Advanced 4.5+ at Challengers, Mixed Advanced 4.5+ at Majors, and Mixed Advanced 5.0+ at Majors.

For the Mixed Advanced 5.0+ division at Majors, points will be awarded to both pairs equally. As an example, both pairs on the team of four that wins The Richmond Major will earn the same amount of points.

The pair selection process will happen after the European qualification spot is secured and after the final Mixed division of the Spikeball Tour Series.

Guidelines for picking pairs

  • The pair that is picked MUST have played in at least one Major in the Mixed Advanced 5.0+ division together.
    • The team that is picking a pair DOES NOT have to have played with the picked pair before.
    • European exception: European pairs are eligible to be chosen if they have played at least one ETS event together.
  • Any of the qualified pairs CAN pick another qualified pair.
    • For example: The #1 ranked team wants to play with the #3 ranked team, they can select them as their pair.
    • Pairs ARE allowed to decline a pick. In this scenario, if the #3 team does not want to compete with the #1 team, they can decline the pick and the #1 ranked team will have to pick a different pair.
    • If for whatever reason, the #1 ranked team cannot find a pair to compete with within the given timeline (TBD), their qualification spot will drop down to the next ranked team etc.
      • In this scenario, the qualification spot of the #3 ranked team would drop down to the #4 pair, etc.
  • In the event of a tie in points, we will take into consideration points from a pair's fifth result, extending to the sixth result if necessary.  
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