Match Format and Rules of Play
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2025 10:33 pm
The match format consisting of one men's doubles game, one women's doubles game, and two mixed doubles games, ensures guaranteed match play for all participants in a round-robin format and, when combined with DUPR ratings, helps ensure a fair and level-based competitive experience across different skill levels.
This match format is one of the defining characteristics of the East Bay Team Pickleball League, meaning that this match format is a requirement for all divisions within the league. Were there to be sufficient interest and numbers for some alternative match format, a new league should be considered.
The one element of the match format used by Major League Pickleball (MLP) and The Dink Minor League (MiLP) that has been changed for our local community pickleball league is the tiebreaker. In MLP and MiLP, the tiebreaker involves a rotation of team members competing as Singles. In the East Bay Team Pickleball League, the tiebreaker will still involve a rotation of team members in a single game, but the game will be played as Doubles. The rotation will be the same as practiced in these other leagues: team members rotate out after each set of 4 points in a game that is won by 21, with the serving team having to win the final point. But the rotation will not be individual team members; it will be women's doubles, men's doubles, and two mixed doubles that rotate out after each set of 4 points.
Not including Singles games is simply an acknowledgement that the vast majority of rec players who may want to form teams and play in a team competion format never, or hardly ever, play singles games. It may be that the higher the skill level attained by any player, the more likely it is that players play singles as well as doubles. And for that reason, we should remain open to the possibility that singles might be re-introduced into the tiebreaker game for 16 and 18 teams.
Beyond this basic match format, the MLP and the MiLP have continued to experiment with different ways of scoring the four required regular games and the tiebreaker. For example, the MLP used to score all games with rally scoring, and then later changed to traditional side-out scoring for the four regular games and leaving the tiebreaker as rally scoring. The MiLP still uses rally scoring for all games.
For the inaugural season, the East Bay Team Pickleball League will score the four regular games with traditional side-out scoring to 11, win by 2. The tiebreaker will use rally scoring to 21, with the winning point made by the serving team.
For most Rules of Play, the East Bay Team Pickleball League will, just like MLP and MiLP, be governed by the most current rules of USA Pickleball and UPA standards, except for the rules outlined in a local league rules document that will be published before the start of the inaugural season.
Use this forum to opine on match format and rules of play. The forum will be closely monitored and if any particular format or rule issue becomes hotly debated, a new forum topic will be set up exclusively for that discussion.
This match format is one of the defining characteristics of the East Bay Team Pickleball League, meaning that this match format is a requirement for all divisions within the league. Were there to be sufficient interest and numbers for some alternative match format, a new league should be considered.
The one element of the match format used by Major League Pickleball (MLP) and The Dink Minor League (MiLP) that has been changed for our local community pickleball league is the tiebreaker. In MLP and MiLP, the tiebreaker involves a rotation of team members competing as Singles. In the East Bay Team Pickleball League, the tiebreaker will still involve a rotation of team members in a single game, but the game will be played as Doubles. The rotation will be the same as practiced in these other leagues: team members rotate out after each set of 4 points in a game that is won by 21, with the serving team having to win the final point. But the rotation will not be individual team members; it will be women's doubles, men's doubles, and two mixed doubles that rotate out after each set of 4 points.
Not including Singles games is simply an acknowledgement that the vast majority of rec players who may want to form teams and play in a team competion format never, or hardly ever, play singles games. It may be that the higher the skill level attained by any player, the more likely it is that players play singles as well as doubles. And for that reason, we should remain open to the possibility that singles might be re-introduced into the tiebreaker game for 16 and 18 teams.
Beyond this basic match format, the MLP and the MiLP have continued to experiment with different ways of scoring the four required regular games and the tiebreaker. For example, the MLP used to score all games with rally scoring, and then later changed to traditional side-out scoring for the four regular games and leaving the tiebreaker as rally scoring. The MiLP still uses rally scoring for all games.
For the inaugural season, the East Bay Team Pickleball League will score the four regular games with traditional side-out scoring to 11, win by 2. The tiebreaker will use rally scoring to 21, with the winning point made by the serving team.
For most Rules of Play, the East Bay Team Pickleball League will, just like MLP and MiLP, be governed by the most current rules of USA Pickleball and UPA standards, except for the rules outlined in a local league rules document that will be published before the start of the inaugural season.
Use this forum to opine on match format and rules of play. The forum will be closely monitored and if any particular format or rule issue becomes hotly debated, a new forum topic will be set up exclusively for that discussion.