JOIN Pickleball and We Fortify are excited to team up to bring you the inaugural "Serve to Serve" Team Tournament, held in Colorado Springs on Sat, Sep. 21! This is not your typical tournament; it's an exciting team-based event (4 people per team) suited for all skill levels. This event is a fundraiser to benefit We Fortify, which is a non-profit whose goal is to help pivot young adults out of poverty by providing safe dignified housing. For more info on We Fortify, please visit: http://workingfusion.com
Player Welcome Email Info Below:
The success of this event relies on everyone showing up and being on-time! If you are no longer able to attend due to illness or injury, please let us know ASAP. You are responsible for finding a replacement player at the same skill level as you, and they must be approved by the tournament director. We have a few people on the waiting list that could be available to fill-in depending on your gender and division.
Event Timeline
7:00-7:30am: Check-in and warm-up
7:45: Announcements and rules
8:00: Round robin games begin
11:00-11:30 (+/-): Round robin games finish up; we will then announce the chance prize winners and the top 2 playoff qualifiers from each division.
11:30-12:00 (+/-): Playoffs begin
12:30-1:00 (+/-): Playoffs conclude and winners announced
Check-in
Player check-in will be located on the east side of the courts in the middle row. We will have a swag bag of goodies for each player as well as a ticket for our chance prize drawing. First-aid will also be available in this area.
Format
Each team will play three other teams during the round robin portion. Each team match will consist of 4 games to 11 (win by 1) standard scoring. The first game will be women's doubles, followed by men's doubles, and then two games of mixed doubles. For the teams that don't have any men, they will just set their lineup how they'd like for their gender doubles games. All games count toward your final standings. If there is a tie in the final standings for any of the top 2 positions, we will use head-to-head result as the first tiebreaker, followed by total point differential against all teams. For the playoff match, if there's a 2-2 tie after the 4 games, teams will play a "dreambreaker" skinny singles game where each player on each team will rotate playing 4 points against the other team's players in a game to 21 rally scoring - we will explain this further to the appropriate teams before playoffs begin.
Find the game schedule for each division here (use the tabs to navigate to each division):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1r6RKshjMxyBm47JRJcYDRBlRA5L9EfO8Q5fycV2ODy4/edit?usp=sharing
Coin Flip
Before each team match, captains will do their "coin flip" (choose 1 or 2 on the back of the scoresheet) to determine serve/receive/side and the mixed doubles lineup pairings. Each of the 4 games in each team match will start with the same choice (i.e. the same team will serve first and start on the same side for each game). Teams will switch sides at 6. Whoever wins the "coin flip" gets to choose EITHER serve/receive & side OR to choose to declare/react to the other team's mixed doubles lineup. For example, captain 1 wins the "coin flip" and chooses to react to the other team's mixed lineup (meaning the other team has to fill in their pairings for each mixed doubles game first); captain 2 then chooses to serve first AND the side they want to start on.
Court Assignments
Each division will have a pod manager who will be in charge of distributing and collecting the scoresheets for your games.
Equipment
Please bring your own paddle. We will provide the game balls (Selkirk Pro S1). Thank you to Selkirk for sponsoring our event and providing balls for us!
Food/Drinks
Please bring enough food and drinks to keep yourself fueled for the duration of the event. We will have a water bottle refilling station. There will not be any food available.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms are located to the south of the courts next to the playground.
Parking
There is a small parking lot to the north of the courts, but it will fill up quickly. You can park in front of the train tracks in the gravel area along Glen Ave. Please obey the "no parking" signs to avoid getting towed. You cannot park on the south side of the street adjacent to the parking lot. There is also street parking available on the other side of the creek along Mesa Rd & W Cache La Poudre St.
Dress/Outfits
We encourage teams to wear coordinating outfits, uniforms, jerseys, or other kinds of creative dress. We will have a prize for the best-dressed team!
Chance Prizes
We will have lots of swag prizes that every player is eligible to win including a brand new Selkirk paddle! Each player will receive a ticket at check-in. Players can also donate money to receive extra tickets to increase your chances of winning.
Lawn Games/Chairs
We will have some cornhole boards and other lawn games set up in the grass area next to the courts for players to enjoy while they're not playing. Feel free to bring your own lawn chairs, blankets, etc. - we just ask that all chairs be set up in the grass area and not in the aisles between the courts.
Sportsmanship
This is a team event so we want to see everyone cheering each other on. For the majority of the morning, each team will have 2 teammates playing while 2 teammates will be watching. This is a self-refereed event. Please be fair and honest with your line calls. Teammates that are watching the game are NOT allowed to offer input on any line calls - it is the responsibility of the players on the court to make their own calls.
Weather
We are hoping to be able to get as many games as possible played before the forecasted rain hits us. It is extra important that once a game is complete, the next set of players are ready to play. If we can keep games moving quickly and are not waiting on players, we should be good to at least get through the round robin games based on the current forecast. If we have to call off games due to rain, we will determine winners based on the standings at the time where each team has completed the same number of games. Games in progress will not count. We will keep an eye on the forecast throughout the rest of the week. If you do not hear from us, then games are on as planned. We will alert everyone if it looks like the weather will make the whole event unplayable.
We Fortify
Proceeds from this event are benefitting We Fortify. Visit here to learn more about the organization: https://wefortify.org/ Thank you for your support!
