True fairness occurs when your skills shine and others feel they have a sporting chance against you.” – Pickleball Victoria Fair Play Guidelines

Every player knows the excitement of stepping onto a court for a tournament match. You’re ready, you’re pumped, and you’re there to win. Whether you’re a seasoned competitor or trying your first event, this excitement comes with an expectation: that you’ll face opponents of similar skill level under conditions that push everyone to play their best game.

Tournament play is organised into skill divisions (like 3.0, 3.5, 4.0) to ensure fair and competitive matches. However, sometimes players compete in divisions below their actual skill level — a practice known as ‘under-ranking’ or ‘sandbagging’. This can happen unintentionally due to rating inaccuracies, or unfortunately, sometimes deliberately when players choose lower divisions to increase their chances of winning.

Picture this: you’ve entered a 3.5 tournament, ready to test your skills against other 3.5 players. But instead, you face opponents playing well above that level – perhaps with skills more suited to 4.0 or higher. Not only does this create frustrating and unbalanced matches, but it can also discourage players from entering future tournaments and impact their overall enjoyment of the sport.

The Pickleball Victoria Fair Play Guidelines were authored by Jonathan Lee (Pickleball Victoria) with valuable input from the broader Victoria pickleball community. They are designed to combat sandbagging/under-ranking, enhance the tournament experience, and ensure tournament play remains competitive and enjoyable for all players.

Through a lengthy process involving consultation with players, tournament organisers, and club committees, Pickleball Victoria identified a clear need: players wanted assurance that when they entered a division, they’d have a genuine chance to compete.

What started as informal discussions about personal tournament experiences evolved into structured action. While initial conversations with tournament organisers highlighted the complexity of the challenge, persistence and community collaboration eventually led to a practical solution.

Over several months, Lee engaged with a diverse range of voices to refine the guidelines, including:

• Players with varying tournament experience
• Medal winners and non-medal winners
• Club committee members, and
• Tournament organisers.

This collaborative approach led to practical improvements, including provisions for players who may need exceptions due to injury, illness, or aging – demonstrating a commitment to fairness while maintaining flexibility for real-life circumstances.

The Guidelines: What you need to know

The Guidelines only apply to tournaments that are sanctioned by Pickleball Victoria, beginning with the Victoria Open coming up in March 2025. Here’s what players need to know about tournament eligibility:

DUPR requirements

At registration, players must have a…

1. Minimum DUPR reliability score of 60+
2. DUPR score that has not exceed the division cap by 0.1 or more
3. DUPR score that has never exceeded division cap by more than 0.25 (excluding initial stabilisation period)

After registration

Until the competition starts, your DUPR must not have exceeded the division cap by 0.25 or more

Past medal performance requirements

A player is eligible to compete at a given skill level (excl. Open division) if they have not won any of the below at a competition of the same/higher tier:

1. One or more gold medals at or above that skill level (or equivalent), OR
2. Two or more silver medals at or above that skill level (or equivalent)

Important note: This requirement applies across all categories (singles, doubles, mixed doubles), is based on medals from competitions of the same/higher tier, and must be maintained up until one month before competition

The Guidelines’ requirements weren’t chosen arbitrarily — they address specific challenges in how player ratings have traditionally worked in pickleball tournaments. The goal is to create a dynamic system that better reflects players’ current abilities while considering their competitive history.

Historically, PickleballTournaments // PickleballBrackets has relied heavily on self-selected skill levels with adjustments only occurring through tournament results. In this system, it could take a dozen or more tournaments for the platform to accurately reflect a player’s true skill level, during which time they may still have access to divisions below their actual skill level.

While this has (and should hopefully continue to) improve given DUPR’s integration with Pickleball.com, proponents of the Fair Play Guidelines note that “DUPR uptake isn’t yet where it needs to be for it to be reliable as a sole mechanism,” adding that “this would require a concerted effort amongst all players and clubs.”

To address this, the Guidelines take a two-pronged approach:

1. Using DUPR ratings, which consider all recorded games (not just tournaments) for a more dynamic reflection of player skill
2. Including the medal performance requirement as a practical backup while DUPR adoption grows in the community.

The effectiveness of these Guidelines is expected to improve as more players actively use DUPR, creating a more comprehensive and accurate rating ecosystem for the sport.

We’ll see what the experience is like as the Guidelines are implemented at the Vic Open next month! I’m curious to see if there will be a notable improvement to the accuracy of the divisions and the overall player experience.

If you’re planning on attending the 2025 Victoria Open, be sure you’ve created a DUPR account and linked it to your PickleballBrackets / Pickleball Tournaments profile! If this is your first tournament using DUPR, contact Pickleball Victoria about available DUPR open play sessions near you to get some game results and start verifying your level.

Check out the sources below to…

• Get your DUPR rating
• Review the complete Fair Play Guidelines
• Contact Pickleball Victoria for questions or feedback

Note: These guidelines are part of an ongoing effort to create the best possible tournament experience for all players. They’re under continuous review, and Pickleball Victoria welcomes community feedback to help refine and improve them.

By embracing the Fair Play Guidelines, you’re fostering a competitive community and inspiring others to strive for their best. Together, we can make pickleball fun, fair, and inclusive for all.” – Victoria Fair Play Guidelines

Have thoughts about the new guidelines? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

xo,

Tati

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