Tournament Tier Levels
The goals of this document are two fold. The first goal is to put down in writing the general principals that the USAPA Tournament Chairman and the USAPA Rankings and Ratings Chairman have been operating under in assigning tier levels to tournaments. The second goal was to look at the results and assigned tier levels of all sanctioned tournaments since the beginning of 2007 and come up with more specific guidelines to follow in assigning tier levels to tournaments in the future. This document is the result and will be followed in assigning tier levels until we see a need to change it.
General Rules That Apply To Tier Levels
· When the USAPA sanctions a tournament, it is guaranteeing that winners in qualifying events will receive ranking points no lower than the advertised minimum tier level for that tournament.
· If the results of any sanctioned tournament warrant an increased tier level, players will be awarded points at the higher tier level. This will also increase the tournaments advertised minimum tier level for the following year.
· If a sanctioned tournament does not comply with USAPA rules as promised, does not comply with reporting requirements, or does not have the minimum number of entries required to support its current tier rating, the players will still be awarded the number of points guaranteed by its advertised tier rating for all qualifying events.
· If tournaments do not comply with USAPA tournament rules or reporting standards, sanctioning may or may not be renewed for the following year.
· When the results of a tournament do not support the current tier level, the advertised tier level for the tournament will be reduced for the following year.
Tier Level Requirements
Tier 1: Reserved for National Tournaments.
Tier 2: Reserved for Large Regional events
(1) In Arizona, California, or Utah, a Tier 2 event should have close to 300 entries, should be the largest event in the state, and should typically draw entries from other states.
(2) In smaller regions such as Montana, Washington and Oregon, a tournament might qualify for a tier 2 if it is considered the most important or largest tournament in the region and typically draws entries from other states.
(3) In all states or regions, a Tier 2 tournament must have an average of at least 8.0 entries per event.
Tier 3 – In deciding whether a tournament qualifies as a Tier 3 tournament, we look at both the number of entries in the tournament and the number of entries per event. We tried to reward the larger tournaments by requiring a smaller number of entries per event. The requirements used since the beginning of 2007 to qualify for a Tier 3 rating are as follows:
Tier 3 Requirements
If under 100 entries, there must be at least 7.0 entries per event
If 100 or over entries, there must be at least 6.0 entries per event
If 200 or over entries, there must be at least 5.0 entries per event
Tier 4: The only current requirement to earn a Tier 4 rating is being sanctioned by the USAPA and having at least 40 entries in the tournament. Most new tournaments will be given an advertised minimum Tier rating of 4. It could be raised after completion of the tournament depending on the number of entries and the number of entries per event.
Entries and Entries Per Event
Each player in singles and each doubles team in doubles is considered 1 entry in calculating the number of entries in a tournament and the number of entries per event. We do this because we currently have no way to verify the number of reported players in a tournament and because the quality of an event is directly related to the number of teams participating in any one event.
It should be more rewarding for a player to have won an event with 8 or 16 entries as opposed to having won an event in which there was only 3 entries.
When an event is so large that all first round losers are moved into a “B” double elimination event, we count all the players in both groups as being entered in 1 event. The top group receives ranking points, but the bottom group does not.
If two events are combined because of lack of entries, the resulting group is counted as 1 event unless points have to be awarded in both events such as sometimes happens in Senior Olympic events.
Senior Olympic Events
Senior Olympic Events have a harder time getting a good entries per event count because they have to have events even when there is only 1 player in an event.
In order to help Senior Olympic Tournaments obtain better entries per event counts, we will not use the following age divisions in calculating the player per event count if there is less than 5 entries.
1. Men’s 75+ and Older Singles or Doubles
2. Women’s 70+ and older Singles or Doubles
3. Mixed Doubles 75+ or older.
The number of entries in these events will be used in calculating the total number of entries in the tournament.
Rated Events
At the present time, Rated Tournaments also have a hard time getting a good entries per event count if they include 3.0 or lower events which don’t attract a lot of entries yet. Until this situation changes, we will not include 3.0 or lower events in calculating a tournament’s entries per event count until a later date. They will however be used in calculating the total number of entries in the tournament.
Ranking Points Currently Awarded For Each Tier Level
Tier 1 Tournaments
· 1st Place ......1500 pts
· 2nd Place .......750 pts
· 3rd Place .......375 pts
· 1st Cons ........150 pts
· 2nd Cons .........75 pts
· 1st Place .......900 pts
· 2nd Place .......450 pts
· 3rd Place .......225 pts
· 1st Cons .........80 pts
· 2nd Cons .........40 pts
· 1st Place .......600 pts
· 2nd Place .......300 pts
· 3rd Place .......150 pts
· 1st Cons .........60 pts
· 2nd Cons .........30 pts
· 1st Place .......400 pts
· 2nd Place .......200 pts
· 3rd Place .......100 pts
· 1st Cons .........40 pts
· 2nd Cons .........20 pts