Shootout Rules and FAQ

USAPA Rules for gameplay

Shootout Sheet

We will have two rounds of round robin play. Each round will take about 1 hour or more to play. So on a shootout day, you should plan on playing for about 2- 2 1/2 hours.

On the day of game play, the leader (Tarpon Staff Member) will fill out one “Shootout Sheet” for each court. Court 1 will have your highest level skilled players, Court 2 will have the next level down, and so on. However, for now, let’s not worry about how players are assigned to which court, this will come later when we discuss the Ranking Assignment. 

The number of courts we will need is based on the number of players who show up to play on the day of the shootout. If 15 people show up, we will need three courts with five players assigned to each court. Or if 17 people show up, we will have four players on three of the courts and five players on the fourth court (4 +4 +4 +5). The goal is to try and keep the number of players assigned to a specific court to four or five players. Which players are assigned to which court will be covered later, for now, just understand that we will need to fill out a “Shootout Sheet” for each court that includes the player names assigned to that court.

Here is an example of players assigned to court 2:

In this example, on Court 2 the following four players are assigned: Dave B., Jeff R., Tim B., and Cindy L.

Once we have the Shootout Score Sheet filled out, we then provide the sheet to a leader of that court who is responsible for entering the scores for the game play on that court.

Let’s say Jeff volunteers to fill out the sheet for Court 2.

The 1st game has Dave and Tim serving to Jeff and Cindy. The game is to 11 points, win by 1 point. Once that game is over, Jeff then places the scores into the Shootout Score Sheet. Then the next game is played with Jeff and Tim serving to Dave and Cindy. The final game, Game 3, is Tim and Cindy serve to Dave and Jeff. Again, after each game is over, Jeff enters the score onto the Shootout Score Sheet until all three games are complete.

After the three games are complete, the Shootout Score Sheet for Court 2 will look something like this:

Notice the game play determined which court players move to for round 2. Games wins are most important, so referring to the same sheet, Dave B has more wins than the other players so he is marked to move up. The other players have one win, but Cindy has more total points, so she is marked to move up to Court 1 as well. The other two players are assigned to Court 3 to play their second round. If you are using a Five Player Shootout Sheet, two players move up, two players move down, and one player remains on the court.

After all the courts are done playing, the sheets are given to the organizer who then assigns players based on the “Move” column to courts for Round 2. The organizer will simply assign players to courts based on the results of Round 1. In our example, Dave and Cindy are assigned to Court 1, Jeff and Tim are assigned to Court 3 and their names are placed in the Round 2 section for Court 3. The two winners of Court 3 are moved up to play on Court 2 and their names are added to the Round 2 section. The two losers of Court 1 are moved to Court 2 and their names are added to the Round 2 section.

After two Rounds are played, the Shootout is completed and all sheets are given to the organizer. The sheets are eventually given to the person responsible for entering data into the system.

Some suggestions:

• There is Six Player Shootout Score Sheet, although it’s best to limit the courts to 4 or 5 players. If you have only four courts available, and you have 21 people show up, then you’ll need to have six players on Court 4, and five players assigned to Courts 1, 2, and 3.
• A two round shootout usually lasts about 2 hours. Typically a 4 player court plays to 11 points win by 1 point, 5 player court plays to 9 points win by 1, and 6 player court plays to 7 points win by 1.
• If you have a time limit, say for example you must free up the courts by 9 AM, and Round 1 ends at 8:15 AM (one of the courts took a long time to complete play), then you may adjust the Round 2 game points down. For example, for Round 2, the 4 player court plays to 9 instead of 11, and 5 player court plays to 7 points instead of 9. This will help shorten the 2nd round while keeping game play fair.
• To ensure the ‘Wins’ column is correct, the total wins across all players should be six for a 4 player court, and ten for a 5 player court. Please refer to the Shootout Score Sheet as “Total = 6” or “Total = 10”.
• If a Shootout Score Sheet has two players with the same number of wins and same number of points, then you can use their “Overall Ranking” to break the tie. The one with the higher ranking moves up.
• It is possible to host more players than you have courts, you simply share the courts. If you have two courts, and 12 players, then fill out 3 shootout forms (4 players on each sheet). Then send “Court 1” and “Court 2” players in to play, while “Court 3” players watch. After a game is finished, regardless of which court, “Court 3” players cycle in to play a game while the other team watches. It’s not optimal, but doable.

Step 2 – Entering Data

After we have collected the shootout sheets at the end of the shootout, then we’ll enter those results into our system.

For each player, we will enter the following three data points: “Round 1 Court”, “Round 2 Court”, and “Next Court”.

• Round 1 Court: The court the player played on during round 1.
• Round 2 Court: The court the player played on during round 2.
• Next Court: The court the player would have moved had the shootout gone to a 3rd round.

That’s it! Very Easy! After we have entered the shootout data, we will send out the official results via email. We have a “Send to” option that allows us to Email the shootout results to our players.