Ground Zero 2026

Pool Play Match Rules

Baseline Gameplay and Official Calls

• Serving, faults, non-volley-zone rules, line-call procedures, and rally administration follow the baseline pickleball ruleset named in the final Event Bulletin.
• The assigned umpire or referee has immediate authority over the court and keeps the official score.
• Players must stop only when the official calls a fault, stoppage, hindrance, or medical/safety interruption.
• A player may request the score or server confirmation before the serve. A request made after the rally begins does not automatically cancel the rally.
• Questions must be raised before the next serve whenever reasonably possible. Once the next serve occurs, the previous rally is normally closed except for a demonstrable score-recording error.

Bronze and Gold Medal Matches

Pre-Match Procedure

1. Both teams report to the assigned court.
2. The umpire verifies the players and match assignment.
3. Coin Toss determines the first choice.
4. The winner chooses either first service or starting end; the opponent receives the remaining option.
5. Teams receive up to two minutes of official warm-up/dinking on the assigned court.
6. The umpire signals the first serve and records the official start time.

No dedicated warm-up courts are guaranteed. Unauthorized casual play or warm-up on active tournament courts may be stopped immediately.

Match Administration

Late Arrival and Forfeiture

Medical Timeout and Retirement

• Play stops upon the umpire's official injury call.
• The medical timeout begins at the official injury call and may last no more than five minutes.
• A medic may stop a player from continuing when safety is at risk.
• If the team cannot continue, the opponent receives 11 points and the retiring team retains its actual score at retirement.
• Attempted misuse of a medical timeout to delay play may be treated as unsportsmanlike conduct.

Equipment and Match Ball

• Only the tournament-issued official match ball may be used.
• Personal balls may not replace the official ball.
• Damaged balls may be replaced by the umpire.
• Paddles must satisfy the equipment standard announced in the Event Bulletin and may be inspected when reasonably requested.
• Refusal of a lawful equipment inspection may result in non-use of the equipment, match forfeit, or disciplinary action depending on the circumstances.

Paddle Modification and Permitted Accessories

Team Timeout

Coaching

Coaching is Permitted only during an official timeout or between matches. Coaching during rallies or continuous live play is prohibited. Sideline conduct must not interfere with officials, delay play, or distract opponents.

Partner Substitutions and Withdrawals

Immediate notice required: Players must immediately notify Match Control or the Tournament Organizer if they become unable to participate or continue. Leaving the venue without notifying tournament officials shall not exempt the team from forfeiture, disciplinary action, or any other consequence under these Tournament Rules.

Apparel and Court Safety

• Wear appropriate athletic clothing and court shoes suitable for the Kingcourts indoor surface.
• Clothing, accessories, or equipment displaying hateful, discriminatory, obscene, or threatening content is prohibited.
• Loose jewelry, unsafe accessories, or damaged equipment may be removed from play when an official reasonably identifies a safety risk.
• Players remain responsible for securing personal belongings. ZZT, Qourts, and the venue are not custodians of unattended property.

Spectators and Personal Supporters

• Spectators may not enter active courts, stand behind baselines, interfere with calls, coach during live play, or otherwise distract participants or officials.
• Drums, horns, whistles, megaphones, air horns, sirens, loudspeakers, clappers, and any other similar noise-making device, instrument, or object that may distract, disrupt, or interfere with an ongoing match are strictly prohibited.
• Normal cheering, applause, and verbal encouragement are permitted, provided they remain respectful and do not occur during active rallies or otherwise interfere with play, officiating, announcements, or tournament operations.
• Players must reasonably assist officials in controlling their own coach, companion, or supporter.
• Qourts or the Tournament Organizer may require the immediate removal of any prohibited item and may relocate or remove any spectator or supporter whose conduct affects safety, fairness, concentration, or match flow.
• Spectator misconduct may result in a warning or disciplinary consequence to the associated player only when the player encourages, directs, participates in, or refuses a reasonable instruction to help stop the conduct.

Official Standings and Point System

Qourts maintains the only controlling standings. Player calculations, screenshots, verbal reports, and unofficial scoreboards do not override validated Qourts records.

Tiebreaking Order

If two or more teams finish pool play with the same win-loss record, the following criteria are applied in order. A later criterion is used only when the teams remain tied after the preceding criterion.

1. Win-loss percentage. Wins divided by matches played.
2. Overall point quotient. Total official points scored divided by total official points conceded.
3. Head-to-head result. Used only when exactly two teams remain tied and those teams played each other.
4. Tied-team mini-table. When three or more teams remain tied, only matches played among those tied teams are considered. Teams are ranked first by mini-table win-loss percentage, then by mini-table point quotient.
5. Restart rule. If one or more teams separate from a multi-team tie, the process restarts at Step 1 for the teams that remain tied.

Score Confirmation and Corrections

• The umpire states the final score and both teams are given a reasonable opportunity to verify it.
• The winning representative signs the Match Result Sheet. A signature confirms the recorded score but does not prevent correction of a proven encoding error.
• Refusal to sign does not invalidate a result verified by the umpire and Qourts.
• A court-level score objection must be raised before leaving the court whenever possible.
• An encoding or standings error must be reported within ten minutes after the result or standings are publicly posted and before the affected playoff match begins, whichever occurs first.
• Identity fraud, falsified records, or deliberate tampering may be reviewed at any time during the event.
• Players may not alter, photograph for manipulation, carry away, or submit an official result sheet unless Qourts authorizes it.

Playoff Qualification and Seeding

Qourts validates all standings and announces playoff qualifiers and semifinal pairings only after the relevant pool results have been completed and encoded. Qualification is based on the published pool structure and ranking system—not popularity, registration order, or organizer preference.

Player Rights

Player Responsibilities

• Provide truthful registration, identity, eligibility, and skill-division information.
• Participate only in approved categories and one approved skill division.
• Do not transfer, share, sell, or allow another person to use your registration.
• Attend check-in, complete the required waiver, and monitor official calls.
• Report ready and properly equipped at the assigned court.
• Know and follow the published match format, scoring, timeout, and side-switch rules.
• Respect opponents, partners, officials, organizers, volunteers, spectators, and venue personnel.
• Confirm results honestly and report errors immediately.
• Follow safety, venue, equipment, and court-access instructions.
• Control the conduct of personal coaches, companions, and supporters when reasonably directed.

Eligibility and Division Rules

Player Conduct

Players must compete honestly, communicate respectfully, and follow lawful instructions from officials and Qourts. Full examples of prohibited conduct and the applicable penalty levels are provided in the dedicated Sportsmanship section.

Photography, Media, and Personal Information

• Event photography and video recording may occur in public competition and ceremony areas for tournament documentation and promotion.
• Players should notify registration before competition if they have a specific safety or privacy concern. ZZT will consider reasonable accommodations but cannot guarantee exclusion from incidental crowd or match footage.
• Registration and match data may be used only for tournament administration, standings, safety, communication, and legitimate event documentation, subject to the applicable privacy notice.
• Players and spectators may not use recordings to harass, misrepresent, or expose another person's private information.

Organizer and Qourts Powers

Qourts may move matches to another court, adjust operational start times, preserve match sequence, and issue readiness calls when reasonably necessary to maintain safety, fairness, and event flow.

Organizer and Match Control Limitations

• They may not secretly change a completed result merely to produce a preferred qualifier.
• They may not apply different rules to similarly situated players without a documented, legitimate reason.
• They may not disregard the published tiebreaking order for convenience.
• They may not override a valid umpire judgment call merely because a player or spectator disagrees.
• They must avoid conflicts of interest and, where practicable, assign a neutral decision-maker to review a protest involving a directly interested official.
• Material exceptions should be documented and communicated to affected players.
• Safety and emergency powers must be used for legitimate protection—not competitive favoritism.
• No player may be penalized merely for making a respectful, good-faith protest.
• An official with a direct personal interest in a dispute should not make the final review decision when a neutral reviewer is reasonably available.

Protests, Disputes, and Appeals

Delays, Interruptions, and Force Majeure

• Official match clocks pause during a declared suspension.
• A suspended match normally resumes from its last confirmed score and match status.
• Qourts manages revised timing and court movement.
• ZZT may shorten, postpone, relocate, suspend, or cancel part of the event when required by safety, venue conditions, emergency, power interruption, government order, or other force majeure.
• Refunds or credits, if applicable, follow the separately published registration and cancellation policy.

Emergency and Safety Reporting

• Report injuries, unsafe court conditions, missing persons, threats, or emergencies immediately to the nearest official, Qourts desk, venue staff, or medic.
• Emergency instructions override the normal schedule and match sequence.
• Do not move a seriously injured person unless directed by qualified personnel or necessary to avoid immediate danger.
• The final Event Bulletin must identify the medic station and emergency communication point.

Sportsmanship Code

Ground Zero 2026 is built on fair play, respect, integrity, and player safety. Every participant is expected to compete honestly, accept official match administration, and treat partners, opponents, officials, volunteers, venue staff, and spectators with dignity.

Examples of Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Penalty Levels

Officials normally apply progressive discipline. However, Qourts and the Tournament Director may bypass lower levels when misconduct is severe, intentional, repeated, fraudulent, threatening, or dangerous.

Penalty Matrix

Who May Impose a Penalty?

Disciplinary Process

• The official should identify the conduct and penalty level to the player when circumstances allow.
• Qourts records Level 2 through Level 5 sanctions and the factual basis for the decision.
• A player may request review for mistaken identity, factual error, procedural error, or a penalty outside the published range.
• Immediate safety removal may occur before a full explanation. Review follows once the situation is controlled.
• Sanctions apply only to the responsible player or team unless another person independently participated in the misconduct.

Legal Center

Document Priority

In the event of an inconsistency, the document hierarchy stated in the Official Terms & Conditions shall apply. Operational guidance in this Player Guide shall not override a legal obligation established by the Official Terms & Conditions or Official Waiver & Release.

Official Match Schedule

Frequently Asked Questions

Organizer and Official Match Control

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Zero Zero Two (ZZT) organizes Ground Zero 2026. Qourts serves as Official Match Control, administering court flow, result validation, official standings, schedule movement, and operational dispute review.

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Gerry's Sindalan

TBR

Happy Nails

V Barbers

U-R.A.C.K.

Barn Architectural Design Studio

Hash

Suklati

PBAJ Quad Construction Corp.

Move Physiorehab Center

Gab's Chicken + Grill

Bella Montana Fruit Farm

Kassa Media

Picklebear Anjo

Glowreal Luxe PH

Noji Boy

Watch For You

Sampaguita Pickleball Store

Sun Total Pickleball

This Side UP Casting

Bronze Sponsors

With appreciation to our Bronze Sponsors for contributing to the success of Ground Zero 2026.

Cool Change

MANIC

Pure Beauty Collagen

Diamant Logistics and Trading Corporation

llaollao

MESA

RFW

Tobin Luxe Villa & Events Place

A-CURE8 Drugstore

Casa Adele Maria

Community Supporters

We gratefully acknowledge these businesses and organizations for supporting Ground Zero 2026 and helping bring the event to life.

Made To A.T. Modern Embroidery Studio

RMM Cold Storage & Meatshop

Cuatro

Granny's Bakeshop

Mizu Matcha + Coffee

Nasi-Nasi

Picklex

Storehouse.ph