Assigning Tournament Tier Levels

Revised June 5, 2011

General Rules That Apply To Tier Levels

When the USAPA sanctions a tournament, the winners in qualifying events will receive Tournament Points no lower than the advertised minimum tier level for that tournament if there is at least one more competitor in the event than the number of awards given. However, players found to be in significant violation of USAPA rules will not receive Tournament Points. Examples of such violations include playing in a skill level below the USAPA rating of the player or the player’s partner, playing in an age group for which the player or the player’s partner are not eligible, and playing with unapproved equipment.

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 tournament’s advertised minimum tier level for the following year.

If a sanctioned tournament does not comply with all USAPA rules as promised, that tournament and its tournament director will not receive sanctioning for a minimum of one year.

If a sanctioned tournament 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, but 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 1 tournaments are sponsored by the USAPA and all participants must be members of the USAPA.

Tier 2: Reserved for Large Regional events

In large regions, a Tier 2 event should have over 250 entries, should be the largest event in the state, and should typically draw entries from other states.

In smaller regions, 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.

In all states or regions, a Tier 2 tournament must have an average of at least 8.0 entries per event.

Tier 3: Average tournaments.

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: Very small or new tournaments.

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 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.

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.