You can run Pro-style and MLP-style team events on Pickleheads, or any custom team competition you can think of.
Pickleheads handles the lineups, matchups, scores, tiebreakers and standings, in the app or in any browser.
Here's what team and Pro-style competitions are, how they compare, and how to run each one.
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What are team and Pro-style competitions?
Team competitions
In a team competition, teams of three or more players play each other in matchups.
A matchup is a set of games between two teams, like men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. The team that wins more games wins the matchup, and a tiebreaker game can settle a tie.
Two settings shape every team competition:
- Team format: which teams play each other, like Pool Play or a Bracket.
- Matchup format: what a matchup looks like, including the team size, the games and how many courts it uses.
Pro-style competitions
A Pro-style competition is a team competition modeled on the pro leagues, like MLP.
Each team has two men and two women. Every matchup has four games on two courts: men's doubles, women's doubles and two mixed doubles games. If it's tied 2–2, a tiebreaker decides it.
On Pickleheads, that's the Pro-style 4v4 template.
How they compare
Every Pro-style competition is a team competition, but a team competition can look however you want. Pickleheads gives you two templates to start from, or you can build your own.
| Pro-style 4v4 | 3v3 | Custom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team size | 4 players: 2 men, 2 women | 3 players, any gender | You choose |
| Games per matchup | 4: men's doubles, women's doubles, 2 mixed doubles | 3: players 1 & 2, 1 & 3, 2 & 3 | You choose, up to 12 |
| Courts per matchup | 2 | 1 | 1 to 4 |
| Tiebreaker | Yes, if it's 2–2 | Yes, if it's split | Optional |
| Good for | Events modeled on the pros | Three-player teams | Teams of five, 10-player lines and more |
How to set up a team competition
1. Create a team event
On pickleheads.com, create a session and choose Teams. In the app, choose Team competition.
2. Pick a team format
The team format decides which teams play each other:
- Pool Play: Face off against every other team in the competition.
- Shuffle: Random matchups prioritize unique opponents each round.
- Rumble: Winning teams draw more challenging opponents and losing teams face easier ones.
- Bracket: Crown your champion with a single elimination mini-tournament, with up to 32 teams.
3. Pick your matchup format
On the Match Structure step, pick Pro-style 4v4, 3v3 or one of your custom formats. Your team size comes from the matchup format, so a Pro-style 4v4 event has four players per team.
To change a template, click Customize. Pickleheads saves your version as a copy, like "Custom Pro-style 4v4," and the template stays the same. To start from scratch, click Build your own matchup format.
4. Finish your session details
Add your session name, location and Max number of teams, then create your session. Your session page shows the matchup format, so players know what they're signing up for.
How to run a Pro-style competition
Here's how to set up a Pro-style tournament with pool play and a championship bracket.
- Create a team event and pick Pool Play.
- On the Match Structure step, pick Pro-style 4v4.
- Set your Max number of teams and create your session.
- On event day, run your pool play rounds, then start a championship bracket for the top teams.
Pro-style teams need two men and two women, so each player needs a gender on their profile to fill a slot. Pickleheads asks them when they join if it's missing.
Play the tiebreaker however you like, like a DreamBreaker or a quick game to 5 where each team picks two players. Pickleheads just records the score.
Build your own matchup format
Building a format takes a few clicks on pickleheads.com. Open it from the Match Structure step, or from Account > Team formats > Build a format.
- Courts: how many courts each matchup plays on at once, up to four.
- Team Lineups: turn on gender requirements for male and female slots (like M1, M2, F1, F2), or turn them off for open player slots (P1, P2, P3).
- Games: add each game in the matchup and click who plays in it. Every slot needs to play at least once.
- Tiebreaker game: turn it on to settle matchups where the games split evenly.
As you build, a summary of every game shows on the right. Give your format a name and add any house rules, like "Games to 11, win by 2." Leave Save to my custom formats checked to reuse it, then click Use this format.
A few ideas to start from:
- Teams of three or five, with every combo of players getting a game.
- A 10-player team where line 1 plays line 1, line 2 plays line 2, and so on.
- Four players with no gender requirements, playing four games plus a tiebreaker.
Your saved formats live under Account > Team formats, where you can edit or archive them anytime.
💡 Good to know: Building and editing formats happens on pickleheads.com. In the app, you can pick any template or format you've already saved.
How teams sign up
Players join your session as a team. When they join, they pick their team or create a new one and give it a name.
From there, the team fills each slot in its lineup. Teams can invite teammates with Invite to team and add extra players as subs with Add a sub to this team.
You can also add players and teams yourself.
Run your event
Open your event from the Round Robin card on your session page, in the app or in any browser. On the Teams tab, each team shows a row for every lineup slot. You can swap players between slots, add players to a team, and check teams in or mark them unavailable for a round.
Click Create Matchups and Pickleheads pairs up the teams. Each matchup shows its courts, like "Court 1 + Court 2." Click View Matchups to see every game in that matchup and add scores as games finish.
A team wins the matchup as soon as the other team can't catch up. If the games split evenly, a tiebreaker game appears to settle it.
When the round is done, click End Round and build the next one. After the last round, click End Event to crown your winners, or start a championship bracket first.
Team captains get a Lineup tab to set their own team's lineup.
Put it on the big screen
Put Display Mode on a TV and everyone at the courts can follow along. It shows each team matchup and its courts, then each game inside it, with every game score and the overall matchup score.
For the setup on each device, see our Display Mode guide.
Try it with a test round robin
Want to see how it works before your event? Create a test round robin, choose Teams and pick a format. You can try the Pro-style 4v4 and 3v3 templates with test teams.
Custom matchup formats are available when you create a real session.
Ready for your first team event
Create a team event, pick a team format and a matchup format, and let teams sign up and set their lineups. On event day, create your matchups and score each game as it finishes. You're good to go.
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