Winter 2023 Season Runs from January-April

SUMMARY OF COMPETITIVE DIVISION OPERATIONS

Each competitive season will begin with at least one Recruitment Night to allow new players to be picked up by teams. (See “Important Dates” page)
There will be two weeks of play where points accumulated will not count toward your overall standings, to allow teams to adjust their initial placement.

There will be at least 12 weeks of regular play (barring any cancellations of permits that would be out of our control). There will be 1 week of playoffs for each season.

Regular play format and point accumulation continue unchanged.
The playoff format will be finalized closer to end of the season.

Season Map

Fall '22 Season Map link

Standings

Fall '22 Standings link

Weekly Play/Scoring

• Every week, each team will play 28-minute matches against the three other teams of the same pool, including a 1st game (to 25 points; win by two points, cap at 27 points) and a 2nd game (until the 28-minute match has elapsed; no cap).
  • A team that wins a 1st game is awarded 3 points towards the pool score.
  • A team that wins a 2nd game is awarded 2 points towards the pool score.  A team that wins a 2nd game to 25 is awarded 3 points.
  • A team that loses a 1st or 2nd game is awarded 1 point towards the pool score.
  • A team that defaults a 1st or 2nd game is not awarded any points.
• The score of a defaulted 1st game is recorded as 25-0. The score of a defaulted 2nd game is recorded as 15-0.
• There are no ties in the competitive division. If there is a tie after the last point of any game, one additional point is played to determine a winner.
• If 28 minutes have elapsed and a 1st game is still being played, the 1st referee will signal ‘last point’. The final point is played and a winner is declared (play an additional point if the game is tied after the final point).
  • The winner of this 1st game still receives 3 points in the division standings.
  • A 2nd game comprising of only 3 points is then played.
• A team defaults a 1st game if less than 4 players are available to play within the at the start time of the match, determined by the nightly play schedule.
  • An exception is made for the first match of every night, where a team is granted a 5-minute grace period (until 6:52 PM) before it defaults the 1st game.
  • A 2nd game can still be played if the defaulting team can field 4 players at any time during the 28-minute time period, so long as at least 3 points are played.
• At the end of every night, teams are re-ranked based on their pool score for the evening, with the top scoring team being seeded #1, next seeded #2, etc.
  • Tiebreaker System for Pool Points
  • If 2 teams are tied, look at their head-to-head match and whoever won more points, adding the points of set 1 & 2, is ranked higher.
    • In other words, calculate the +/- of the match and the higher scoring team wins.
    • If they both won the same number of points (i.e. +/- is 0), then whoever won the first set is ranked higher.
  • If 3 teams are tied, rank them the same way by tallying point differential of only the 3 specific matches in which they played each other (if 2 of the 3 teams are both tied on point differential, then refer to their head-to-head match as above as to who should be ranked higher/lower).
    • After calculating the 3-way point differential, if all 3 teams are still somehow tied, then use overall point differential of all 6 matches, and if still tied (ay!), do 3-way rock/paper/scissors amongst the captains of the tied teams to determine rankings.
• The top and bottom seeds of each pool are then sent up and down a pool respectively for the next week of play (i.e. the top seed of F pool at the end of the night will play as E4 the following week).
• Points towards the overall divisional standings are then awarded to each team based on their new pool ranking (see Standings link at the top of this section)..

REGISTRATION

Registration takes place early in each new season (August, December).  The cancellation and refund policy for TSVL is found under About TSVL.

To register on a team that has invited you to join email Mith comp@tsvl.org, CJ finance@tsvl.org and David operations@tsvl.org for details or paying for a pro-rated registration.

COMPETITIVE DIVISION PRIORITY RANKING CRITERIA — WINTER 2023 - NEW UPDATE

Competitive team priority rankings are listed below for the Winter 2023 season. In the event we cannot accommodate all registered teams, teams will be given spots in the league based on these rankings. The priority ranking is divided into 4 groups. 

PRIORITY 1

A team consisting of at least 6 players with at least 4 Returning Players* (see definition below) who were on ANY Fall 2022 Competitive Division team's roster (these Returning Players don’t have to be from the same Fall 2022 Competitive team). 

Priority 1 status will also be given to a team of at least 6 players, with at least 4 Returning Players* from the SAME Fall 2022 Intermediate Division team. 

A maximum of 4 Fall 2022 Intermediate Division teams can have Priority 1 status in the Winter 2023 Competitive Division (as determined by timestamping). 

PRIORITY 2

A team consisting of at least 6 players with at least 4 Returning Players* from any Fall 2022 division (Competitive, Intermediate, Recreational).

PRIORITY 3

A team consisting of at least 6 players with 1-3 Returning Players* from any Fall 2022 division  (Competitive, Intermediate, Recreational).

PRIORITY 4

A team consisting of at least 6 players, without any Returning Players from Fall 2022. 

* NOTE: “Returning Players” are players who had purchased a Fall 2022 membership and were registered on a team’s roster. Subs do not count as Returning Players — unless they ended up actually registering onto a team’s roster later on in the Fall 2022 season.

How Priority Rankings Work

Within each priority ranked group, teams are again ranked based on registration timestamps. A team registering online is only assigned a priority rank after their sixth team member is registered. The team’s timestamp is the time of their sixth member’s registration. If a subsequent team member’s registration alters the team’s priority ranking, a new rank will be issued with the timestamp of this subsequent member’s registration.

Teams will be eligible to receive a priority rank within the first 24 hours of registration (Monday, December 19 at 7 p.m. until Tuesday, December 20 at 7 p.m. for Fall 2022). Teams can still register after that on a first-come-first-served basis. Also your team’s priority ranking will be locked as of Tuesday, December 20 at 7 p.m. and not subject to change after that with the addition of players.

We welcome all interested teams into the registration process!

Questions about the priority ranking or registration process? Contact the Competitive Division Coordinator: comp@tsvl.org

SUBSTITUTE/DROP IN OVERVIEW

1. Substitute players are allowed in the Competitive Division, per the Competitive Substitute Player Policy outlined below.
2. Substitute players and drop-in players are considered the same thing and the terms are interchangeable. These players do not need to be TSVL members in order to play for the first 3 nights they sub.
3. The Sub List is considered a resource for competitive teams to know who is available to play when they are in a pinch. While it is not necessary to be on the Sub List to act as a drop-in player, it is a useful way to get your name out there if you want to be called on to sub (and potentially get picked up by a comp team mid-season). Both members and non-members can be on the Sub List.

POLICY

1. Competitive teams are responsible for contacting substitute players themselves and must appropriately register their player and notify the Competitive Division Coordinator (comp@tsvl.org) before the substitute player is used.   If someone else is registering for the substitute player, the sub must complete the waiver of liability form.
2. If a team uses substitute players in any matches without following the above protocol, all matches involving said players will count as defaults.
3. All subs/drop-ins must register as a sub before they play.
4. Subs/drop-ins cannot already be on a competitive team.
5. A player can only sub/drop-in for the same team 3 times during the season.
6. Subs/drop-in players can play an unlimited number of times during the regular season, but are not allowed to be used during playoffs.
7. Teams can have maximum 2 sub/drop-in players per night, and up to 6 subs/drop-in players per season. As mentioned, they may not use the same sub more than 3 times during a season, or use any sub during playoffs.

FEES
Subs play for *FREE* the first 3 nights they sub! After that, a sub can buy a TSVL membership ($20), which covers any subbing for the rest of the season. This is for subbing across all divisions. This policy was created to make it easier for teams to get subs and avoid playing short-handed or default, and make it easier for subs to get more TSVL action throughout the season!

REGISTRATION  (Please read Sub Rules & Fee Info, prior to registering)

SUB REGISTRATION LINK   Only use this link if you've been asked by a captain to sub.

All subs, whether a member or non-member, have to register themselves (not have someone else sign for them!) prior to when they sub. Teams who field an unregistered sub default their matches.

WHO'S ON THE SUBLIST?  CHECK IT HERE:

COMP SUBLIST LINK

GET ADDED TO THE SUBLIST:

Email comp@tsvl.org. Provide your preferred email contact, court position(s), and pool(s) you wish to sub for.

GET A TSVL MEMBERSHIP (needed after subbing on 3 occasions)

Click here to purchase a TSVL membership ($20/season)

RECRUITMENT DAY

For competitive (and intermediate) teams who are still looking for player(s) and free agent players still looking for a team, we are having a Comp + Intermediate Division Player Recruitment Night at Riverdale Collegiate Tuesday, September 13 at 6:45 p.m. Please only attend if you are looking to recruit a player(s) and only send 1 or 2 representatives from your team to scope out the recruits - we will have opportunities for team practices in the upcoming weeks.

ROSTER FREEZE
Rosters will be frozen for the two weeks of “placement adjusting”, as well as two weeks of regular play. No deletions to any roster will be allowed until after the fourth night of the season. Any additions cannot change the original registration priority placement.

Players added to any roster to start within the last 3 nights of regular season play are able to play regular-season games but are unable to play in the playoffs. In other words, players must be on the team roster by the 4th last night of the regular season to play in the playoffs.

GHOST & DEFAULT PENALTIES

The ghost rule continues as usual: teams playing with a ghost player will only lose serve and not a point when the ghost player rotates into the serving position. Also, with respect to matches defaulted, teams that default will gain points as if they lost the match (i.e. 1 point). The team that defaulted will still lose a defaulted set by a score of 25-0.