Viking APTA President's Cup Format

Women’s President’s Cup Rules 2019 - 2020

Eligibility:
Due to the improving depth of the women's game, the top 24 individual point earners will be excluded from playing Presidents Cup. In case there is a tie for twenty-four, all those tied shall be excluded from play.

The cutoff date for tournaments counting for President's Cup and National ranking points will be three weeks prior to Nationals. Any tournament played after this date will not count toward President's Cup or seedings for Nationals.

Every region may field a team consisting of a minimum of ten and a maximum of thirteen players who have qualified according to their region’s rules.

Each team will consist of players who reside in that region. A player’s region will be based on the location of his primary residence as of September 1.

Play:
Play will consist of a round robin, with all seven regions playing each other.

Matches will be two sets out of three. Sets one and two will be won by the team first to four games winning by a margin of 2 games. At 4-4 a 12 point tie breaker (first team to 7 winning by a margin of 2 points). The third set will be a Match tie breaker, first team to 10 points winning by a margin of 2 points. Regular scoring will be in effect.

A point will be awarded for each line a Region wins in each round. Points will be totaled and the Region with the most points will be the winner.

Line-ups:
Line-ups will be exchanged before each round of play, no changes may be made after the exchange.

Teams must be played in order of strength, see new numerical value system below.

If two teams on a roster have the same numerical value the team with the strongest valued player is deemed to be the stronger team.

Line-ups may be changed at will after every round as long as they conform to the requirement that teams be played in order of strength. The ‘sub’ designation is hereby eliminated.

Numerical Value System:
Each player on a team will be assigned a numerical value from one to thirteen depending on how many players on the team. The strongest player on a team with thirteen players gets assigned a value of one, the second a value of two, and it goes down in numerical order from there, giving the weakest player a value of thirteen. If a team has ten players, the strongest player will have an assigned value of one and the weakest a value of ten. Numerical values must be assigned in order of strength. It is the team captain’s responsibility to assign a value to each player on their team, they are encouraged to consider national rankings, regional standings and local knowledge in doing so. Teams must be played in order of strength based on the numerical values.

Rosters with assigned numerical values must be submitted to the President’s Cup tournament director at least two days prior to the event so that copies may be made and distributed to all participants before the begin of play. No changes may be made to the roster once it has been submitted.

Men’s President's Cup Format  2019 - 2020

PARTICIPANTS AND ELIGIBILITY
1) Regional teams will consist of a minimum of ten players and a maximum of thirteen players.
2) Each team will consist of players who reside in that region. A player’s region will be based on the location of his primary residence as of September 1.
3) If all seven regions enter a team, a team consisting of players that did not qualify for their regional team will form an eighth independent team (Region VIII). If a player is invited to play for his home region, he becomes ineligible to play for Region VIII.
4) The Men’s Players Committee has determined that all players will be eligible to compete no matter what their national ranking.

POOL PLAY 
1) Seeding for the Men’s President’s Cup pool play with be based on the previous year’s results with the 3rd place going to the Region that lost to the eventual winners.
2) Each team will play every team in its pool to determine advancement to championship or consolation rounds. Total matches won in pool play will determine rank order. In the event of ties, head-to-head matchup results amongst tied teams will be the tie breaker.
3) Scoring will be best of three sets with no-ad scoring.  Tiebreaks will be played at 5-5 in the first two sets.  A 10-point tiebreak will be played for the third set.
4) The top two teams from each “pool” will advance to a championship round with the remaining teams moving into a consolation round. The championship round starts with a semifinal where the top team from each pool plays the second place team from the opposite pool, followed by a final match for the semifinal winners.
5) The 5th/6th and 7th/8th consolation matches are required unless the President’s Cup director suspends consolation bracket play due to inclement weather. 

LINE UPS
1) Stacking is prohibited. In the event of a lineup appeal on stacking grounds, the average ranking of the players on each team comprising the proposed lines will be used to evaluate the situation. The average ranking of a team will be determined by taking the average of 100% of each player's individual average best 3 tournament ranking points. The team with the higher average of individual ranking points must play the higher line. A member of the player’s committee should be solicited to review the situation along with the captains and President’s Cup event coordinator.
2) Lineups and subs will not have to be submitted prior to the President’s Cup event. A list of participants is still required. Captains will exchange line ups prior to each round. The designation of players as “subs” or “Court 1” will no longer be necessary in advance of the event.
3) The President’s Cup Committee, consisting of the current APTA President, the most recent past APTA President, and the APTA Executive Director, will act as the sole group to interpret the guidelines as approved by the APTA Board and Players Committees, including the roster of the potential eighth independent team.