Rules
Everything the ladder runs on: how pickleball is played, how thrones change hands, how points are earned, and what gets an account suspended. Read the disagreement rules before you need them.
Win the match. Keep the friend.
Our slogan has three words and the middle one is the point. Some of these players will beat you. You will beat some of them. And next week you will need one of them to fill a court. A rival makes you better; a grudge just costs you a hitting partner. Play hard, call it fair, shake hands like you mean it — then book the rematch.
Pickleball in 60 seconds · The serve and the two-bounce rule, animated. The kitchen, scoring and line calls are written out below — those are the ones people argue about.
The three rules that stop arguments
Almost every on-court fight is one of three moments. Settle them the same way every time and there is nothing left to fight about.
- 1
If you are not sure, the ball is IN. You only call a ball out when you clearly saw space between the ball and the line. Doubt goes to your opponent, every time. This is not politeness — it is the rule.
- 2
You call your own side, they call theirs. Never call a ball on your opponent's half of the court. If they say it was in, it was in.
- 3
Say the score out loud before every serve. If the two of you say different numbers, stop and replay the point from the last score you both agree on. A replayed point costs thirty seconds. An argument costs the afternoon.
- The serve
- Underhand, contact below your waist, moving upward. At least one foot behind the baseline. Serve diagonally, cross-court. You get ONE attempt — there is no second serve.
- The two-bounce rule
- The receiver must let the serve bounce. The server must let the return bounce. After those two bounces, either side may volley. This is the rule new players forget most.
- The kitchen (non-volley zone)
- The 7-foot zone either side of the net. You may NOT hit a ball out of the air while any part of you is touching the kitchen or its line — and it is still a fault if your momentum carries you in afterwards. You MAY step into the kitchen any time to play a ball that has already bounced.
- Scoring
- Games to 11, win by 2. A match is best of 3. If both players agree beforehand to play all three games regardless, that is fine — report all three scores either way.
- Line calls
- A ball touching any part of a line is IN. The one exception: a serve landing on the kitchen line is OUT.
- Faults
- The point ends against you if: the serve or the ball lands out, the ball goes into the net, you volley from the kitchen, the ball hits you or your clothing, or the ball bounces twice on your side.
- After the match
- Shake hands or tap paddles, whoever won. Report the score honestly the same day. If it was a good match, say so — the person across the net is the reason there is a game at all.
Bring your own ball and paddle. Public courts are first-come, first-served — if others are waiting, play your match and rotate off.
Every court has exactly one King. Take it by beating them, hold it by defending it.
- Claiming an empty throne
- If a court has no King, the first player to claim it takes it — but you must be physically at the court. Your location is checked. There is no claiming a court from your couch.
- What the throne pays
- A reign pays a daily stipend that climbs the longer you hold it: 5, 10, 20, 40, then 50 a day. It only flows while the court is alive — a confirmed match there within the last 14 days — so camping an empty court earns nothing. A brand-new reign counts as activity in its own right, so the stipend starts the day you claim or win the throne and keeps running while you wait for your first challenger.
- Losing a throne to silence
- A throne where no match has been played for 30 days is vacated automatically — a crown nobody has to defend is just a name on a map. You are told when it happens, and the ticker announces the court is open. For one week the players who have not held it get first go; after that you are welcome to take it back. What does not come back automatically is the stipend: re-claiming a court you let go quiet pays nothing until a real match is played there, or the ladder would just be a loop of claiming, collecting and dropping.
- Publishing your hours
- A King must publish at least 2 open hours per week, between 6:00 and 22:00. Challengers can only book inside those hours. A King who publishes nothing loses the throne by walkover — the crown is not a place to hide.
- Issuing a challenge
- Pick one of the King's open hours, up to 14 days ahead. The challenge stays private until the King accepts. Once accepted it is announced publicly and spectators can sign up.
- Declining
- A King may decline any specific time — but every decline is counted and shown publicly on their player card, and it goes out on the live ticker. Declining is allowed. Hiding is not.
- Reporting the result
- The winner reports the score. The loser has 24 hours to confirm or dispute; with no answer it confirms automatically. If you reported a score and realise you got it wrong, you can submit the corrected score — conceding is always allowed.
- Disputes
- Dispute once and the reporter must resubmit. Dispute a second time and the match is void AND THE THRONE IS EMPTIED — neither player holds it. Settle it on court: whoever gets there first claims the empty throne, and the other challenges. Film the rematch on your phone if you expect another disagreement.
- Cancelling
- More than 24 hours before the start: free, but the cancellation is counted on your player card. Within 24 hours: it is a forfeit — your opponent takes the walkover and, if you were the King, you lose the throne. It is recorded as a cancellation, not a no-show: the penalty is the same, but telling someone not to make the trip should always look better than simply vanishing.
- No-shows
- If your opponent never appears, wait 15 minutes, then report the no-show from the court itself — your location is checked, same as claiming a throne. Your rating moves as a walkover win at half credit, their no-show count goes up, and the ticker announces it. In points you get a small fixed consolation for the wasted trip — once a day, however many people stand you up. A match nobody played never pays like a match, or arranging no-shows with friends would be the easiest income on the platform. If nobody reports anything within 48 hours the match simply expires and nothing changes.
- If the throne falls before your turn
- A King can have several challenges booked at once. If they lose the crown before your match, your challenge is cancelled the moment it happens — you are told straight away, by notification and email, so you are never left preparing for a match that no longer exists. Nothing is counted against you or against the King. As compensation you get first refusal: for 48 hours that court is bookable only by the players whose matches were cancelled, so you get the first shot at the new King before anyone else.
- Spectators
- Anyone can RSVP to watch a scheduled match. Checking in at the court makes you a witness: each verified spectator raises the match's rating stakes by 5%, up to +50%. Witnessed matches are worth more and are much harder to fake.
Every broken commitment — a no-show, a late cancellation, a declined challenge, a throne emptied by dispute — is announced on the live ticker and recorded on your player card. That is the whole enforcement mechanism: nothing is hidden.
Points are separate from your rating. Rating measures how good you are; points are what you spend. They are earned by playing and by showing up — never by farming the same friend, which the system quietly discounts.
| How you earn | Points |
|---|---|
| Win a match | +50 |
| Play and lose (showing up counts) | +20 |
| Take a throne (on top of the win) | +100 |
| Defend your throne (on top of the win) | +60 |
| Check in as a spectator (max 2/day) | +10 |
| Post to a court feed (max 3/day) | +2 |
| Opponent no-showed on you (once a day, however many) | +15 |
| Throne stipend, per day of your reign | +5 → +10 → +20 → +40 → +50 |
Throne points stack: taking a throne pays +150 in total (50 + 100), a successful defence +110 (50 + 60), and the loser still collects for turning up. The bonus is only paid while your opponent is the sitting King — if the crown had already changed hands, lapsed after 30 quiet days, or its King had been suspended before the match, it counts as an ordinary match.
Caps: 3,000 points per player per month, and the stipend only pays while that court has had a real match in the last 14 days — camping an empty court earns nothing. Points granted by the organisers do not count against your earning cap.
Your title comes from career wins and appears next to your name everywhere on the ladder.
| Title | Career wins |
|---|---|
| Rookie | 0+ |
| Contender | 3+ |
| Throne Breaker | 8+ |
| Warlord | 15+ |
| Uncrowned King | 25+ |
| Legend | 40+ |
This ladder only works if results are real. The following will get an account suspended or permanently terminated, at our sole discretion, with any points, thrones, and pending redemptions forfeited.
- Fake results
- Reporting a match that was never played, or a score that did not happen. Both players are responsible for the number that gets recorded.
- Point farming and collusion
- Arranging wins and losses with a friend, trading thrones back and forth, or splitting rewards. Repeated matches against the same opponent are already worth less; deliberate farming ends the account.
- Playing as someone else
- Sending a stronger player in your place, or using another person's account. This is why every profile carries a photo and why opponents can report a face that does not match.
- Faking your location
- Using a mock-location app to claim a throne, check in, or report a no-show from somewhere else. Location is the only proof this ladder has that you were really there.
- Multiple accounts
- One person, one account. Extra accounts created to farm points, dodge a record, or claim extra thrones will all be removed.
- Abusing the report button
- Filing identity reports or no-show claims you know to be false, to damage another player's record.
- Harassment and violence
- Threats, intimidation, abusive language, discrimination, or any physical confrontation — on court, in a court feed, or anywhere connected to the Service. Walk away and report it. Never settle it physically.
Depending on severity we may void a match, remove a throne, cancel points and pending gift-card orders, suspend the account, or terminate it permanently. Two verified identity reports suspend an account automatically. Conduct that may break the law is reported to the authorities. Minors' parents or guardians are notified of any suspension.
Think a decision was wrong? Reply to the notification email with what happened. Spectator check-ins, court feed posts, and your own video are all useful evidence — which is why filming a rematch after a disputed result is worth the ten seconds.
Read the full Terms & Liability WaiverAnswering a challenge
A King has 48 hours to accept or decline, and never less than 12 hours before the match (with a 6-hour floor, so a 2 a.m. booking doesn't expire while you sleep). Unanswered by then, the challenge expires, the slot reopens, and it counts as a dodge — exactly like declining. You get one reminder before the deadline.