This is THE DINK Minor League Pickleball

Minor League PIckleball is an innovative team competition where teams of 4 players (2 women and 2 men) compete against each other in an engaging format, with twists on traditional match-ups and scoring for games, matches, and tiebreakers. Teams compete against each other in Matches using the MLPlay™ format:

MLPlay™ is an ingenious gameplay format that brings men and women together on a level playing court. In the MLPlay™ format team matches are composed of four 21-point games, one women’s doubles, a men’s doubles, and the final two games consisting of mixed doubles.

If both teams are tied at 2-2 after the 4 games are played, they’ll go to a Dreambreaker™! In a Dreambreaker™ one person from each team plays singles against the other team’s player, switching players every four rallies until someone gets to 21 and wins by two points.

Teams play in a round robin pool, with guaranteed matches. Top teams square off in a bracket playoff. 

To sign up for any The Dink Minor League event, a DUPR account is required at the time of registration.

DUPR 20 Maximum team aggregate is 20.900

DUPR 18 Maximum team aggregate is 18.300.
*Maximum individual player rating is 5.100 at registration.

DUPR 16 Maximum team aggregate is 16.300.
*Maximum individual player rating is 4.600 at registration.

DUPR 14 Maximum team aggregate is 14.300.
*Maximum individual player rating is 4.100 at registration.

DUPR 12 Maximum team aggregate is 12.300.
*Maximum individual player rating is 3.600 at registration.

DUPR 22 is available in specific markets and special events. 

*To discourage sandbagging, maximum individual player ratings have been added to the 2024 season and are also effective for all 2024 events as of 6/26/24. Players that registered for an event prior to 6/26/24 are grandfathered in. 

Once a team registers for a Minor League Pickleball event, their ratings are “locked” and their DUPR increasing or decreasing will not impact the team’s aggregate or division placement. 

If you are a NR (not rated) player, your rating will be set to the average rating of the division you sign up for.

Example A: if you sign up for DUPR 14 you are assigned a 3.500 rating. The appointed rating will impact the team aggregate and said aggregate must fit within the maximum team total. The remaining 3 players’ total aggregate must be a total of 10.800 or less.

Example B: player A signs up for DUPR 16. The assigned rating is 4.000. The remaining 3 players’ total aggregate must be a total of 12.300 or less. 

NR assignments:

DUPR 12: 3.000

DUPR 14: 3.500

DUPR 16: 4.000

DUPR 18: 4.500

DUPR 20: 5.000

The assigned NR ratings can only be altered with proper information submitted to the event organizer. The event organizer/tournament director reserves the right to make the final decision on a NR’s assigned rating.

The 2024 National Pathway for the National Championship has been announced!  

A point system has been implemented where top-performing teams and top-performing players will qualify for Nationals. To read all about the National Pathway, CLICK HERE.

Regional Showdowns

At each of the 7 Regional Showdowns, each team that wins their division will earn a Dream Ticket to play at the National Championship. Regional Dates and Registration CLICK HERE. 

National Point System for the National Leaderboard

Players play in teams, but accumulate points individually. At each The Dink Minor League Pickleball event a player will earn points based on their team outcome. For example, if a division has 8 teams, then the first place team earns 8 points, the 2nd place team earns 7 points, the 3rd place team earns 6 points and so on. The minimum number for a first place team is 4 points. Additional information is coming soon.  

MiLP Rules & Policies Guide