Pickleball

Everyone 18+ is welcome here, as planets collide in Lansing for this one-day, bring your partner, pickleball tournament. Register your team in one of three Planets, based on your team player construction. Feeling adventerous, opt to stay and play in the afternoon on Saturn, our swingers planet!

FORMAT

We will play traditional pickleball to 11 points, win by 2. To ensure we don't have any marathon matches, though, we will cap matches at 15, so the final score would be 15-14.

DIVISIONS

We believe that across the universe, gender is a spectrum, not a binary system. For this tournament, trans men are simply men. Trans women are simply women. If playing against a trans man or a trans woman bothers you, then this is not the tournament for you!

MARS

The mars division will consist of teams where both players are male (trans male is male), or one male player and one non-binary player.

VENUS

The Venus division will consist of teams where both players are female (trans female is female), or one female player and one non-binary player.

NEPTUNE

The neptune division is our net netural division. Meaning one player is male and one is female. The other possibility is both players are non-binary.

SATURN

Saturn is for our adventerous players. It is our "swingers" division. Players may throw their paddles in our fishbowl and teams will be randomly drawn. Gender doesn't matter in this division. Teams can be any combination of players, you just cannot be paired with the person you played with earlier.

MOONS

To ensure quality play for everyone, divisions (planets) will be divided into pools (moons) based on their combined player rating. So yes, in this tournament, a 4.0 player can partner with a 2.5. The four teams with the highest combined rating in a division will be in Moon A, the next four in Moon B, etc.

Within your moon, you will play a round-robin, meaning each team will play each other once. Ideally, there will be four teams per moon. Then, at the conclusion of the round robin, the teams that have the best record on their moon will advance to play for the championship on their planet. In the event of a tie, the following tie-breakers will be used:

head-to-head (if three-way tie, then move on to 2nd tiebreaker)
point differential: total points scored minus total points given up
playoff: rally scoring to three points

COST

$25 per person to play on one planet

$45 to play on two planets

$50 to play on three planets

You cannot play on both Mars and Venus even if you are nonbinary. You must play in one or the other.

DRESS TO IMPRESS

Dress to represent the planet you are playing on. The team that best represents their planet, as voted on by your peers, will win a prize.

Think Katniss Everdeen in the parade ceremony in the Hunger Games.

Ages

All participants must be at least 18 years old by the day of the tournament.

When

January 3, 2026

9:00 AM - Check-in & Warmup (MARS and VENUS)

9:30 AM - Round Robin Starts

12:00 PM - Awards (Mars & Venus)

Check-in & Warmup (Neptune)

12:30 PM - Neptune Round Robin Starts

3:00 PM - Neptune Awards

3:30 Saturn Fishbowl Paddle Draw/Round Robin

6:00 PM - Saturn Awards/Goodbye

Where

Court One Athletic Club

1609 Lake Lansing Rd.

Lansing, MI. 48912

Games

A minimum of three matches for each team with a similar skill level. The teams that win their moon will move on to play teams from other moons that may be at a higher/lower level.

While teams are playing out the tournament for Mars and Venus in the morning, eliminated people may use any courts we have for the tournament that are not being utilized for the planet tournament to play with other individuals/teams who are also eliminated for fun.

SATURN

Because this could be a long day of pickleball if you play on three planets, the Saturn group will remain flexible depending on how many teams we end up having play. We will use rally scoring for Saturn, though. We may skip moon play, though, and just go straight into a tournament bracket.

Frequently Asked Questions

I don't have a partner, can I still play?

Post a request on the GAAY Sports Facebook Group first and see if anyone is interested. Perhaps if we start a thread there people will comment and partners can be found that way. If not, email Nicholas@gaaysports.org and I will try to keep a list of people who say they are interested but don't have a partner and put you in contact with each other.

2026 Interplanetary Pickles

Join us Jan. 3 as picklers invade Lansing to kick off the new year. Register for the planet 🌎 that you and your partner qualify for and see if you can reign supreme on your 🌒 moon to advance and win your planet's championship.

Feeling adventurous? Then sign up for our swingers planet, 🪐 Saturn. Throw your 🏓 paddle in our fishbowl, and let fate pick your partner 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 for a 2nd round-robin. 😉