Teams MUST sign-up for their age division the first week. Teams might be moved up to create even numbers of teams in divisions, but for the most part, the first week teams will play within their own age divisions.
Competition the first two weekends of the Heartland Cup will consist of a 4 match tournament.
Teams will begin sliding up or down into higher or lower divisions based on their performance each weekend. It is also possible teams will stay in the same divisions.
After the first weekend, the divisions will cease to be referenced by an age and instead changed to – in order – Gold, Silver, Bronze, Red, White and Blue.
With the shuffling, we should have the best 8 teams as proven on the court in the top division and all divisions should have great balance as teams naturally flow to the level of their competition.
The final weekend is “championship weekend” with a 3-match guarantee on Day 1 and a 2-match guarantee on Day 2.
During the competition, teams will earn points based on their performance. The Heartland Cup champions will be decided by the point standings at the end of the third weekend. The point-system structure will be easy to keep track of and follow.
In both the Open and Club divisions, teams will earn points each weekend based on how they place. As an example, If there are a total of 32 teams competing in Open among the different divisions the team winning the highest division (which will be 18 Open the first weekend) will earn 32 points and the team finishing last in the lowest division (which will be the 14 Open the first weekend) will earn 1 point. Additionally, if you win your age or color division tournament, you will receive 3 bonus points and if you finish second you will receive 1 bonus point.
As an example, if there are 32 teams in Open on the first weekend and Club X 181s win the 18 Open title, it will receive 32 points plus 3 bonus points for a total of 35. If Club Z 181s finish second, it will receive 31 points plus 1 bonus point. If Club W 181s finish third, it will receive 30 points. The same system will be in place for the Club division.
At the end of the third weekend, whichever 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s and 18s team that finishes with the highest overall point total will be crowned the champion of its age group in both the Open and Club divisions.
Teams, if they choose, can switch between Club and Open divisions from one weekend to another, but their point totals will not transfer with them.
The winning teams in each age group in Open and Club will receive championship apparel, a team tophy and individual medals as well as free entry into the 2019 Heartland Cup. Second-place teams will receive individual medals and free entry into the 2019 Heartland Cup and the third place teams will receive free entry into the 2019 Heartland Cup.
In order to keep costs very low, up officials will NOT be provided with the exception of the final Sunday of the Heartland Cup. Adult coaches for the assigned ref team will be up refs during the other five days of competition.
Teams that sign-up for all three weekends will ALWAYS have precedent over teams looking to only sign-up for a single or two weekends. Teams that sign-up for one or two weekends will be accepted but can be bumped out by a team signing-up for all three weekends. It is our hope that, with the low price and format, teams will see the value in playing all three weekends.
Teams which sign-up for just one or two weekends will be appropriately seeded into existing divisions based on their performance during the year at the discretion of the Heartland Cup director.
Because the Heartland Cup is not sanctioned by the USAV or AAU the roster you have entered for a team on AES for a particular weekend will be your official roster for that weekend. Rosters will be used for recruiting and check-in purpose. Please complete your roster(s) as we will be integrating with University Athlete.