Pickleball and Friends Tournament - "Novice" Division Sandbagging
Uso ba talaga ang "sandbagging" sa pickleball tournaments??
As a group of friends who just started playing this year, sumali kami sa tournament na to since it sounded fun and chill lang for our first tourna. We joined the "Novice" division kasi we don't have any racquet sports background, and compared to the people we play with, our DUPR ratings are definitely less than 2.75.
So pagdating nung tournament nagulat kami sa skill level ng ibang mga kalaban namin. Halatang above 3.0 sila kasi magkatabi yung courts na nilalaruan ng "Novice" at "Intermediate" tapos kitang-kita na mas magaling pa sila sa ibang players dun hahaha nag-enjoy naman kami sa games nung kalaban namin yung mga *Tunay na Novice* kasi close game talaga lahat, pero may 2 teams dun na naglaban for championship na halatang smurfs talaga.
Yung isang team medyo lowkey lang sila pero kita mong hindi talaga novice. Yung isang team naman proud na proud pa silang nananalo with a big point difference, tapos after a point, nagcecelebrate pa by shouting lol na para bang close game yung laban. May dala din silang maiingay na fans (?) and/or friends na hiyaw nang hiyaw kada point won, at talagang nakapwesto sila dun sa benches where only players are supposed to be. Ang sikip na nga sa Pickleball Junction tapos wala pa silang even a bit of decency to move for the players who are supposed to be sitting there. Sobrang skwater ng team na to at ng mga kasama nila.
So ayun, mid-tournament nakakatamad na laruin yung game kapag alam mong sila yung makakalaban niyo kasi kahit anong gawin mo, mababalik lang nila lahat and turn it into a "Winning Shot". Part pa ng malalaking club tong 2 teams na to so nakakagulat talaga na hindi sila nahihiya to cheat like this.
Dagdag pa dito yung event organizers na hindi organized, nagkulang sa time, binago yung format ng games, hindi pa natapos yung elimination games ng ibang teams, tapos pumayag silang maglaro ng championship match yung 2 kupal na teams hahaha like hello???? Lahat kami nagbayad to play tapos hindi lahat matatapos yung games? Natapos yung event na walang awarding or anything and we went home hoping that the organizers will do something to make it right, but we were wrong. Before the tournament, they even made us sign waivers and self-assessments but they did nothing to uphold "pledge of integrity" that they're talking about.
All-in-all, inubos talaga ng tournament na to yung competitive energy namin kasi everything just felt so unfair. We followed the rules, while others won while breaking them. It's safe to say that we won't be joining any tournaments in the near future. Silver lining nalang dito ay nagkaron kami ng new friends sa group ng mga *Tunay na Novice* and hopefully, we can play more fun pickleball together.
