I started a new community called random thoughts just to share my random thoughts on any type of news or updates that I found interesting. Feel free to share in this community as well!
If you don't know, I've been playing pickleball like crazy starting around Chinese New Year when I downloaded an app called Reclub. Reclub is an app that let's you find games for whoever is hosting for whichever sport you are interested in joining. I think for most people in Malaysia, we are using it for pickleball. Honestly, I've been slowing down and I didn't feel like I need to play everyday anymore; it could be because I'm burnt out or just played way too much before.
Today, the main focus is talking about DUPR and why I never liked it. I will include thoughts on the recent change in the rating algorithm. I've actually only played 3 sessions of DUPR totaling about 21 matches. If I recall, this was around April when I wanted to get my rating. I ended up getting around 3.2 which makes it easier to join games but puts me above that novice level. There was a huge issue with players creating ghost matches to keep their rating below 3.0 if they were 3.0+ or below 3.5/4.0 if they were above 4.0+ to join tournaments so they could win easier. In my opinion, this ruined the experience for everybody and these players were called buayas which means alligator but in English we would call them smurfs. Sadly, most tournament organizers didn't care because they needed to fill their spot or make their money. This slowly changed though as most likely, the tournament organizers realized that nobody wants to join a tournament knowing they have to play against players that belong in a higher skill category.
Recently, DUPR made a change where players have an expected score. If they perform better than their expected score, their rating can go up regardless whether they win or lose. This works the other way around as a person that performs worse than their expected score can go down. Before this change, players would only go up on wins and go down on losses. In my opinion, the old system made it a lot easier to manipulate the rating. With this new update, it should make it harder and make every point matter as compared to before.
I don't think this new system is perfect though. I feel if the rating difference is too big, higher rated players may avoid playing lower rated players. I feel it would be a bit stressful to have to beat someone 11-3 or whatever the expected score is but I could be wrong. It would really depend on what is the "expected score" and it makes me wonder how they calculate the expected score.
Overall, I feel this is a good change and a step towards the right direction. They even starting cracking down and removing permission from people submitting ghost matches.
The pickleball market is kind of oversaturated now in Malaysia in terms of courts and I expect a lot of court owners to sell their business by the end of the year. Only the good courts will stay but before that happens I'm starting to see a lot of promos and lowering hourly rates to attract people to maximize capacity. I won't complain though because this is great for me as a player but those that invested in courts may take a beating!
What are your thoughts on the DUPR Algo update and what's the pickleball market like in your country?