Hello handsome and beautiful people. The 2024 Spikeball Tour Series (STS) Challenger and Major schedule has been released, and yeah we’re going to talk about it. Not only that, but the Tour also released some format and division changes that we’re super excited about.

Stay right here to stay in the loop.

LFG! 🔥 

📊 Challenger Breakdown

Let’s start with the updates.

Open Pro at Majors

STS announced that there will be an Open Pro Division at every Major in 2024. This will be a division of the top 16 teams at each event. We think this is a great move and eliminates the need for Power Pools. However, the top 16 teams will be determined by combined individual points, which is the same as how the Power Pools were determined last year. 

Women’s Pro at Majors

There will be a 12-team Women’s Pro Division (finally) at every Major. We are super pumped about this and think it will be a great help in growing the women’s game. Unfortunately, STS did add this caveat:

“At least 20 teams must be signed up for the event in order to have the division.”

We should hope it doesn’t get to that. 

Mixed Pro Teams

In 2024, Mixed Divisions will move from the traditional teams of two, to teams of four—two male and two female. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, we love the squad style. But on the other, Mixed Divisions often have trouble fielding three competitive teams at each tournament. Limiting the number of teams by adding to the roster size seems dangerous, but very excited to see the result.

Designated European Event

“To be able to offer international teams chances to participate in the Open / Women’s Pro divisions, we’ve selected ETF Leuven as an event that awards elevated points.” 

Spoiler alert, they’ve taken away a Major in Europe but gave them one tournament “designated status.” Not sure why… why couldn’t they just let Europe host a Major? Anyways. 

🌎️ Schedule Breakdown

We’ll start with numbers. There is one less Challenger and one less Major than there was last season (21 events in 2024, 22 in 2023). This was a surprising announcement for many, as the common thinking was the sport would add more events to create more exposure with the rising momentum of the sport. 

There was seven international events in 2023, but that has increased to eight this year (including three events in Canada 🇨🇦). 

What really stands out is the three Majors. I know there is now a European “Designated Event,” but it is still quite surprising that there is no European Major this season. We constantly have to remind ourselves that this sport is adapting and usually for the better. It will take time for the Tour to find the perfect format, and in the meantime we just have to trust the process. 

We’re glad to see Richmond and SLC keeping their tournaments, and also very glad to see Chicago get that spot as it’s been highly requested among the community in 2023 after they hosted a successful Challenger event. Surprisingly, Columbus loses its Major spot after hosting the season’s final Major for the last two seasons.

The European league, American Spikers League, local tours, and college leagues will all continue to grow the sport, and keep funneling players into the main tour. Prize pools will continue to rise as well so we hope to see the top players continue to travel to these events. 

2024 is going to be a banger year, riding the momentum of 2023.

• Who do you think is going to rise to the top? 

• Do we even know their names yet?

• Will the vets stick around?

That’s the beauty of this sport that is evolving so quickly, there's no telling who will rise and who will fall. 

👊 Quick Hits

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