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Pro tour · Rules

Pro tour rules

How a Clutch21 Pro tour game is won, how the season is won, and what it takes to be on the card.

The short version. Games to 21 in two periods of six minutes, short games to 11 in one, win by two, ones and twos, make it take it, twelve-second shot clock, no time-outs, overtime on a tie. Everything below is the detail that makes those seven things enforceable.
What is different about the Pro tour. A signed field on a fixed calendar: six city stops and a Finals, sixteen players a night, and professional-tour entry conditions. The game itself is the same one the World Series plays.

Season format & points

The season runs across six city stops and a Finals. Every stop is a sixteen-player single-elimination bracket.

  1. Entry. Eight players per stop off the season card, seeded, and on top of them eight qualified players who come the other way — the open qualifier held the previous day, $100 to enter. The round of 16 puts one half against the other, and who draws whom is random.
  2. Wildcards. The league may add up to two wildcards to a stop — an invitation rather than a result. A wildcard takes one of the eight qualifying places rather than a seeded one, so the field it is won from goes with it: no wildcards means eight places won from a field of 64, one wildcard means seven from 56, and two means six from 48. The bracket is sixteen either way, and the qualifier is three rounds in the day either way, each half the size of the one before it.
  3. Prize money. $120,000 is paid out at every stop and at the Finals: $40,000 to the winner, $20,000 to the runner-up, $10,000 to each losing semi-finalist, $5,000 to each losing quarter-finalist and $2,500 to each player knocked out in the round of 16. A player is paid once, for the round they go out in, and the prizes are not added up along the way. Reaching the round of 16 pays for the qualifier entry twenty-five times over.
  4. Distance. Every game in a main event is played to 21. The open qualifier the day before is played to 11 — except its last round, the one that puts a player into the main event, which is played to 21 like the event it leads into.
  5. Points. Winner 100, runner-up 70, semi-finalists 45, quarter-finalists 30, round of 16 15.
  6. Qualification. The top eight of the season table after Stop 06 advance to the Finals.
  7. Finals. Straight knockout from the quarter-finals, seeded by season position. The champion is decided on the night.
  8. Tie-breaks. Season ties are broken by stop wins, then head-to-head, then point difference.
  9. One season, not a rolling window. The Pro table starts at zero in March and every stop counts. That is the opposite of the World Series, and deliberately so: a tour with six events cannot afford to discard any of them.

Reviews

Video review is the Pro tour’s, and it is the only thing in a Clutch21 game that stops the clock.

  1. One each. Each athlete has one review per game. It is theirs to spend on any call the officials have made, and asking for it is the player’s own decision — nobody reviews on their behalf.
  2. It stops the clock. The game clock stops the moment a review is granted and restarts on the check that follows it. Everything else in the game — checks, fouls, free throws — runs on, so this is the one break inside a period.
  3. Right and you keep it. A review that is upheld is given back: a player who was right about a call is not made to pay for being right. One that is not upheld is gone for the game.
  4. Automatic reviews. The two-point line, game-winning baskets and flagrant contact are reviewed by the crew chief whether anybody asks or not. Those cost nobody their review, and they stop the clock the same way.
  5. Final say. The crew chief’s decision after a review is final and not subject to protest.
  6. World Series. There are no reviews there. A World Series bracket is worked by one official with no feed to look at, and a rule nobody can carry out is worse than no rule.

Pro tour eligibility

These are the requirements to enter the Pro tour — the signed field playing the six city stops and the Finals. They are professional-tour conditions, and they do not govern the World Series.

  1. Age. Pro tour players must be 18 or older on the date of their first game. An athlete who turns 18 during the season is in the Elite class from the start of that season, but does not take the court on the Pro tour until the birthday itself.
  2. Registration. A completed league licence, a valid passport or ID, and a signed participation agreement are required before a first game.
  3. Medical. A physician’s clearance dated within twelve months of the first game must be on file.
  4. Club commitments. Players under contract to a club must supply written release from that club before entering a stop.
  5. Under-18s. Youth brackets run on the World Series side, never the Pro tour, and a guardian’s consent is required before a minor competes. Youth sign-ups do not open until that consent flow is in place.

The game

The same game in both competitions

Everything below this line is identical on the Pro tour and in the Am World Series. What differs is above it: the format, the points and who may enter.

The game

Twenty-one is played half court, one against one, on a regulation half court with a size 7 ball.

  1. Scoring. A basket made inside the three-point arc is worth one point. A basket made with both feet behind the arc is worth two.
  2. Winning. The first player to the game’s target wins, and must win by two clear points. There is no ceiling on the score: a game to 21 can finish 23–21 or longer.
  3. The standard game. Twenty-one points, played in two periods of six minutes with a two-minute half-time. If a player is ahead when the second period expires, that player wins.
  4. The short game. Eleven points, played in one period of six minutes and no half-time. It is the same game at a shorter distance, used where a bracket has to get through a field in a day. Which competition plays which, and at what stage, is set out further down this page.
  5. Overtime. If the scores are level when time expires, an overtime is played, and the first player to score two points in it wins. That is one basket from behind the arc, or two inside it — so an overtime can be decided by a single shot, and cannot end level.
  6. Start. A coin toss decides the opening possession. The player who wins the toss takes the ball behind the arc and checks it, the way every possession after it starts.

Possession & checks

Clutch21 is make it, take it, and every possession starts with a check behind the arc. Scoring keeps you on offence — runs are part of the sport.

  1. Every possession starts with a check. No possession begins live. Whoever is about to play offence takes the ball behind the three-point line and checks it with the defender, and that is true of a made basket, a turnover, a rebound and a dead ball alike. There is no situation in this game where the ball is picked up and played.
  2. Behind the three-point line. A check is only a check if the ball has been taken behind the arc for it. Nothing done in front of the line starts a possession, and a shot from one that never cleared is waved off and the ball turns over.
  3. The check itself. The ball is passed to the defender at the top of the arc and returned. It is live from the moment it is back in the offensive player’s hands, which is also where the twelve-second shot clock starts.
  4. Make it, take it. The scoring player keeps the ball. There is no change of possession after a basket — the scorer takes it back behind the arc, checks it and goes again, for as long as they keep scoring.
  5. Out of bounds. The sidelines, baseline and half-court line are live boundaries. It is a turnover if the ball touches one, or if a player touches one with any part of the body while in contact with the ball. Stepping on a line without the ball is nothing.

Clock & shot clock

Two clocks run: a game clock of six minutes to a period and a twelve-second shot clock. Both are operated by the table, not the players.

  1. Shot clock. Twelve seconds from the check. The ball must hit the rim; failing to do so is a turnover.
  2. Stoppages. The game clock does not stop. It runs through checks, fouls and free throws, and the only break inside a game is the half-time of a standard one. A Pro tour review is the single exception, and it is written under that competition’s own rules.
  3. No time-outs. There are none, for either player, at any level and in either format. Nothing in the game can be halted to arrange one.
  4. Delay. Two delay-of-game warnings result in a turnover; a third awards a point to the opponent.

Fouls & free throws

Contact is expected. Fouls are called by the officials, never by the players — the pick-up game convention does not apply here.

  1. Personal fouls. The first two fouls by a player result in a check for the opponent. From the third onward, the opponent shoots one free throw worth one point, and keeps the ball if it goes in.
  2. Shooting fouls. A foul on a one-point attempt gives one free throw; on a two-point attempt, two. A made basket plus a foul adds one free throw.
  3. Disqualification. Four personal fouls in a period, one flagrant, or two unsportsmanlike fouls end a player’s game and forfeit it 21–0, or 11–0 in a short game.
  4. Free throws. Taken from the regulation line. The twelve-second shot clock starts the moment the shooter has the ball in hand behind the free-throw line.
  5. After the last one. Make it and the shooter keeps possession — the same make it, take it the rest of the game runs on, so they take the ball behind the arc, check it and go again. Miss it and the ball is the opponent’s, who takes it behind the arc and checks it. There is no rebound to contest: the last free throw either keeps the possession or hands it over.

Officiating

Every league game is worked by officials and a table crew, and every judgment call on the court is theirs.

  1. Crew. One lead official on the baseline, one trail at the arc, plus two scorekeepers — one on the scoreboard in the gym, one on the broadcast feed.
  2. Calls. Fouls, clears, out of bounds and the two-point line are called by the officials and called out loud. Players do not call their own.
  3. Final say. The crew chief’s decision is final and not subject to protest.
  4. Video. Video review is a Pro tour rule. It needs the crew and the feed a produced night has, and a World Series bracket is not run that way — so it is written under the Pro tour and nowhere else.

Conduct & integrity

One-on-one is personal by design. What happens between the lines stays competitive, not hostile.

  1. Respect. Abuse directed at officials, opponents or spectators is an unsportsmanlike foul on first offence and a disqualification on second.
  2. Betting. Players, officials and staff may not wager on any Clutch21 event. Breach ends participation for the season.
  3. Anti-doping. The league follows the WADA prohibited list. Testing is conducted at every stop and at the Finals.
  4. Media. Finalists are required to attend the post-event media session.

Court & equipment

The playing surface and equipment are standardised so results carry across cities.

  1. Court. Regulation half court, 50 ft × 47 ft, with a three-point arc at 23 ft 9 in.
  2. Ball. Official league size 7 composite ball, provided at every stop.
  3. Kit. League-issued jerseys are worn in all bracket games. Personal footwear is permitted.
  4. Warm-up. Players get eight minutes on court before their first game of the day, four before subsequent games.

The World Series rules →

Think you can go to 21?

Two ways in. Open qualifiers run in every host city the day before each Pro stop — sixteen spots, no seeding, no favours. The World Series is open to every licensed athlete, and it starts in your own city.

Enter a qualifier Enter the World Series Read the rules

Partners

Example placement. These marks show where a partner sits on the page. None of them is a Clutch21 partner.