Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the world, and with it comes a massive demand for fun, social, and competitive tournament formats. If you are running a local club or a casual weekend group, you have likely been asked to host an Americano or a Mexicano.
While players love the Mexicano format, it is widely considered the ultimate headache for the person organizing it.
What is a Pickleball Mexicano?
A Mexicano is a brilliant doubles tournament format where you don't need a fixed partner. You sign up as an individual. Every round, the matchmaking system pairs you with a different partner, and you play against a different team.
What makes the Mexicano special (and different from an Americano) is that the matchups are based on the current leaderboard. The top 4 players play on Court 1, the next 4 on Court 2, and so on. This guarantees that as the tournament progresses, every single game is highly competitive and evenly matched.
The Organizer's Nightmare
Because the matchups for Round 2 depend entirely on the exact point totals from Round 1, the organizer has to do rapid-fire math the second the players step off the court. If you have 24 players across 6 courts, trying to recalculate the leaderboard and assign new courts in a 3-minute water break using a clipboard is practically impossible.
How to Automate the Mexicano
You don't need expensive, clunky tournament software. SliceWin is a free mobile app built specifically to handle complex rotating-partner formats like the Mexicano.
- Instant Matchmaking: As soon as the scores for Round 1 are entered, the app instantly generates the matchups and court assignments for Round 2 based on the standings.
- Player Self-Reporting: You don't have to run around collecting clipboards. Players can open SliceWin on their own phones and type in their court's score. The main leaderboard updates automatically.
- Global Elo Updates: Every match played in your Mexicano tournament automatically updates your club's global Elo ranking!
Take your pickleball group to the next level
Download SliceWin today and let the app do the math for you.