How to run a Team Mexicano: the re-seed
To run a Team Mexicano, you keep each pair together all evening and let the live table pick the opponents: after every round the pairs are sorted and 1st meets 2nd, 3rd meets 4th, and so on down. It is the answer to a specific request: we came as pairs, we want to stay as pairs, and we want the matches to be close.
Points are counted per ball, as in an Americano, and both players bank the pair's score. The rules in short are on the Team Mexicano format page; this guide is how the re-seed behaves on a real night.
In short
- Pairs are fixed all evening, built two by two from the player list in the order you type it.
- Round one is list order: pair 1 v pair 2, pair 3 v pair 4, and so on.
- From round two the table decides: 1st meets 2nd, 3rd meets 4th, on points per ball.
- Only round one can be printed in advance; every later round depends on results.
- Rematches are allowed: with six pairs, round two usually repeats the closest match of round one.
How do you run a Team Mexicano, step by step?
- Type the players partner next to partner. The pairs are built two by two from the list, in that order.
- Play round one in list order. Pair 1 against pair 2, pair 3 against pair 4.
- Enter one number per pair. With fixed-total scoring the other side fills itself in.
- Let the table re-seed. Pairs are sorted on points and neighbours meet in the next round.
- Repeat until the booking runs out, then finish the night. The pair table is the result.
How does the re-seed work with pairs locked?
After every round the table is sorted and pairs are matched against their neighbours: the leading pair meets the second, third meets fourth, and so on down the list.
This is a different mechanism from the individual Mexicano, and it is worth understanding why. In a normal Mexicano the four players on a court are split 1+4 against 2+3, so the pairing itself does the balancing. With pairs locked you cannot rearrange who plays with whom, so the balancing has to happen at the level of which pairs meet. Neighbours in the table are, by definition, the pairs with the most similar results.
The effect builds. By round three the strong pairs are meeting each other and the pairs still finding their feet are meeting each other. Nobody spends the evening being outclassed, which is the thing that makes people not come back.
What you give up
When you run a Team Mexicano, you cannot plan the running order. Only round one is knowable before you start. Everything after depends on results.
You can still plan the time: rounds × (match length + changeover) works the same as any format. What you cannot do is print the evening and tape it to the wall. If that matters, Team Americano draws the whole schedule up front and is the right choice.
Rematches are not blocked. Team Mexicano pairs neighbours and nothing else, so two pairs that sit next to each other in the table again will play again. Monrad is the fixed-pairs format with a no-rematch rule.
That trade is the entire difference between the formats, and it is worth naming when you decide.
Who builds the pairs?
You do. Team Mexicano and Team Americano both build the pairs straight down the player list, two by two, so type partners next to each other. If people arrive as couples and want to play with the person they came with, type them in order and you get exactly those couples.
If you want mixed-up pairs on a club night, mix them up yourself when you type the list: put a strong player next to a weaker one, and the pair you typed is the pair that plays. Once the night starts, the pairs are fixed for the evening either way. The difference between the two formats is only who decides the opponents: the table in Team Mexicano, the draw in Team Americano.
Players and courts
To run a Team Mexicano you need an even number of players, at least four. PadelLoop will not start on an odd count: the pairs are fixed, so an odd player would have no partner, and refusing is better than quietly leaving someone out.
Past that it scales in fours for filling courts. Eight players fill two courts, twelve fill three. With a pair count that does not fill your courts evenly, whole pairs sit out and rotate back in, fewest rests first.
What you get in the tool
Team Mexicano is one of the social formats: the big screen view for a TV in the hall, a share link for players' phones, and CSV export of the final table. Enter one number per team per match and the table sorts itself.
A worked re-seed, six pairs
Six pairs on three courts, matches to 24 points, so the two scores in a match add up to 24. These are the pairings PadelLoop produces for these results.
Round one is list order: 1v2, 3v4, 5v6. Pair 1 beats pair 2 17–7, pair 4 beats pair 3 15–9, and pair 5 beats pair 6 13–11.
| Place | Pair | Points after round one |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 17 |
| 2 | 4 | 15 |
| 3 | 5 | 13 |
| 4 | 6 | 11 |
| 5 | 3 | 9 |
| 6 | 2 | 7 |
Round two pairs neighbours: 1v4, 5v6 and 3v2. The two convincing winners meet, the two convincing losers meet, and pairs 5 and 6 play each other again.
That rematch is not a glitch. With six pairs, the narrowest winner of round one lands third and the pair it beat lands fourth, so round two usually repeats the closest match of the night. If you run a Team Mexicano with six pairs, tell the room at the briefing, or pairs 5 and 6 will think the draw is broken. With eight pairs the same arithmetic puts winners against winners and losers against losers, and round two has no forced rematch.
Round three does the same again on a table that has moved less. By then the top two pairs have usually met or are about to, and the bottom two are playing each other rather than being fed to the leaders.
How long does a Team Mexicano take?
The arithmetic is the same as any per-ball format: rounds × (match length + changeover), where a match takes about half a minute per point.
| Pairs | Courts | Rounds you choose | To 16 points | To 24 points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 3 | 5 | about 55 min | about 75 min |
| 8 | 4 | 6 | about 65 min | about 90 min |
| 12 | 6 | 6 | about 65 min | about 90 min |
That assumes a three-minute changeover. A Team Mexicano runs without a fixed round count: the tool builds the next round from the table until you finish the night, so play as many rounds as the booking allows. Every pair plays every round when the pairs fill the courts.
What you cannot do is print which match is which. Round one is the only one you can write down in advance.
When two pairs are badly mismatched
Team Mexicano fixes this faster than any fixed-schedule format, because a mismatch in round one moves both pairs in the table and they stop meeting.
The case it cannot fix is a pair that is far stronger than everyone else. They win every round, meet the second-best pair repeatedly, and there is no one else at their level for the table to find. That is not a flaw in the format: it is information. If it happens twice in a season, your club has outgrown a single class, and the answer is two classes rather than a different format.
If you are choosing between the fixed-pair formats, the Team Americano guide has the other side of the trade, and how a Mexicano re-seeds shows the individual version round by round.
How to run a Team Mexicano: common questions
How do you run a Team Mexicano round by round?
Play round one in list order, pair 1 against pair 2 and pair 3 against pair 4, then let the table decide: after each round the pairs are sorted on points and neighbours meet, 1st against 2nd and 3rd against 4th. You keep one partner all evening, and both players bank the pair's score.
How is it different from Team Americano?
Only in when the schedule is decided. Team Mexicano re-seeds after every round, so matches get closer through the evening but nobody can see the running order ahead of time. Team Americano draws the entire schedule before the first ball. Both build the pairs two by two from your player list, so type partners next to each other.
Can I plan the evening in advance?
Only round one and the clock. The first round is list order, pair 1 against pair 2 and so on, but every later round depends on results. You can plan the total time as rounds × (match length + changeover), but you cannot print the running order. If a printed schedule matters, Team Americano is the format that has one.
How many players do I need?
An even number, at least 4. The pairs are fixed, so an odd player would be left without a partner, and PadelLoop refuses to start. Courts fill in fours: eight players fill two courts and twelve fill three. When the pairs do not fill the courts evenly, whole pairs sit out and rotate back in, fewest rests first.
