The final phase of the King of the Court 2022 will begin in Doha (Qatar) on 11 January, in which Mārtiņš Pļaviņš and Mihails Samoilovs, Edgars Toč and Kristians Fokerots will participate. Both teams will start the competition from each of their subgroups: Samoilovs/Pļaviņš from subgroup A, Točs/Fokerots from subgroup B.
The King of the Court tournament format is completely different from the usual order of play in beach volleyball tournaments. In the competition, all teams are divided into 3 subgroups, each with 5 teams. All five teams from the subgroup participate in the game at the same time. According to Latvian time, Subgroup A matches are scheduled for January 11 at 16.15 Brouwer/ Meeuwsen (NED), Losiak/ Bryl (POL), Nolvak/ Korotkova (EST), Doppler (AUT)/ Smith (USA) they will fight together with Pļaviņas/ Samoilov in the subgroup. Toč and Fokerot’s matches are scheduled for Wednesday at 19.15 Latvian time and Ahmed/ Cherif (QAT), Frishman/ Drost (USA), Popov/ Reznik (UKR), Varenhorst/ Immers (NED) will fight in the same group with them.
Each game lasts 15 minutes. The aim of the game is to reach the King’s side of the square, because only on that side can teams score points. At the first mistake, the team must leave the Piazza del Re and the team that won the particular bet enters, while the team that is first in line outside the square enters the field in its place. If the team has not reached the King’s Square side and has already made a mistake, it leaves the field and is replaced by the next team off the field. The games are dynamic and exciting and the situation can change quickly.
The principle of the games is that teams fight for the most points, after 15 minutes the team with the fewest points in a given game is dropped from the next game. According to this principle, until 3 teams remain in the game, which have faced each other and thus determine the division of teams’ places in the group.
The King of the Court Finals consists of a quarter-final, then the fifth-placed players play each other and the fourth-placed teams together with the best fifth-placed team determine the best of four teams.
The 1st-3rd of each group participate in the semi-finals. place winners and best of all fifth and fourth places. The teams are divided into two semi-finals of five teams each. After the semi-final, the fifth and fourth-placed teams still have a chance to qualify for the finals by playing the semi-final play-offs.
In the final, the first and runner-up from both semi-finals and the best of the play-off round of the semi-final play a five-team tournament until the best of the best is determined.
The 2022 season consisted of 3 stages: in Hamburg, Utrecht and Niteroi, followed by the aforementioned final.
Latvian Volleyball Federation
