The Chop Suey format keeps splitting and then reforming teams up and down the courts. The number of players is flexible but must be a combination of 4 as all the matches are doubles.
One court is designated as the lowest court, e.g. court 1, and the other courts are in order up to the highest court. For example, there are 24 players on 6 courts, with the courts numbered 1 thru 6, 6 being the "highest" court.
The tournament captain rings the bell twice to start all the courts at the same time.
- Each round is played as up to 9 point tie breaker. First to team to 9 points wins.
- Teams that finish early can rest.
- The tournament captain monitors the courts and normally lets the other courts finish up.
- If there is a severe "straggler", the captain can ring the bell to force a sudden death end to the round. Whichever team has the lead wins the round.
- The tournament captain rings the bell to tell everyone to move between courts
- Then rings the bell twice to start all the courts again at the same time.
Rotation:
- The winners on each court get promoted to the next higher court. Winners on the top court stay put.
- The runners up (!) move down to the next lower court. They stay put on the lowest court.
- Partners always split to become opponents in the next round
- In a mixed tournament, the pairings are reset each round to have a man and woman on each team.
- In single gender tournaments, one promoted player spins to see which of the two demoted players becomes their partner.
- If this is a rematch, play with the other opponent you didn't play with previously
Tournament Captain should ensure there
- are at least as many rounds as the number of teams, thus giving a very good team that started on the lowest court a chance to move up to a winning position.
- is a rest break after about an hour for 10-15 minutes, followed by a second period, probably lasting about 45 minutes.
Finishing and finding the winners. With 15 minutes to go, the captain announces the final round. The final standings are:
- Winners on the highest court
- Runners up on the highest court
- Winners on the second highest court.