1
City
Local Commissioner
Where the season starts. Weekly and monthly brackets in one city, run by the city commissioner — many of them a year, so a quiet night costs you nothing.
Field Every licensed athlete in the city
League · Officials
Officials
The people who make a Clutch21 night happen: the commissioner who runs the territory, and the crew who work the game — referees, scorekeepers and medical officers.
Worldwide
We are looking for commissioners
Clutch21 is opening up. The league that started with one bracket is becoming a worldwide competition played at five levels, from a city bracket up to the World Championship — and every territory needs somebody on the ground who knows the courts, the players and the city. The league runs the top two itself; the three below them are open.
That is the job. Not a badge: a territory, the authority to build the game in it, and a share of what it earns.
The structure
Five geographical levels,
ending at the world
Every tournament sits at one of five levels — city, state or region, country, continent and the world. The first three are territories, and a commissioner is responsible for their level and the tournaments in it. The continental championships and the World Championship belong to nobody’s territory, so the league runs those itself.
This is the Am World Series competition, and it is Am only. It does not run twice: there is no separate Pro bracket at any level. The Pro tour is a different thing entirely — a signed field on a fixed calendar — and no commissioner runs it.
The city and state or region levels carry the volume: many tournaments a year, as many as your territory can sustain. Above them the calendar narrows to one national final, one continental final and one world final each year.
Reach the semi-finals of a level and you qualify for the level above: the four semi-finalists go up from every bracket.
If a level does not produce enough qualifiers to fill its bracket, the remaining places go to the highest-ranked athletes in that territory who have not already qualified. So a bracket in your territory is never short: if the level below has not sent you enough athletes, the ranking completes the draw.
Every athlete who competes is ranked at five levels at once — their city, their state or region, their country, their continent, and the World Ranking. One official result moves all five. Your territory is one of those five, and the results you confirm are what move it.
2
State / Region
Regional Commissioner
The best of a state or region meet, several times a year. Not every country has this tier — where there is no state or regional subdivision, city semi-finalists go straight to the country stage.
Field City semi-finalists
3
Country
National Commissioner
One national final a year. A single champion per country, decided on the night.
Field State / Region semi-finalists
4
Continent
Run by the league
One continental final a year, on each of the four: America, Europe, Africa and Asia-Oceania.
Field Country semi-finalists
5
World Championship
Run by the league
Where the Am World Series road ends. One world final a year, contested by the athletes who came through all four continental championships. It is the one stage that is not somebody’s territory — nobody is appointed to run the world, so the league puts it on.
Field Continental semi-finalists
Most territories are open. Applications are being read now.
The points
What a result is worth
The same five finishing positions everywhere. A city bracket is the base, and each level above multiplies it — a regional win is worth two city wins, a world title eight.
Rankings run on a rolling twelve months, and only your 21 best results in that window count. A twenty-second tournament can only improve your total by displacing a weaker result, never by padding it — so the ranking measures how well you play, not how many events you can get to.
| Level | How often | Winner | Runner-up | Semi-final | Quarter-final | Round of 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City ×1 | Many tournaments a year | 100 | 70 | 45 | 30 | 15 |
| State / Region ×2 | Many tournaments a year | 200 | 140 | 90 | 60 | 30 |
| Country ×4 | One national final a year | 400 | 280 | 180 | 120 | 60 |
| Continent ×6 | One continental final a year | 600 | 420 | 270 | 180 | 90 |
| World ×8 | One world final a year | 800 | 560 | 360 | 240 | 120 |
Points are awarded on confirmed results only, by the commissioner who ran the event. Where a country has no state or regional tier, city semi-finalists go straight to the national stage and the ×2 rung is simply not played.
The role
What a commissioner actually does
Put on events
You schedule and run the tournaments in your territory — find the court, set the date, open registration, run the bracket on the day.
Keep the results honest
You confirm scores, settle disputes and verify that athletes are who and what they say they are. Rankings are only worth something if somebody is standing behind them.
Grow the field
You bring players in, keep the licensed ones active, and send your semi-finalists up to the next level. A territory is judged on how alive it is.
Uphold the Ethic Code
The behaviour standard is the same everywhere. You apply it locally, and you have the authority to.
Hold the calendar
Your events feed the level above. City semi-finalists go to the state or region, that to the country, the country to the continent — and dates have to line up.
Represent the league
Venues, local press, schools and clubs. In your territory, you are Clutch21.
What you get back
The league shares what your territory earns
This is not a volunteer badge. Clutch21 is not asking anyone to build a competition from nothing and hand over the proceeds — a territory that grows is worth more to the league and to the commissioner who grew it, and the money follows that.
A share of the revenue
The income your territory generates — licences taken out in it, entries to the events you run — is shared with you. Your share is set out in writing before you are appointed, so it is something you agree to at the start rather than find out about at the end.
The league carries the build
You are not paying to hold a territory or funding a platform. The rankings, the brackets, the licences, the rulebook, the Arena and the name are the league’s side of it. What you bring is the ground.
You are not left to it
A first season is the hard one. You get the format, the templates, the officiating standard and somebody at the league to call when a night goes sideways — not a login and good luck.
The exact split depends on the level and the territory, and it is the first thing we go through with you if your application moves forward.
Who we want
The people this works for
You do not need to have run a league before. You need to know the game, know your city, and be the kind of person who actually makes the thing happen.
- Rooted
- You live thereYou know the courts and the players already
- Organised
- Events start on timeA bracket is logistics before it is basketball
- Straight
- Results you can trustYou will be asked to make unpopular calls
- Committed
- A full seasonTerritories are appointed season by season
On the floor
Referees
Fouls are called by the officials, never by the players — the pick-up convention does not apply here. A Pro tour game is worked by two referees, and between them they own every judgment call on the court.
A referee works to the published rulebook, the same one at a city bracket and on Finals night, and is trained on it before working an event. They are introduced the way the players are, because an official nobody can name is an official nobody can hold to anything.
Two on the court
One lead official on the baseline, one trail at the arc. Fouls, clears, out of bounds and the two-point line are theirs, and they call them out loud.
Review, then final
Each player may request one video review per game, and the two-point line, game-winning baskets and flagrant contact are reviewed automatically. After a review the crew chief’s decision is final and not subject to protest.
The conduct standard
Abuse of an official, an opponent or a spectator is an unsportsmanlike foul on first offence and a disqualification on second. Referees are the ones who apply that, and they are backed when they do.
At the Am World Series. A city or regional bracket is generally worked by one official, who
referees the game and keeps the table at the same time. Two referees and a separate table are a
Pro tour standard, not a condition of running a bracket.
At the table
Scorekeepers
On the Pro tour, behind the two referees sits the table: a timekeeper and a scorer. They run both clocks, keep the score and the foul count, and produce the sheet a result is entered from.
It is not a spectator’s job. A ranking only moves on a confirmed result, and the sheet from the table is what there is to confirm.
- Game clock
- 10:00Stops for a time-out, and for nothing else
- Shot clock
- 0:12From the check; the ball has to hit the rim
- Fouls
- 4 then 1Four checks, then a free throw from the fifth on
- Result
- ConfirmedNothing reaches a ranking until the sheet is signed off
At the Am World Series. There is usually no separate table. The official who referees the
game is the one who keeps the score, runs the clocks and confirms the result afterwards.
Player protection
Medical officers
A licence, an ID and a medical certificate are what get an athlete into any bracket. On the Pro tour there is a medical officer courtside on top of that, for every game on the card.
One-on-one leaves a player nowhere to hide and nobody to share the contact with. The part of a sport that never shows up on a highlight is the part players ask about first, and this is it.
- Pro tour
- CourtsideA licensed trainer or medical professional at every event on the tour
- Am World Series
- Not staffedA city or regional bracket does not carry a medical officer of its own
- Before entry
- CertificateThe medical certificate is part of the licence, at either competition
- Who qualifies
- LicensedAthletic trainers, paramedics, physiotherapists and doctors with a current registration
Apply
Tell us where you want to run
Pick the level and the territory. If somebody already holds it, we will tell you and talk about what else is open nearby.
