Competition Format

Introduction

Unrivaled is a professional 3-on-3 women’s basketball league that runs a compact winter season, followed by a playoff. The season is played in a round-robin format, where each club competes in a series of matchups against the other teams before the top teams advance to a postseason tournament that decides the league champion. In addition to the team competition, Unrivaled also stages a separate 1-on-1 tournament as a marquee mid-season event.

Understanding these competition structures helps you interpret schedules, standings, rankings, and game-level data across the Unrivaled Basketball API.

Competition Phases

The Unrivaled season consists of multiple phases that appear across the schedule and standings feeds. Understanding these phases will help you correctly group games, interpret rankings, and build user interfaces that align with the league’s structure.

The diagram below outlines the overall flow of the Unrivaled season, showing how regular-season play leads into the postseason structure and how the 1-on-1 tournament operates as a separate parallel event.

Game Rules & Format Variations

Unrivaled introduces several gameplay elements that directly affect how clock, scoring, and play-by-play data appear in the API.

Elam Ending

Unrivaled uses an Elam Ending to determine the winner during the final phase of the game. Regulation is played with a standard clock until the designated Elam period begins. At that point:

• The game clock is turned off
• A target score is established based on the leading team’s current score plus a fixed value
• The first team to reach the target score wins

How Elam Ending Appears in the API

The Game Play-by-Play feed may include a period with type = quarter or elam:

"periods": [
  {
    "type": "quarter",
    ...
  },
  {
    "type": "elam",
    ...
  }
]

Note: The Unrivaled API uses "quarter" for regulated periods for consistency with other basketball APIs, even though the gameplay format is 3-on-3.

Code snippet showing Elam Ending clock.

{
  "id": "0b5eda65-036c-40c2-ba06-989dc597b745",
  "event_type": "threepointmade",
  "sequence": 1762312484137,
  "clock_fraction": 0,
  "description": "Naz Hillmon makes three point jump shot (Naz Hillmon assists)",
  "clock": "1:30",
  "clock_type": "elam",
  "clock_decimal": "1:30",
  "clock_directional": "+1:30"
}

Developer Best Practices

• Do not assume a countdown clock once the Elam Ending begins
• Check clock_type and periods.type to detect game phase transitions
• Use the score + target score fields (when available) to determine game progress
• Expect the game to end on a final made basket, not a timed expiration

Weighted Free Throws

Unrivaled uses a single-attempt weighted free-throw system, similar to the NBA G League.

• Fouled on a 2-point attempt → One free throw worth 2 points
• Fouled on a 3-point attempt → One free throw worth 3 points

How Weighted Free Throws Appear in the API

The API includes a dedicated field:

• free_throw_points An integer representing the total point value awarded if the free throw is made.

This means:

• Boxscore totals may increase by 2 or 3 from a single free-throw event
• Play-by-play will show a single attempt with the full value recorded
• Scoring logic must not assume traditional 1-point free throws

Additional Unrivaled-Specific Game Data

Event Types

Unrivaled includes additional substitution and rotation events:

• lineupchangeone
• lineupchangethree

These reflect fast-paced lineup swaps common to 3-on-3 basketball.

Game-Winning Basket

game_winning_basket Identifies the final made basket that reached the Elam target score.