Team Boss K, Team Zone Win Inaugural SM Active Hub Pickleball Trio Challenge

Philippine pickleball has its first Trio Challenge champions—and SM Supermalls has delivered on its most ambitious domestic tournament to date.

The SM Active Hub Pickleball Trio Challenge wrapped up its inaugural edition on 12 July with a Grand Finals at SM Pickleball, Four E-Com Center MOA Complex in Pasay City, crowning champions in both the DUPR 9 and DUPR 11 divisions after a five-leg qualifying series that ran across SM Bicutan, SM Sta. Mesa, SM Sta. Rosa, SM Marikina, and SM Center Muntinlupa. A total of 89 teams entered the qualifying rounds. Thirty-two made it to the Grand Finals. Two teams left with the title.

Team Boss K—composed of Keane, Sunshine, and Prince—claimed the DUPR 9 championship, having advanced from the SM City Sta. Mesa qualifying leg. Team Zone—composed of Glorie, Zacky, and Renzo—took the DUPR 11 crown, coming through the SM City Marikina qualifier. Both teams now hold a distinction that can never be taken away: the first-ever SM Active Hub Pickleball Trio Challenge champions.

The format itself was one of the tournament’s most interesting features. Rather than the standard singles or doubles structure, the Trio Challenge puts three-player teams on the court, with each team’s division determined by the combined Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating of all three players. The structure rewards not just individual skill but chemistry, strategic coordination, and the kind of collective decision-making that separates good teams from great ones. It made for a different kind of pickleball—one that demanded more from everyone involved.

The Grand Finals featured two Grand Parades of Finalists—one per category—a moment that captured something beyond the competition itself. Pickleball in the Philippines has reached the point where a mall-based tournament can draw 89 teams across five qualifying venues, culminate in a grand finals at a dedicated facility inside the country’s largest commercial complex, and celebrate its finalists with the kind of ceremony usually reserved for more established sporting events. That is not a minor development.

SM Supermalls has been the most visible driver of pickleball infrastructure in the Philippines, currently operating 89 courts across 29 malls and with more facilities scheduled to open in the coming months. The Trio Challenge adds a competitive layer to that infrastructure—giving the growing community of players not just a place to play but something meaningful to play for.

The tournament is done. The champions have been crowned. And SM Active Hub’s pickleball calendar, judging by the energy of the Grand Finals, is only getting bigger from here.