Tournament ratings were introduced in Fall 2004. Ever since then, they've been the basis for much discussion, debate, celebration, commiseration and even occasional controversy. Love 'em or hate 'em, they seem to have made things more interesting. See the Background below for an explanation of the different ratings.
Important note: Players who do not wish to be rated should refer to the Dr. Names section below.
Background
While freecell.net has always offered historical data for the top finishers
in past tournaments, until Fall, 2004 there wasn't a consistent way to put it
all together and really compare skills with other players. The "Ratings Crew" designed
a system to do just that.
The rating system employed here is based on the same model used in many
other competitive events, such as chess, although this model has been
customized to our situation. It has been extensively tested, and is more
flexible and robust than any of the Freecell tournament rating systems
previously explored. Overall, NetCELL tournaments are well suited to a
rating system such as this, and it serves
Freecell players over a wide range of skill levels.
Basics
Ratings are based on not only your final position in each rated tournament
you play, but also on who you placed ahead of and who placed ahead of you.
That is, finishing ahead of a higher-rated player will improve your rating
more than outpacing a lower-rated opponent. The rating attempts to predict
where you will finish in a given tournament, and with each successive
tournament played the ratings are updated based on your actual performance.
Final elapsed time and number of wins are important only insofar as they
determine your final standing relative to the other players; no special
consideration is given for margin of victory.
How do I get a rating?
There are two hurdles to becoming a rated tournament player. First, for
your appearance to count at all, you must complete a certain number of
games, as follows.
- At least 6 games in a 32-game tournament
- At least 4 games in a 20-game tournament
- At least 3 games in a 16-game tournament
- At least 2 games in a 12-game tournament
- At least 2 games in an 8-game tournament
Second, players who have not yet completed 5 rated tournaments are assigned
provisional ratings but will not appear in ranking lists. Once players have
earned a rating, they must have competed in at least one rated tournament
in the past 90 days to maintain their place in current ranking lists.
Which tournaments are rated?
Ratings have been calculated back to the very beginning of NetCELL
tournaments. Separate ratings are calculated for each tournament theme.
This is done to highlight players who excel in a particular type of
competition. Masters tournament ratings are perhaps the most meaningful
because the Masters draws the most competition; cumulative ratings are also
provided but may not predict well how a player will do in a particular
tournament theme. Quickie tournaments are not scored and have no impact on
published ratings.
Ratings are constantly readjusted based on your most recent performance,
and therefore no effort is made to exclude outdated tournament results.
Because the rating focuses on a player's current form, one bad performance will not have a
lasting impact. If, for instance, a 1700-level player has a poor outing one
week, after two or three more characteristic finishes the rating should be
restored.
What does my rating mean?
As a statistical model, your rating not only shows your relative rank in
skill, but also gives some idea of how far separated you are from other
players. Generally speaking, a difference in ratings of 200 points
represents one standard deviation, meaning the higher-rated player should
place above the lower-rated player approximately 68% of the time. If the
difference is 400 points, the higher-rated player should win 95% of
head-to-head matches. A 600-point difference in ratings indicates a 99%
dominance.
Can you explain "rating" and "ranking?"
Your rating is the figure that is calculated based on your combined
performance in all rated tournaments. However, the rating figure by itself
is significant only in relation to other players. So the calculated rating
is used to determine where you rank among your peers.
What is a "good" rating?
Many players who participate in tournaments do not achieve a rating at all,
so in that sense all ratings are good. Rated players begin with a rating of
1500, and this number can fluctuate up and down widely, especially in the
early going. (Note that no direct comparisons can be made to a rating
figure from other similar rating systems, such as those used in chess or in
Yahoo! games.) As ratings rise, this volatility decreases proportionally.
This allows newer players to quickly move to their proper place in the
list, and lessens the damage on a player's rating after one
uncharacteristic performance.
Player names appear in color in the ranking lists based on tiers of
ratings, as follows.
- 2300+: red
- 2100-2299: purple
- 1900-2099: blue
- 1700-1899: green
- 0-1699: grey
How can I improve my rating?
Click faster! Part of the fun in seeing your rank will be to see which
players are closest to you in skill and focus on outplaying them. One
important consideration, though, is that casual play in a rated tournament
will be treated as a serious effort, and therefore should either be
avoided, or an alternate name used. Over time you will most likely find
your rating settles into one place unless your skill level changes
dramatically, so focus on incremental improvement.
Dr. Names
In 2006, the Ratings Crew introduced "Dr." (don't rate) playing names in the interest of increasing the accuracy of the tournament ratings. The concept is simple: any name that begins with "dr." (or "Dr." or "DR." or even "dR."; e.g., Dr.Bombay, dr.calicokid) is ignored for ratings purposes. If you start late, expect to be interrupted, or are temporarily technically or mentally compromised in some way, there are two reasons to play as a Dr.:
1. To protect your own rating; and
2. To protect the possible damage to the ratings of other players in that tourney, had you played under a secondary (non-doctor) name.
Of course, you can always play with a Dr. name any time you don't wish to be rated, for whatever reason.
We also ask people to choose one and only one non-doctor name per theme. For the most part, this has worked very well, and we have been pleased with the results.
Thanks very much to all who have cooperated with the doctor system.
We hope you enjoy ratings!
The Ratings Crew,
- ElGuapo
- Laffman
- SlowPoker
- WRAC