[Eugene]

Chris, you definitely have a valid point that I did not consider. At least some one finally said something insightful.

I decided to make this post because I was rather surprised by the fact that my team ranked much higher than I would have expected by my prior experience, so I decided to analyze the situation. The day before, we were in the high 20s. The day after, we placed 14th. The first match of the second day we were paired against a really weak opponent and we beat them 35 to 30. The following match we were paired with an extremely strong opponent and we won again. This propelled us some 13 ranking places. I’m not complaining about our luck but after doing some statistical analysis I noticed that the current scoring system is far susceptible to be influenced by the factors outside of the team’s control than by their prior preparation.

To all who seem to be so crazy about winning, let me once again remind you that we are not about that. It is far better to have a great game were both sides end up benefiting in their rankings that a lousy game in which one side benefits tremendously. The current system, as Chris correctly pointed out encourages wining at all costs. Whatever Ranking Points (you opponent’s scores) you have accumulated in reality make very little difference in your ranking compared to wins and loses.

What I did like however is that in certain cases this system allowed for more creative teams by using strategies that did not score many points. If we could use some combination of this year’s system (to allow for more creative game play) and last year’s system (to eliminate randomness and shear luck) I think we would have a better scoring system.

Eugene