[GaryVoshol]

The theory behind ranking score is similar to the "strength of schedule" parameter in the college football rankings.

If your alliance wins 132-2, what does that say about either alliance? Does it say yours is strong, or theirs is weak? Yet if you win 132-114, it does say something - that even though you played a strong opponent who could score, you still came out ahead. That should be recognized somehow in the rankings, and the RP score does that.

A secondary effect of this is that there is no incentive to run up the score to humiliate an opponent - although with all the penalties this year, teams would be well advised to make sure they have a comfortable lead.

As Alan mentioned, in previous years you could score freely for your opponent to raise the ranking score. Last year it was strictly prohibited. This year there was no prohibition, but since you couldn't possess your opponents' trackballs you were essentially limited to knocking a ball across their finish line for them. Of course there's always the strategy of not defending when they are trying to score, and not removing their trackballs from bonus positions.