As someone in the top 500, your participation rate is at 63% of the average “top 500” player (663 points worth of events).
You can look at that as you’re under-ranked based on your lack of play . . . but again I wouldn’t argue for a change in the system to fit your amount of play as “normal” . . . because clearly even among your peers of a similar ranking it’s “below normal” by quite a bit.
I actually have to go all the way down to the participation level of someone ranked in the top 2000 before it matches the rate at which you currently play at.
So while you like the idea of a this cost of living adjustment, would you think that YOU should be someone that is impacted by this adjustment in a positive way? Or . . . the fact that you are participating at the level of a top 2000 player, that really more should be expected out of you before changing the system to accommodate someone like yourself? (I don’t know the answer)
When pinball gets to the level where there can be a professional tour, I am very behind this idea. For now, I like the positive-only system a lot because I do like to play in a lot of events. Since I am getting close to the top 100 on the site in ranking, I now have to travel a lot to make big gains in the number of points in my best 20 events.
If the goal of the IFPA were purely to rank the skill of every player, their system wouldn’t make any sense the way it is currently set up. The rankings are largely meaningless from 1000 and beyond except for a way to encourage a new player to work his or her way up through them, and for something interesting to stick in your Tinder bio. I think it is great to have a system that in theory is “hey if you’re really the best player in the world. Play in 20 major tournaments (and stats on the site will show you which ones are big) and we’ll see how good you really are.”
What I really don’t want is a system that goes “oh look these guys were great in the past” or “these guys only play a few times a year but when they do they do well so I guess we need to boost them up because they could be really good players.” Scale up the size of the pinball player base to that of League of Legends and I’d expect a bunch of 17-year-old prodigys to come in and start kicking everyone’s asses in a short period of time.
Maybe it’s because of where I live or that I don’t really have any family stuff to worry about or that my job is good about giving me time off, but I really do no thave much trouble increasing my rank as long as I A) travel to big events and B) do well at those events. Am I a moron for spending a minimum of 5 hours each week traveling to play pinball? Definitely! But hey as long as it’s not gonna hurt me, and I might win some money or a trophy, why not?
Nah, I’m definitely not playing enough. I thought your example numbers seemed reasonable though. I moved up two whole spots, which is probably fair to me all things considered.
The difference here is that you are going into each of these tournaments/events knowing they are not a ranking tournament.
Where as if I place dead last in PAPA A or say 51st in IFPA12 (the 2 most prestigious events we have!) it doesn’t negatively impact my ranking in anyway (just my mental well being!)
Personally i think it should in some way, I played shit, so I deserve shit
I would argue that it certainly has a negative impact because of the opportunity costs associated with the point potential of those events.
While you don’t “lose WPPR’s” . . . the chances to pull out a 70+, 80+, 100+ point grab doesn’t come often. If you’re not grabbing those points, other players definitely ARE, and they are moving up in the rankings based on that performance at your expense.
… but that only includes the top 20 tournaments for each player instead of their full participation. I feel like a better measure would be the total of all tournaments for that player. For example, a poor performance in a large event would just get skipped over because it wouldn’t end up on that person’s “resume”.
From a friend, I’ve heard “I’m playing in PAPA D division” used on a date before. This is totally feasible.
On a more serious note, I love numbers and @pinwizj is supplying data (I thought I would be over-ranked for the 900s, but I’m just boring and average). I’ll be out for our team league this evening, but are there any statistics people want to see?
That’s far more challenging to pull . . .so you’re gonna take this and LIKE IT
It’s an estimate where poor performance in a large event isn’t totally skipped over, because it’s impacting your Eff%.
If I have 100 WPPR’s and an Eff% of 20%, and then play in a bunch of huge tournaments that don’t touch my resume, I’ll have 100 WPPR’s and an Eff% of 10% . . . my participation level still went from 500 to 1000.
I imagine that this would be a player’s total points (on stats page) / EFF % unless the total points stat includes the drop in value from events over 1 year old
In the first example I gained four spots to be ranked 416 (woohoo!). In the second example I stayed where I was (420).
I would have actually predicted I would have dropped places, but perhaps I’m doing as well as my placing currently shows.
Interesting stuff regardless!
As a bit of a curve ball. The efficiency percent is calculated with 1st place finishers only right? Would there be any value in an efficiency percent calculated for podium finishers (1st, 2nd or 3rd)? I’ve only ever finished 1st in 3 events, so take my comment as biased if you will. But I’ve found when you reach that top 3 playoff situation, coming 1st 2nd or 3rd can be a bit of a coin toss sometimes. String two good games together and you take home the prize. Equally, have a bad run of two games and snag the bronze.
The second example is actually just listed by WPPR rank, not by projected participation level
Eff % is basically the percentage of WPPR points you expect to earn out of what’s available, and 1st place always gets 100% of the points available for any given event.
You would think if the finals were a coin flip I would have won a Major by now . . . grrrrrrrr (cough, 0 for 5, cough)
But hey as long as it’s not gonna hurt me, and I might win some money or a trophy, why not?
(the 2 most prestigious events we have!) it doesn’t negatively impact my ranking in anyway (just my mental well being!) 
