Thread: URPG Ranked Ladders - Week 3

URPG Ladder is back, and has been revamped into something much less activity based.

Instead, we're going to pretend to be much more professional than that and use a proper ELO system to rank battlers against one another. This means that battling people far below your ELO rank will get you little or no gains in the ladder - preying on those of us who think Metagross learns Stone Edge wont further your progress.

What's more, there will be two URPG Ladders running - a general ranked ladder for those of us who want a more serious game, and a randoms ladder for a more laid back competition. You're welcome to compete in both, keeping in mind the different nature of the two styles.

These ladders are intended to be able to run indefinitely. Assuming participation is enough to warrant it, they will continue to do so. Prizes may be awarded, and will be determined based on participation.

The ladder rankings can be found here:
Ranked Ladder
Randoms Ladder

For a battle to qualify for Ladder ranking, it must meet the following criteria.

• 4v4 minimum
• Revolution or B/W Revolution
• Holds On, unless agreed by both battlers
• Normal Weather/Terrain
• Sleep/Freeze/OHKO/Accuracy/Evasion Clauses

The randoms ladder also requires that all Pokemon are rolled at random from the battlers stats, by the ref. Any basic Pokemon may be optionally rerolled by the user.
Referees should log the battle normally, and post a link to the post in their log here.
Gym, Elite Four, other Tournaments or any form of special battle are not eligible for ladder rankings.

If that's all you needed to know, battles can officially count towards the ladder when Sunday 23/02/14 begins in GMT. You can post here to have your name added to the ladder with an initial value, or you can just wait to do your first ladder battle and you'll be added automatically. You can join at any time.

If you're interested in how the ELO is calculated, read ahead.

The ELO System:

Spoiler:

The ELO system was originally invented to rank Chess players against one another, by determining their relative skill levels. This allows it to be used for basically any 1v1 competition, and has been appropriated for many video games. The Pokemon Showdown ladders use a similar system.

The difference between two players' ELO ratings serves as a method of predicting a player's "chance of winning". A difference of 400 points means the higher player is, statistically, 10 times more likely to win.

This calculated "chance of winning" is used to determine how many ELO points a player should lose or gain from a single match.
For example (note these are only theoretical numbers and do not consider weighting factors):

Two people of even ELO battle. They have a 50:50 chance of winning. The winner will gain 50 points, and the loser will lose 50 points.

Two people with a 400 ELO difference battle. There is a 91:9 chance (approximately 10 times) of the higher player winning. If the higher player does win, they will gain 9 points, and the loser will lose 9. However if an upset victory occurs, the higher player will lose 91 points, and the lower player will gain 91.

The example above does not use a weighting factor. Most competitive systems, and this one, use a weighting factor that drops as the number of matches played increases. This means that players on their initial matches will lose or gain a larger number of ELO points than more established players. This allows them to roughly get to their correct spot on the ladder faster, and then settle into a more accurate spot as the weighting factor decreases.

In the URPG system, all players will start with an ELO of 1200. The weighting factor begins at 100, and reduces based on the number of battles until it eventually reaches a constant of 40.

More information can be found on Wikipedia, and several games that use an ELO ranking system.

In addition, if any mods are interested in keeping the ladders updated, an ELO calculator has been written and is available at the following links. They are private, and you will need to IM me your Gmail address so I can provide permissions and a quick explanation of how it works.
Ranked Ladder | Randoms Ladder

Alrighty, time for Week 2 prizes! Good to see the Ranked ladder a little more active this week too.

Despite not battling in the first week, leading the Ranked ladder is @Synthesis; with 1301 ELO and a 3/0 record. He can claim $5,000.
The most active battler in Ranked this week however was @Prince Vultan;, with 5 battles in total. He can also claim $5,000

In a mirror situation, no battles in the first week, however @Elamite; has shot to the top of the randoms ladder with 1331 ELO and a 3/0 record. He can claim $5,000.
The most battles is actually split between three people in Randoms, @Elamite, @Prince Vultan; and @Lovecraft; all battled 3 times, so $5,000 to each of them also.

Most reffed was an even split this week, with 7 people all reffing two battles each, so no standout performers and no reffing bonus.

No prizes this week!

Instead, prizes will be doubled and move to the end of next week, to finish up the first month of the ladder.

Ranked is looking good, but very few battles happening in Randoms at the moment. That better pick up, or I won't bother continuing with prizes for it at all.