Tournament Ranking System: Is It Possible?

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The DCI has a ranking system for Magic: the Gathering. The National Scrabble Association has their ranking system. The USGA calculates golf handicaps.

Can we make something similar for DDR?

It doesn't have to be a company, it doesn't have to be a national collaboration. It has to do at least two things:

1) Define in numerical terms a player's skill level.
2) Establish a way to handicap, balance, and restrict players and tournaments.

I propose this system because I am:

1) Interested in seeing hard, established rankings.
2) Tired of seeing the same people win every time.
3) Tired of seeing people who can AA all the ten footers entering 7 Foot Limit and wiping the floor with people who get anything more than three greats on stuff like Miracle Moon.

I envision the system as a way to ensure fun and entertaining as well as balanced play for tournaments. 7 Foot Limit and Standard tournaments will no longer be considered "a different type of skill" for people who can play ten footers with superb dexterity and accuracy- rather, such tournaments will become the domain of people who are unable to put up fair competition in the more difficult anything-goes style tournaments, because by the ranking system it can be stated that, for example, "No one with a ranking of XXXX or greater may enter the 7 Foot Limit". Furthermore, it will allow handicapping in terms of various concessions given to the weaker player, i.e. a hard bonus to score, choice of pad, choosing both songs, having the stronger player get Flat/Shuffle/Sudden/Hidden, etc.

I have a few rudimentary ideas on paper that are in early alpha stages of development. I still need to work out how players' rankings will be calculated and adjusted, how to sanction, report, and give weight to tournaments, and how handicaps or restrictions will work.

I am open to and welcome all suggestions, comments, critiques, criticsms, and/or praise that you may have. Please remember this is a work in progress, and any words at all are appreciated.

Thank you!

[Creamy Goodness]

It sounds like a very good idea, and I wish it would happen, but I don't think it would work too well. The main reason is because a very small amount of people enter tournaments compared to the total amount of people that play DDR. So you don't usually know if that is actually how good someone is. Also, how would you keep track of everyone's rankings. If it isn't "official," wouldn't that mean that it would probably just be you keeping everyone's rankings in a Word Document or something?

Sorry, I really wish it would work, but I don't think it can.
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[yyr]

The best idea I can come up with would be to somehow integrate it with--or base it off of--the NNR ranking system at www.nnr.ca. There are already over 2000 users that have posted scores there and the number is still growing. Most of the serious players either already have NNR profiles or could easily set them up. That way, you have everyone's abilities in one place.

Using NNR as a base, one would have to come up with ways to transform the statistics there into actual rankings. Should the basis be total DP? Would particular songs or song difficulties be weighted? How would Oni course scores figure into the ranking, or would they figure in at all? Doubles would probably be a separate ranking, as well...

If this could be accomplished, enforcement for tournament purposes would be pretty easy. Tournament organizers could have a rankings list with them, and restrict tournament entry to those that are ranked. And for 7FL divisions (etc.), one could restrict entry to those below a certain level.

The biggest problem with this proposed system is that NNR is based entirely on trust. Of course, most of us wouldn't lie about their scores to increase/decrease their rank, but the possibility exists nonetheless. Another problem is that it takes a while to submit scores for every song, and a user's ranking wouldn't truly be accurate until that's happened. But this is the best idea I can come up with.

~yyr
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[The Game II]

It would be tough, and I'm leaning toward no.

The reason is, rarely are there tournaments where you pull in all sections of the nation (and the best players from the nation at that). Magic might do that, Scrabble might do that, there's Evo2K and T5 for fighting game tournaments.

Plus, then you have to take into account a lot of things.

1. Someone might hold a secret tournament and only announce it to the n00bs plus some really good player so he/she could win. And we have to account that into the rankings when other players weren't told? I say this because there is someone who runs secret tournaments in our state, which I think is quite pathetic.

2. Quality wins. Ok, so that above tournament was made public with those same competitors. So, the person who wins gets a high ranking because he beat a bunch of n00bs? On the flip side, a really good player attends a tournament with five of the best in his/her state and is bounced in two rounds. How do you account that?

3. Taking one tournament over another, and repetitive tournaments. With said type of ranking system, that means the same rules will have to be used at all tournaments. That's not right for someone that competes in a royal rumble format or even a team format. It doesn't give tournament organizers much chance to sell their format as a reason to attend the tournament.

There are others.

I like the idea of using NNR; what NNR could do for tournaments is establish the brackets without having to go through qualifying, which saves pointless time IMO and puts more emphasis on the matches. Just look at who is ranked above who in NNR, and put them in double elimination brackets. And if a person is lying about their ranking, well, they're going to go 2 and out anyway, so f-ck them.

I think instead of thinking nationally, think regionally or statewide. I could easily start a ranking system for the area where I live because it's easy to manage, and these people can see who they're above/below. I believe there is a ranking system in the Pacific Northwest. Small, not large ranking systems could work instead of one huge national system.

--GCII
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[FuzionCracker]

I think it is possible to have a tournament ranking if someone had the time to do it.

It would be like the rankings one would get in chess because someone decided to create a ranking system, and had the time to create it.

a chess player can play a single match in three hours, while a DDRist plays a song sometimes less than two minutes. We are sometimes lazy with our time.
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