Topic: Handling rankings for inactive players

[kayko2000]

Hey folks,

I'm looking for some suggestions and advice.

I'm one of the promoters and active members of the Taiwan Foosball Association, and we take care of rankings based on the Elo System (http://www.foosball.tw/menu_content/ranking.html).  The number of "core" players aren't many -- maybe 30 really active players (as far as attending TFA events), another 30 less active players, and a whole slew of one-timers.

So, I'm trying to figure out how we can clean up our ranking table to make more sense.  I want to address these three issues:
 1. Players who may have only played once, and never since (can't really just delete them because other people's Elo points are dependent on them, but maybe we can just "hide" them).  These are very very casual players who might have joined for fun (and in most cases, lost quickly).
 2. Once active players who are now very inactive.  Some of them hold top 15 rankings, but because they don't play, their points don't slip - so they continue to occupy rankings that they're not deserving of.
 3. Encourage people to play in more tournaments - better for them, better for the game.

How do your leagues handle inactive players?

A few possibilities:

- Give an extra 5 points for joining a small tournament, and 10 points for a larger tournament. In some ways, joining a tournament gives you more experience, making you a better players.  So the extra 5 - 10 points accounts for that (one way of spinning it).

- Just remove players' from the ranking tables (they can keep their points) if they haven't joined a tournament in the past year.  So they won't see their names on the list.  This could work... because the next time the player joins another tournament, their points will move in the appropriate direction.

- Reset points each year - although I don't know how to do that fairly.  Maybe round down your points to the minimum for your current level, e.g. all Amateurs get reset to 1100 points in our point system.  And if someone is at 1100 points already, then they get reset down to the minimum Rookie ranking of 850.  So inactive players would move down a level each year. However, a semi-pro who hasn't played in 2 yrs could still be better than most rookies here, and could win rookie events and take prize money.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Kevin

[EDGEER]

Very good Questions and we too have many of the same problems that you have.  One of our problems are Professional players that purposely avoid rated events to keep their identity more or less unknown. When they finally do show up to play they win the Amateur events but will go out in 2 in all others to prevent their rating from increasing. It is a difficult problem and I'm afraid no ELO system can correctly rate these players.

I recommend that you begin each year with a static beginning point.  After the year is complete, create a list of 1 through 4 place winners for all your rated events and any others events that are relevant. Review and analyze your list and identify those that have won several and determine if they need to be promoted based on merit. Have your major promoters also review the winners list and ask them to offer recommendations on those they think need to be promoted.  Finally, make the necessary adjustments before you publish the end of year ratings.

[kayko2000]

Thanks, Edgeer, for your feedback.
Sounds like we need to do this by hand... fortunately, Taiwan's not a big place, and we know just about all the players.

If anyone else has anything to add, please do!  Cheers.