Naavanaxx has introduced his ideas for an annual championship based on work he did in compiling a list of winners for 2010 .. it is an impressive amount of work and an interesting idea .. Naav and i have discussed it at length in chats at FIBS and in emails

like others, i have misgivings about basing the award or rankings on wins alone .. as Naavanaxx mentioned, there are other options .. i have come up with a first step based on a proportional distribution of points awarded each registered player .. a full 32 player bracket is worth 32 points to the winner; 27 players - 27 points to the winner; 9 players - 9 points to the winner; 3 players - 3 points .. other positions are awarded as follows:

[table=]    Place, Points
   ,   32, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,[/table]

for less than 32 players, points are awarded proportionately based on n/32, where n is the number of registered players from 3-31 .. decimals above are used for calculation purposes only .. all points are awarded after rounding to whole numbers .. the decimal values are based on the points distribution used by the Official World Golf Ranking system consolidated for a 32 player bracket

the principle is simply that for determining FIBS Tournament Player Rankings the number of players registered in a tournament is directly proportional to the ranking points awarded or the value of a win .. thus, winning a tournament with 27 registered players is 3X as valuable as winning one with only 9 registered players .. for open tourneys where anyone can register, this appears to be a good way to differentiate the value in assessing a win

there are other considerations such as player ratings and length of tourneys, but we can deal with those later .. for now, a way to settle the debate over the value of a tournament win appears to be doable .. what do you think?

last week, i began collecting results from all our regularly scheduled tournaments .. i will post those results as soon as i can determine how best to do that .. if you're interested in those details, i have attached an Excel spreadsheet which contains a more detailed analysis of the distribution and the results of weekly tournaments through today's Bago .. for this week, beginning on Monday, the points race is familiar:

[table=]
Player, Points, Wins, Tourneys
socksey, ,   1,    2
vegas_vic, ,   1,    1
yoyo,,   1,    2
NeverEZ,,   0,    2[/table]

Player of the Week
Mon, 29-Nov, thru Wednesday Three/Five

socksey continues to play the role of dominatrix with a win in the Wednesday Three/Five

TOP 10
[table=]
Rank,Player,Points,Wins,Tourneys
,socksey,,,,vegas_vic,,,,yoyo,,,,NeverEZ,,,,TriAtma_III,,,,pollemanden,,,,wordman,,,,aviator,,,,GabiBilu,,,,oneblessedguy,,,,JonPrud,,,[/table]

Tournaments
[table=]
Tournament, Date, Players
Monday Three/Five,,Work Can Wait Forever,,Tuesday Three/Five,,Bago - Tuesday,,Wednesday Three/Five,,[/table]

Player of the Week
Mon, 29-Nov, thru BagOlympic - Thursday

only a few days into this detailed demonstration of a new tournament player ranking system, it couldn't get any closer or more interesting, IMHO .. undaunted by socksey's three wins this week, the intrepid challenger, vegas_vic, won today's BagOlympic which propels him into a solid second place only two (2) points behind socksey

of course with vic nothing is as it seems .. in an apparent anomaly or bug in Challonge, the score which was reported correctly according to the brackets below with vic winning, 6-3, turns up in the listing of the "Full Results" with LuckyDice being the "Supreme Champion"

LuckyDice timed out without a final "official" ruling today, but since this is too good an example to overlook, i am giving the match to vic, for now .. since this is very experimental and certainly unofficial, i trust no one will object .. i'll change it later, if necessary

for now, you can clearly see from the Top 10 list that vegas_vic has only two wins compared to three for socks .. if we were counting only wins in evaluating tourney players, socksey would have a commanding lead over the field this week with 3 wins compared to zero for most of the remaining 44 registered players this week .. she would also have a solid lead over vic at 3-2 .. however, using this system weighted by number of registered players in each tourney, socksey pulled ahead with a slim 2 point margin by virtue of her tie for 9th place today

with the F3, Mini's, A9, and Bloody Mary tournaments coming up, each capable of generating 15-25+ players or points, the outcome of the Player of the Week race is far from certain .. at first glance, since socksey, vegas_vic, and yoyo are all near the top, it may appear that these results are not much different than the rankings derived from Naavanaxx's excellent effort at tabulating wins for 2010 .. to a certain extent that is true .. however, the finer level of detail available for all participating tournament players whether they have won or not is the inherent value in this approach

i've also added a pair of new TOTALS which i doubt any of us have ever thought much about before .. for example, Entries and Players -- Entries is the total of all registered players in the 7 tournaments listed, Players is the count of "unique" players represented in those entries .. Points is the number of ranking points distributed in all tourneys, Pts per Event is simply the average points per event .. all of these will become interesting barometers of tournament participation as time passes

like i said, i couldn't have planned a better example of why a system like this has merit .. as you become more familiar with what i am attempting to do here, please don't hesitate to ask questions or post comments within this thread .. just try to keep them on the topic of how this system awards points .. remember, the topic of seeding has been moved to another thread .. as you can see, it would become very confusing to attempt to sustain that conversation within all the new information i will be publishing in this thread .. the seeding topic will be dealt with completely at Seeding by Rating: fair or unfair?

BagOlympic - Session 12.1


BagOlympic - Thursday
2-Dec-10  -- 18 players
[table=]
Place, Player, Points
,vegas_vic,LuckyDice,dorbel,bolagno,yukon,juanz,zbilbo,silent_greek,wort,adeline,supermane,Tanika,socksey,rif_raf,yourfuturexwife,sixtie,DavidF,kawasaki[/table]

TOP 10
[table=]
Rank,Player,Points,Wins,Tourneys
,socksey,,,,vegas_vic,,,,pollemanden,,,,yoyo,,,,LuckyDice,,,,NeverEZ,,,,TriAtma_III,,,,zbilbo,,,,aviator,,,,DisraeliGears,,,,bolagno,,,[/table]

FIBS Tournaments
[table=]
Event, Date, Players,   Points
Monday Three/Five,,,Work Can Wait Forever,,,Tuesday Three/Five,,,Bago - Tuesday,,,Wednesday Three/Five,,,Thursday Three/Five,,,BagOlympic - Thursday,,,,,,,,,,,,[/table]

Cumulative Totals

the Player of the Week totals have been interesting, for me anyway .. as a result of a suggestion by jackdaddy, i began looking at cumulative totals from week to week .. jack suggested that coming up with a points per tournament number might be interesting to see and perhaps use for evaluating tournament players .. here is a first glimpse into that process

BTW, this process is becoming burdensome fast .. while Excel is great for many things, this project is beginning to push some limits .. i am not sure whether they are my limits or the limits of Excel, but i know that this database will grow rapidly as time goes by .. for me, size matters when dealing with data sets in Excel .. i think a database app like MySql may be more appropriate for gathering and extracting tournament data .. but i'd rather continue on the clumsy path with Excel for a while to see if there is anything of value to be gained by this little exercise or not

so, any database folks out there like to lend a hand with this project and build a front-end for me?

meanwhile, here is an early look at cumulative points list for the 12 days since i began these tabulations

Top 25 by Points
[table=]
   Rank, Player,   Points, Tourneys,    Wins, Pts/Trny
,socksey,,,,,LuckyDice,,,,,vegas_vic,,,,,yoyo,,,,,pollemanden,,,,,zbilbo,,,,,sixtie,,,,,aviator,,,,,TriAtma_III,,,,,jackdaddy,,,,,Naavanaxx,,,,,DisraeliGears,,,,,pittpenguins,,,,,silent_greek,,,,,rif_raf,,,,,dorbel,,,,,NeverEZ,,,,,sunray,,,,,WiFi,,,,,WildThing,,,,,Tanika,,,,,Miccimalou,,,,,wordman,,,,,RickrInSF,,,,,bolagno,,,,,yourfuturexwife,,,,,hotdice,,,,,rossa,,,,[/table]

Top 25 by Points per Tourney
Two or more tourneys
[table=]
   Rank, Player,   Points, Tourneys,    Wins, Pts/Trny
,LuckyDice,,,,,dorbel,,,,,yoyo,,,,,zbilbo,,,,,wordman,,,,,DisraeliGears,,,,,hotdice,,,,,pittpenguins,,,,,socksey,,,,,silent_greek,,,,,javiator,,,,,vegas_vic,,,,,Tanika,,,,,calounette,,,,,spielberg,,,,,pollemanden,,,,,sixtie,,,,,Naavanaxx,,,,,lou,,,,,jackdaddy,,,,,TriAtma_III,,,,,RickrInSF,,,,,palladin,,,,,sunray,,,,,WiFi,,,,,bolagno,,,,,hotschtick,,,,,GabiBilu,,,,,inim,,,,,gilesashton,,,,
[/table]

Player of the Week
Mon, 29-Nov, thru After Nine #5

The three top players this week were out in force again for the A9. vegas_vic made the finals, but picked up the win; socksey was knocked out in the semi-finals and LuckyDice picked up points tied for 5th. So, socksey remains in a domineering lead for the week, fitting for the FIBS tourney dominatrix, but vic gained a little ground on her and solidified his hold on second place for the week.

The Average Points per Tourney board below looks like it will become a good indicator of player strength in tourneys. I will limit it to players who compete in a minimum number of tourneys per week. I am thinking at least 2-4 per week would be a good threshhold.

Mini Matches


After Nine #5
4-Dec-10 -- 13 players
[table=]
Place, Player, Points
,lou,vegas_vic,Leudwulf,socksey,Miccimalou,LuckyDice,Johnny_Boy,Tanika,sixtie,pollemanden,RickInSF,rif_raf,hotschtick[/table]

TOP 25
Mon, 29-Nov, thru After Nine #5
[table=]
Rank,Player,Points,Wins,Tourneys
,socksey,,,,vegas_vic,,,,zbilbo,,,,LuckyDice,,,,pollemanden,,,,lou,,,,aviator,,,,yoyo,,,,NeverEZ,,,,TriAtma_III,,,,sixtie,,,,adrian,,,,spielberg,,,,bolagno,,,,DisraeliGears,,,,Miccimalou,,,,sunray,,,,rif_raf,,,,GabiBilu,,,,Johnny_Boy,,,,wordman,,,,hotschtick,,,,Tanika,,,,dorbel,,,,gilesashton,,,,RickrInSF,,,[/table]

FIBS Tournaments
[table=]
Event, Date, Players,   Points
Monday Three/Five,,,Work Can Wait Forever,,,Tuesday Three/Five,,,Bago - Tuesday,,,Wednesday Three/Five,,,Thursday Three/Five,,,BagOlympic - Thursday,,,F3,,,Mini Matches,,,After Nine #5,,,
,,,,,,,,,[/table]

Top 10 -- Average Points per Tourney
Three or more tourneys since 22-Nov
[table=]
Rank,  Players, Points, Tourneys, Wins, Pts/Trny
,LuckyDice,,,,,dorbel,,,,,lou,,,,,yoyo,,,,,zbilbo,,,,,DisraeliGears,,,,,socksey,,,,,pittpenguins,,,,,silent_greek,,,,,vegas_vic,,,,[/table]

Top 10 -- Cumulative Points
Since 22-Nov
[table=]
Rank,  Players, Points, Tourneys, Wins, Pts/Trny
,socksey,,,,,LuckyDice,,,,,vegas_vic,,,,,yoyo,,,,,pollemanden,,,,,sixtie,,,,,zbilbo,,,,,aviator,,,,,TriAtma_III,,,,,jackdaddy,,,,[/table]

Isnt the player of the week more someone like watchman..who won 100% of the tourneys he entered? 

Well, I guess something like this will get fibsters out of bed in the morning 

Getting Current With a Little Help From Our Friends

Six weeks have passed since my last FIBSboard post after introducing the analysis and reporting of FIBS Tournament Player Ranking (TPR). Weeks one and two, (22-Nov to 5-Dec), have been reported exhaustively in previous posts. Now, data for 8 full weeks of tournament play has been collected and converted using the TPR ranking system described in detail in this thread.

Initial feedback has been generally good, but the amount of time required to stay current and continue these posts was far more than I was willing to commit -- my use of the word exhaustively above was quite correct. However, just as I was ready to strike my tent and move on the the next thing, volunteers arrived willing to share major pieces of the work and design load.

First to volunteer was aviator, the backgammon king of Knight's Ferry, California, and a really nice guy. Another volunteer, lewscannon, a New York City backgammon ace and Excel expert recommended by vegas_vic, was recruited by me to improve the TPR spreadsheet design. Both performed yeoman's work in improving the design of my initial worksheets and aviator has labored above and beyond the call of duty in getting us current. Without those two guys recent involvement, this thread would have been history.

Maintaining the TPR had become much too much work for me to continue alone. With aviator now handling ALL data collection and conversion, and a significantly improved design thanks to lewscannon we are NOW CURRENT with weekly TPR results for the past eight tournament weeks and well on our way to developing a workable and manageable process for staying current. With that support, I am able to continue to improve the design and plan for future needs, such as simplifying posting of weekly standings.

You can see the results of our joint efforts by opening the attached Excel spreadsheet. Note that these are working spreadsheets, not intended for pretty reporting or ease of navigating. They are very much a work in progress. Comments by me (rb) and aviator (Michael) are sprinkled throughout. Areas of the worksheets are highlighted where we focused our attention in a few telephone sessions, but in no way are the spreadsheets well documented or designed for ease of use. Regardless, the collaborative effort has resulted in each of us learning new ways to use Excel which, for me, has always been more than half the fun.

Posts here at FIBSboard summarizing each week will be coming soon making TPR Standings more easily viewed. Within a few more weeks we will be posting weekly standings by the end of the current tournament week. We are now in tournament week nine (9).

For the purpose of TPR Standings, a tournament week is defined as Monday through Sunday. Tournaments included are regularly scheduled tourneys at FIBS whether run using TourneyBot or Challonge. Currently, the tourneys included are only those listed in the Tourneys schedule here at FIBSboard. Others will be added as new regularly scheduled weekly tourneys come along.

• MON - Monday Three/Five (3/5) 1630/1700 UTC
• MON - Work Can Wait Forever (3/5) 1900/1930 UTC
• TUE - Tuesday Three/Five (3/5) 1630/1700 UTC
• TUE - BagOlymic (3/5) 1930/2000 UTC
• WED - Wednesday Three/Five (3/5) 1630/1700 UTC
• THU - Thursday Three/Five (3/5) 1630/1700 UTC
• THU - BagOlymic (3/5) 1930/2000 UTC
• FRI - F3's (3/5) 1700/1730 UTC
• SAT - Mini Matches (2/2) 1600/1630 UTC
• SAT - After Nine (3/5) 2100/2130 UTC
• SUN - Bloody Mary Sunday Special (3/5) 1600/1630 UTC

Summary posts of TPR standings and status will be forthcoming. Designing a meaningful format for these FIBSBoard posts is a challenge of its own. Until the post format is settled and fully implemented, you may rely on regular attachments of the work file as we continue to develop it. Ultimately, our goal is to make all our reporting requirements obsolete and turn both the data collection, conversion, and reporting requirements over to TourneyBot. We are actually closer to that goal than you might imagine, but we are still a few months away. In the meantime, your feedback here or elsewhere is always welcome

Thanks again to aviator, lewscannon, and to all who have provided feedback and encouragement in developing this system. While aviator and I have been the only ones really seeing the TPR race unfolding over the past few weeks, I think you will find it an interesting new feature in FIBSland. Tournament participation seems to already be growing as a result of the increased awareness of tournament play which is inherent in the TPR scoring. If all goes according to plan, a doubling of both the number of tourneys and more importantly in tournament participation may not be too far away.

OK, if you are reading this and think a TPR race might be interesting, give me some feedback on the types of reports you like, don't like, or ideas you'd like to see .. anything is possible at the moment .. we'll take the best and trash the rest .. thanks

FIBS TPR Week 4
13-Dec to 19-Dec-2010

TOURNAMENT WEEK 4
[table=]
Tournament,    Date   ,   Players,   Points
Monday Three/Five,,,Work Can Wait Forever,,,Tuesday Three/Five,,,BagOlympic Tuesday,,,Wednesday Three/Five,,,Thursday Three/Five,,,BagOlympic Thursday,,,F3,,,Mini Matches ,,,After Nine Session 7,,,Bloody Mary Sunday Special,,,,,,,,,,,,[/table]


PLAYER OF THE WEEK -- TOP 25
FIBS TPR Week 4 --Monday (13-Dec) thru Sunday (19-Dec-10 )

[table=]
Rank, Player, Points, Wins, Tourneys
,vegas_vic,,,,spielberg,,,,LuckyDice,,,,aviator,,,,sixtie,,,,yoyo,,,,MarStem,,,,socksey,,,,DeaDice,,,,rif_raf,,,,Cigale,,,,RickrInSF,,,,silent_greek,,,,csg,,,,Tom,,,,Perfect_Celle,,,,ginnytonic,,,,JonPrud,,,,Tanika,,,,ThomasG,,,,bolagno,,,,Cinderella,,,,Johnny_Boy,,,,pollemanden,,,,sarah,,,,stog,,,,WildThing,,,[/table]

Coming soon will be cumulative totals for the first 4 weeks, our first theoretical "Tournament Month" .. Only 15 more weeks to go to get current.

FIBS TPR 2010 Week 6
27-Dec to 02-Jan-2011

TOURNAMENT WEEK 6
[table=]
Tournament,     Date, Players, Points
Monday Three/Five,,,Work Can Wait Forever,,,Tuesday Three/Five,,,BagOlympic Tuesday,,,Wednesday Three/Five,,,Thursday Three/Five,,,BagOlympic Thursday,,,F3,,,Mini-Matches,,,After 9,,,Bloody Mary "Sunday Special",,,,,,,,,,,,[/table]


PLAYER OF THE WEEK -- TOP 25
FIBS TPR Week 6 --Monday (27-Dec) thru Sunday (02-Jan-11 )

[table=]
Rank, Player, Points, Wins, Tourneys
,DeaDice,,,,socksey,,,,aviator,,,,pollemanden,,,,silent_greek,,,,garp,,,,JonPrud,,,,vegas_vic,,,,MacMom,,,,yoyo,,,,oldreddog,,,,sixtie,,,,WildThing,,,,yocha,,,,LuckyDice,,,,blotsalot,,,,rif_raf,,,,burton,,,,austin,,,,bolagno,,,,Cigale,,,,jackdaddy,,,,wordman,,,,ciccione,,,,Tom,,,[/table]

Coming soon will be cumulative totals for the first 6 weeks, our pre-season 2010 totals. I will then reset the totals for the "Tournament Year" 2011 (52 full "Tournament Weeks") which begins on Monday, 3-Jan-2011. Only 13 more weeks to go to get current.