Leaderboard - New Implementation, Easily Accessible, Diminishing Returns

[Lueosi]

New Leaderboard Implementation
Some may have wondered what the empty leaderboard is about. Those of you who are around for longer already have seen it used during first weeks of Hephaestus Challenge a year ago. But now with the involvement of Ayetach I am proud to announce a new leaderboard season! It will only last 3 months to see the concept in a live environment while getting feedback to improve the implementation.

Basically what you need to know is simple:

Accessibility
It is incredible easy to join the leaderboard season. All you have to do is, sign-up at the SCS (weekly skirmish event) or other favoured tournaments. But what if your clan or team is too small? Not a problem! Just group together with another clan or some of your best friends in this game. All you need to take care of is getting a team of at least three clan mates per clan sign-up and voila, your results and participation will be valued. That way two clans can get the points at once. Multiple clans with equal points awarded. Mixed signups are great fun, so lets reward you for it!

Favours Participation
So what if you are new, or the team hasn't practiced much together. You will never be able to rank up on the board? No worries! Participation matters! Winning benefits you, but you gain a base point value just by participating and if you sign-up regularly you will rank up over time! Also top-ranked teams get a whole new adjustment system...

Diminishing Returns
So here we come to the most interesting point about the implementation: No longer will one or two top tier clans dominate the leaderboards with their wins - this is due to the adjusted value of points they get based on where they rank on the leaderboard this gives up and coming teams a chance to take on the top spots as well. Diminishing returns ftw!


Implementation rules
Let's look at the concept (2vs2 only so far), scores are calculated weekly:

• 2 points for participation if you don't score a win any of the matches.
• 1 point each win for 1st ranked team (based on the leaderboard).
• 2 points each win for 2nd ranked team.
• 3 points each win for 3rd ranked team.
• 4 points each win for all other ranking teams.
• Only clans are rewarded for points in the ranking (no special team ranking)
• A team can register a maximum of two clans for the ranking, both clans gain the full amount of points each
• A team has to have at least 3 clan members participating in the roster (to get points for the clan ranking)
• If your clan signs up with multiple teams, the best resulting team will be counted for the points.
• For the record: This is a ranking system and designed to gauge your skills and participation in the SCS, therefore no prizes are awarded.

The leaderboard season will start next week Sunday August 2, SCS #62.

[Yarr Vinny Scarr]

That sounds awsome! Thanks Ayetach  I always wondered why they did not used the leaderboard.

Did you help him with this feature, Lueosi?

[Lueosi]

Credits go to Ayetach, DJ Logicalia and nanoduckling. I just supported the idea and provided some test results based on past SCS data.

I really hope this will mobilize some new (or old) teams for the SCS to fight for those ranks!

[DrTentacles]

Someday, I'll get four more clanmates.

[DJ Logicalia]

You can always ask some friends to team up. A lot of teams these days are made up of two clans with one ship each

[Syconawt]

Great idea guys, best of luck with its implementation.

[Steve CZ]

I like the idea! Just a few questions: How are the points awarded in the first week, when the leaderboard is still empty? Second, do you get the participation points every time, or just if you lose all matches? And last, you said "Multiple clans with equal points awarded" when you make mixed team, but what if you make a team from the 1st and the 2nd team? Shouldn't they get different points?

Anyway, we'll hopefully be there to test it

[Lueosi]

Hi Steve, thank you for the questions!

How are the points awarded in the first week, when the leaderboard is still empty?

In the first week, nobody is ranked, so everybody will get the 4 points each win.

Do you get the participation points every time, or just if you lose all matches?

Only if you lose all matches. So the 1st ranked team is even more at disadvantage, because no wins are better than one win for them.

You said "Multiple clans with equal points awarded" when you make mixed team, but what if you make a team from the 1st and the 2nd team? Shouldn't they get different points?

Actually the wording is misleading here. The base points aka wins will be shared, but the multiplier will be accordingly to the clan's ranking. If first and second rank play together the second ranked clan will get the double amount of points (except they lose all matches then both will get the two participation points).

[Fynx]

I don't like the idea of a system that is anomaly-prone and very odd in general.
But maybe it's the best choice with current competitive scene.

I'm anxious to see how it works in practise, though.

[SteamyNoodle]

The diminishing returns seem a bit... severe.  If there's a difference of only 1 or 2 points between the first and second place teams it seems odd to me that the second place team gets essentially double the rewards for the same level of performance.  Seems like there will be really high amounts of rubber banding, with a couple of teams basically trading off first place every week using the bonus from being lower on the board.

The idea of the lower ranked teams getting increased benefits to allow them to remain in the competition I like, but starting that at second place and increasing it to 4X rewards, considering the difference from 1st to 4th could be only a handful of points seems extremely prone to rubber banding.

Something like 1 point each for the top 3 teams, 2 points for the rest of the top 5, 3 for the top 10 and 4 for everyone else I think would allow for the number to be a little more reflective of performance.

[GurasOguras]

Let the tryharding begins! My pessimistic way of looking at the world tells me that from now on everyone will be playing the SCS for positions in the ranking, not for the sake of sport and participation. Well... We will see how it will go.

[Lueosi]

Hi guys, just a quick update about the runtime of the first season:

With the new BoBBR tournament supported by the leaderboard implementation we run the first season one week longer, that means until the 8th of November. After that we have a chat about the implementation, flaws, etc. and also if the stats should be reset or continued.

[Skrimskraw]

was nice while it lasted

[Lueosi]

The first leaderboard season comes to an end, do you have any feedback about what was good and what needs more thoughts?

[DJ Logicalia]

Maybe I'm biased since I was one of the people pushing hard for it, but I think it was really great. Gave teams a tangible record of their accomplishments and, speaking personally, boosted team morale, so even when we'd lose some games, we'd still have achieved a place on the board.