Ranking system for Squash BC and how it works.
www.quick-draws.com

In 2007 Squash BC introduced a new ranking program for the members of Squash BC. Quick-Draws is a web based program where you will be able to view your rankings right after the match has been entered. The program is integrated with a league organization program, box league program, ladder program and a tournament draw program which are also web based. When viewing your rankings you may click on your name and see all your wins and losses for up to a year. The points you’ve won and lost will also be displayed. We at Squash BC are very excited about having this program on the web for all to view and it should take a lot of the mystery out of the rankings.

Rankings are one of the most talked about subjects in the squash community. A good percentage of the calls to the Squash BC office used to be about rankings and these calls were usually passionate. “How do they work,” “what’s wrong with them,” and “why aren’t I ranked higher” were the major topics. A ranking system can be confusing, but only if you do not have the basic picture of how it works. Quick-Draws is a very transparent program and we will explain the program functions and rules below.
Before you phone Squash BC to enquire about your ranking, there are a few things you should take into consideration.

1. There is not a conspiracy to keep your ranking low. The ranking program doesn’t care who you are, (man, woman, child or beast,) it uses the same mathematical formula for everybody.
2. You will remember the matches you won against higher ranked players, BUT you also need to remember those losses against lower ranked opponents???
3. Just because you beat somebody once does not mean you will be placed in front of that person. You must win on a consistent basis, at the higher level, to build up your points and go ahead of that level of player.

The Rules for the Ranking System:

• To be on the Squash BC Ranking list, you MUST be a “PAID UP Member of Squash BC by October 31st of each year.” Click here to sign up.
• After joining Squash BC for the first time you must play one sanctioned match to acquire initial ranking points.
• All Squash BC sanctioned event matches can be entered. These include tournaments, leagues, club ladders and box matches. (To be a sanctioned event, a sanctioning form must be filled out by the organizer of those events.)
• The first Defaulted Match of a tournament will be entered as a loss. If the defaulted player is supposed to move on to the next round, the next match will not be counted as a loss. Appeals of defaulted matches must be backed up and verified by Doctors, Lawyers, etc. (A note from your mother will not work.)
• You will loose points for “Inactivity.” You can no longer “Protect” your ranking.
• We enter match scores “IF” we receive them from event organizers. If we don’t receive the match scores, (i.e. 3-1 or 3-2,) the match will be entered as 3-0. Changing a game or match score must be verified by the event organizer or the person who entered the result like the team captain.
• We will not change a result after two weeks of the match being played.

Sending in Results:

If the league or tournament you play in does not use the Quick Draws program they will have to send their results by e-mail to Squash BC in a timely manner. We accept Excel draw sheets or a list of matches played in the correct order, with match scores, within one week of the last match. Draw sheets that are hand written and faxed in will not be entered.

It would be really nice if both names are spelled correctly. If we don’t know how to spell the names, we can’t find it in the database! Make sure your name is spelled correctly on the draw sheets. (i.e. Kidd vs Kydd:)

Explanations on how to follow your ranking:

THE NUMBER OF “RANKING POINTS” IS BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT FIGURE TO REMEMBER. The best way to follow your ranking is to watch your points and not your position on the list. Your “Squash BC Ranking Position” is apt to change dramatically from one month to another and you may not have played a match. An example of this might be a player on Nov. 5th will be ranked in the 145th position, on Nov. 15th he/she will be 220th, and on Dec. 1st, 375.. In this case it is likely the player will find that their “Ranking Points” did not change throughout that month so, in actual fact he/she did not go down. What happened was that there were 230 people who had more ranking points that renewed their membership within that time period.

FAQ:

• If a lower ranked player defeats a much higher ranked player, how is this treated?
• Does the winner of a match ever lose points?
• What if a player wins a game or two against a much higher ranked player?
• Ratings of events and how the Quick-Draws weighting works?
• How does Quick-Draws move players down who no longer enter competitions or are inactive?
• How does Quick-Draws assign initial rankings to players who are not previously ranked?
• Incredible technical stuff??

If a lower ranked player defeats a much higher ranked player, how is this treated?

Certainly there may be anomalous results from time to time, which may be the cause of an injury, or some other unexpected occurrence.

• Quick-Draws never awards more than 50 points to a match winner
• Quick-Draws never takes away more than 20 points from a match loser.

If the winner truly was mis-ranked too low, then a few more wins like this should get them up to where they should be. If the player is active and improving, that shouldn’t take very long.

It is also assumed the higher ranked player must have achieved their higher rank over time and play, and therefore limits the drop in rankings they may suffer from such a loss. If they are playing regularly, and playing well, a few more matches should return them to their correct spot. If not, then they will continue to move down as appropriate. (Old guys take note!!) (BACK)

Does the winner of a match ever lose ranking points if they lose games to a much lower ranked player?

The Quick-Draws algorithm never takes points away from the winner of a match, even if the winner loses a game or two against an opponent who is ranked much lower. The reason is that players may choose not to play in league matches or tournaments if they feel they may lose ranking points even for a win. A good ranking system should not discourage players from entering competition. (BACK)

What if a player wins a game or two against a much higher ranked player?

If a player wins a game or two against another player who is ranked higher by 80 or more points, then Quick-Draws assumes the lower ranked player may be ranked a little too low. One player ranked higher than another by 80 or more points should normally win 3-0. Quick-Draws will award the loser a few points if they are able to win one or two games against a player ranked higher by 80 or more points.

This is done because the system is trying to use all the information it has available to rank the players. Of course, the loser doesn’t gain very many points, squash is a win-lose affair, and it’s up to the lower ranked player to hang onto those points in future matches. To really move up the rankings you need to win matches not games. (BACK)

Ratings of Events: How does Quick-Draws weight different events?

Squash BC believes that a “Match is a Match.” Once two people walk through and close the door the match is on and there are no excuses. Squash BC does however rate some “Events” higher then others in importance within the ranking system. These are listed on the Calendar of Events by the number of “A’s” behind the event name. Junior events are all given the same rating, “JJ.”

The Quick-Draws program performs the calculation at a base level, then multiplies the points to be added or deducted according to the category of the event. Events you will notice on the matches played windows include “League,” “CL,” for Club Ladders, BL for Box Leagues which all use a “L” rating. Tournament events are categorized from A through to AAAA. The multipliers for these categories are:

League: 1.0, A: 1.25, AA: 1.5, AAA: 1.75, and AAAA 2.0.

So the most important events, provincial or national tournaments assigned a level of AAAA, are worth twice the points of a league match. (BACK)

How does Quick-Draws move players down who no longer enter competitions?

If you never lose points for an expected win, what do we do about those players who have attained a high ranking, but who protect that ranking by not entering events, or by carefully selecting opponents they are guaranteed to defeat? (Yes, some players do this.)

You will start loosing points for “Inactivity” by not having played a sanctioned match in any two month period, (not counting May to September.) In each two month period, if you have less than 3 matches played, and have not played any match against a player ranked 40 points or higher below your own ranking, then an inactivity deduction of 5 points will be recorded against your ranking. In each successive 2 month period of inactivity the deduction is doubled. After 4 successive periods of inactivity, a player is removed from the rankings. If a player later becomes active then their initial ranking will be assigned based on their first match, and whether they win or lose, just as if they were a new player to the system (see the answer to the next FAQ question).

Also, any single loss resulting in a loss of ranking points counts as activity, and no additional points will be removed for that 2-month period. (BACK)

How does Quick-Draws assign initial rankings to players who are not previously ranked?

If a player has no previous rank, and faces a ranked player in a match, the unranked player is assigned a rank based on the match result. If the unranked player wins the match 3-0, the player is assigned the loser’s rank plus 20 ranking points. If the player wins the match 3-1 or 3-2, the player is assigned the loser’s rank plus 5 points. If the player loses, then the player receives the same ranking as the winner, less 200 points.

This approach assumes the player is facing someone of the same general level, because they have entered a tournament, or played a league match at their general level. A loss puts the player much lower, since the player may have faced the top seed in a tournament, for example. On the other hand there is no way to determine how much higher the player’s initial rank should be for a win, so it is left up to the player to go out and enter more competitions and win more matches to get their ranking up to their real level. (BACK)

Below are the technical explanations for the way the ranking system works. (BACK)

How does Quick-Draws credibly rank players in order of their ability?

The main goal of a ranking system is to rank the players in their order of ability, not just to reward wins and losses. However, a player’s “ability” can vary from week to week, or even day to day. Since we all have good days and bad days, a good ranking system should attempt to rank players in order of their average ability.

The best way a ranking system can try to determine the average ability of a player is to average out the results of many matches over time. Each match result must contribute a small amount to a player’s ranking points, and no single match result should move a player a significant amount in the rankings. The significant factor a good ranking system should take into account in determining the relative rankings of two players is their relative win rates.

To see how Quick-Draws will accomplish this, let’s consider a hypothetical situation where two players are fairly evenly matched, and play each other every week.

If each player tends to win about 50% of the time, then the two players should remain ranked about equally over time. Each win may temporarily move one player slightly ahead of the other, but the next match may reverse the result. No single match result should move either player a significant amount apart from the other in the rankings.

If one of the players is practicing and starts to improve, and increases their win record to maybe 60% or 70% of their encounters, then that player should start to slowly move ahead of the other player in the rankings. If the player’s win record continues to increase, perhaps to 90%, then that player should continue to move even higher than their opponent in the rankings.

The lower ranked player may still win the occasional match, but a single win by the lower ranked player should not necessarily move that player ahead of the higher ranked player. The lower ranked player needs to achieve a win record of 50% again to move back up to an equal ranking with the higher ranked player.

So if a good ranking system ranks the players in order of their average abilities by summing the results of multiple matches over time, the system should exhibit these characteristics:

1. Players should in general move slowly through the rankings, since the system should rank a player’s average ability, and because a player’s average ability also only changes slowly.
2. Each match should result in taking a few points away from the loser, and adding a few points to the winner.
3. One win by a player over a higher ranked player will not necessarily cause the lower ranked player to displace the higher ranked player. The lower ranked player needs to win several matches, and obtain a win rate of 50% or more to displace the higher ranked player.
4. If a player defeats his opponent 90% of the time, he should be farther ahead of his opponent in the rankings than if he defeats his opponent only 60% of the time.
   The following example shows the Quick-Draws ranking calculations for two players, Henry and Bill, who play each week, where Henry wins about 75% of their encounters. (Of course, it doesn’t have to be the same two players, it could be any players of the same ranking points, but this example demonstrates the calculations quite well.)

In this example, Henry is initially ranked about 20 points ahead of Bill. Each win moves Henry ahead a small amount, and moves Bill down a small amount, until Henry is ranked about 32 points ahead of Bill. (Except for round-off error, each player gains or loses the same number of points for a given match, since their movement in the rankings should be relative to each other.)

When Bill wins a match, it is an upset win, and earns Bill more points, moving Bill to within 14 points of Henry. This win earns Bill more points, not only because it is an upset win, but it also balances out Bill’s 3 losses, to keep Bill ranked about the same distance behind Henry over time.

Henry’s next win returns the two players to their original initial rankings. Henry continues to win again, and their rankings start to separate again in the same manner as before. On average, the two players are separated by about 20-25 points, which is correct for Henry’s win rate of 75% over Bill. If Bill wins again, then he would bump up again to around 10-14 points below Henry.

This example also shows that each time Henry wins, their ranking separation increases, and each consecutive win for Henry is worth fewer and fewer points, because it becomes more of an expected win. Eventually, when Bill and Henry become separated by 40 points or more, Henry gains no more points for a win, and Bill loses no more points for his loss. That’s because the match ceases to carry any meaning about how the two players should be ranked relative to other players in the rankings.

After they become separated by more than 40 points, Henry is winning virtually 100% of the time. In that case, other players in Henry’s immediate ranking neighbourhood will also defeat Bill virtually 100% of the time, so Henry no longer gains points, because a win against Bill does not mean that Henry should move ahead of any of the other players in his immediate ranking neighbourhood.

Similarly, Bill no longer loses points for continued losses because everyone in Bill’s immediate ranking neighbourhood would also lose to Henry. Henry and Bill now need to be playing other players in their own ranking neighbourhoods to gain or lose more ranking points.

What would happen if, instead, Bill starts to practice and improve, and starts winning more often? The next example shows how many wins Bill must score to move ahead of Henry.

This examples shows the following:

1. Henry’s win rate is initially higher than Bill’s, and his next 3 wins move him ahead of Bill by 32 points.
2. A win by Bill is an upset, and earns Bill more points, moving him back to within 14 points of Henry. However, the future is not yet certain for Bill, so this one win does not move him ahead of Henry.
3. If Bill continues to practice and win, each win moves him closer in the rankings to Henry. And because he is closer in the rankings, each win is less of an upset, so it earns him fewer points.
4. After 3 wins, Bill has moved his win rate against Henry up to 50%, and he becomes ranked about equally with Henry, and Bill actually displaces Henry with his last win.

In reality of course, two players won’t face each other in this manner in competition. Both players will face many other players in between these matches, and their ranking points will also change from those matches. But this approach to understanding the algorithm demonstrates how match results contribute to win rates, which provide an indication of a player’s average ability over time, and how that is reflected in the ranking calculations.

From these types of calculations, many players will end up in positions in the rankings relative to other players they have never actually even played in competition. At any given time, the rankings reflect a current snapshot of all the player’s ranked by their current average ability, with the greatest emphasis placed on the most recent results. Bill and Henry at this point have about the same win rate, but Bill is ahead of Henry here, since he was the winner of their most recent encounter.

Quick-Draws reserve the right to change the program parameters as they see fit. Squash BC uses the Quick-Draws program under a contractual agreement. www.quick-draws.com