(I know number already posted a thread suggesting something like this, but I wasn't sure if he'd appreciate me hijacking it with my (i)own(/i) ideas about organization!)
Because we have people playing all over the world, it's hard to get folks together for a traditional tournament. Also, people are naturally curious (well, I am...) to know how they stand in the pop-pop world, in terms of ability. So I propose instituting a permanent tournament, which would provide a sort of ranking system; and which I'd be happy to run. I'm open to suggestions, but I envision it working something like this:
For the first phase, folks would email me to join and then send me a list of all the games they win, after the official launch of the system. You'd get one point for every win against anyone--not only people participating in the system--which would let us get an initial sense of where people stand.
The second phase would add a new refinement: two points instead of one for beating someone more than x number of spots above you on the rankings (x to be determined; it could also be variable based on the difference in rankings). This should let better players with less time to play at least keep up with folks with more free time.
In the third phase we'd close the system, only awarding points for games against ranked opponents. We'd also institute negative points for losses; I'm not sure how the numbers would work out, but the goal'd be to center the distribution of people around zero so future participants would have a fair shot at getting to the top, if they're good enough.
So that's the idea. Obviously there are refinements that could be made--I only just came up with the thing this morning. But it's advantages, as I see it, are that it gives us a ranking system that's relatively easy to administrate, doesn't require the reporting of losses, and lets people advance or sink on their own merits, without giving too much weight to fluke losses by good players. Of course, it also may reward people who play alot more than they deserve... but at this point that may be the best thing for the game!
So tell me what you think. And if it all sounds good to you and you want to get in, send an email with yr pop handle and IM name (if any) to pop@squibix.net, and I'll start settin up a website.
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