The rules are based on Bowen Kerins Rules and Regulations for the Pinball Rating System. The Pinball Rating System is a way of determining the relative strength of
any two players, if they were to meet in a head-to-head match. It can be used
to determine seedings in a tournament, or to help a player find others at
his or her approximate level.
Ranked and non-ranked
There are two categories of players: ranked and non-ranked. A new player is non-ranked until this player as played five "matches". These five matches can be Challenges-head to head, best out of three games, see further down for more info.
After the fifth match, the player becomes a ranked player. The players rank are calculated by this formula:
(Avg. of Opponents' Ratings) + 200((W - L) / (Matches))
This means that if a player wins all his matches, his rating will be 200 higher than the average of the opponents. If he loses all of them, it will be 200 lower.
For the purposes of computing a rank, any non-ranked player is considered a 1400 player.
Example:
Chris plays his first four matches. The first three are played against non-ranked players, and he wins two of them. The fourth match is played against Joe, who is a ranked player (with 1800 ranking-points (RP)). Chris loses the match against Joe, but wins the fifth match against Steve who is non-ranked.
Chris' rank is calculated like this
(the average of the opponents rank will be) (1400 + 1400 + 1400 + 1800 + 1400) / 5 = 1480
Chris won three and lost two out of five matches. Chris RP will be:
200 * (3-2) / 5 = 40
Chris rank/RP: 1480 + 40 = 1520
Ranked players
After the five first matches the player becomes a ranked player and a different formula is used to determine their rank change in matches.
If two ranked players face each other, each has to pay a certain number of rank-points (RP) to enter the match. The winner takes all the points (always 32).
The chart gives the scale of points to pay for matches.
| Difference in ranking-points | The better player puts up ... points, | And the lesser player puts up ... points, |
| Less than 12 | 16 | 16 |
| 12 -- 33 | 17 | 15 |
| 34 -- 55 | 18 | 14 |
| 56 -- 77 | 19 | 13 |
| 78 -- 100 | 20 | 12 |
| 101 -- 125 | 21 | 11 |
| 126 -- 150 | 22 | 10 |
| 151 -- 176 | 23 | 9 |
| 177 -- 205 | 24 | 8 |
| 206 -- 238 | 25 | 7 |
| 239 -- 272 | 26 | 6 |
| 273 -- 314 | 27 | 5 |
| 315 -- 365 | 28 | 4 |
| 366 -- 445 | 29 | 3 |
| 446 -- 525 | 30 | 2 |
| 526 -- 715 | 31 | 1 |
| 716 or more | 32 | 0 |
Example Joe (2000 RP) plays Steve (1800 RP). According to the table Joe has to put up 24 RP and Steve 8 RP. The winner gets all ranking-points (32). If Joe wins, his new rank will be 2000-24+32= 2008 Steves rank will be 1800-8= 1792 Challenges - Is played best out of three games. Thus, the player who first wins two matches are the winner of the challenge. The challenge results can be 2-0, but challenges with less than two played matches are not accepted. - The challenge result cannot be a draw Anything else that the players of the challenge agrees on (rulewise) is accepted. However, you might consider following these guidelines: - The player who challenged the other player should be Player 1 in the first game. On the 2nd game, the challenged player should be Player 1. And, on the 3rd game, the challenger should be Player 1, again - All matches should be played with Extra Balls - If a player gets a poor score due to a machine error (eg. a kickback that doesn't woek), the players in the challenge has to come up with a decision on how to compensate for this. To challenge someone; go to the player/members personal page. You will find a link to challenge the player there or simply click "Challenge xxx" below thier name on the rankings page. Questions regarding the challenges and the rules can be asked in the Forums. |