Info & help

Ranking

As is common in for example chess and tennis, royalquiz members are also ranked. As a new member you started out on 1600 ranking points. Your results increase or decrease that sum.

Why ranking?
What does the ranking mean?
What influence the ranking?
Calculation of ranking change in Duel and Speed
Ranking deduction for inactivity
Ranking tactics
Check your ranking
Bugs and issues with the ranking system
Do you have questions or suggestions?

Why ranking?

• You can see your development here at royalquiz.
• You can compare yourself with other members.
• You can use other's ranking to decide if you want to compete against them (see below for tactics tips).

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What does the ranking mean?

A person with a high ranking (larger the 1700) has won at least 100 games more then he has lost. Even a person with a low ranking can have competed in several hundred matches, but have then not been able to win equally often.

Highly ranked members are technically skilled in our different game types and know the answers to a lot of the questions. The batch of free questions is significantly smaller then the batch of paid questions which means that a trial player with a high ranking can, by playing, have seen all questions.

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What influence the ranking?

• Matches in Duel and Speed can increase or decrease your ranking.
• Matches with stake influence the ranking more then trial matches do -- we want to reward members that take the small extra risk of playing with a stake.
• If you are not logged in for 7 days your ranking is decreased.
• Tournaments do not influence the ranking since they run for a long time (up to a month) and the ranking is meant to show your current abilities.
• Grand Prix games do not influence the ranking since an unlimited number of members can play them.
• Member quizzes do not influence the ranking since one can compete in them an unlimited number of times.
• Competing against guests does not imfluence the ranking. However, read "Calculation..." below for more info.

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Calculation of ranking change in Duel and Speed

Our ranking system is based on Elo rating (Elo rating on Wikipedia). The system is based on comparing the ranking of competitors based on who won a game. After each game ranking points are moved from the loser to the winner in an amount that is calculated based on the ranking difference between the competitors.

It is likely that a higher ranked player will win a game with a lower ranked player. Therefor, Elo rating work like this:

Also when two members with equal ranking, and in a draw, ranking changes are done.

Example
A trial game with large difference (200 points) between the competitors.

The ranking change is calculated based on competition couples. In Duel there is always only one couple -- the two players. In Speed there can be up to ten competition couples since five people can play against each other (number of players * [number of players - 1] / 2). When the ranking change is calculated, the members of each couple are compared and ranking adjustments are made.

Example
If a person comes in third place in a game with five players the person will receive ranking points from the persons in forth and fifth place, but will give ranking points to the persons in first and second place.

For competitions couples that include guest(s), no ranking change is done. We have choosen this based on guest's impermanence in the ranking system. Because of the impermanence, discussing ranking for a guest is not relevant. However, in Speed the ranking changes happen for the couples that does not contain no guest.

Example
If five people play a Speed game and four of them are logged in, ranking changes will happen for the six competition couples that does not contain the guest.

Ranking changes are always calculated based on single games. If one play 2 games after one another or in separate occasions does not make any difference, ranking points are reallocated for each game.

Ranking changes happen after the final score for the game has been calculated.

The number of points one win with does not make a difference for the ranking change calculation. I.E, it does not matter if one win with 20 or 2000 points. The number of correct/wrong answers in the game does not matter either. rather, the ranking reallocation is calculated solely based on the final position in the game (place one to five in Speed, winner and looser in Duel).

To reward and further increase the suspense for the members who play with stake, games with stake influence the ranking more then trial games do. The ranking change for games with stake is approximately double that of a trial game.

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Ranking deduction for inactivity

The ranking should be a hint to ones current ability in our games. If one is not active here at royalquiz the ability is probably reduced. We therefore deduct ranking points form inactive members.

The deductions are made automatically if one is not action (not logged in) in seven days. If one has 1650 ranking points or more, the deduction is 10 points. If one has less then 1650 ranking points, the deduction is 1 point per inactive week.

Example 1:
Logged in Dec 5.
Deduction made Dec 12.
Logs in again Dec 14.
The next deduction will be made Dec 21 at the earliest.

Example 2:
Logged in Dec 5.
Deduction made Dec 12.
Deduction made Dec 19.
Logs in again Dec 22.
The next deduction will be made Dec 29 at the earliest.

Everyone that logs in more then once a week will not get any automatic deductions.

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Ranking tactics

If you want your climb in the ranking chart, there are multiple ways you can act. Which you choose depends on what level of risk you want to take.

If you want to increase your ranking quickly, or if you feel that your current ranking does not properly reflect your abilities, you should play with stake against members with higher ranking then yourself. This is because your are awarded more ranking points when you win against someone with higher ranking then yourself then when you play against someone with less ranking then you have. At the same time, the likelihood that you will loose the game is of cause bigger when you play against someone with more ranking then yourself. When you loose a game against a higher ranked, you do not loose all that many ranking points. When you play with stake, the point change is multiplied. For example, you can win about 25 ranking points if you win against a person who has 200 ranking points more then you do.

If you want probability on your side, you should play against members with fewer ranking points then you. You will not be awarded all that many points when you win, but the likeliness that you will win is bigger. At the same time you loose a lot of ranking points if you loose against a lower ranked player. If you want to add a bit of excitement, play with a stake. When you win a game with stake, you will be rewarded more ranking points, but adding the stake will not lower your probability of winning.

Remember to log in more then once a week so that you will not be hit with the automatic ranking point deduction.

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Check your ranking

The ranking specification on the page My account > Game results is an excellent place to check what has actually happened to your ranking. You will find info about the ranking changes for each game you have played. Check the details for a game to see exact numbers.

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Bugs and issues in the ranking system

We are aware of a few problems with the ranking system.

We know that there are a few people who want to cheat other members by consciously loosing ranking points in trial games. These cheaters think that if they have a low ranking, other members with low ranking will dare play games with stake against them. This behavior mean that the ranking should not be your only source of information when deciding whom to play against. You can, for example, get more info from each person's profile page (you will find profile pages by searching for the member in the forum search). On the profile page you can see the number of games the person has played. If this number is several hundred, or even several thousand, then the person has a big ability to win, no matter what ranking point the person has.

There exist one known bug that cause ranking points to not be reallocated for certain games. The bug only affect games with certain uncommon characteristics and does not affect normally finished games. The issue exist in our core game system and is influenced by a number of external factors. We therefore have no time frame for the resolution of the issue.

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Do you have questions or suggestions?

Discuss the ranking syste in our forum, or contact us.