Squash PEI - Ranking System

Everything you ever wanted to know about the new Squash PEI ranking system but were afraid to ask.

In 2010 Squash PEI introduced a new points based ranking program for the members of Squash PEI. Quick-Draws is a web based program which allows you to view your rankings right after the match has been entered. The program is integrated with a league organization program, box league program, and a ladder program which are also web based. When viewing your rankings you may click on your name and see all your wins, losses and points gained or lost for the last year. We at Squash PEI are very excited about having this program on the web for all to view. 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 questions raised to members of the Squash PEI executive committee tend to be about rankings and these discussions are usually passionate. “How do they work,” “what’s wrong with them,” and “why aren’t I ranked higher?" are 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 policies below.

Before we get started, there are a few things you that should be taken into consideration:

The ranking system is not a reward system. It is to determine where a player will consistently play over a period of time.
There is no 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 algorithm to award or take points away for everybody.
You will remember the matches you won against higher ranked players, BUT you also need to remember those losses against lower ranked opponents!!!
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 a higher level to build up your points.

Policies for the Ranking System:

To be on the Squash PEI Ranking list, you MUST be a “PAID UP Member of Squash PEI by the first tournament of the year.
After joining Squash PEI for the first time, you must play in and win one sanctioned match to acquire initial ranking points. If you come from another province that uses Quick-Draws, those points will be used.
All Squash PEI sanctioned event matches may be entered. These include tournaments and leagues. (To be a sanctioned event, a sanctioning form must be filled out by the organizer of those events and sent to Squash PEI.)
Club Box Leagues, Ladders and Tournaments may be used for provincial ranking only if the club uses Quick-Draws to enter the results.
The first Defaulted Match of an event 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.
The player must notify the event organizer 4 hours before the scheduled time of the match. Appeals of defaulted matches must be backed up and verified by Doctors, Lawyers, etc. (A note from your mother will not work.)
When a Defaulted Match is entered, only the player who defaulted the match will lose points.
Once a match has started, an “Injury on Court” will be entered as a loss of that match. If the injured player won any games, those games will be entered in the rankings. If the injured player is supposed to move on to another draw, the next match will not be entered. Make sure your matches are entered correctly on the draw sheets.
You will lose points for “Inactivity.” (See below for definition.)
Match scores are entered “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 e.g. the team captain.
We will not change a result after three 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 PEI within one week of the last match.
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.
It works best if both names are spelled correctly. If we don’t know how to spell the names, we can’t find that person 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 PEI Ranking Position” is apt to change dramatically from one month to another and you may not have lost or gained a point. 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?

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 will result in a point value that reflects their ability. 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 weigh different events?

Squash PEI 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 PEI does however weigh Tournaments higher than Leagues in importance within the ranking system.

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 By” windows include “League,” for inter club or city leagues, “Ladders” for club box leagues and ladders, and the letters “AA” or “JJ” which denote tournaments. Adult tournament events are categorized from A through to AAAA. Squash PEI has adopted a policy of allocating every tournament a category of "AAAA". (BACK)

The league and Ladder multiplier is:	1.0
Tournament multipliers are:	A: 1.25
	AA : 1.5
	AAA: 1.75
	AAAA 2.0.

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

Players who are no longer active will be moved down in the rankings to reflect their inactivity. However, it is impossible to distinguish between short and long term inactivity, so Quick-Draws adopts a small but continuous deduction. For each month of inactivity during the regular season, from September through to May, Quick-Draws deducts 5 points from a player's ranking points.

This has two benefits. The first is that over a season of inactivity, a player can lose up to 45 ranking points. This prevents players from protecting a high ranking by not playing, and within a couple of seasons of inactivity, players will be moved down significantly in the rankings.

The second benefit is that a short term inactivity has little or no effect on a player's ranking points overall in a season. That is because when a player has a lower ranking, their next win earns them more points, and their next loss costs them fewer points, so within just a few matches, players can return to their true ranking very quickly upon becoming active again.

Even if a player is out for a full season, it won't take long for the player to regain their previous ranking if they become sufficiently active again in the next season. But if they remain inactive, their ranking will continue to erode accordingly.

The definition of activity is playing at least 2 matches in the month, or playing at least 1 match against a player whose ranking points are greater than 40 points lower than your ranking (so you have at least a chance of losing the match), or any loss that results in a loss of ranking points. (BACK)

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

An initial ranking assigned based on a player's first win. Players without a ranking will not have their matches recorded to the rankings until they have achieved a win. For a 3-0 win, the player is assigned the same ranking points as their opponent, plus 20 points. Otherwise they are assigned the same ranking as their opponents plus 5 points.

If this turns out to set a low initial ranking for a player, the ranking algorithm does allow the player to move up quickly to where they should be if they achieve further wins against higher ranked players. (BACK)

Below are the technical explanations for the way the ranking system works.

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:

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.
Each match should result in taking a few points away from the loser, and adding a few points to the winner.
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.
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.)

Match Winner	Henry's Ranking Points	Bill's Ranking Points	Ranking Points Separation
Initial Points	1320	1300	20
Henry	1323	1298	25
Henry	1324	1296	29
Henry	1326	1294	32
Bill	1317	1303	14
Henry	1320	1300	20
Henry	1323	1297	25
Henry	1324	1296	29

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.

Match Winner	Henry's Rank	Bill's Rank	Ranking Points Separation
Initial Points	1320	1300	20
Henry	1323	1298	25
Henry	1324	1296	29
Henry	1326	1294	32
Bill	1317	1303	14
Bill	1314	1306	8
Bill	1309	1311	-2

This example shows the following:

Henry’s win rate is initially higher than Bill’s, and his next 3 wins move him ahead of Bill by 32 points.
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.
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.
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. SquashPEI uses the Quick-Draws program under a contractual agreement.