The new (August) rankings are published.
The big dynamic this month was an influx of Japanese players, as the Hero Open and some recently reported results on the Japanese championships shifted the spotlight from Europe this month. The addition of WFDF/Masters also brought a few familiar names back on the list.
Two years ago, a flurry of West Coast tournaments led into the FPA Worlds. Those tournaments – including Manresa and Super Hein – fall off the rankings this month. Large chunks of points were torn from many players’ totals. I’m down to #49 – pretty good for a semi-retired slacker, but possibly my lowest ranking ever – and Randy Silvey, the winner of Super Hein, slips down to 83. We’re taking an ego hit this month, but we’ll recover. Seedbusting is more fun anway…
Tommy Leitner picked up some ground on Fabio Sanna in the race for #1, but the points he lost from Super Hein and Manresa left him with only a few points more than last month, not enough to unseat Fabiosis.
Arthur. thanx for keeping us up. Looking at these,all sorts of questions are popping up in my head. This rating has 433 players in it to date. I guess that means overall there are around 500 players (roughly) in the world. How many were there 5 years ago? How many will there be in 3-5 years? It would be an interesting betting issue ) My optimistic guess is 1500 in 3 years ))
Anyway, I cant wait to see the round-up after this years EFC etc. (since there are a few pret-t-t-y nice tournaments in the fall. Would be really nice to see a only-Europe rating too, just to see the dynamics.
PS – I actually attended not 3 events, but only 2 )) Paga’07 and FPAW’06 ))
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No jump, no catch!
Alex, the worldwide jam population is an interesting question. The rankings
at one point in the mid-1990’s had more than 500 people, but that was
because there were a lot of overall tournaments in US that included
freestyle, so you saw how many part-time jammers there were. Now, the
rankings are more a measure of participation in freestyle-only events, since
overall tournaments are more rare – or at least ones that include freestyle
are.
Another factor is results reporting. We just received some old results from
Japan, which implies that there are other invisible tournaments out there
whose participants should be on the rankings.
In terms of your rankings, the reason three events are listed is that Open
Pairs and Open Co-op at FPAW are counted as separate events (as of the
beginning of 2007). So, your participation in Berlin counted as two
tournaments.
Thanks for clearing that up Arthur )
So, any follow up on prognosis for the number of jammers in the future? Would bu fun to see who got it close ))
Part-time jammers is a good word, I know a few of those over here in Russia ))
BTW, scores from different tournaments are sometimes drastically disproportionate, because in low-player-populated contries there are few judges and adjustments need to be made in the judging system. How do you address this issue in the rankings?
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No jump, no catch!
[Alex wrote] …scores from different tournaments are sometimes
drastically disproportionate, because in low-player-populated contries there
are few judges and adjustments need to be made in the judging system.
How do you address this issue in the rankings?
If I understand you correctly, you’re talking about the scores the judges
award to routines. In terms of the rankings, this doesn’t matter. The
rankings is just a reflection of the final standings, however those standings
were determined. Different tournaments use different judging systems.
Different judges use different ranges of scores. For the rankings, all that
matters is (1) the significance and size of the event, (2) where a player
finishes, and (3) whether they beat players from the top 200.
I don’t think there will ever be consistency in scoring. Even at a single
tournament, the same judge might judge the prelims, semis and finals with
increasingly high standards. Even though the performances got better, the
absolute scores might seem similar because the more subtle differences in
performances tend to matter more as a competition goes on.
So, don’t worry much about the number of judges or their experience level.
Just check in with them to see if they need any guidance, and encourage
them to judge each team by an equal standard in that round. That’s about
the best we can do in a subjectively scored sport like ours.
Hello Jam World… there are way more than 500 jammers in the world, as many have fallen into the cracks. It is amazing to me how many people come up to me and say " I used to play Frisbee". And then I think what could we do, as freestylers to entise them to come play again? Why do we lose them to other sports and to other responsibilities in life. Obviously we all play for the simple LOVE of the Jam, and have financial obligations the sport cannot help us with. Since we are all so talented, I do believe eventually our sport will come into the spotlight… Until then I would love to see us DISCussing how to improve the judging and ranking systems. IMHO this is why we lose so many players… after all if Randy plays with Ted and they are ranked above 50… they could beat teams ranked in the 20s. IMHO we need ranking like in tennis- i know that is a completely individual sport andf we do teams… YET we all see the overall tournaments where a weaker player is carried by a strong player into the finals for points. Can’t we have a JAM-off or at least a list of skills like delaying both spins on either hand THAT would qualify you to certain levels. Because he rank of the players does not correctly show who has the best disc skills or who is the best athlete. It shows who has the best partners and who figures out how to maximize points within the judging system. Come on Jammers- lets have a way to set one player against another straight out! Jam on it forever Spin Dr. Jamie
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“The Gordie Howe” of Freestyle 😀