Rankings: June 2005 – Leitner Takes Over Number 1

It has been several years since anyone but Dave Lewis, Dave Murphy or Arthur Coddington has been ranked number one. Since 1998, those three players have won the big titles and played enough other tournaments to outscore the rest of the players. Now, Tom Leitner has outscored them all and has become the new number one player on the June 2005 rankings.

He’s hardly been invisible all these years, winning fourteen major titles (seven at the FPAW), founding Frisbee.com and Jammers on the Net, and most recently serving as Executive Director of the FPA, moving to Europe to participate in the freestyle explosion there, and providing some of the most memorable competition moves every year. He’s no slouch, that’s for sure. But perhaps Tom Leitner hasn’t gotten the recognition he deserves on the rankings list. His most dominant years, when he and Skippy Jammer ruled Pairs and Team Sideout led co-op, happened before the rankings were started. Since then, he has been overshadowed on the rankings lists by other individuals and teams who have put together great strings of tournament results. Now, it’s his turn.

Between 2003 and this month, Leitner has scored a first place in Co-op at FPAW2003, two second places in Pairs, a third place at the 2003 WFDF/WDG and a third place in Co-op at FPAW2004. Arthur Coddington and Dave Lewis outscored him at the majors, but the difference for Leitner has been his performances at Pro-level tournaments. Pro level tournaments have extra rankings points. Non US national championships, Paganello and the EFC are Pro level events.

Having moved to Europe, he has had access to a large number of competitions held in a relatively compact geographical area, and he has put himself on the line by playing almost every one of them. Of the four possible titles at Paganello in the past two seasons, he has won three.

Over the past months, Leitner has closed in on number one. This month he takes over the top spot because Dave Lewis loses some points from an expiring Pro event – the 2003 Jammers. The gap is small, only 29 points between Lewis and Leitner. Anything could happen over the next few months, including someone completely new taking over number one after WFDF and FPAW2005. That’s how the rankings are: you’re only as good as your most recent results. For now, Leitner is king of the hill. Congratulations!

And what of the sticker contest? Our winner is Lui Tasini, with an honorable mention to Dave Murphy. Both wrote great rankings analyses, though Murf never published his on Shrednow (Jammers got the scoop!). Lui will get her choice of Shrednow stickers. Murf will get a prize as well. Thanks to everyone who writes anywhere on Shrednow – you make the community strong.

Surprisingly, May was a silent freestyle month. There were no new events added to the rankings, and the 2003 Jammers fell off. Why the upward movement from some players? Because the German Indoors were reclassified as a Pro event. As of last month’s list, the leaders of the German jamming scene had not decided whether the German Indoors would be their official national championships. Now they have decided, so the points were upped: first place went from 125 points to 200 points. All the players at the event got a points boost.

Who just jumped up to #47? Is it another Rookie of the Year candidate from Trieste?