You are: Home -> Articles -> Columns -> State of Play |
Editor: Rebecca Mitchell. Saturday 23 Mar 2002
|
The Ratings Game
One could say that you can judge the calibre of a player by
his/her DCI ranking. It is a fairly accurate way of
evaluating a player's ability as most tournaments are
sanctioned, and everybody has played in one at some
stage. The ranking system itself is very specific and
will give you all sorts of information, such as your
global limited rating, the number of tournaments you
have played in and even a match history. This is all really wonderful but what good is it? The
only reason I can think of (in Australia) is for
national invitations. The top 50 composite ranked
players are invited to compete and the rest of us have
to duke it out in regional tournaments or the
meatgrinders. If you were lucky enough to be ranked
in the top 150 players in the Asian Pacific region
then you would have been able to compete at the APACs
(but not any more as they have been scrapped). So I guess if you are one of those players who likes
to play competitively your ranking is a factor in the
almighty magic equation. Bearing in mind you will
probably need a composite of around 1800 to qualify,
it will take quite a few tournaments to reach that
level. The thing that gets me though is the fact there are
several people in the hallowed 50 that have not played
magic for a long time, thus preventing others from
qualifying. In my opinion if you have not played in a
sanctioned tournament in 2 years your DCI number (and
thus ranking) should be "stricken from the record" so
to speak. Even the most casual of players will play
at least once or twice a year in a prerelease
tournament, so I don't think this will penalise anyone
who wants to retain their DCI number. This should also
apply to banned players. Suspended players should
have their rating removed from the database for the
duration of the suspension. I think this would make
the system much fairer and give the opportunity for
some players to compete at a national level, whilst
cutting out the chaff from the system. Chaff cutting aside, there are many players who will
try and preserve their ranking so they can secure a
nationals invite. Those who are on the borderline
have to be careful about which tournaments they play
in, as a bad result would mean qualifying the hard
way. I was faced with a similar decision just last
week. Should I play at GP Antwerp and take a chance
given that the K factor would be high? Probably not
as I really want to play at the Australian nationals
and my current composite ranking is within the top 30.
If I lost a couple of rounds it would be enough to
jostle me out of the running and I don't like the idea
of competing in a sweaty meatgrinder the night before
the nationals. Does this take the fun out of the game? For some
people maybe. If the rankings are going to be used
for a purpose then you have to play the game or be
prepared to face the consequences. From my experience
I am always wary of my ranking around nationals but at
other times I am more than happy to throw my hard
earned DCI points down the drain. Despite all of this you need to put things in
perspective. If you really enjoy playing cards and
don't care about your ranking then fine. If you are
conscientious about it then maybe you should pick and
choose your tournaments leading up to nationals. We
are lucky in Australia as we have more tournaments now
than ever, ranging from weekly sanctioned drafts to
regular PTQs. This gives ample opportunity for an
aspiring player to improve their ranking, have fun and
maybe even play at the nationals. Dan Turner
|
