Match Play Ratings are pinball player ratings based on head-to-head results between players. This is a free service and no paid Match Play subscription is needed.
Individual match results are used to calculate a player's rating whenever they participate in a tournament. Match Play Ratings does not concern itself with results from best game tournaments, pingolf tournaments, selfie leagues or any other indirect play tournament formats.
These ratings are meant as a supplement to the International Flipper Pinball Association's (IFPA) world pinball rankings.
Tournaments (including playoffs) that are based on direct play, either head-to-head or in groups, are eligible to be included in the ratings. Best game, pingolf, selfie leagues and other tournaments based on indirect play are not eligible.
When closing a tournament, the tournament organizer must verify that the tournament is a pinball tournament and will be asked whether to include the tournament in Match Play Ratings.
For tournament organizers: Please make sure to close your tournaments when they are concluded.
For tournament players: If you spot a test or non-pinball tournament, please use the "report" link to flag it for removal. Likewise, please feel free to flag any player listings in the same manner.
Each rating period starts at 00:00:00 and ends at 23:59:59 in the UTC timezone. The time a tournament is concluded determines to which rating period the tournament belongs. Tournaments spanning more than seven days are not eligible to be included in the ratings.
Ratings are calculated with a seven day delay. For example, tournament results for September 14th are calculated on September 21st. This delay gives tournament organizers time to verify and submit results.
If a player does not play in a given rating period, their rating does not change, but their rating deviation is increased.
In addition to tournaments, Challenge Matches are also included in Match Play Ratings. All Challenge Matches are automatically included and no explicit submission of results is required.
Match Play is working with other software creators to include results from as many tournaments as possible. These fine tournament apps will be able to submit results for Match Play Ratings:
| Status | Name |
|---|---|
| Done | Brackelope |
| Done | Challonge |
| Done | Drains Tournament Manager |
| Done | Seattle Monday Night Pinball |
| In progress | PAPA League Manager |
| In progress | PAPA Scoring Software |
If you are using a different app for your tournaments, please encourage the software author get in touch at play@matchplay.events for more information on how to submit results.
Match Play Ratings are calculated using the Glicko algorithm. To determine each player's strength two numbers are used. A player's rating is a best guess of the player's strength while the rating deviation (RD) describes how confident we are that the rating is accurate.
The following configuration is used for the Glicko implementation: