Rating Rants
Just went through preliminary analysis of the tournament data accumulated over the years. I have found quite a number of discrepancies in the rating list, probably serious enough to warrant an overhaul of the rating list.
Did you know that the rating list was initially preseeded (one group at 1500, another at 1200). Nigel told me that when he took over it was the norm to perform the ratings without preseeding, so why the switch in the first place? now, there is a ripple effect throughout the rating list and many players are quite possible severely underrated.
Another problem created is a very flat bell curve in the rating since malaysia has a smaller scrabble playing population and yet its range is wider than even australia or US. Because of this and the ripple effect, some players can continue sandbagging just by playing(bullying would be more accurate) new players in the lower division. It will take forever for them to raise their rating to their true level and give problem to organisers to find a fair point to designate the cutoff.
This is only the tip of the iceberg that is about to sink the malaysian rating. Hopefully I can persuade the players to adopt a new and consistent approach towards the rating but I am worried that the switch, which is taking place early in the wsc selection period, will not be adopted because players are fearful for their ratings.
Oh well....guess we will have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
posted by Henry Yeo at 1:49 PM
2 Comments:
Hello Henry,
As discussed at YMCA, why don't you propose a motion to do a rerating in the upcoming AGM (if there is one soon). Prepare a pro-forma rating if you were to standardise the pre-rating method, whether mean, median, weighted average, at 1200, at 1500, whatever. May be a big exercise for you though, with the various scenarios.
Then, before AGM, to send out notice to our members for their review and propose motion to adopt a new pre-rating system retroactively. They can put it to a vote formally at the AGM on the 2 issues:
1. Whether to re-rate or not?
2. Which pre-rating system to use.
You have to show the pros and cons of each method. Once, if voted and adopted, then all players should hold their peace, if they did not voice up at the AGM.
I am sure those in the WSC selections will not object, if the rerating does not affect their relative ranking at all. For those below the top 10 or 20, it should not really matter anyway. It is just a relative measure of our skills among our peers in Malaysia.
Cheers! - Kar Mun
p/s: Can we have another column of ranking for just Malaysians only? I'd just like to know how I am doing relative to other Malaysians. There are far too many foreigners on the current list, that has played irregularly only. Or to denote foreigners (like the Singapore one).
12:08 PM
Oh Henry,
Just to follow up, in Singapore, if you are not a member of the Scrabble Association, you do not see your ratings on the web. We should do that in Malaysia too.
This should spur more non-members to join into the MSA, if they want to know how they are doing. Also, we will also hide most foreigners ratings who only played in 1 or 2 tournaments, except for Nigel, who is resident and regularly playing.
I am not sure if MSA allows non-Malaysians to be a member or not. If not, I'd propose to allow non-Malaysians to join as members or associate members. Do clarify for me.
Cheers! - Kar Mun
12:17 PM
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