The case
We've had a great deal of feedback, backed up by the analysis of our results data, around the case where a strong player simply hammers their lower level opponent.
It's a double whammy for the lower level player:
- They are simply overwhelmed by their much stronger opponent to the point they know they're doomed and the wind is knocked out of them. They don't give up but they're not putting everything into fighting back as it's clearly a pointless exercise.
- This means that the result can change dramatically from, say, a 15-5 beating to a 15-3 hammering. That doesn't look that different but from a 'points ratio' point of view it's very significant. 15-5 is 3:1 whereas 15-3 is 5:1! Even with all our damping, this can cause some very big level swings and it's simply not fair on the lower level player.
It's also not necessarily accurate for the higher level player either. They think they're playing really well but the respective levels played at is really more biased towards the lower level player losing spirit.
Most of the feedback we receive around this is complaints that our system is encouraging strong players to hammer their opponents. This is particularly brutal when juniors start to play seniors and also women up against men particularly those that run hard and hit hard and we certainly don't want that.
The change
We've made two changes:
- In the case where the better player beats their opponent by more than than expected if they were playing at 100%, we take a look at the score and cap it to the equivalent of a 15-5 win. Still very one-sided but, now, a 15-3 hammering is auto-reduced to 15-5.
- The change in level for both players is damped proportionally to the difference in levels between the two players.
Most matches are not affected but those strong players who make a habit of hammering weaker opponents will find their 'jumps' in level are much reduced now. There will still be increases but they'll be more like 2-3% than 8% now.
You can see if this is the case in any match by looking at the match review page and clicking on 'View full explanation'. Here is some example text that you'll find near the top:
It looks like John Doe played significantly better than would normally be expected against his lower level opponent so we've dialled back the amount of change for this match by an additional 35%.
Timing
We're phasing this change in two phases:
- After 1st September 2024, the impact of such matches will be significantly reduced on the lower level players
- After 1st February 2025, the gain from such matches will be significantly reduced for the higher level players