It’s a key part of the calibration engine so we’ve offered it as a separate FAQ.
The following cases all affect behaviour and have been modelled as best we can based on analysing the millions of results in the system and talking to a lot of players!
- Good players playing lesser players. A big one! Several cases:
- The better player is likely to give the lesser player a run around - we expect them to play 'down'
- We generally protect the better player but there are limits. They really shouldn't be dropping games.
- If the lesser player players better then expected we still give them a small increase
- If the better player hammers the lesser player then this is damped significantly as we don't encourage it. This is the 'Overwhelmed' case.
- Exhibition matches
- Player level - the pro players are a lot more consistent than the rest of us
- Tournament disasters - preventing them from wreaking a similar disaster on your level!
- Getting tired after multiple, close matches in a tournament. The tank is empty by the end!
- Big gaps in your history - particularly for juniors
- Retiring pros who then reappear in the county leagues years later
- Upcoming stars with meteoric rises. For these players we can apply ‘accelerated level adjustment’ and can soften the blow for their opponents.
- Improving players - maybe not meteoric but we spot that they are improving and go the extra mile to soften the blow of all their opponents each time.
- How much effort a player is likely to put into each match type. For example, county league players treat club boxes as a bit of fun whereas they’re deadly serious for the players further down the boxes. Same applies to PSA players playing PSL. Just two examples.
- Related to the above, encouraging better players to participate in the boxes.
- Limits on match and tournament movement based on level, time and match type. This is also protection against rogue results. Most players really don’t improve (or get worse) that quickly though, bear in mind we’re measuring playing level not ability so it’s all going to be quite dynamic - that’s half the fun!