Rankings — Week 1

This year, we’re debuting TWO new ranking systems at Premier Debate Today. The first is modeled off the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking system, so we’re calling it the ‘Association of Debate Professionals’ (ADP) as a nod to this origin. The rough idea is to reward more points for elim wins at tougher tournaments. The second is a familiar ELO system where every round adjusts the ELO rating of each of the two competitors in that round. More on the methodologies below.

Premier Debate ADP Rankings (Week 1)

Methodology: ADP is a points system awarded based off tournament toughness. The points per elim round finish are as follows:

• 100 (Champion)
• 75 (Finalist)
• 50 (Semifinalist)
• 25 (Quarterfinalist)
• 10 (Octafinalist)
• 5 (Double Octafinalist)
• 1 (Triple Octafinalist)

This point number is then multiplied by the proportion of the tournament’s BLY variable over the previous year’s TOC’s BLY variable (which for this year is 292). BLY (Bids in Last Year) is calculated by taking the sum of bids entries at a tournament have earned in the last 52 weeks. The points a debater earns at a tournament replaces the points they earned at that tournament last year.

Example for Grapevine: Debaters attending that tournament had earned a total of 8 bids in the last 52 weeks. Double Octafinalists received (5)(8/292)=0.1369863014 points. The Champion earned (100)(8/292)=2.739726027 points. 

Grapevine BLY: 8

Loyola BLY: 48

Premier Debate ELO Rankings (Week 1)

Methodology: ELO is a ratings system which sees debaters points go up and down based on their wins and losses. The bigger the gap between debaters, the more potential points to be earned by the upset, but less to be earned by the higher rated debater. The K (standard change) value for a tournament is calculated by: ((natural log of the BLY for a tournament)/(natural log of the previous year’s TOC))(20). Example for Loyola: Debaters attending that tournament had earned a total of 48 bids in the previous 52 weeks. The natural log of last year’s TOC was: ln(292)=5.676753802. The natural log of Loyola was: ln(48)=3.871201011. So the K value for Loyola equals: (3.871201011/5.676753802)(20)=13.63878423. All debaters who have not had a previous round that year start at an ELO of 1000. 

Dictionary: D1=Debater 1, D2=Debater 2, St=Starting,

Elo formulas:

EndELO_D1=(StELO_D1+(K*(S_D1-E_D1)))

EndELO_D2=(StELO_D2+(K*(S_D2-E_D2)))

R_D1=10^(StELO_D1/400)

R_D2=10^(StELO_D2/400)

E_D1=(R_D1/(R_D1+R_D2)

E_D2=(R_D2/(R_D2+R_D1)

S_D1=1 (WIN) OR 0 (LOSS)

S_D2=1 (WIN) OR 0 (LOSS)

K=(((ln(BLYTournament)/ln(BLYTOC))*(20)))

Grapevine K: 7.326164263

Loyola K: 13.63878423