Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising TOP 25 NA Winter 2024

Top 25 ranking players that participated in Online events and Offline Majors (Frosty Faustings, Genesis X, and TNS in orlando) For Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. The methodology I based this ranking on is loosely following the way South Florida Smash does their PR. Its clearly a not "1 for 1" comparison, but I view this a long term work in progress with improvements made over time. The following is an explanation of how everyone is ranked and my thought process on getting to that solution. Sources at the end.

The main issue to be addressed is that this is for Online events on Start.gg and Offline Majors. I specifically used start.gg for events due to the process of importing results is a lot more streamlined than on other API's like challonge. These were the only parameters used due to online events being more plentiful to attend, and the majors listed are important focal points that draw many players to one location.

North America is defined as pretty much any event that takes place in the continent as well as the Caribbean.

The data used to rank said players is a combination of True Skill and Glicko to define results. The goal of using two ranking systems is to try and achieve consistency across who would place where on the ranking. Its worth noting that no algorithm is perfect. Each one has pros and cons to take into consideration. I opted to settle for both TrueSkill and Glicko, input the APi's into Braacket, and let the site do all the hard stuff. Trueskill is represented by a players skill's normal distribution, characterized by a mean value (how consistent someone is at a certain skill level) and a variance (essentially an upset factor) The important thing to remember is that TrueSkill values attendance more than other variables in data. Glicko, most commonly used in Chess, is a calculation of a players skill and the rating deviation. The system values more about how consistently you can beat players of your own and higher skill level, while penalizing you for losing to comparatively weaker players. The main take away is that more games played = lower rating deviation and vice versa.

Any discrepancies between the two ranking systems I'd ask for input from other players to come to a consensus. The goal would be to decide how did an individual player perform in the season in relation to his/her peers based on wins and loses to certain players.

The minimum amount of tournaments used to make an event eligible was 12 over the course of the season. The purpose of this is it gives ample amount of data to show who is attending events consistently and performing well over a long period of time. The more events you enter over a period a time, the more accurate the data will reflect your placement on the ranking.

The weight of a tournament is defined by the number of players in attendance. The higher the attendance of an event, the greater the weight of the tournament. This is to try and reflect the skill represented for players that are able to perform well in large events with lots of talent. The percentages can be adjusted as they see fit in the future. I used the average number of players from eligible tournaments to determine a baseline. The weight percentages are as follows.

<8 = Null (added but not counted)
8-11 Players = 20%
12-23 Players = 40%
24-35 Players = 60%
36-46 Players = 80%
>47 Players = 100%

The Time period I used to collect tournament data was from Jan 1st 2024 - Mar 21rd, 2024. This gives enough data or a long period time to find consistency and trends, and give people ample enough time to meet the minimum required events. The last week of March will be utilized to analyze the data, come to a consensus, and cultivate a graphic that represents the top 50 placing players.

The goal of this ranking system is to find out who are the strongest players that reside in North America for GBVSR that consistently place well and come out to events. I dont recall something like this ever being done in GBVS and would be a great opportunity to try now due to the renewed popularity in the game. The ranking was designed to be as close to as unbiased as reasonably possible based on the information available to me at the time.

Sources (Feel free to check them out on your own time):

(1) - http://www.moserware.com/2010/03/computing-your-skill.html
(2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnOVLBbYlU0&t=618s
(3) - http://www.glicko.net/glicko/glicko.pdf