The New World Ranking System Explained - January 2018!

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We have had many discussions about the new world ranking system coming in place, the ITTF have released their official statement today!

The new world ranking system will completely change things. Take Timo Boll, in March this year he was ranked 12, with this new system he would have been ranked world number 54!

According to the ITTF the newly developed World Ranking system will be coming in place to present a more accurate measure and realitistic situation of the current playing level, and to ensure the World Ranking better supports ITTF events. The new system will come in effect from 1st January 2018!


If the new system was in place right now this would be some of the players World Ranking:

If the new World Ranking system was in place this month (November 2017) these would be the notable changes on the ranking list.

oldsystemtopic.jpg



Video below by the iTTF:


The ITTF express, "We believe that a high level of competition and sports presentation, assured by the constant participation of its top players at events, will maximize exposure and promotion through TV, social media and traditional media."


Basic principles of the New Ranking System (Taken directly from ITTF.com:

- The new ranking is based on the final positions reached at the tournaments only (regardless the relative strength of the opponent player).
- Only bonus points are awarded (no rating points are given), which are valid for 12 months, except the World Championships.
- NO loss of points in case of losing a match.
- Ranking Points are fixed according to the point tables using different weightings for different types of events.
- Only the best 8 results are considered on a yearly basis (with one continental event included).
- Separated ranking lists for each age category (Senior, U-21, Junior, Cadet), taking into consideration only results in the respective category.
- Special seeding in case of injury and pregnancy


The new system is expected to keep high level players active. Take Timo Boll for example in the graphic below, in March he would have been ranked 54 if the new World Ranking system was in place:

timobollranking2017.jpg


What are your thoughts on the new World Ranking System?
 
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First impression... I don't find it a good idea...

Depending too much on who you would face in the first rounds... so luck will be a big factor... :(
Seems less accurate and less "showing" of the strenght of a player than current system...


But I understand... made to force the "big names" to come more often in Pro Tour events...
 
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First impression... I don't find it a good idea...

Depending too much on who you would face in the first rounds... so luck will be a big factor... :(
Seems less accurate and less "showing" of the strenght of a player than current system...


But I understand... made to force the "big names" to come more often in Pro Tour events...
I fully agree with you ...it is based on really short period... and it is forcing the top players to play more.....
But what about prize money then or health ?
 
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I think this is bogus. It seems like it's just a shift to indicating who's the most active on the pro tour instead of who's best and I always thought world rankings are all about the latter.

And I doubt the new system "forces" players to be more active. I doubt that players have been simply too lazy to play, I think they have good reasons to skip pro tour events and they will continue to have the same good reasons.
 
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I am not sure about the points per tournament, but I think this new ranking system is a move in the right direction *if* it gives the Tour a better product and encourages more sponsorship with better players playing more often. I think that over rewarding participation may hurt the quality of the rankings a bit but I think that anyone can maintain a reasonable ELO system to measure player strength in their own spare time and it is more important for us to encourage more play on the tour. Having to wait forever to see Ma Long or FZD or never seeing Ding Ning hurts the quality of the tour.
 
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IT is all about money. Players do not participate in all tours because IT costs a lot of money so they just choose the most important to stay high on the ranking system. The other thing is the league where they play and sometimes they cannot be two places at the same time. Anyway I Hope to see best players competing more and more on international stage.
 
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I used the current and new ranking system in October to predict the results of 2017 World Cup and compared with the actual results.
For men's 2017 World Cup, there are 26 matches in total. The current ranking system predicts 23 correctly and the new system 21.
For women's 2017 World Cup, there are 28 matches in total. The current ranking system predicts 24 correctly and the new system 19.
54 matches are not a big pool, while the current system outperforms the new system in predicting results, 87% vs 74% success rate. I am curious about German Open and Swedish Open with more matches and more diverse participants.
Anyway, maybe no one really cares about predicting results except bidding companies? It maybe a good thing that the seeding can be chaos and bring fun to the audience. It may end CNT dominance or it may reinforce CNT dominance. Time will tell.
 
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I used the current and new ranking system in October to predict the results of 2017 World Cup and compared with the actual results.
For men's 2017 World Cup, there are 26 matches in total. The current ranking system predicts 23 correctly and the new system 21.
For women's 2017 World Cup, there are 28 matches in total. The current ranking system predicts 24 correctly and the new system 19.
54 matches are not a big pool, while the current system outperforms the new system in predicting results, 87% vs 74% success rate. I am curious about German Open and Swedish Open with more matches and more diverse participants.
Anyway, maybe no one really cares about predicting results except bidding companies? It maybe a good thing that the seeding can be chaos and bring fun to the audience. It may end CNT dominance or it may reinforce CNT dominance. Time will tell.

Yes, the new system is designed to add more excitement and uncertainty. It also will help ensusre that "#1" thru "#10" are playing in more tournaments regardless of true playing strength. Maybe some TV deals required this? Audiences want to see the "top" players.
 
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With inside intel.....
This is going to cause more injuries.

I have spent the past year close and inside TPE's camp.
more than 50% of the players are injured or carrying an injury while playing

Already with the 40+ balls, this is breaking the body
now to remain world ranking - one must play even more.....

Trust me, a lot of players aim at world ranking for seeding

Seeding for singles world champ and same individual seeing links to seeding for world teams champ.

This world ranking is changing from players skill level to participation and the point awarded for losers in higher round is way off.
So imagine round 1 have 2 formal seeds (of Dec's ranking), the 1 top 20 player will end up in outside 100 in no time :p
 
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IT is all about money. Players do not participate in all tours because IT costs a lot of money so they just choose the most important to stay high on the ranking system. The other thing is the league where they play and sometimes they cannot be two places at the same time. Anyway I Hope to see best players competing more and more on international stage.

The same as any other sports, you get different rating/ranking tournament with different prize money structure.
The better players go to the higher rated/ranked/prized money tournament
while your tier 2 / 3s etc go to the lower rated/ranked/prized money tournament

As much as international matches are important, the actual ground work on promoting table tennis is club level.
T2, Indian league, Euro league, Asian league
Invitational tournaments

Then training 30 to 40 hours a week
Pick up an injury and you are off the world ranking

I doubt these changes has the players best intention in mind.
So should all players stop playing domestic tt and only focus on international?
 
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I am not sure about the points per tournament, but I think this new ranking system is a move in the right direction *if* it gives the Tour a better product and encourages more sponsorship with better players playing more often. I think that over rewarding participation may hurt the quality of the rankings a bit but I think that anyone can maintain a reasonable ELO system to measure player strength in their own spare time and it is more important for us to encourage more play on the tour. Having to wait forever to see Ma Long or FZD or never seeing Ding Ning hurts the quality of the tour.

So to have number 1 and number 2 to face each other in the 1st round
but then have a easy walk over games in qf/sf/final

I really hope the changes is for the better
I just hope my friends won't get more injured than they already are

PS, they are getting higher world ranking (record high) with the seeds falling out of the world ranking lol
 
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The same as any other sports, you get different rating/ranking tournament with different prize money structure.
The better players go to the higher rated/ranked/prized money tournament
while your tier 2 / 3s etc go to the lower rated/ranked/prized money tournament

As much as international matches are important, the actual ground work on promoting table tennis is club level.
T2, Indian league, Euro league, Asian league
Invitational tournaments

Then training 30 to 40 hours a week
Pick up an injury and you are off the world ranking

I doubt these changes has the players best intention in mind.
So should all players stop playing domestic tt and only focus on international?

That is a good point, but as you mentioned other sports it is always like top players compete internatinal stage and this is their main purpose. For instant in football even if top players play in great clubs like Bayern Munchen they always have to be free when the play for their country. Of course there is much bigger money in football but I thing asking top player to compete more on international stage is good. At the same time they should get more money for participating those tours and then it would be more fair (they should get money from their country mostly). Why do you think some top players chose to play T2 - the reason is money.
You say Ma Long is the best player in the world and we are afraid he can be injured so let him stay at home and play just few Times a year. In my opinion his country should decide to compete less on national stage and send him to compete abroad to represent china.
 
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Ittf's strategy always has been to somehow break CNT's stranglehold by introducing strange new rules to the game. They somehow feel that by artificially inducing players from other countries into top 10, they will popularize table tennis in different countries and get more sponsorship. I think this is wrong in multiple counts. You have to honour your top players and give them space to be in their top shape when ever they perform instead of dragging them to all tour events.

It would have been much better if ITTF bought good HD rec equipment, hire some professional cameramen /editors and of course increase prize money than to introduce nonsense
 
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I can't tell which system is better and in what aspect, but the new one may be more interesitng and intrege.
It should not be a problem for Timo Boll to play more in March, I think.
About injuries - well, they are a bad thing, but are all on players' personal account. Kubrat Pulev injured and could not fight with Anthony Joshua and lost a lot of money, but it happens in sports. So try not to injure. "I'm better, but I'm injured" do not proove.

I like the Snooker rating system - money count, more money - higher rating, no money - no rating. And I think this would put more pressure on sponsors too and more money will come to the TT system.
 
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That is a good point, but as you mentioned other sports it is always like top players compete internatinal stage and this is their main purpose. For instant in football even if top players play in great clubs like Bayern Munchen they always have to be free when the play for their country. Of course there is much bigger money in football but I thing asking top player to compete more on international stage is good. At the same time they should get more money for participating those tours and then it would be more fair (they should get money from their country mostly). Why do you think some top players chose to play T2 - the reason is money.
You say Ma Long is the best player in the world and we are afraid he can be injured so let him stay at home and play just few Times a year. In my opinion his country should decide to compete less on national stage and send him to compete abroad to represent china.

We are not afraid of players getting injured, it is too late, they are already injured
The fact is most of your top players are already injured and carrying some injury - they are not 100% fit.

I would rather take a player off the circuit and heal, but unfortunately the time, stress, and changes are not helping the player.
After the players career, ITTF don't care about those injuries, but the player needs to live with it for the rest of the lives.
I guess fans don't care, ITTF don't care, sponsors don't care.
I have friends that go to tournament straight from therapy and have medical crew with them on the tour
they get wrapped around like mummies, and only at 60-70% fit when playing.
playing with pain killers etc
after the tournament, they back in treatment
but i guess you don't care as all you want to see is good tt rallies?

Also, right now your top players will only play in your platinum tours - with higher points/money
What is the purpose of say Ma Long going to play in a small tour where with him playing left hand he could still win?

The stress of traveling is not worth attending lowly rated tournament
just like if you are a 1st division player, you won't waste your time playing in 3rd division

Also, you forgot the political factor in of how sports runs.
Do you think Ma Long is controlled only by CNT?
That he can give up provincial duties and only do international?
half the things, he can't decide for himself

Most of your big sports is bigger than your international tournaments

i would rather have CSL or European champions league over a world tour as you get to see more action and not a 1 sided victory. look at NBA or soccer leagues as compirison
 
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We are not afraid of players getting injured, it is too late, they are already injured
The fact is most of your top players are already injured and carrying some injury - they are not 100% fit.

I would rather take a player off the circuit and heal, but unfortunately the time, stress, and changes are not helping the player.
After the players career, ITTF don't care about those injuries, but the player needs to live with it for the rest of the lives.
I guess fans don't care, ITTF don't care, sponsors don't care.
I have friends that go to tournament straight from therapy and have medical crew with them on the tour
they get wrapped around like mummies, and only at 60-70% fit when playing.
playing with pain killers etc
after the tournament, they back in treatment
but i guess you don't care as all you want to see is good tt rallies?

Also, right now your top players will only play in your platinum tours - with higher points/money
What is the purpose of say Ma Long going to play in a small tour where with him playing left hand he could still win?

The stress of traveling is not worth attending lowly rated tournament
just like if you are a 1st division player, you won't waste your time playing in 3rd division

Also, you forgot the political factor in of how sports runs.
Do you think Ma Long is controlled only by CNT?
That he can give up provincial duties and only do international?
half the things, he can't decide for himself

Most of your big sports is bigger than your international tournaments

i would rather have CSL or European champions league over a world tour as you get to see more action and not a 1 sided victory. look at NBA or soccer leagues as compirison
I understand your point but that situation is probably in most of sports. That is not my fault that I want to see top players competing each other more often. The old ranking system was not good, I remember Timo Boll was not playing like half year or had really poor appearances and still was top 10. Of course I know he was injured for most of time and as he goes older it is more likely to happen.
I understand NBA but in this league you will find best players all over the world, nationality does not matter and it is great, because NBA (or rather clubs) pay a lot of money to get best players from abroad as well. But look at CTTSL sometimes they take 1 or 2 players and this year they said no japanese will take part in our competition - ok it is up to them, but for the spectators it is bad decision.
So as a TT fan I want to see top players competing at least 1 time monthly, that is not big thing unless they are playing local leagues.
ITTF can do whatever they like to make the sport better for watch, to do that is to send best players for most of int competitions. But to solve the problem of injuries ITTF should talk with countries TTF and find solution to make players earn at least same money but not playing more and more.
 
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I understand your point but that situation is probably in most of sports. That is not my fault that I want to see top players competing each other more often. The old ranking system was not good, I remember Timo Boll was not playing like half year or had really poor appearances and still was top 10. Of course I know he was injured for most of time and as he goes older it is more likely to happen.
I understand NBA but in this league you will find best players all over the world, nationality does not matter and it is great, because NBA (or rather clubs) pay a lot of money to get best players from abroad as well. But look at CTTSL sometimes they take 1 or 2 players and this year they said no japanese will take part in our competition - ok it is up to them, but for the spectators it is bad decision.
So as a TT fan I want to see top players competing at least 1 time monthly, that is not big thing unless they are playing local leagues.
ITTF can do whatever they like to make the sport better for watch, to do that is to send best players for most of int competitions. But to solve the problem of injuries ITTF should talk with countries TTF and find solution to make players earn at least same money but not playing more and more.

The problem is ITTF is trying in the wrong spot.

National feds want world champ and olympic medals
One would require descent world rankings points to rank high enough for seeds/qualifications etc

Now if we start messing around would rankings, then if it is incorrectly calculated then you will end up having high seeds all in group qualifications

imagine if Ma Long and Timo boll is in the same group (unseeded due to inactivity)
then before of the 4 players, 2 will go through, but now the 2 will go through is ML and TB, no more group qualifiers to make it.

the few other that made it due to "inflated" world ranking, would simply just be knocked out by lower rated players but higher skilled.

Imo ITTF probably signed a deal with some betting company, as all this only makes sense for betting companies and not for the players

ITTF can't make more money for players, just like how FIBA and FIFA makes close to zero money for players
The sooner we realise that our savior in TT is not ITTF, the better for all.
 
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