Subject: Re: Banned In Europe Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 22:35:53 +0200 From: "Andreas Gressl" To: Hi there, Usually I'm one of the silent majority, but since this is about a friend of mine, and about a topic that concerns me directly, I might as well put in my 2 cents worth for once. To make that clear right now, I fully agree with Christian on all points. Let me tell a bit about myself: I'm a scrub (and proud of it), but I'm also quite competitive. I like the idea of comparing myself not just to those who attend the same tournaments as me, but also to all other magic players all over the country/the world. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those natural talents who comes to his first tournament with a deck he hastily slapped together, goes 5-1, and walks away with a pocketful of free booster packs. Right now, after about ten months of maybe one or two tournaments a month I'm at that point where I mostly break even at each tournament I attend, going like 3-3 or 3-4 most of the time. This may seem like I'm digressing, but there's a point to my ramblings: I've worked hard for my progress as a magic player and I'd like to see the results in a ranking somewhere. Now how does this connect to the DCI's ongoing feud with Christian (and NOT vice versa) ? I've played my first DCI-approved tournament in September 1997. My second one was a PTQ in the beginning of November. After that, I did about one DCI-approved event a month. I got my first rating on Wizard's web site in the middle of January, and my first ranking some time in March. The average time for a tournament to be entered in DCI's ranking database is about four months. Once, they did it in about ten weeks (the PTQ). One other time, they took half a year. To me, this is simply unacceptable. As a tournament organiser once told me, the process works like this: The organiser or the head judge for a tournament collects the report sheets and sends them all by snail mail to Amigo in Belgium. There, they lie around a week or four waiting to be processed. This processing simply consists of sending them to the DCI HQ in the U.S., which, so I've been told, is the only place in the world where data is entered into the database. Now I fully understand that with tens of thousands of magic players and probably dozens of tournaments each week all over the world, they can't very well update each country's ranking on a weekly basis (but hey, one can dream :-). This, however, is exactly what Christian is capable of doing with his own ranking. Of course, when there's nothing to update, he doesn't, but usually he sends out his ranking by e-mail at least twice a month, sometimes more often if there was a major tournament weekend. As he already stated himself in his letter to Jason, this provides an additional incentive to players to play in tournaments. Since he doesn't try to compete in any way with DCI-approved events, but rather enters the results from those in his database as well (makes sense - all the top players are there), this tends to draw more people to these events, which, in theory, should make everyone happy: the organisers (more people means more money means more prizes they can dish out means more people will come next time), the players (higher level of competition, more prizes), and WotC (they make more money too, especially in sealed deck events). This was before my time, but from what I've heard it seems that the DCI and it's ranking didn't really establish themselves in this country until late 1996/early 1997. At that time, there already was a lively magic scene in Austria, thanks largely to the efforts of people like Christian. Those early years gave him two things: vast experience as a magic judge (easily level III material), and the acknowledgement and respect of the Austrian magic community. He's the guy everyone knows and trusts. That it's important to have such a person you can see from all those discussions on the net about frauds and faked tournaments. Christian's ranking is a purely local phenomenon, and I can't see how a large, global organization like the DCI could be jealous of a small country's own ranking system. I think they've got enough problems on their own to meddle with every small aspect of every country's tournament scene. DCI (and therefore WotC) are trying to promote magic as a professional sport. The whole environment is still far from professional, however. Just look at the ongoing and past discussions on the Dojo about professional vs. voluntary judges, cheating, the DCI ranking system, etc. As far as the DCI ranking is concerned, the long delays in the updating of the database seem to suggest to me that those guys in the Duelist's Convocation are severely understaffed. Also, why can't tournament organisers submit their results online, getting rid of at least another month of waiting for the postman? Magic has already entered the computer age, as the Dojo among others has already proven... To bring this tirade to an end, what Christian has done is provide us Austrians with a ranking system that's user-friendly (yeah, I come from the computer biz :-), transparent, free (he doesn't take any potential revenue away from the DCI), fast and no threat whatsoever to the DCI. In fact, he's practically done their work in this country for years. With his experience and the level of acceptance he has reached hereabouts, he could be an asset for the DCI. Let's just hope the DCI can be brought to this point of view... P.S. As an afterthought, maybe I should explain our ranking system to everyone out there. It's real simple... - you get 10 points for your first win within one tournament, 20 for your second, 30 for your third, etc. This means that you are rewarded for doing really well, and that you can make more points the bigger the tournament is (built-in k-value!) - draws are worth 5 points - if you beat a top ten player, you get 20 additional points. - only your best 12 tournament results over any consecutive 12-month period count (actually, I'm not sure about the 12. Might be 14). So, if you played your 13th (or 15th, or whatever) tournament today since July 28, 1997, and made 60 points, and your worst result during that time was 10 points, those 10 points would fall out and the 60 would get in, giving you a net raise of 50 (works just like in ATP tennis) This also means that if anyone hasn't played in a tournament for 12 months, that player's out of the ranking ("ageing" the DCI ranking has also been discussed on the Dojo these past few weeks...) - that's it! Now go over to Wizard's website and check their ranking system if you have not already done so. Well, maybe not entirely fair, because we're comparing a system for a few hundred players (about 500, at last count) with one designed for tens of thousands, but still... If you wanted to know your EXACT new DCI rating after a tournament, you'd need all your opponent's results and rating as well as your own, because their rating changes after each match as well (at least I think so). Then, you'd have to spend some time with a pocket calculator, a pencil, and a sheet of paper. I just don't think that's an ideal way to do it. Ideally, everyone should be able to know exactly, without too much arithmetic, how many points he/she gained after each tournament. That's what Christian's system provides us with. Thanks for reading this. Comments always welcome. Over and out. Andy G. Scrub. Not a Playa. Not a Judge, either.