Midwest Power Ranking Criteria and Explanation

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Hey everyone,

With the release of the first segment of the Midwest PR today, it was bound to raise a lot of questions and concerns, such as who was on the panel, what results were considered, and other criteria. I'm here to try to answer all those questions and explain the purpose of the PR.

The idea of a Midwest PR had been discussed since the beginning of the year, and it wasn't until other top players like Zinoto also brought up the idea did we actually begin to form a panel and get the ball rolling. We wanted the MW PR to serve a similar purpose as to what the PGR does. With a MW PR, regionals and larger tournaments in the Midwest can defer to this ranking to compare players coming from OOS. I can't tell you how many times i've seen players ranked in this PR, or at their caliber, get unseeded, or seeded very low at OOS tournaments due to a lack of awareness of talented players in other MW states. I hope we see that a lot less often in 2017.

On a larger scale, this also helps TO's at majors seed the top MW players that may have gone unseeded due to a lack of knowledge of our scene, or certain states within the MW. With MW players traveling to more majors recently than ever before, it has become even more important to have this ranking.

By releasing this PR, I hope that this will raise awareness of skilled players in each MW state, will lead to more players attending larger tournaments to qualify or earn a higher PR spot, and will lead to the MW becoming stronger with players training harder to make the PR.

Now, i'd like to answer some questions and concerns i've seen raised recently.

1. Who was on the Panel?

Answer: A total of 14 members were on the main panel including myself, Ori, Lord Sturm, Zinoto, Pac Diesel, Zguh, Colinies, Warhound, Jaaahsh, Xyless, RodTheDutch, Nightwing That1blakkkid, & Ksev. We also consulted with additional representatives from almost every state once the first PR draft was finished.

2. Why were those particular members chosen?

Answer: We mainly chose TO's, commentators, and top players that traveled around the MW and that paid attention to other local scenes besides their own. All the members on the panel combined had either frequently attended, hosted, commentated, or seeded tournaments in every MW state as well as majors and nationals around the country. The panel is full of experienced and knowledgeable community figureheads. We looked at tournament results held in every MW state, so no state was left out of consideration for the PR. On top of that, we attempted to consult with at least 1 member (TO or top player) in most states not represented in the panel.

3. What was the length of the PR season?

Answer: We looked at results from all of 2016 from Dismantle 2 until Showdown.

4. How long will the PR seasons last from now on?

Answer: We will be doing 6 month seasons from here on out. The next season will begin with Midwest Mayhem 6 at the start of January and run until the end of June.

5. What tournament results did you consider?

Answer: We primarily looked at regionals/nationals/majors within the MW with 100+ player events, or 60+ heavily stacked player events with OOS attendance. We also looked at nationals/majors outside of the MW that MW players competed at. The 2016 Midwest Circuit results helped us to compare players within each sub-region of the MW. For notable wins, we considered any tournaments such as weeklies or smaller monthlies.

6. What did you value most when looking at results?

Answer: It was a combination of many things. Notable wins on top players and big tournament results were the main 2 factors. We also valued consistency, upward trend over the year, strength of brackets, and bad losses. A player getting top 3 at a 100 man event that only had a few PR'd players from that state wasn't valued higher than another player getting 17th at a 100 man event that had 25+ PGR or other PR'd players and with that player getting several notable wins that bracket. Losses are also important. Losing to unranked players while placing higher could hurt you more than getting a lower placement but losing to a top seeded player in both winners and losers (if a top seeded player is sent to losers early on and makes a big losers run).

7. Is skill level considered?

Answer: We did not value skill level of players. This ranking would look completely different if we did.

8. Why is the top player from my state not on this PR?

Answer: That could be due to several reasons. Inactivity, inconsistency, or lack of attendance at larger events. Top players in many states didn't travel very often in 2016, and that tremendously hurts their rank, or even potentially making the PR. If that player mainly attends tournaments in state and has notable wins only on in state players, it becomes almost impossible to compare them fairly to other ranked players.

9. Why are in-state notable wins not valued as high?

Answer: Due to how often top players in-state have played each other throughout the year, it's only safe to assume that each top player will eventually have a win on most of their PR. When you play the same players within your state consistently, the value of those wins and losses goes down significantly. One player will likely pick up on bad habits on the other player from playing them so often, and upsets will happen from time to time. That's why we value results OOS against different opponents a lot more.

If you have any other questions that I might have missed, feel free to ask.

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