WPA World Ranking vs Matchroom World Ranking

spartan

spartan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Joshua Filler is world number 1 according to latest WPA World Ranking
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Albin Ouschan is world number 1 according to latest Matchroom World Ranking after winning recent World Pool Championship and Championship Pool League (CLP). But he is ranked outside top 10 in WPA World Ranking
mrworldranking.JPG


The rankings differ because WPA exclude certain Matchroom events (with very small invitational fields like World Pool Masters, Championship League Pool) while Matchroom includes all their events plus some big non-Matchroom events.
So who is the "real" number 1? :ROFLMAO:

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I go by Fargo and mix and match the top 20 as to who the #1 guy may be week to week.

All those rankings only count some specific events, without a real Pro Tour, all of them are not very valid for a true ranking.

For example the World ranking have a ton of tournaments in Europe and Asia that many US players don't travel to, so US players would have lower WPA rank not due to worse play, but just missing the events.
 
I don’t think either are overly accurate. Matchroom events are largely invitationals and the WPA rankings favour anyone who has the time, funding and interest to play in the majority of those tournaments. As good a player as Tyler Styer is, do we think he is the 10th best player in the world and 2nd best American?
 
Rankings that are based on results (points earned) are only intended to reflect these results over a certain period (say, a year/season). For example, WPA highlights that their official ranking is based on events open for any eligible player (as opposed to invitationals). And that's a valid point.
Tyler might not be the 2nd best American player, but in terms of getting a quota (or a high seed number) he is. So he will get preferences over Sky, Justin or whoever one might consider a better player at WPA events, as long as he keeps such a ranking position.

So current No.1 is in the lead for the simple reason he performed at those officially sanctioned events better than the rest of the gang. This of course comes down to why some noticeable events might not be sanctioned (and therefore counted toward the rankings), but that's just the state of our sport of pool.
 
Cameron Smith said:
I don’t think either are overly accurate. Matchroom events are largely invitationals and the WPA rankings favour anyone who has the time, funding and interest to play in the majority of those tournaments. As good a player as Tyler Styer is, do we think he is the 10th best player in the world and 2nd best American?
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I think the MR events being mostly invitationals gives their rankings some credence. Since, to my knowledge, those invites are based on performance.
 
The WPA rankings count two events in which less than 10 Asians participated and in which almost every elite European played: a) the 2019 Kremlin Cup, and b) the 2021 WPC. That's how you get Tyler Styer at #10 and JL Chang at #24. I'd say the WPA rankings have to be thrown out as completely ridiculous and unfounded in truth.

In fairness to Matchroom, Emily has publicly conceded that the Matchroom rankings are a work in progress and that it will take quite a bit of time before they offer real value, but that they had to start somewhere. I applaud Matchroom for taking the high road here and starting a rankings system that will one day be meaningful. WPA makes no such provision or disclaimers, daring us to be clueless enough to place stock in their "comedy of errors" rankings.

I'm a Tyler Styer fan, but I'm not delusional enough to take his #10 ranking at face value. Jeremy Jones reckoned he's not a top 5 American player, leaving him off the 2020 Mosconi team. His 754 Fargo puts him outside the top 100 in the world, and probably closer to 200th. He failed to reach the last 64 at the recent World Pool Championship. Billy Thorpe, another player I root for, is just outside the World's top 100 based on his 771 Fargo, and yet WPA has him at #13. WPA rankings look every bit as rigged as boxing rankings.

Who's number one? My opinion, as it was a year ago, is that Filler and JL Chang are 1A and 1B with Shane at #3. I haven't seen anything that would change my mind. Yes, both Josh and Shane had a disappointing WPC, but the bucket tables compromised their chances. These three would wipe the floor with Albin on equipment befitting professionals in a long race. Of course, once they're all back in the competitive mix and in top form, we'll get to find out.

For now, it's all speculation, so the real answer to "Who is #1?" is "We'll have to wait and see."

Fargo is now the only reasonable means for comparison across players. Thank you, Mike Page!
 
No doubt, if talking about real comparison in terms of overall strength/abilities, FargoRate is 'da boss'.
At the same time, performance-based ranking has been used in tennis, for instance, and while fans and experts might question them as well occasionally, this is an agreed-upon and workable system. Once a player earns any amount of points he's bound to at least defend this amount at this event next year. Or else he/she is going down the rankings. The points allocation is known beforehand, so everyone is free to choose which tournaments to attend.
If Styer fails to win the Kremlin Cup this year (or even gives a no-show) he loses that share of points - problem solved 😁
 
BeiberLvr said:
I think the MR events being mostly invitationals gives their rankings some credence. Since, to my knowledge, those invites are based on performance.
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Under normal circumstances, I might agree, but MR invitationals are not purely due to merit on the table. They are also inviting players who will help them target their demographics. It's a good start though and I like that they exist because it helps tie their series of events together.
 
true invitational events with small fields like the masters shouldn't count at all or give relative low ranking points, so atleast the WPA is doing that right.
 
rexus31 said:
I thought Matchroom Rankings only took into account Matchroom events?
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From Matchroom news pages:

CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE POOL March 19th, 2021​
The Matchroom Pool World Rankings will resume at next week’s Predator Championship League Pool, the first in a series of spring majors as part of the Matchroom Pool Series.​
The Matchroom Pool World Rankings will bring all six Matchroom Pool Series events together, for the first time offering guaranteed spots in all six events to players through their ranking position.​
In addition, players will earn World Ranking Points for their performances at the World Pool Championship, US Open, World Pool Masters and Championship League Pool. Further events not promoted by Matchroom Pool will be added as the pool calendar develops over the coming months.​

For the US Open (9-ball) Matchroom used WPA rankings and BCA rankings and Fargo ratings, but that was before their current ranking scheme.
 
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