I've been number crunching and coming up with a league table for the GPS Team Challenge. It will run separate from the competition, and I'll put it up at KA72.com at some point soon (if the idea suits enough people, that is.)

Basically, it splits the competition into Divisions, so that teams are competing against other teams of a similar standard.

I came up with the initial composition of the divisions by running a league table for last year, and then promoting successful teams up a division, and demoting poorer ones down a division. Then I have blended in the teams that joined the competition last year, giving some precedence to teams that have been in the competition for more than one year.

Here are the divisions for my first half of 2011 table. (Promotions and demotions will occur on 6-monthly basis, I think.)

Hopefully by running a league table, your team will be able to compete with a smaller number of similarly skilled teams from around the world. That will give you more incentive to make small improvements (and maybe get your team promoted to the big league!)

Note that this is organised completely separate to the GPS Team Challenge. I plan to use the results posted to GPSTC to determine promotions and demotions, but this is not an official part of the competition. However, there may be occasional prizes for divisional winners

Division 1 for 2011

JP/NP Mob
Wad1team
The Pit Crew
Speed Team Makkum
Mandurah Mob
Swan River Mob
Moreton Bay Mob
Tassie Speed Seekers
SA Speed Demons
Connewarre Cremasters
FNQ Mob
Cockroaches

Division 2 for 2011

Portland Pirates
Pinaroos
One Eyed Cantabrians
Team Horst
Tjeukemeer Speedsurfing Team
Perth Southsiders
Cro Preluka Speedhunterz
Board Crazy Boys
Cro Boreas Speedhunterz
Sunshine Coast Sailboards Vikings
Cro Aeolus Speedhunterz
The Southerly Busters

Division 3 for 2011

Slo Zusterna Speedhunterz
Dutch Fun Speeders
Amazing Windsurfspot Speed Team
Grevelingen Chop Team
Slo Coldbeer Speedhunterz
Burrum Heads MOB
SpeedEnz
Mid-North Coast Marauders
The Wannabees
Morito Beach
ACT Gustbusters

Division 4 for 2011

Slo Nuclear Speedhunterz
Saka Beach
WestOzWind's Divas and Warriors
Team East (UK)
Oesterdam Boardriders Club
Lake Macquarie
Speed Team Lauwersmeer
WK Speed Warriors
O-Spot
Bonno Blasters
Rough Water Riders

Division 5 for 2011

Easy Riders
Belgian Slalom Team
FMF
The Sailfish
Teammuiderberg.nl
Fogland Speed Surfers
Cro Lakrdija Pro Team
St John's Mud Sharks
Surf-forum.com
Team Juice
Irish Speed Kings



Cheers,

Dylan.

Legend Dylan.
Go you good thing

Is that only on results thru KA72.com or those posted to GPSTC as well

The Double Demerits, a small but active team has been missed out.

Great idea Dylan! Will be interesting to see how the 12 months pan out

Select to expand quote

Mobydisc said...

The Double Demerits, a small but active team has been missed out.

You are absolutely correct. The Demerits are in 3rd division this year. Should have been 12 teams. (In my private calcs for last year, they were in Division 2 for 2010 but demoted this year to Division 3. I blame my hangover to forgetting them in the list )

If any other omissions are spotted, please let me know!

I have left off teams that didn't post any sessions during 2010 or 2009. There is a chance that some of them may be really new, but they won't get into the league until next cycle. At the end of each cycle, new teams will be absorbed into the ladder.

My goal is to keep each division to a maximum of 12 teams, so that you have a reasonable but not excessive range of competitors.

And to answer Wineman, it will be all sessions that count, not just stuff posted via ka72.com.

Dylan.

The sheer volume of data on the GTC site is formidable, and mini competitions like the league table and the ashes have shown that slicing and dicing the data in different ways can be very useful...

I'm happy to make the data available in other formats (XML, CSV) for things like this if someone wants to do their own crunching.

If you have an idea on how best to present this data in a feed format then I'm happy to put this onto the site.

Great idea Dylan!

Why are the Portland Pirates in Div 2? When we are ranked 8th for 2010.
How does this system work?
Seems to me that in Div 1 it has the top ten teams in it for 2010 apart from The Portland Pirates?

Cheers...

Select to expand quote

Swagger said...

Why are the Portland Pirates in Div 2? When we are ranked 8th for 2010.
How does this system work?
Seems to me that in Div 1 it has the top ten teams in it for 2010 apart from The Portland Pirates?

Fair question, Swagger.

In order to come up with the tables for 2011, I worked backwards and created league tables for 2009 and 2010, then did promotions and relegations for 2011, and merged in the new teams. This means that the league table I've introduced is not a straight top-to-bottom list of teams.

For 2010 I had 10 teams in each division, but there were 28 new teams last year, and they all had to be blended into the divisions. I didn't want to unduly disrupt the existing teams, but I didn't want to put all the new teams in the lowest division and force them to wait years to advance.

The decision I made was to put the top 3 new teams directly into 1st division, the next 3 teams directly into 2nd division, the next 3 into 3rd division, and then divide the rest evenly into 4th and 5th division.

By that measure, the Portland Pirates were 4th placed of the new teams, and therefore put straight into the 2nd division. If its any comfort, they are the top seeded team in the division. If you look at 3rd division, the top 3 teams there are all new teams that placed higher than the existing teams in last year's competition, so they are hot favourites to get promoted in the next round.

Note again that the divisions are not entirely intended to be a top-to-bottom list of team rankings. The process of promotion and relegation of teams will mean that there are a variety of levels within the divisions, but within a year or so they should flatten out a bit.

A team should strive to avoid relegation, and hold their division. If they improve sufficiently they can hope to be promoted to the next division, but then they are playing a harder game, and are more likely to get relegated.

None of this affects any other aspects of the GPSTC, it's a sideline competition really that I'm running for my own interest, and because I felt that teams lower down the ladder could benefit from a structure that gives them something to work towards.

Dylan.

Select to expand quote

Swagger said...

Why are the Portland Pirates in Div 2?
Cheers...

Because it's better than Div 3
Because FNQ Mobsters are better looking so we got your spot
Because we had to put up with the barmy army and losing the Ashes
Because I don't know, just because

Don't worry Swags, I have a funny feeling you'll move up this year, but you're not having our spot, we were just teasing last year and Dylan knows it

Cheers, Old Fella

because you are english
because we are racist
because we hate our fatherland
because we couldnt put you in div 6 on your own
because we know your better than us
............

Hmmm,
Put it this way Dylan we sail in a place that works very rarely and rarely travel to faster spots, as a matter of fact we worked bloody hard this year to get the results and a lot of getting up early before work, blagging work and sailing in freezing conditions.
Now i understand what you are getting at and its a sideshow for you to play with but it does feel like a kick in the teeth. I hope you don't feel insulted as much as we do.

Basically if you get ranked in a competition and data is used from this competition to set up a sideline then if its not used properly then its a farce. For arguments sake its like entering the Olympics for the first time and winning gold in your event but because the other competitors have entered before they are a higher division?

Just my thoughts,

Thanks......

Select to expand quote

Swagger said...

Hmmm,
Put it this way Dylan we sail in a place that works very rarely and rarely travel to faster spots, as a matter of fact we worked bloody hard this year to get the results and a lot of getting up early before work, blagging work and sailing in freezing conditions.
Now i understand what you are getting at and its a sideshow for you to play with but it does feel like a kick in the teeth. I hope you don't feel insulted as much as we do.

Basically if you get ranked in a competition and data is used from this competition to set up a sideline then if its not used properly then its a farce. For arguments sake its like entering the Olympics for the first time and winning gold in your event but because the other competitors have entered before they are a higher division?

Just my thoughts,

Thanks......

Well perhaps if you didn't waste time having a winge, you might work your way up to the 1st division

And for arguments sake this is nothing like the olympics.....

Select to expand quote

Swagger said...

Hmmm,
Put it this way Dylan we sail in a place that works very rarely and rarely travel to faster spots, as a matter of fact we worked bloody hard this year to get the results and a lot of getting up early before work, blagging work and sailing in freezing conditions.
Now i understand what you are getting at and its a sideshow for you to play with but it does feel like a kick in the teeth. I hope you don't feel insulted as much as we do.

Basically if you get ranked in a competition and data is used from this competition to set up a sideline then if its not used properly then its a farce. For arguments sake its like entering the Olympics for the first time and winning gold in your event but because the other competitors have entered before they are a higher division?

Just my thoughts,

Thanks......

Does it really matter what division your team is in? Its not like your transfer fee is worth a million dollars more if you are in the first division.

From the way I see it, Dylan has developed this so teams that will never have members doing 45 knots and sailing 400 kms in a day will still have a bit of competition.


If you think its a farce, that is fine. Just ignore this sideline. No one forced Dylan to spend time on this so give him a break. Whats the point of whinging about what division you are in anyway? If you are right you will be promoted at the end of the season. If you are wrong you will look a bit silly.

Mobydisc said...."
Does it really matter what division your team is in?
Well just seeing that the FNQMob is in Division 1 should be inspiration for all of our members to make sure we stay there.

Good luck to everyone else

I think Great Britain's No.1 team Portland Pirates needs to be in Div 1, and make Div 1 a 13 team Division to make it inclusive enuff, IMHO

Many regrets,
If i have overeacted and been a bit brash i do not mean to upset anyone. Dylan what you are doing is great its just we (Portland Pirates) are very competitive in our own right.

Anyway as for making myself look silly? well we shall see.

Olympics comment yeah fair play its not like the games but it is a competition and thats that!

Ok gonna get off my soap box now.

No hard feelings.

Now where is that urn?

Select to expand quote

firiebob said...

Swagger said...

Why are the Portland Pirates in Div 2?
Cheers...

Because it's better than Div 3
Because FNQ Mobsters are better looking so we got your spot
Because we had to put up with the barmy army and losing the Ashes
Because I don't know, just because

Don't worry Swags, I have a funny feeling you'll move up this year, but you're not having our spot, we were just teasing last year and Dylan knows it

Cheers, Old Fella

Sorry guys, this is just my stupid sense of humor, I wake this morning and all I see is negativity WTF

Swags, Dylan is one of the nicest blokes you'll meet who has put heaps of time into something real good. I think his new League Table is a good thing but will need time to settle in. Like you I also thought it strange FNQM were in D1 and teams like PP's are lower, I also thought your question was legitimate so I'd like to apologize if my comments set the resulting tone

And I have to say I hate the red thumb thing

Edit, I type and think so slow Swags and others got in first

Firiebob,
No worries and i'm sure Dylan is great bloke christ he does a free site for starters,anyway if your getting up i should be going to bed.
Well maybe another beer first.

Each division has underdogs that were promoted from the last season. This year's division 1 underdogs are the Connewarra Crewmasters, The FNQ Mob and the Cockroaches. If there had been a league ladder last year, they would have been the top 3 teams in the 2nd division. Now they have 6 months to prove that they were worthy.

Hardie, I'm really stuck on 12 teams as a maximum in a division. More than that and the field is too large to be fun. I'm actually thinking on trimming the divisions down further to 11 or 10 teams as the year goes on. To be honest, I personally feel that 8 teams per division is probably the optimum number, but I'll see how it plays out, and with so many new teams last year I didn't want to spread them out too thinly when they are an unproven group.

I will discuss with Ben how to access the data "live" for an up-to-the minute ladder page.

Select to expand quote

Swagger said...

Hmmm,
Put it this way Dylan we sail in a place that works very rarely and rarely travel to faster spots, as a matter of fact we worked bloody hard this year to get the results and a lot of getting up early before work, blagging work and sailing in freezing conditions.

I do empathise. We used to live in Sussex, and Kellie sailed off Lancing beach in some awful conditions. When the only alternative is sailing some gravel pit or converted lido, or driving for hours to Southampton, you make do with what you've got, and I've got nothing but admiration for the effort you guys made last year.

By putting your team into 2nd division this year, I've consciously turned you into the target that the other teams are going to strive to beat. How much more reassuring is it going to be for a 25th placed team in the competition to only have to focus on beating the Portland Pirates, rather than having to take on the JP/NP Mob? Suddenly these teams have a realistic target, something that they could potentially work towards. And now instead of being the losers in 1st divison, you are the team to beat in 2nd.

Cheers,

Dylan.

Select to expand quote

Dylan72 said...



Hardie, I'm really stuck on 12 teams as a maximum in a division. More than that and the field is too large to be fun. I'm actually thinking on trimming the divisions down further to 11 or 10 teams as the year goes on. To be honest, I personally feel that 8 teams per division is probably the optimum number, but I'll see how it plays out, and with so many new teams last year I didn't want to spread them out too thinly when they are an unproven group

OK Dylan I see your reasoning and the logistical issues, Great Concept!!!!!!!

I don't mind if the Demerits are relegated back a few divisions if it creates room at the top so more people are happy. We probably should not be in the third division as there are only a couple of us who are actively posting so if either of us have the day off when the other is out, then our scores don't count. Plus I'm not the greatest sailor in the world.

Select to expand quote

Mobydisc said...

I don't mind if the Demerits are relegated back a few divisions if it creates room at the top so more people are happy. We probably should not be in the third division as there are only a couple of us who are actively posting so if either of us have the day off when the other is out, then our scores don't count. Plus I'm not the greatest sailor in the world.

That may happen, but let it happen naturally.

In 2010, the Demerits finished in the top 3 positions in the 4th division, and thus got promoted to 3rd division. In fact, most of the 4th division teams went dead last year, so the new 4th and 5th divisions are mostly made up of new teams that haven't yet proven themselves, so there could be a lot of jockeying at the low end of the ladder this year.

First of all I want to thank Dylan for giving me something more to strive for in windsurfing, and life in general. After illness and a lot of stress at work last year this team challenge has really given me something better to work towards and fill up the hole that work created.

I am one of the new team members for Portland Pirates, having only joined in september and not really producing any results that have benefitted the team yet so in my eyes any division is good for me. There are a few members of the team who worked unbelievably hard last year and they can hold their own against most world class sailors, especially considering the conditions we sail in (37knots in boxy harbour chop I personally think deserves a knighthood for bravery! ;-) )

We will be moving up to Div 1 without a doubt, cap'n swags has already given us our deck swabbing duties for the year and when I win the lottery we will all be going to Le Franqui for a while ;-)

Happy new year and good winds to all.
Lea

Oh look the 2nd place english team {team east) have been put into div 4 only 15 places below their 2010 ranking of 24 ;

Maybe its,

because you are english
because we are racist
because we hate our fatherland
because we couldnt put you in div 6 on your own
because we know you're better than us
............

Seriously though it's so considerate and very nice of you to give us uk teams a chance for next year ,it makes us feel much appreciated.Thanks very much LOL

Just put ALL the English teams in Div 1.
Then wait 6 months to see some REAL whinging!!!!![}:)]

Realisticly in 6 months it will all sort itself out with little work from Dylan.
It will be very interesting I think,especially if some teams can jump a division.

Fantastic idea Dylan.

Select to expand quote

Swagger said...

Many regrets,
If i have overeacted and been a bit brash i do not mean to upset anyone. Dylan what you are doing is great its just we (Portland Pirates) are very competitive in our own right.

Anyway as for making myself look silly? well we shall see.

Olympics comment yeah fair play its not like the games but it is a competition and thats that!

Ok gonna get off my soap box now.

No hard feelings.

Now where is that urn?

Bet you feel really silly at the moment Swags ;-)