NHL'94 Auto Queue and Ranking System through Discord

[danTML7]

posting it on here as per the advice of some of the players, for those forum lurkers who don't tune in much on the discord.

So over the last year, @Tickenest has worked hard to create and update his own ranking system. He somehow scours the site for games played and then adjusts the player rating based on the ELO formula (more points for beating people that you shouldn't, etc.) He factors in teams and skill of coach. It's pretty cool! Well, I used that as a starting point, and created/implemented into the discord server, an ELO Bot.

What does it do? Basically it's both a matchmaking system and automatic skill rating adjuster. You just click "join queue". Someone joins you. You use the bot command !segamatchup or !snesmatchup and you are given two teams. Then you !flip to see who gets to choose what team. Other person picks home or away. After you play, you go back to the discord and you each click on the winning team. Points are automatically awarded and taken away based on what *SHOULD* have happened. ie. if a 1900 level player is playing a 1300 level player, they should win about 19/20 games. If they lose, they will lose large. If they win, they win small.

In exactly one month, there's been a whopping 750 (SEVEN-HUNDRED AND FIFTY) ELO games played. Of course since we're all adult children here, there's been a few spats here and there, but overall really good feedback so far. 

Thanks to @jay22(whalersmightwin), @bvish, @skills324, @LeifErikson, FutureKingofNHL94, and @TDubs for all doing over 100 GP this month and helping the ELO be a big success. Special thanks to @Wittgensteinfor coming out of retirement to play all those late night hours with me, @corbettkband @hokkeefan, and for @chaosfor beating all the big guns, and for @smozomafor trusting me enough to give me admin status so I could set up the bot.

I'm writing this so in case one reason you don't play NHL94 right now is that "it's too hard to find a game", this makes it considerably easier. Just seeing a guy sitting there in a queue that says "1 of 2" means someone is way more likely to say "f**k it" and join your game. That's the biggest benefit of this system for sure. The points just make it a bit more serious and allow you to track your progression over time. Thanks for reading and hope to see you out on the ELO-ice soon!!

Edited November 29, 2021 by danTML7

[smozoma]

Extra info about what your Elo rating means:

It's a rating scheme where the rating difference between 2 players corresponds to a probability of winning. And points are transferred between the players according to that probability (much like betting odds), which makes the future ratings/odds more accurate.

Over time if you play someone many times your rating difference will correspond very well with the percentage of times you won/lost according to the following relations:

0 point difference corresponds to (obviously) a 50% chance for either player to win.
100 point difference corresponds to a 64% chance of the higher-rated player winning.
200 -- 76%
300 -- 85%
400 -- 91%
500 -- 95%
50 -- 57%

Our ratings were originally calibrated so that an average "B" league player has roughly a 1500 rating. (Thanks @Tickenest for his Elo calculations based on Classic league results!)

An elite player with a 1900 rating will win ~91% of the time over a player with a 1500 rating (400 point difference).
And a 1500 player will also win ~91% of the time over a 1100 rating player (400 point difference).