Maths, scoring, keeping it fair

Conroy Bumpas

Say you have 4 players who go bowling. There are 15 games. But not all players play in every game. Is there a way of working out who is the over all winner?

I was thinking points for a win 3, 2nd 2, 3rd 1 and 4th 0 but that then favours players that play more

So take all those points and divide by the amount of games played. One of the problems I can see with this is that if a player plays in all 12 games and wins 11 but comes second in 1 game he will end up with a score of 2.916 and if a player plays in only 3 games but wins all 3 he will have a score of 3. So I don’t think this is totally a fair way of working it out….

Any suggestions

Khade97

Personally, I think those that play more games do deserve some extra recognition. Could you not do the points system you mentioned above, plus 0.5 of the number of games played.

Player A = Plays 12, 1st in 11, 3rd in 1 = (((11*3)+(1*1))/12)+(12*0.5) = 8.83
Player B = Plays 3, 1st in 3 = ((3*3)/3)+(3*0.5) = 4.5

Obviously this example is extreme with the number of wins in question, but if you have a more even playing field then it keeps the figure an average while at the same time offering some reward to playing more games.

Lord Palington

You could always just go by average score per game, though that could result in someone who never actually came in first (but always came in a very close second to different players) could win the trophy.

Lail

Average score per game would be my suggestion too.

zagdrob

Well, there is no universal way of defining 'overall winner'. It's going to depend on your specific requirements, which is going to directly lead to a solution to your problem. Are you looking at overall 1st place wins? Are you looking at highest score overall? Are you looking at highest average score? Are you handicapping to adjust for skill levels or considering raw score?

Personally, I would consider the 'overall winner' to be the person who came in first place in the largest number of games. This is basically the 'if you didn't play, it was a forfeit - you came in last' combined with the 'second place is first loser' mentality. It's simple, and if you end up with a tie you can choose a secondary factor as the tiebreaker (highest average score, highest average position, something fancier that only looks at when those two competed directly against each other, etc).

Another way of doing it is some weighted scoring method - such as 3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, 1 point for 3rd, and 0 points for last / non-players. You may or may not want to adjust the scoring based on the number of players in the game...so if there are only three players, it's 2 points for 1st, 1 point for 2nd, 0 points for 3rd and 0 points for the non-player. Again, back to your requirements.

Basically, you can make it as simple or as complex as you want, depending on your definition of 'overall winner'. Your scoring is what defines 'overall winner', and if you want to define the overall winner as the person with the highest average number of split pickups following strikes when they have previously bowled at least one complete game...that's up to you.

TL, DR - I'd do a simple '1 point for each first place finish, most points is overall winner, play out to settle a tie'.

Conroy Bumpas

the only problem i can see with khade97 idear is that if someone plays in every game and comes 3rd they will have 8.5 witch is almost up there with someone playing 12 games and winning almost everyone


anyone know who golf rankings or chess rankings work could that be adapted?

zagdrob

If you are looking for something more than a 'on the spot with friends' answer, you might as well do it the way you would in a real bowling league.

Bowling Handicaps

Once you calculate handicaps, everyone can compete on an even footing. This makes it fun and interesting for everyone, and keeps one good bowler from dominating the entire group. I'm sure you can find a spreadsheet that will just let you plug your numbers in, and you can rank everyone on the fly after the game.

Conroy Bumpas

avrage score kinda makes sences aslong as people have more or less played the same amout of games and 1 person dosnt win and then not play to keep the avrage up

say we changed the whole thing to golf where you cant really do an avage score of diffrent corses are played. coz par 54 or par 72 could be played etc...