You’re right, it could make a difference, but either way after I record the result all players’ point totals will correctly reflect all their past opponents’ current rankings. In other words, you can always recalculate any given player’s point total.
I constructed an illustration to show your point. If ksmckay had one more point (62 rather than 61), then a loss to an M would keep him as tier M but a loss to an E would drag him down to E. Axis-dominion has 102 points, and if he beats a tier M he would rise to M, but if he defeats an E he will still be E.
So what if Axis-Dominion beat ksmckay and ksmckay had 62 points rather than 61? If I record the winner result first, then both will end up with 5.5 PPG and bottom of tier M. If I record the loser result first, then ksmckay ends with 5.42 and Axis-dominion ends with 5.45. Axis-dominion is ranked slightly higher than ksmckay and both are tier E instead of M. However, either way, you can recalculate all players’ scores by adding up their points from wins and losses against all their past opponents and verify their total is accurate. This is the most important feature of the current ranking system, and whether I happen to calculate the winner or loser first does not affect this.
I suppose it’s possible that even the top 8 at the end of the season could possibly be affected by this, but it seems like the anomaly would be quite rare, and the PPG difference rather small. I’m not sure there would be any benefit from using a consistent methodology where I always calculate the winner first or the loser first. And I believe this very narrow situation would only occur when both players would simultaneously be in a different tier as a result of a single point up or down to both. But it is possible, as I illustrated above, although I had to add a point to ksmckay to make it happen. In other words, as it stands now, if Axis-dominion, through some miracle (I kid, I kid) beats ksmckay, Axis would be tier M and ksmckay would be tier E and have the same PPG whether I processed the winner first or the loser first.
So you get credit for finding a narrow mathematical wart in the current ranking system. Now go use those formidable analytical skills against A&A opponents and rack up some wins, instead of harassing your moderator :grin:
I’m just kidding, I enjoyed the exercise.
