The following Tiebreakers are used in order to determine how a player ranks in a tournament:
- Match Wins
- Opponents’ match-win percentage (OMW)
- Player game-win percentage (TMW)
- Opponent’s game-win percentage (OGW)
Rank in a tournament is decided by going down the above list in order to determine standings. For example, those with more Match Wins will be ranked higher. If two players have the same number of Match Wins, then Melee will look at their Opponents’ match-win percentage (OMW) to determine placement. If their OMW’s are tied, then it looks at their Player game-win percentage, then Opponents game-win (OGW) percentage.
Match Wins #
The number of matches a player has won. Any match that concludes without a winner will account for 0 Match Wins for both players.
Understanding Percentage-Based Calculations #
Percentage-based calculations utilize two very specific processes to determine final percentages.
Match and Game Points #
A points system is utilized when calculating percentage-based tiebreakers. This strengthens the effectiveness of tiebreakers when breaking ties. These points are only used when calculating percentage-based tiebreakers and have no impact on the 1st tiebreaker: Match Wins.
Match Points
- Match Win = 3 Points
- Drawn Match = 1 Point
- Lost Match = 0 Points
Game Points
- Game Win = 3 Points
- Drawn Game = 1 Point
- Lost Match = 0 Points
To put this into practice, let’s say after three rounds of play a player has 1 match win, 1 drawn match, and 1 match loss. They would have a total of 4 points out of a possible 9 which equals 0.44444 or 44% Match Win Percentage.
In those matches, that player went 2-1-0, 1-1-1, and 0-2-0 in games played. This would mean that they have 10 points out of a possible 24, totalling 0.41666 or 41.6% Game Win Percentage.
Percentage Floors #
Another tool to increase the effectiveness of tiebreaks is Percentage Floors. As discussed above, a player’s match-win or game-win percentage is that player’s accumulated match or game points divided by the total number of match or game points possible. If this number is lower than 0.33, it will become 0.33 instead.
This floor is utilized to minimize the impact that low-performing players have when determining other player’s tiebreakers, instead putting more value on the results of higher-performing players when breaking ties.
Calculating Percentage-Based Tiebreakers #
Tiebreaker 2: Opponent Match-Win % (OMW) #
To calculate Opponents’ Match-Win %, all of a player’s opponents match-win %’s are calculated then divided by the total number of them.
For example, if a player’s opponents in a two-round tournament had the results of 1-1-0 and 1-0-1, the following calculation would take place.
1-1-0 = 3 Match Points out of a total 6 possible = 50%
2-0-0 = 6 Match Points out of a total 6 possible = 100%
.50 + 1.00 / 2 = 75%
Tiebreaker 3: Player Game-Win % (TGW) #
A Player Game-Win % is that player’s total number of game points divided by the total number possible. Again, this utilizes the method where each game win is equal to 3 points, a loss equal to 0 points, and a draw equal to 1 point. This tiebreaker also has a minimum floor of 33%.
*Note: The “T” in “TGW” stands for team. In any 1v1 tournament, a team consists of 1 player, thus “Player Game-Win %”.
So if a player’s current game record is 8-7-3 (eight wins, seven loses, and three draws) the math would look like this:
8 game wins = 24 points
7 game losses = 0 points
3 game draws = 3 points
8 + 7 +3 = 18 * 3 = 54 total points possible.
27 / 54 = 50% TGW %
Tiebreaker 4: Opponents’ Game-Win % (OMW) #
An opponents’ game-win % includes the sum of all of a player’s opponents’ individual player game win % ‘s and divided by the number of opponents. So if a player had two opponents who individually had a TGW of 80% and another with 60%, that player’s OMW would be 70%.