Cabal Launches South African ELO Rankings

We are excited to announce an online ELO ranking system for South Africa. An online portal where you can report all of your games and see how you stack up to the rest of the players in your favourite game systems. 

This idea has been a long time in the making. Years ago, Fouche mentioned the idea to me, and we never really actioned it. A while later, James and I talked about a local ranking system over a beer. We ran the idea past Interventor Christopheles and 5G (Gregg), and after a lot of talking and not much doing, Chris was the one who took up the challenge and built this great ranking system for our local Infinity players here in South Africa.

Why do we need a ranking system? 

Firstly, some folks are concerned about where they are on the rankings and like to see their name at the top of the list! We thought it would be nice to have something local and free that serves that purpose. 

Secondly, we hope that this is something that will encourage folks to play more. Look at people on the ranking system who you would like to challenge and throw down the gauntlet. 

Thirdly, event organisers (at least me and some of the people I’ve been talking to) are constantly scratching their heads about handling pairings at events. If we have a local rankings system, we can use this to make more sensible rankings at events and ensure that the newer people coming through the system don’t get ROFL stomped any more than necessary. 

Ultimately we think it’s a tool that can encourage people to play more games. Hopefully, against opponents they don’t play every week and make sure that events are more fun for everyone.

What is an ELO ranking system? 

This is a ranking system that is commonly used for competitive Chess. All players receive a set score and then increase the score by winning or decrease that score by losing. There’s a lot of interesting maths behind this system. If you are interested in understanding it in more detail, you can have a look at this video:

How do you use this system? 

1. Sign up for an account on the Cabal wargaming website – https://thecabal.co.za/login
2. Once you are logged in look for your favourite game system under the ELO rankings tab.
3. Capture your results on the form provided.
4. Come back to see the results

It’s important to remember that the more games we log, the more accurate the ELO rankings reflect. You will need to play at least ten games before we start seeing any meaningful results. Get stuck in and log those games! 

With the new online campaign arriving soon, this is an ideal excuse to get in some more games and log them on the ELO ranking system. I’m looking into some potential prizes linked to the ranking system. 

Happy gaming folks!