Proposing Rating Systems - P.A.G.E.S.

Rating systems have long been a necessity for every competitive game, particularly for championships and tournaments. Catan is no exception. Despite the existence of multiple methods to calculate players' signs of progress after their performance, not all of those are easy to use and to understand. Hereby we propose five systems named P.A.G.E.S., which we have been using for our leaderboards and tourneys. Amongst, three of them are derived from the world championship.

1. Point system. What else can be more straightforward than a system using Victory Points for its scores? The more VPs you earn in-game, the more points you will gain in the system. When this system is applied, the only thing players need to care about is their own advancement.

2. Accomplishment system. Only the victorious player earns 01 point, while other players receive nothing. For this reason, second place in this system might just be the first loser.

3. Glory system. You have a chance to get some score as long as you are not the one with the lowest number of VPs. The score distribution will be 40/20/0, or 40/10/10 in case of a tie, after each game. For 4-player games, it will mainly be 50/20/10/0, sometimes 50/15/15/0, 50/20/5/5, or 50/10/10/10. In contrast to the Accomplishment system, the Glory system rewards players who play effectively but lack just a bit of luck. Indeed, if you finish first in one game and last in two, you get only 40 points; meanwhile, if you finish second in all three games, you get 60 points.

4. Elo system. This is the only zero-sum system on the list. The number of points that you gain or lose will be equal to 3x your VPs minus for the sum of VPs on the table (4x your VPs in case of 4-player games). In a close game like 10/9/9, the distribution of point will be 2/-1/-1. But if the game was a stomp, let's say 10/6/5, the point distribution will be 9/-3/-6. Additionally, much like the Point system, you are motivated to get as many VPs as possible; leading players will try to get to 11 VPs instead of 10 because they will be rewarded with at least 02 points for doing so.

5. Share system. Your rank will be increased by the percentage of your VPs. Like the Point system, this system is still based on your end game VPs; however, similar to the Elo system, your opponents' VPs are also involved in the calculation. 07 VPs will always mean 07 points in the Point system, but in this Share system, it depends. If you finished with 07 VPs in a 10/7/4 game, your share is 0.33; but in an 11/9/7 game, it is merely 0.26.

Overall, each system has its own pros and cons. Basically, the first two systems are sufficient for your local/online championships/tournaments. If you would like more complexity, we also suggest that you should mix and match multiple or all five P.A.G.E.S. together. You can then rank players base on their average rankings among systems. Good luck, have fun!