As I mentioned in music brackets, I play and moderate projects for an online card game called Dominion. Check it out with the following links, if you’re interested.
A while back, a number of us in the Dominion Discord community decided it would be fun to play some organized Smash Bros, as well. We created the Smash Ladder and I volunteered to handle the technical backend of things. We needed a system that would allow people to issue challenges to other players, submit match results, and rerank the players accordingly, all subject to a rather complex set of rules. I came up with a very complicated approach that modeled the expected behavior in a single massive formula. My friend Sam, when asked about it, was able to come up with a much simpler mathematical approach. (Benefits of having a degree in applied mathematics from MIT.) So that’s what we went with. It was still tricky to get Google Sheets to perform the calculations automatically and I’m proud of the solutions I came up with.
Unfortunately, the Ladder itself only lasted a few months before interest waned. It was fun while it lasted, though, and I always appreciate an opportunity to apply my spreadsheet experience. The following link is a snapshot of the project that you can peruse as you like.
Players
Each player registers an account with a particular character selection.
Match Results
Challenges are issued, matches are played, and the results are recorded.
Rank Quotient
The real magic is figuring out how everyone’s ranking changes based upon match results.