The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Squire]

Great stuff Squire!! I love the numbers. I guess the only thing missing is avg total points/year, which is kind of covered by avg place/entry.

I have that in my spreadsheed too.

Rank	Name	Participations	Average points
1	Cykeltyven	(3)	13972
2	skidmark	(12)	13828
3	kabete	(5)	13803
4	Squire	(10)	13560
5	Kryvo	(3)	13556
6	SafeBet	(6)	13470
7	merengues	(5)	13443
8	Nyssinator	(7)	13401
9	nuvolablu	(4)	13380
10	The Hitch	(5)	13369

The reason I'm not putting it in the stats review is that it doesn't really mean much. It's very skewed according to which years the players have participated. Someone who only played the game in say, 2012, 2021 and 2022 (and picked a somewhat serious team) would absolutely boss this standing. Several of the players in the top ten only participated in the 'middle years' of the game's history, so they have avoided 2011, where scores were low due to hardly anyone knowing what they were doing, and 2020, where scores took a massive hit due to covid. Missing out on 2020 in particular would be very beneficial. The ones in this list that are hampered by 2020 are skidmark, Squire, SafeBet and Nyssinator. With such a good average anyway, it's therefore no wonder that all four of us are also in the top 15 when it comes to average placement. kabete, merengues and nuvolablu are a bit further down the average placement ranking, and can therefore be said to have been a bit lucky that they participated in rather high-scoring years. They still had to place decently in some of those years to be on this list, of course, and kabete even has two top-tens, but also a 74th, a 41st and a 54th. The Hitch stopped playing the CQ game just as the scores started picking up a bit from 2016 onwards, so his presence on this list is impressive. But he is one of the absolute strongest CQ managers that has played this game, of course, as seen by him leading the average placement ranking.

Edit: Just for fun, I calculated skidmark's average if he didn't take part in 2020. That would be 14296 points.

 

[Kryvoskyn]

Hello!

I'll participate again this year. Actually I have already made the team

Btw, my other user was Kryvo, but can't acces anymore (don't even remember the mail I used for it). But I had also this account, which I will use it from now on.

Cheers!

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

The reason I'm not putting it in the stats review is that it doesn't really mean much. It's very skewed according to which years the players have participated.

Armchair Cyclist had some interesting metrics to get around that problem last year with the results found here. Hopefully he'll be able to update the results with the 2022 edition when he feels better.

 

[Salvarani]

Submitted my team!

As always it will be fun to read about how different managers thought about their teams and picks. Looking forward to it. One of the days I enjoy most on this forum, just to see what rider I missed picking.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Other ways of considering long term performance

Average percentage of winning score (at least three participations):

1	Cykeltyven	91.1
2	skidmark	88.3
3	TheArt	88.0
4	Ruvu75	87.8
5	The Hitch	87.2
6	Kryvo	86.8
7	Squire	86.1
8	fauniera	86.0
9	SafeBet	85.3
10	TeoSheva	85.3

Top 6 are the same as last year, Squire is new in the top ten, Fauniera and TeoShiva gain places by not participating this year, as they do not have to suffer comparison with Evans' score in the way that Tobydawq, SafeBet and Nyssinator did.

But Cykeltyven, The Art, Kryvo and Teo Sheva each have only 3 participations. If they don't enter for 2023, they will a year from now have been in less than 1/4 of the editions. Is that to be the cut off for inclusion in such stats next year?


Average percentage of average score (at least three participations) :

1	Cykeltyven	118.1
2	The Hitch	117.6
3	skidmark	117.1
4	TheArt	117.0
5	TeoSheva	115.5
6	Ruvu75	115.4
7	Squire	114.2
8	Kryvo	113.4
9	gustienordic	113.1
10	MADRAZO	112.8

Although Nyssinator scored above average this year, he couldn't hang on the the 7th in this ranking that he had last year, so the teams 7th to 10th have each moved up one to take advantage of that.

Points for top 15 positions
45-35-30-26-22 then 2 points fewer for each position down to 2 for 15th.

1	skidmark	163
2	Squire	134
3	fauniera	104
4	Object	89
5	Hugo Koblet	84
6	Cykeltyven	80
7	EvansIsTheBest	79
8	MADRAZO	72
9	Ruvu75	67
10	Wallenquist	61

Skidmark scarcely added to his score, so Squire closes the gap. Object rises 2 places to 4th, Evans is a new entry to the top ten, and Madrazo is up from joint tenth.

And finally, a tribute to those who did well once or twice but haven't hung around to test their consistency, average points for position (same point scale as above)

1	Cykeltyven	26.7
2	SteelyDan	22.5
3	chinaboy	22.0
4=	rywann	18.0
4=	freddybobs	18.0
6	Waterloo Sunrise	17.5
7	fauniera	14.9
8	skidmark	13.6
9	Squire	13.4
10	FF'Wilco	13.0

what did we do to put them off from coming back?

 

[RedheadDane]

I think I've managed to create a team. Based on a weird combo of head, heart, RNG, and lack of sleep...

 

[Kryvoskyn]

I'm back, @Armchair cyclist .

However I forgot Kryvo's user password and email, so I can't restore it.

I had also this account in the past, so I'll use it for now on

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I'm back, @Armchair cyclist .

However I forgot Kryvo's user password and email, so I can't restore it.

I had also this account in the past, so I'll use it for now on

I hope I will remember to combine Kryvoskyn with Kryvo when I aggregate stats in a year's time: remind me if Kryvo is listed as only having compete 3 times in 12 month's time.

Talking of which: @Ludwigzgz , are you the 'Ludwig_' who entered the game in 2015, as well as your 2014, 2016 and 2017 entries under your usual name?

Or did anyone else enter under different names in different years that should have their entries united?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Do we have an authoritative answer as to whether Nairo Quintana is priced at 665 (2022 points with the Tour de France removed), 992 (2022 including his apparent TdF points before they were removed) or his 2021 score of 758?
(It would be brave to pick him when it is still uncertain whether he has a 2023 team, but...)

 

[Squire]

Those are some nice and creative ways to present the overall numbers, Armchair cyclist! I especially like the green jersey style one, as it's the one where I score the best! A couple of my off years have been very off, which hurts me a bit in the averaged numbers.

Or did anyone else enter under different names in different years that should have their entries united?

I have been notified of a few of these when compiling overall scores earlier.

WheelsuckersPL, who entered in 2015 and 2016 has since been known as Poles & co.
Bicing, who first participated in 2011-2014, is the same person as l'velo who played the game in 2018. They were then known as bicing again when they played in 2021.
I remember asking about the two Erics at some point, but it turned out Eric8-A and Eric10 are not the same person.
I also have ray200 and ray10 as two separate entries, but Ludwigzgz and Ludwig_ as the same player. However, I don't remember if I have been given any information about Ludwig(s), so that could potentially be a faulty assumption on my part.

Also, I don't know how you go about matching the names across the years, but there have been some inconcistencies in how the names have appeared in the spreadsheets. Off the top of my head (and at the top of my list) I can think of Falze, who has sometimes appeared with asterisks on either side (Edit: Apparently I get italics if I try to type that out here). Also R_O_Shipman, just_some_guy and other names with spaces/underscores are worth taking a look at.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Those are some nice and creative ways to present the overall numbers, Armchair cyclist! I especially like the green jersey style one, as it's the one where I score the best! A couple of my off years have been very off, which hurts me a bit in the averaged numbers.


I have been notified of a few of these when compiling overall scores earlier.

WheelsuckersPL, who entered in 2015 and 2016 has since been known as Poles & co.
Bicing, who first participated in 2011-2014, is the same person as l'velo who played the game in 2018. They were then known as bicing again when they played in 2021.
I remember asking about the two Erics at some point, but it turned out Eric8-A and Eric10 are not the same person.
I also have ray200 and ray10 as two separate entries, but Ludwigzgz and Ludwig_ as the same player. However, I don't remember if I have been given any information about Ludwig(s), so that could potentially be a faulty assumption on my part.

Also, I don't know how you go about matching the names across the years, but there have been some inconcistencies in how the names have appeared in the spreadsheets. Off the top of my head (and at the top of my list) I can think of Falze, who has sometimes appeared with asterisks on either side (Edit: Apparently I get italics if I try to type that out here). Also R_O_Shipman, just_some_guy and other names with spaces/underscores are worth taking a look at.

Shame about the Erics, as they didn't overlap and would comprise an extra player who has competed every year.

Thanks for the others.

 

[vladimir]

Only just over a week left, and it's suprisingly quiet here... Well anyway, I have created a first draft of my team. Could change dramatically if I decide to drop my one 1000+ rider, and of course I still need to find the Uijdtebroeks of 2023. But at least the foundation of around 20 riders are more or less finalized. Hope we will get around 100 entire for 2023 as well!

 

[Squire]

Only just over a week left, and it's suprisingly quiet here... Well anyway, I have created a first draft of my team. Could change dramatically if I decide to drop my one 1000+ rider, and of course I still need to find the Uijdtebroeks of 2023. But at least the foundation of around 20 riders are more or less finalized. Hope we will get around 100 entire for 2023 as well!

Everyone's too busy working on their team to post here, I presume!

With that said, last year's thread (or technically still this year's, I guess) took until January 5th to make it to the second page! So it's not that quiet! But the 2022 game didn't have us stats nerds going crazy at the start of the thread to inflate the post count!

 

[skidmark]

Hey all! After a busy holiday, I'm gonna be able to start processing teams later today (I see I have 11 unchecked messages). I will also be on here regularly so will be more responsive if you have questions or issues come up. Hope everyone is getting excited about the season, I know I am.

@Armchair cyclist and all interested, Nairo will cost his straight-up CQ cost of 665. It's a tricky situation as he wasn't really suspended and did not commit an ADRV. But of course the DQ sort of crosses the spirit of the doping rule. But I've decided on 665 as the cost.

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

Everyone's too busy working on their team to post here, I presume!

With that said, last year's thread (or technically still this year's, I guess) took until January 5th to make it to the second page! So it's not that quiet! But the 2022 game didn't have us stats nerds going crazy at the start of the thread to inflate the post count!

There's not much to discuss beyond historical results since we can't name drop riders until after the reveal but I'm sure there will be a flurry of activity once we can share our picks.

On that note, I've shared my thoughts on individual riders in the past but I've never done a full pick by pick breakdown of my team. I might do one this year if people are interested to see exactly why my repeat attempt will go off the rails fairly soon.

 

[Jakob747]

There's not much to discuss beyond historical results since we can't name drop riders until after the reveal but I'm sure there will be a flurry of activity once we can share our picks.

On that note, I've shared my thoughts on individual riders in the past but I've never done a full pick by pick breakdown of my team. I might do one this year if people are interested to see exactly why my repeat attempt will go off the rails fairly soon.

I am interested. After the royal ass whooping you gave everyone this season, it could very very informative for future editions.

 

[armchairclimber]

I had a dreadful season last year, despite some picks that I was very happy with: De Lie, Rodriguez, Ayuso, Higuita, Vernon, Uijtedbroeks and Jungels. Some great scores from them, but I was let down badly by some more established and expensive picks. This year I've hopefully got all the obvious picks and one or two sleepers, but I've found myself going with youth more than ever before.. The most difficult selections were sprinters, at least that's what I found.Anyway, the team is selected and I'll be sending over soon. I can't wait for the action to kick off again down under, where my prospective team seems to be very well represented. And that's what makes this game so good. I've never hit the top ten but that's less important than having an interest in even the minor races throughout the year.

 

[Jpettersen]

During the covid-ruined 2020 season I lost a bit of interest in both cycling and anything CQ related, so I stopped updating my aggregate spreadsheet and never picked it up again. Until now, when I've finally found some time and motivation to do it. So here's a look at some game statistics and a bit of trivia!

(here you can read my previous post from the 2019 thread)


Top overall score

Rank	Name	Total score
1	skidmark	165940
2	MADRAZO	159860
3	Hugo Koblet	158396
4	EvansIsTheBest	157505
5	Kazistuta	157059
6	Object	153156
7	Jpettersen	150181
8	Armchair cyclist	146821
9	will10	146579
10	shalgo	145209

skidmark's lead stays more or less unassailable, and I think it has been that way since their dominant 2012 win. The rest of the top five is very close. MADRAZO took back 2nd place from Hugo Koblet in 2022, after having relinquished it to the game founder in 2019.

shalgo is the only one in the top ten who hasn't taken part in all 12 editions of the game. Impressively, shalgo is ahead of three of the remaining dozen who have participated in all editions. These being Blues in the bottle, Mellow Velo and Jakob747, who make up 11th, 12th and 13th on this list, respectively.

There is only one instance where a player outscores a competitor who has two more participations. Nyssinator with their 7 participations is 52nd on the overall ranking, outscoring Josedin (56th), who has 9 participations, by 2113 points. This feat is greatly helped by Nyssinator having finished 3rd in the high-scoring 2012 edition, where Josedin didn't take part.

Crazy to think that i have participated in this game for 12 (now 13) editions in a row. Despite never really participating in the discussions on the forum, it has become a tradition for me to create a team for this game during my christmas holiday. Hopefully i will make the top 10 this year so i can justify my top 10 in the all-time ranking

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Team submitted. 33 riders 7492 points.

 

[skidmark]

Just to note - CQ put out their December 31st update which is the official source for scoring in this game. If you used their last prior update (October 23rd, which was what I had in the "Create Your Team" spreadsheet until today), you will want to update as at least one rider who has been picked has had their score changed upwards (I noticed because it put a team over budget that had been under prior to the 31st).

I've put the updated, official final values in the "Create Your Team" spreadsheet, so that link should be good. Just wanted to give a heads up in case you had downloaded it prior to the 31st.

Keep those entries coming! The season is coming up soon

 

[vladimir]

Thanks for the update! Had to make one last change based on the updated CQ score, but probably doesn't have much effect. 33 riders; average age just over 25 years and total cost of 7499 points. No riders over 600 points made the final cut in my team this year.

 

[postmanhat]

I had a dreadful season last year, despite some picks that I was very happy with: De Lie, Rodriguez, Ayuso, Higuita, Vernon, Uijtedbroeks and Jungels. Some great scores from them, but I was let down badly by some more established and expensive picks. This year I've hopefully got all the obvious picks and one or two sleepers, but I've found myself going with youth more than ever before.. The most difficult selections were sprinters, at least that's what I found.Anyway, the team is selected and I'll be sending over soon. I can't wait for the action to kick off again down under, where my prospective team seems to be very well represented. And that's what makes this game so good. I've never hit the top ten but that's less important than having an interest in even the minor races throughout the year.

Only Evenepoel saved my team from my worst performance ever in the game last year, but still in the bottom third. So am trying to avoid some of my less optimal strategies, such as my aversion to sprinters (quite a few this time). And always wanting to have a few riders from various nation's Pro-Conti teams. As the deadline approaches though, have remembered that the French and Belgian .1 races are some of the ones I enjoy the most, so a few probably unprofitable contenders for those are slipping in.

 

[postmanhat]

Thanks for the update! Had to make one last change based on the updated CQ score, but probably doesn't have much effect. 33 riders; average age just over 25 years and total cost of 7499 points. No riders over 600 points made the final cut in my team this year.

Posted the same thing in the 2022 thread that I couldn't see much value over 600 points this season. There could be quite a divergence in strategies this year?

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

I have picked three riders over 900 points. Don't think it will be the most profitable choice, but I'll have a good time cheering for these three.

 

[Anderis]

How do I make sure that my entry is correct?
When I copy the names from the spreadsheet, they're being put in a table like that.

EXAMPLE Rider​

SECOND EXAMPLE Rider Cyclist​

Is that how they're supposed to be sent?