The 2023 CQ Ranking Manager Thread

[Armchair cyclist]

Was that 2013 close battle the one where Geraint Too Fast won enough points in the Asian November races to win, but the result had already been called? The greatest injustice in the history of CQ games (although I acknowledge the rules subsequently changed so that any one close can ask for an extension, and GTF accepted the application of the rules as they existed from the outset with good grace)

 

[skidmark]

Was that 2013 close battle the one where Geraint Too Fast won enough points in the Asian November races to win, but the result had already been called? The greatest injustice in the history of CQ games (although I acknowledge the rules subsequently changed so that any one close can ask for an extension, and GTF accepted the application of the rules as they existed from the outset with good grace)

I had misremembered that GTF was in front and then SteelyDan came back with late-season points from Jos Van Emden in Asia. But that wouldn't make sense for needing to change the rules... I just looked back in the thread and it was actually that GTF had a young Meintjes who picked up points in Rwanda after the game had been called (Van Emden got SteelyDan points in Asia before the last .HC race and pulled ahead at the last), and so lost by 20 points officially while actually being ahead for the calendar year. I dunno why I misremembered that injustice, I think it was maybe overwhelmed by the self-inflicted pressure I put on myself to figure out and apply amended and fair rules in 2014, which was my first year administering the game.

 

[skidmark]

FYI for everyone, the publication deadline is (for me) on Saturday at 5pm my time (central Canada). I am working all day and then have commitments until at least 8:30 (3:30am CET). I am trying to get a head start on the popularity rankings etc but realistically I don't think I'll be able to get the spreadsheet out until the European morning of the 8th. So the reveal will largely be self-monitored, but you all know what to do

Just to drop a little nugget - I've put 15 teams into the popularity sheet so far... one rider is unanimously picked so far, no other riders above 13/15 picked, and 8 riders picked by 10/15 at least! I'm interested to see how long the universality lasts, there were a few slam dunk picks this year in my mind so I definitely thought we could have some high percent picks.

 

[vsd88]

Submitted my team with just a few hours to go. My debut last year was woeful in general, but I did have the bright spark of a 'stage' win in May. Hoping for more such stage wins this year.

 

[Kazistuta]

I think we all know who the so far unanimously picked rider is... which he should definitely stay being, if players want to be competitive this season. His results this year will thus be of no importance to this game. Well, let's see.

 

[manafana]

Great to see 96, would be great if broke 96. Anyone struggling to get under budget message me & i can provide one of the <5 CQ pt riders worth having to help you over the line

 

[tobydawq]

I think we all know who the so far unanimously picked rider is... which he should definitely stay being, if players want to be competitive this season. His results this year will thus be of no importance to this game. Well, let's see.

It's Froome or Remco, isn't it?

 

[Kazistuta]

It's Froome or Remco, isn't it?

I stand corrected... apparently not everyone knew
But yeah, Froomes numbers is noted to be better than ever again this year, so maybe if everyone in here all of a sudden started to believe in him again...

 

[Armchair cyclist]

But yeah, Froomes numbers is noted to be better than ever again this year,

Twitter is obviously a great training tool: every time Froome has visited it in the last 4 years his numbers have improved.

 

[Panda Claws]

I had misremembered that GTF was in front and then SteelyDan came back with late-season points from Jos Van Emden in Asia. But that wouldn't make sense for needing to change the rules... I just looked back in the thread and it was actually that GTF had a young Meintjes who picked up points in Rwanda after the game had been called (Van Emden got SteelyDan points in Asia before the last .HC race and pulled ahead at the last), and so lost by 20 points officially while actually being ahead for the calendar year. I dunno why I misremembered that injustice, I think it was maybe overwhelmed by the self-inflicted pressure I put on myself to figure out and apply amended and fair rules in 2014, which was my first year administering the game.

What was the rationale behind not counting every race in a calendar year? Was it so that a winner could be crowned without a waiting period?

 

[Karaev1]

I got a message from Skidmark that my team is 2 points over the 7500 total. My first thought was to change a lower points rider with another one but in the end I just switched a 700 points one with a 900 points one and done a lot of other changes to make it work.

Really curious how this last moment change will influence my team performance...

 

[bminchow]

FYI for everyone, the publication deadline is (for me) on Saturday at 5pm my time (central Canada). I am working all day and then have commitments until at least 8:30 (3:30am CET). I am trying to get a head start on the popularity rankings etc but realistically I don't think I'll be able to get the spreadsheet out until the European morning of the 8th. So the reveal will largely be self-monitored, but you all know what to do

Just to drop a little nugget - I've put 15 teams into the popularity sheet so far... one rider is unanimously picked so far, no other riders above 13/15 picked, and 8 riders picked by 10/15 at least! I'm interested to see how long the universality lasts, there were a few slam dunk picks this year in my mind so I definitely thought we could have some high percent picks.

5pm CST? On man. Now I have to wait until tomorrow to see all the teams. Okay, I can wait. Anticipation is better than the actual event, so they say. Sorry you have to work all day on a saturday.

 

[search]

sent my team in a couple of days ago as well. Would probably be wiser to start from scratch again given some recent news, but will leave it as it is now.

Hopefully everyone will have a team at least

confirmed now. Curious to see if he'll be a unique pick or not.

 

[hfgon1]

Totally missed to work on a team and noticed now that only a few hours were left. So I put a team together within 30 minutes. Maybe it will be better than expected

 

[postmanhat]

Now the teams are submitted, I think it's alright to talk in generalities as a warm-up for tomorrow?
6 - DEN
4 - AUS, ITA
3 - GBR
2 - NZ, BEL, FRA, NED
1 - USA, EST, GER, NOR, COL, CZE, KAZ, UKR

No riders over 600 points.

5-600 - 3
4-500 - 4
3-400 - 4
2-300 - 4
1-200 - 7
0-99 - 11

As others have indicated, certainties were in short supply and there were probably only about 8 riders who were definite choices from the start. After last year's disaster, am trying to play it safe and hope to be quite high in the popularity table.

 

[skidmark]

5pm CST? On man. Now I have to wait until tomorrow to see all the teams. Okay, I can wait. Anticipation is better than the actual event, so they say. Sorry you have to work all day on a saturday.

Yeah I'd say if people reveal their teams on the thread tonight, I should be able to get the popularity scores at least out before the end of the night here in CST, and the full sheet in about 24 hours from now.

And I don't mind working on the weekend - it's by choice! Started as a covid measure but I kept doing it because I realized working in quiet office is preferable.

 

[shalgo]

I completely forgot about the deadline and only submitted my team just now, after about 30 minutes of work on it. I hope I can be included, but understand if that is not possible.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

5-DEN, GBR
4-FRA
3-ITA, NED
2-COL, ETH, GER, RUS, SLO
1-AUS, ECU, NZL

over 900 - 3
500-599 - 1
400-499 - 2
300-399 - 3
200-299 - 1
100-199 - 4
1 - 99 - 18
0 - 1 rider

I now see I have no Belgian, Spanish or Portuguese riders. Or Norwegians; there were a couple there which I was certain of including, but there you go..

 

[Panda Claws]

What I find interesting (and I am no mathematician) is that last year there appears to be a decent correlation between the popularity of your team and your final ranking.

Calculating the correlation between popularity rankings and final rankings in excel gave a value of 0,470128.

Some positive outliers are:

• Ray10 - 85th most popular but finished 3rd
• EvansIsTheBest - 50th most popular but finished 1st
• LaFloretica - 78th most popular but finished 17th

 

[laarsland]

I completely forgot about the deadline and only submitted my team just now, after about 30 minutes of work on it. I hope I can be included, but understand if that is not possible.

The admins usually are a very benevolent bunch.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I tried to make a team last night, but I ended up being 3000 points over budget at the time of the European deadline, so I gave up. It would most likley only have been in contention for most Basque team anyway, so I doubt it's a huge loss to the game.

Good luck to all of you who do have teams in the competition

 

[postmanhat]

5-DEN, GBR
4-FRA
3-ITA, NED
2-COL, ETH, GER, RUS, SLO
1-AUS, ECU, NZL

over 900 - 3
500-599 - 1
400-499 - 2
300-399 - 3
200-299 - 1
100-199 - 4
1 - 99 - 18
0 - 1 rider

I now see I have no Belgian, Spanish or Portuguese riders. Or Norwegians; there were a couple there which I was certain of including, but there you go..

Two general breakdowns and two completely different strategies Except for having quite a few Danes and Brits. I wonder if this will become a theme?

 

[EvansIsTheBest]

What I find interesting (and I am no mathematician) is that last year there appears to be a decent correlation between the popularity of your team and your final ranking.

Calculating the correlation between popularity rankings and final rankings in excel gave a value of 0,470128.

Some positive outliers are:

• Ray10 - 85th most popular but finished 3rd
• EvansIsTheBest - 50th most popular but finished 1st
• LaFloretica - 78th most popular but finished 17th

So I plotted CQ points scored vs popularity score last year and here's how it looked:

Please note that the axis don't start at zero so we can actually see something and not have everybody bunched up in the same spot. It makes the impact of having a popular team a lot more dramatic than it really is. As you can see from the trendline, every additional popularity point would yield an expected 5.68 CQ points. With most teams having a popularity score between 650 and 1050 we are really looking at popularity explaining a few hundreds CQ points difference between two typical teams. The main difference between teams remains the quality of the picks not their respective popularity.

 

[ray10]

In 2023, my team has 15 nationalities :

FRA 8 (NB, I am not French, I am Belgian)
GB 4
AUSTR / USA / NED 3
BEL / GER/ DK/ 2
1 for COL/ITA/CZE/ARG/SWI/RUS

 

[Salvarani]

Nationalities.

6 - Italy, Belgium
4 - Great Britain, France
3 - Netherlands
2 - Denmark, Germany
1 - USA, Estonia, New Zealand, Colombia, Australia, Spain

Point distribution of my riders.

5-599 - Four riders.
4-499 - Two riders.
3-399 - Five riders.
2-299 - Four riders.
1-199 - Ten riders.
0-99 - Eight riders.

Looking forward to the reveals and to talk about some picks!