FerrotasWiki

The goal of this rating system is to address the unique needs of the HEMA community for tournament hosts and fencers alike. We hope the system will encourage fencers to travel and attend more events, as well as provide unique opportunities for event organizers.

We wanted a system where a fencer does not have to be choosy about the tournaments they attend, in fear of losing their rank.

We did not want to penalize fencers for having a bad day, or even a bad year.

We wanted to create an easy way to divide events into different brackets. What is often called a “novice tournament” could now be anyone ranked E or below. An “invitational” tournament could be defined as anyone B and above. These divisions are up to tournament hosts.

Fencers are awarded numerical points and have the option to earn an alphabetical rank through participation in tournaments.

Tournaments have a rating. The number and letters of rank that are given out is based on the quality of the competition.

Since this system is based on how fencers place at tournaments rather than who they win or lose against, having a bad tournament does not affect your rank.

Ranks only degrade over time.

Fencers earn a rank by placing at tournaments. The highest rank is A, followed by B, C, D, E and anyone below E is considered Unranked. The way to increase rank is to perform well in tournaments.

The year a fencer earned the rank is appended to the ranking, so a fencer could be an A22 if they earned an “A” in 2022.

Once a rank is earned, the fencer keeps the rank for four years. When a fencer has placed again, the year will be updated to the current year, extending the length of the rating. IE: B21 will be updated to a B22. A fencer cannot degrade their rating except by time. If you finish in the C22 slot of an event but have a B21, you retain your B21. If you finish in the B22 spot or better, you upgrade.

Rankings decay after four years if not re-earned. For example, our A22 would become a B27 if unable to renew their A before January 1, 2027.

If a fencer is below a C rank, their best chance will be to do well at smaller local tournaments. If a fencer is C rank or above, the best way to increase rank is to perform well at large regional tournaments.

There are no hard limits on the number of people that can be a certain rank.

Points are an indicator of how active a fencer is. Rank tends to be regionalised, whereas points are a better indicator for national comparisons. Points are earned by attending tournaments based on your final result and the strength of the tournament. Fencers who place higher earn more points. Larger tournaments will award more points. Points are always awarded to every fighter at every sanctioned event.

Points are important when comparing fencers, for example a A22 fencer in New York might have 20,000 points and an A22 fencer in the Midwest might have 8,000 points. When using Ferrotas to seed pools, the A22 in New York will get seeded higher.

Events have a rating calculated on two criteria:

1. The total number of fencers participating
2. The rank of the fencers placed in the top 12 of the tournament.

Prior to an event, events will have a potential rating making the assumption that the top 12 fighters will finish in the top 12. The actual rating of the event occurs at finalization. The formula for “Possible” rating and “Actual” rating is identical.

Each of the top 12 ratings are assigned a point value. Points of all the top 12 fencers are added together and divided by 12. In addition to the incoming ratings of the top 12 finishers, we add the total number of fencers-12 to the event.

The final numerical calculation determines the Event Rating. Generally, the more skilled fencers and the more total fencers that attend, the higher the Rating.

Rankings are awarded based on the rating of the event.

A D2 gives out 2D, 3C, 4E An A1 gives our 1A, 2B, 3C, 4D, 5E An A10 gives out 10A, 11B, 12C, 13D, 14E

Each letter rating is always incremented by 1.

These rankings are awarded from highest to lowest to the fencers based on their final placement, with 1st place receiving the highest rank, and so on.

Additionally, there is a 60% cut off.

For example, if I had 15 fencers and 12 were A22 and 3 U. Current math would make the tournament remain an A5.

The Min Fencer rule says that ratings can’t be awarded to more than 60% of the field. If an event doesn’t meet the minimum number of fencers for the calculated rating, the rating degrades until it can match the minimum.

Our example would degrade to a C2 with a minimum of 15 fencers.