New Rogers Junior Rankings

Rogers Rankings  |  After five years the head-to-head ranking system has been dropped. A new national junior ranking system has replaced the previous system at the start of this year. The head-to-head system had so many benefits, such as points can be gained (or lost) in the consolation draws. It was touted as a superior system that can take in any other form of competition and compute the ranking points. For example, ranking points can be awarded for league play or even club closed tournaments since it was not based on the progression through the rounds in the draw. It was hyped as being able to include most matches not deemed possible before.

Not everything was favourable. Points stayed with the players from the moment their ranking points were computed. Getting the initial ranking points was crucial. Without big points earned in the initial ranking, the progression through the ranking ladder was somewhat limited for the majority of the junior players. Gaining points there after was rather a difficult process as a player would also lose points for losing matches.

So what led to the downfall? The explanation was top players were protecting their ranking points. A loss would mean points deduction. A bad loss would mean bigger points deduction. Once a top ranking is obtain there is no need to participate in more than the selected tournaments required for National selection. That is not to say these top junior played only these selected tournaments. Most often they would travel outside the country and get their competition elsewhere without jeopardizing their selection to the Canadian Nationals.

The current new ranking system is actually an improved version of the previous ranking system before the head-to-head ranking system was implemented in 2009. This improved version has a better points awardation for each round won, points can be combined from different junior age categories, it is based on a rolling 52 weeks point accumulation, points awarded are based on the strength of the tournament, and each provincial ranking as well as a national ranking can be computed from these points.

To read a more detailed write-up, please go to the "Tournaments" tab above. The tournament winners list of the past ten years of the Coquitlam Junior Open Championships and Coquitlam Junior are now updated. The winners beyond 2005 will be updated in the near future.