BURS Documentation (for those who can't run Macro)
There are 6 pages in the survey program.
Note: If you don't understand the text always look at the corresponding images!!
Welcome to this little BUR Survey Program. I find this program is extendable and might help finding out an agreed Bricks Official Ranking (BOR) in the future. For now we are just using this program to gather ideas from players.
* Before we start: Please start timing yourself how long it takes to finish this survey. *
Q1. What is your name?
Q2. (Options are as follows)
- 1998 4th quarter
- 1999 1st quarter
- 1999 2nd quarter
- 1999 3rd quarter
- 1999 4th quarter
- 2000 1st quarter
- 2000 2nd quarter
- 2000 3rd quarter
- 2000 4th quarter
Q3. (Options are as follows)
- < 1 hour
- 1 to 5 hours
- 5 to 10 hours
- 10 to 15 hours
- 15 hours +
Q4. (Options are as follows)
- < 5%
- 5% to 10%
- 10% to 15%
- 15% to 25%
- 25%+
Q5. Which games have you played? Which games are you currently playing?
Q6. Time devotion in each game?
Q7. Rate the games (a score between 0 and 10; 10 is the best).
Q7. Rate Bricks (a score between 0 and 10; 10 is the best).

Q1. Positions in old games?
Q2. From __ place to __ place?
Q3a) Main game _% VS Competition _%?
Q3b) Bricks I _% VS Bricks II _% VS Bricks III _%?
Q3c) Most Recent Comp _% VS Previous Comp _% VS Yet Previous Comp _% VS Old Comp _%?
4. The Top30 are as follows (this is not a question):
Abe Weishaus
Ahmet E. Usta
Alan Chan
Alan Tanguy
Andrew Burt
Azeddine Fawzi
Bojan Radakovic
Brian Thompson
Danijela Paunovic
Dejan Randjelovic
Dory Landry
Erick Storm
Ernie Gonzales
Fabrice Duprat
Finn Jepsen
James Gdowik
Jeff Fondren
Joe Tingler
John Shannon
Kurt Neuenschwander
Marco Roger Graf
Mathieu Francoeur
Matt Groff
Péter Riszter
Ricardo Gruda
Ruben Spaans
Walter van Erven
Wilson Kwok
Wolfgang Joch
Yann Tanguy
Q5. What is the Top10 listing of the Ideal Ranking in your mind?
Q6. What is the Top10 listing of the "Practical Ranking" in your mind? Practically our ranking system will not be able to reflect the full strength of players (Ernie; and some relatively new players like Fabrice, Marco and Kurt) who do not participate in many of the "important" Bricks games. We are aiming at deriving a system which reasonably reflect on the "Practical Ranking", not the "Ideal Ranking".

You can change the values in the following cells on the Excel sheet "Ranked by Position" to produce the simulation.
- Max Score: C120
- Decay Rate: C122
- Team Penalty: C124
- Bricks I weighting: H32
- Bricks II weighting: I32
- Bricks III weighting: J32
- Most Recent Comp weighting: K32
- Second Recent Comp weighting: L32
- Third Recent Comp weighting: M32
- Old Comp weighting: N32 (automatically calculated; don't change it!)
After putting values to the above cells, the PR result will be displayed in cell C2 to D31. Column C is the player's name and Column D is the player's score.

You can change the values in the following cells on the Excel sheet "Ranked by Score" to produce the simulation.
- Max Score: C120
- Penalty per 0.01%: C122
- Team Penalty: C124
- Bricks I Adjustment: C126
- Bricks I weighting: H32
- Bricks II weighting: I32
- Bricks III weighting: J32
- Most Recent Comp weighting: K32
- Second Recent Comp weighting: L32
- Third Recent Comp weighting: M32
- Old Comp weighting: N32 (automatically calculated; don't change it!)
After putting values to the above cells, the SR result will be displayed in cell C2 to D31. Column C is the player's name and Column D is the player's score
- You can view the MR results on the Excel sheet "Grid", cell F3 to I32. Optionally adjust the PR weighting in cell J3 for producing MR (SR will automatically change as you change PR).
- Players who does not participate in all games will be less disadvantaged by having a higher "Decay Rate" in our ranking system. For example, Ernie would rank higher if the decay rate is higher. For the same reason Javier's system uses a high decay rate of 33%.
- In PR, Team Penalty should not be lower than Decay Rate. This is based on the assumption that players team up for higher positions. For a 2-player team, all team members would be advantaged by one position at least (that's why they have teamed up). For a 3-player team, all team members would be advantaged by two positions at least (otherwise they won't need 3 people).
- After gathering all responds back from players we will extend the PR and SR listing, to include the Top100 players in Bricks I, and all players who sent in their scores in any other Bricks games/competitions. The expected number of players involved would be about 180 (and expanding).
- Then the name of the ranking system will become "BOR" -- Bricks Official Ranking. I hope to publish the first BOR results in early Janurary 2001 (or earlier).
This simulation program does not cater for all possible solutions to a ranking system (it's simply not possible to cater for all). Here you can choose some variations to the ranking which have not been implemented in the current simulation program.
Q1a) How to define the term "Old Comp" in PR? Choose from either:
- Use the best ranking of the player within all old competitions
-
Use the average ranking of the player within the best 3 old competitions
-
Use the forth latest competition result only
Q1b) How to define the term "Old Comp" in SR? Choose from either:
- Use the average number of moves of the player within the best 3 old competitions
-
Use the forth latest competition result only
Q2. Any other comments you wish to make?
All information obtained from this questionarie will be analyzed. Some of the information obtained will be posted in the public (eg. the Bricks Forum). Your responses might be posted in the public (without mentioning your name).
Q1. Would you mind me mentioning your name (if neccessary) while posting? Choose from either:
- Go Ahead, no problem for me
- Don't mention my name, please ...
Q2. Last Question: How much time did you spend on answering this survey? Please give your answer to the nearest 5 minutes.
When you are done, please send back the response to Alan Chan (including the altered Excel file) via E-mail!
Last Updated on 17/12/00
By Alan Chan
Email: alanchan1024@hotmail.com