MyRPL Features (Racquetball Power Ladder)

MyRPL Features

Custom Ranking System

The ranking system is the heart and soul of MyRPL. It's a system based on a player’s power ranking. Your power ranking is basically your skill ranking which is determined by three factors.

Both yours and your opponent(s) power ranking at the time of the match
The score of the match
The date of the match

Note: Winning a match does not guarantee that your power ranking will go up. Example ... If you barely win a match against an opponent that has a power ranking much lower than yours, you could lose points in your power ranking. MyRPL's slogan is every point counts, and they count directly towards the power rankings of each player involed in the match. The racquetball power ladder is not your typical ladder. In a typical ladder you are only allowed to play challenge opponents either 3 or 4 spots in front of or behind you. It allows you to challenge players of any ranking on the ladder. You have the freedom to decide what type of players you want to challenge. If you are an aggressive player, and you want the big point changes then you would probably challenge players that are ranked higher than you. Point changes are the positive or negative changes in your power ranking after each match. You can’t force anyone one to play and everyone does have the right to turn down a match request. Playing opponents that have much lesser power ranks than yours will not increase your power rankings significantly. This is because you are expected to win the match. Even worse, if that lesser power ranked opponent gets their fair share of points against you, you may even lose point in your power rankings even if you win the match. Do not let all of this information confuse you, the best schedule you can make for yourself is to play the most competitive players you can find. The more competitive the match, the better chance you have of adding points to your power ranking.

League and National Rankings

Each league has its own league rankings available on it's MyRPL home page. These rankings are the back bone of the the ladder league. The league's rankings consists of your power rankings + your bonus points – your penalty points. They are also available for printing and can be posted at your local clubs. This is a great way to advertise your league so that other players can join. MyRPL also has national rankings which averages out all of your power rankings and total points from each of the different leagues that you are a member. These national rankings determine your standing amongst all RPL players, and not just those in your league.

Match Types

Not only does MyRPL score and rank singles matches but it also can handle Cut Throat Matches.

Updated (04/16/2009)

MyRPL now allows players to play 5 different types of matches.
1. Singles:: Best 2 out of 3 games; First two games played to 15 and a third game (tie breaker) if needed played to 11
2. Cut Throat:: Three players playing a one game match scored to 15.
3. Doubles: (new): Best 2 out of 3 games.; First two games played to 15 and a third game (tie breaker) if needed played to 11; A player can have multiple partners per league. Each team will be ranked separately.
4. Quick Match: (new): A singles match which consist of one game played to 15.; This is great for people in a hurry or when you have more people waiting than courts available.
5. Doubles Quick Match: (new): A doubles match which consist of one game played to 15.

Note:
Quick match power ranking points chantes are ½ the points you would have lost or gained playing an best 2 out of 3 match.
Example. Winning a Quick Match 15-7 is the same as winning a regular 2 out of 3 match 15-7; 15-7

Create RPL Leagues:

Create your very own RPL league for your local club. The commissioner, the player who created the league, has control over the following league settings:

League Length: Each RPL league must have a start and end date. Once these dates are created, they can not be modified. After the league has ended, you can create a new league or reactivate the current league for another set length. Upon reactivation, all scores, statistics, league leaders, etc … will be reset back to their default values.

Bonus Points: Set the number of bonus points you wish to give each player for playing another player in the league for the first time. This gives players an incentive to play different people. One of the goals of RPL is to establish a means for players to meet and play new players. The bonus points can also make a difference in the overall rankings in a very competitive league.

Penalty Points: Set the number of points you wish to subtract from a player's total points if they do not play a league match within the set number of days. (see Idle Days)

Idle Days: The number of days a player can go without playing a match before the penalty points take effect. This gives players an incentive to keep the league active.

Private or Public: You have the ability to make your league public to any other RPL member or private (password protected). If you designate your league to be private, you will have to give the password to the RPL players that you want in your league.

Input Match Scores: This determines who is allowed to enter match scores into your MyRPL home page. You have the option of choosing commissioner only, any player in the league if the player participated in the match being submitted, or both.

Create League Sites: RPL leagues can play matches at multiple play sites. If you are creating a league for residents of a certain city, you can add as many play sites for that area as needed. Players that join the league will have the ability to schedule matches with other players at any of the sites. The scores, stats, etc … will all go toward that particular league even though matches are played at different sites.

Create Site Courts: Each site has to have at least one court assigned to it. The commissioner has the ability to name and assign courts to the relevant play site.

Search for Leagues

All RPL members have the ability to search for leagues all across the world. You have the options to search for leagues based on skill level, gender, league type, league name, country, state, and city. RPL members are allowed to join as many as five active leagues at one time.

Search for Players

All RPL members have the ability to search for other RPL members. You have the options to search for members by name, gender, skill level, country, state, city, and power ranking. Use the filtering options to find the player that best fits your game.

Email Any RPL Member

MyRPL gives you the ability to email other members, not just those in your local league. If you know that you will be traveling to a certain area of the country and while you are there you decide to play some racquetball, use MyRPL’s search functions to find all RPL members in that area. Once you have found all RPL members in that area, you will be able to email those members to possibly set up a match. Email addresses are kept confidential from other members. MyRPL handles all of the emailing. When you receive and email from MyRPL, it will give you the member’s name and username who asked MyRPL to email you. If you want to email them back, just search for that member using their username to reply to the email they sent.

Player Profiles

RPL members have total control of all of their account information. Keep your information up to date so other players can locate you to schedule matches or keep in contact with you. Each league that a member is a part of is kept under the My Leagues link of MyRPL. This is there so you can easily check on any of leagues that you are a part of without having to search for their leagues.

Match Results

MyRPL allows you to view all of the match results including the match scores and point changes to the power rankings based on the match results. This allows you to get a better understanding of how the ranking formula works. MyRPL gives you the option to view the match results for your entire league, a player versus another player, or a player versus the all players in the league.

Game and Match Statistics

MyRPL tracks over 40 game and match statistics. These stats are available as soon as the match scores are input into your MyRPL league home page. Track your progress to see what areas of your game have improved or needs improvement.

League Home Pages

Each RPL league created has its very own MyRPL league home page. The league home page will be the central meeting point for your league's members. Everything that a member of the league needs and wants to know should be available on the league home page including the message boards, news boards, league settings, statistics, league leaders, match scheduler, match score input, power ranking history, league roster, match results, and most important of all the league rankings. The commissioner of the league runs this section of MyRPL, including the settings, message and news boards, and score inputs. Any questions that you may have about your league should be directed toward the commissioner. A member is allowed to join as many as five active leagues at one time.

League Leaders

Not only does MyRPL track statistics but it also tracks the leagues leaders in certain areas of concern. Some of the league leader stats tracked include: strength of scheduler, wins, winning percentage, highest power rank, most upsets given, matches played and straight set victories. Many more league leader stats are available and will become available as the membership to MyRPL grows.

League and General Message Boards

MyRPL has its own general message board along with each league having its own message board. Only members of a league are able to post messages on the league's message boards. Please keep the message board profanity free. The commissioner of each league has the ability to delete any message that they see unfit to be posted. The MyRPL admin (ME) has the right to ban users from posting messages to any message board if need be. Each MyRPL league has its own match scheduler so please refrain from using the message boards to schedule matches.

League and General News Boards

Every commissioner of a league has a news board that they should use post league news for other members to view. Only commissioners have permission to post to the news board. Commissioners are to use these news boards to inform players in the league of upcoming events and to keep the league members apprised of the league's current events.

Power Rank History

Your power rank, as mentioned above is your skill ranking. It does not include any bonus or penalty points. Each league gives you the ability to track your power rank. You have the option to track your power rank over a specified date range. Use the power rank history to see if your game has improved or needs improvement.

League Match Scheduler

Each league has its very own match scheduler. There is one issue that I discovered about racquetball. It is sometimes difficult to meet and play new individuals. The match scheduler should resolve this issue and more. If you know that you want to play a match on a certain day, use your MyRPL league's match scheduler to request a match. Select the date and time, play site, court, and even match type (Singles or Cut Throat). MyRPL will post the request for others to see. An email can be sent out to all the members of your league informing them that you have just posted a match request. Other members in your league can then login and view all of the matches scheduled. If you are unable to find a match that fits into your schedule after viewing other match request, post your own match request. Each racquetball club is different so make sure you call your local club to make sure that the times and courts are available before posting a match request. MyRPL does not feed into any local club's scheduling calendars or databases. The play site's phone number will be on the page where you schedule match requests.

Match Score Inputs

The match inputs are vital to keeping all other areas of MyRPL in balance. If the scores are not accurate, everything else in your league will be inaccurate. I advise the commissioners of each league to keep a close watch on the score inputs. Please report any suspicious activity to the MyRPL admin. The commissioner of each league has the ability to determine who inputs match scores as mentioned above. If the commissioner will soley input match scores, I suggest two ways of doing this.

At the play site, keep a drop box where playes can drop their scores in after each match. These scores should include all players’ names, scores date, and times if you played more than one match that day. Once or twice a week, the commissioner should pick up the scores to enter them into the leagues MyRPL home page. This is how I managed the first RPL league. I checked the leagues drop box once or twice a week. I would input the scores on Sunday and print out a new ranking sheet to post at the club on Monday morning. Depending on the size of your league, the score input can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. My leagues had around 20 active players and it never took me more than 15 minutes to do this process twice a week.

If the local club that you play at has a front desk person have them take the scores from the players as they are leaving and input the scores right away. The person at the front desk will have to be the commissioner so that they will have the permissions to enter in the match results. The commissioner also has the ability to allow all the members of the league enter in their own scores from the matches that they participated in. Lastly, the commissioner can set it up so that both they and other players can input match results. Players can only input match scores from games in which they actually played in but the commissioner can enter in match scores for any match, including those they where not a part of.