The Elo Fencing Ranking System (EFRS) is a new piece of software that helps manage a new way of determining skill level within the sport of Olympic Fencing. The EFRS links with AskFred and applies a formula called Elo to the results, allowing for a more detailed breakdown of fencing performance. Data from the EFRS comes solely from Askfred, so athletes may have a slightly skewed elo if they do not often compete in tournaments registered in Askfred. Events like NAC's and world level events are examples of events not included in our rankings.

The purpose of the EFRS is to convince the USFA that the letter system needs to change, and to provide a suitable alternative.

Our goal is to improve how we rate ourselves as fencers to help make our sport more understandable to ourselves and to the rest of the world. The USA has used the letter system for years and is becoming increasingly innaccurate due to rating inflation, mixing of letters obtained in age-specific events, and the growing size of our sport. Several fencers from outside the USA are told by their coaches to ignore the letters we fight so hard for because to them, they mean nothing.

The EFRS is designed to be a proof of concept that Elo (or a similar system) could work within the USA and maybe even the whole world. If this system is successful it would become much easier to accurately compare the skills of fencers, determine rankings of events, and implement a universal national (or even world) point standing system available to the average fencer.

Elo works by assigning every single fencer a number of points when they first join the USFA. When you compete in a USFA Direct Elimination bout, you will gain or lose points depending on your performance. If you win bouts, you will take points from your defeated opponent. If you lose however, your opponent will take your points. The number of points exchanged depends on the difference in skill level of the opponents. The stronger fencer will always take less points if s/he wins, but if the weaker fencer wins that fencer will take a larger number of points. This method ensures that underdogs are rewarded if they can pull off a win, and helps them accelerate faster in the ranks.

Sure! Suppose we have two fencers, Fencer A has 1000 points (the amount you get when you first start) and Fencer B has 1500 points (quite a lot!). They meet in a direct elimination bout, and the formula is applied. Fencer B has a much higher probabililty of winning the bout, so Fencer B has a chance of winning about 3 points from the bout (the following FAQ explains how we determined 3 points). If Fencer B wins, his Elo rank goes up to 1503, and Fencer A goes down to 997. In the Elo world, this is not a very significant change. Now suppose Fencer A manages to upset Fencer B and secure the win: Fencer A would take a whopping 27 points from Fencer B pushing A up to 1027, having B drop down to 1473.

If you'd like an online Elo calculator, you can find one similar to ours here!

Please note we are still testing our formula for accuracy so it is subject to constant and unnanounced change

The actual formula is based on the one used for official chess tournaments, although we are constantly toying with it to make it work the best. The formula (in its current state) is as follows:

dE = 30 * (R - (1/(10 ^ ((my Elo - opponents's Elo)/400)+1))

where:
dE = the change in Elo for both players
R = 1.0 if you won, 0 if you lost

Elo has a long history of use and has been used by many sports bodies as early as 1960. Around the world, chess uses the Elo ranking system and it has proven to be a reliable and accurate system. Many other bodies use Elo as well including American Collegiate Football, Major League Baseball, and even several e-sports such as Star Craft! If you want to read more about Elo, visit the Wikipedia page, where I got a majority of my information on the subject.

No, all the data being used to calculate elo is immediately available to anyone with an Askfred account. We are not selling this data, using it to track you down, or anything like that. If you have any concerns, send an email to usafencingelo@gmail.com