FIVB World Ranking: Old system vs New system

The FIVB launched the new world ranking system on 1 February 2020, where the Elo rating system will replace the old world ranking system.

In the old system, points will be awarded based on the final ranking of teams in the Olympic Games (included for 4 years), World Cup (included for 4 years), World Championship (included for 4 years) and World Grand Prix (included for 1 year).

However, in the new system, points will be awarded based on an algorithm that compares the game’s expected outcome and the actual outcome. If the team exceeds expectations, the team will score points, but the team will lose points if the team under performs.

(More details of the new world ranking system can be found here: https://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/fivb-to-introduce-new-world-ranking-system?id=89970)

There are certainly pros and cons of the change in the world ranking systems, and here is a comparison of both systems.

Pro #1: Every competition counts

In the old world ranking system, only the results of the 4 tournaments are taken into account of the world ranking system (Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup and World Grand Prix). This means that other FIVB official competitions do not contribute points towards the world ranking system.

Under the new system, all FIVB official competitions affect the world ranking, including continental competitions, which were previously not included in the system. This makes every competition count, and it can increase the excitement of competitions such as the European Volleyball Championship and the African Nations Championship.

Pro #2: Every set counts

In the old world ranking system, only the final position will affect the world ranking. This results in less excitement in round-robin tournaments such as World Cup, as the team’s position may already be determined one round or two rounds before the end of the tournament.

However, in the new world ranking system, every match counts, as points are awarded based on an algorithm that compares the expected and actual outcomes. For example, even if a team already qualified for the final round of the competition, the matches yet to play in the preliminary round will still affect the team’s world ranking under the new system.

Con #1: Later matches in the competition becomes more important

In a knockout tournament, it is true that the later stages of a competition are more important. However, in a round-robin format such as the World Cup and the preliminary round of the Volleyball Nations League, matches played in a later stage are equally important to the matches that are played earlier.

However, in the new world ranking system, a team’s world ranking points (WR points) are updated after every match. In other words, the WR points of a team will change during the tournament. For example, if team A loses the first three matches in a competition, its WR points in the fourth match will be lower than the start of the competition. Although the strength of team A during the fourth match of the competition is likely not to have much difference from that of the competition’s first match, the WR points of the team before the two matches can be very different due to the update of WR points after 3 matches. Therefore, this may result in inaccuracy.

This results in favoring teams that face weaker opponents in a later stage of the competition. As the Elo system is self-correcting, a team winning later matches of a competition can earn more points than winning the earlier matches.

To eliminate this problem, FIVB can update the WR points after every tournament instead of every match. The algorithm can be based on the total number of sets won and lost and the average strength of the opponents. By doing this, the problem that later matches are more important does not exist.

Con #2: Competition with more matches become more important

As the new world ranking system uses matches as a unit instead of competition, competitions with more matches will have a more significant impact on the WR system. For example, a competition with a match weight factor of 50 (higher importance) and 5 matches may affect the world ranking system more than a competition with a match weight factor of 40 (lower importance) and 10 matches. (50×5=250 vs 40×10=400)

After reading this comparison, do you prefer the old world ranking system or the new world ranking system?

(Written by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)