Rankings and How They Are Calculated
Schools will question rankings, so the rules are published here in full. If a figure on this page ever disagrees with what iRank shows, the software is wrong and should be reported.
Two separate things
In-tournament standings are what you see during a competition. They use speaker points and wins only. Attendance, participation and school tier play no part.
League rankings are the season-long picture. They combine tournament performance with attendance, participation and hosting.
This separation is deliberate. A judge’s ballot must reflect the debate that happened, not a school’s attendance record.
League ranking for schools
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Performance in tournaments | 50% |
| Attendance | 40% |
| Hosting tournaments | 10% |
Results are not normalised by how many teams a school entered. A school that enters six teams and a school that enters two are compared on what their teams achieved.
League ranking for students
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Speaking performance | 80% |
| Participation | 20% |
Students do not inherit their school’s participation score. A student at a very active school gains nothing from that activity unless they personally took part.
How speaker points are counted
| Competition | Basis |
|---|---|
| Local | Total points across the season |
| International | Average points per debate |
Local leagues reward turning up and debating often. International selection asks who is strongest per debate, so a speaker who debated three times is comparable with one who debated twelve.
There is no minimum number of debates for the international average.
Byes
A team that receives a bye is credited with a win, plus the average of that team’s other results in the same stage.
The credit is calculated at the end of the stage, once the other results exist. Until then a bye shows as pending rather than as a zero.
School tiers
Schools are placed in one of four tiers by percentile:
| Tier | Position |
|---|---|
| Elite | Top 10% |
| Advanced | Top 35% |
| Developing | Top 75% |
| Beginner | The remainder |
Two safeguards apply:
- Elite requires at least 3 recorded activities. A school cannot reach the top tier on a single strong result.
- A tier change must hold for 2 consecutive evaluations before it takes effect, so a school does not move up and down week to week.
No-show penalty
A school that registers and does not attend is penalised. This is unchanged from the previous league rules.
Why a result is not showing yet
Two reasons, both normal:
- The tournament is not released. Nothing counts towards any league ranking until a coordinator releases it — see below.
- Standings rebuild overnight. A tournament that ended today appears in league rankings tomorrow.
Releasing rankings
Release is per audience and per stage, and nothing reaches a global leaderboard before you set it.
You choose:
- Which stage — preliminary rounds only, or the full tournament
- What — team rankings, school rankings, speaker rankings
- Who can see it — students, schools, volunteers
Releasing sends email. Speaker rankings notify the students and their schools; team and school rankings notify schools only.
Only the parts you newly open are announced, so re-saving the settings does not send a second round of emails.
Releasing is not reversible in the sense that matters — people will have read it. Check the standings before you release.