Jugular
Birdie Member
Of course not, my point about it being mathematically possible was to point out the flaw/bug/anomaly whatever you want to call it that exists in the ratings system, that as long as divisions are rated separately, identical scores can yield different round ratings, and will always favor the division with higher rated players. As far as inflation, bubbling up, whatever you want to call it, it's pretty easy to grasp the concept that as long as the higher rated players are always rated among themselves (DGPT events for example) combined with a ratings system that knows no limits, well...the rich will get richer.
It just doesn't follow that the ratings would necessarily inflate, they might but I don't see any guaranteed mechanism by which it would. Identical scores yielding different round ratings doesn't necessarily favor the division with higher rated players. I'm sure that stat could be pulled. If we look at round ratings for fields with higher rated players and round ratings for fields with lower rated players do the identical scores on identical courses average higher when scored by the higher field (averaging over enough separate events should minimize the effect of course conditions)?
I can do this analysis quite easily if there's a good source for the data and it's easy to identify that identical courses are being played. Anyone know how/where it's available in an easy to consume form? (the format on PDGA website isn't ideal, I don't think it is easy to identify identical course layouts and writing a script to scrape it just doesn't seem appealing right now).