Arm wrestling rankings, built from real results.
Every puller on Armstrong gets an Elo rating, and every match at a rated event moves it. The first rated events are on their way, so the table is empty for now. It fills in as people pull.
Watch this space.
Sign up, tell us where you are and turn on alerts. Your rating starts the moment you join, and we will tell you when an event is announced near you so you can put it to work.
How your rating works
Armstrong uses the Elo rating system, the same idea chess has used for decades, named after the physicist Arpad Elo. Your rating is a number that says how strong you are, worked out from who you have actually beaten and lost to.
It starts when you sign up
Everyone begins at 1000. Left and right hand are rated separately, because plenty of pullers are stronger on one side.
Every match moves it
Win and you gain points, lose and you drop. How many depends on who you pulled: an upset moves a lot, an expected result moves a little.
New pullers find their level fast
Your first 10 rated matches can move you up to 40 points each, so a strong newcomer climbs quickly. After that, up to 20.
What counts
Every pulled match at events approved for the rankings, winners' and losers' bracket alike. See the fair play rules.
The rankings list sorts pullers by rating, and you can narrow it to your hand, gender, weight class and age group. You appear on it once you have pulled 5 rated matches, so one lucky night doesn't put anyone on top.
Keeping it fair
A rating only means something if nobody can pump it up. So these rules apply to every rated match, whatever the format. Armstrong ratings sit alongside any federation's rankings, never in place of them.
Approved events only
An event counts only when Armstrong approves it for the rankings, and only if at least 8 pullers took part. Organisers can't rate their own events.
Account holders only
Both pullers need an Armstrong account. A match against someone who walked up without one changes nobody's rating.
The same two pullers, twice a month
At most 2 rated matches between the same two people per hand in any 30 days. Rematches after that still happen, they just don't move ratings.
Only matches that were pulled
Walkovers, forfeits and withdrawals never count. A super match counts as one result, however many rounds it goes.
Results are rated 48 hours after an event, so organisers have time to fix a mistake first. After that they're locked.
A few examples
Both on 1000, so it is an even match. The winner goes to 1020, the loser to 980.
An established 900 beats an established 1100. They were expected to win only about 1 in 4 times, so the winner gains 15 and the favourite drops 15.
The same two pull again and the 1100 wins, as expected. The winner gains only 5, and the 900 drops only 5. Nobody is punished much for losing to someone stronger.
A new puller on 1000 beats an established 1200. The newcomer gains 30, because new ratings move faster. The veteran drops 15.
| Match | Opponent | Result | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1000 | Won | 1000 +20 = 1020 |
| 2 | 1150 | Lost | 1020 −13 = 1007 |
| 3 | 950 | Won | 1007 +17 = 1024 |
| 4 | 1080 | Lost, out | 1024 −17 = 1007 |
Two wins and two losses, knocked out on the second loss, and still a little above where they started, because the loss that cost the most was to the strongest puller in the class.
The maths, for the curious
Before a match, each puller's chance of winning is worked out from the gap between the two ratings:
expected = 1 ÷ (1 + 10(their rating − your rating) ÷ 400)
After it, your rating changes by K × (result − expected), where the result is 1 for a win and 0 for a loss, and K is 40 for your first 10 rated matches and 20 after that. A 200-point gap means the higher-rated puller is expected to win about 3 times in 4.
Club rankings are built from the ratings of each club's members: tap Clubs above the table to see them.