USPSA Scoring

You have to look at it stage by stage, not the total. and don't look at overall, go by division the overall scores are skewed by who ever won each stage. who are you and the other guy on the scores?
 
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Looking at it stage by stage you guys were pretty close for the whole match, Fry took first on 4 stages and Mcvoy took first on 2 stages. And the biggest reason Mcvoy lost was stage 2. The highest point total of the match and the largest difference in score. Mcvoy lost 55 match points to Fry on that stage.
 
The two mikes was the deal breaker. That was a loss of 20 scored points.
 
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I don't understand the minutiae of USPSA scoring, but McVoy's worst stage was the stage with the highest points, the other guy won it, since the winner gets all the points, and everyone else just a percent that really hurt.
 
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Stage 2 was what hurts...
Fry is the top one (2)
McVoy is the bottom (13)

4CAD9F63-56E8-4035-A783-86D238E6F435.png
 
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When I asked my question about USPSA scoring, someone broke it down to points per time. Fry scored 849 points in 126.30 seconds, or 6.722 points per second. McVoy 856 in 129.01 or 6.635. Even without the stage differences, Fry had he better score, is that not true?

And, if the extra Mike had been a Delta, that's 12 points and McVoy would have been at 868 or 6.728 per second. Not sure if the positions would have swapped or not because of the stage win.
 
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There should be a college level math class on how scoring works in USPSA... Most of the really good shooters I know can't explain it. Would probably go a long way if they simplified it for new shooters... and not so new shooters...
 
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RJM said:
It was my 2nd USPSA match so I’m still learning. Just going to go faster and drop a few more Charlie’s.
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If I understand it correctly, that Mike you had was worth 10 Charlies vs Alphas. I have never shot USPSA, only IDPA. But if that was your second match ever, I'd say you are on the right track. At my second IDPA match my main thought was "don't shoot yourself in the foot!"
 
RJM said:
It was my 2nd USPSA match so I’m still learning. Just going to go faster and drop a few more Charlie’s. That’s why everyone shoots major right. Not forgetting to shoot a target would help too.
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Points per second. 1.5 sec alpha is the same as a 1 second charlie scored minor

Major is
5 (a)/1.2 sec is 4.16 hf
4(c)/.8 sec is 5 hf
 
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You guys look at this all wrong. Forget about the hit factor, it is ridiculous to focus on it!

Focus instead on the fun factor! On a stage with 10 targets, if you shoot 18 alpha and 2 Charlie's in 13 seconds that would be a hit factor of 7.5384. Subtract that from 20 and you have a fun factor of 12.4615. If you shoot the same stage in 8 seconds with 8 a, 6 c, 4 d, and 2 m you would have a hit factor of .1111 which gives you a fun factor of 19.8889.
 
RJM said:
It was my 2nd USPSA match so I’m still learning. Just going to go faster and drop a few more Charlie’s. That’s why everyone shoots major right. Not forgetting to shoot a target would help too.
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Not shooting targets is bad, not even shooting at them is worse, took a refresher on that today.

Looks like a pretty solid go for a second match, I'm into my second year and not pushing in on A class guys.
 
bigfelipe said:
Would probably go a long way if they simplified it for new shooters... and not so new shooters...
Click to expand...

I disagree with this because the way the scoring works now, it actually rewards you for smaller improvements as you get better. So as you climb the diminishing returns curve and shave tenths instead of seconds, you still see a significant percentage increase in your score. For example: if you can shoot a stage in 10 seconds, and you shave a second off your time, you have gotten 10% better. To get 10% again, you only have to shave off .9 of a second. To get 10% better from there, .8 seconds, and so on. So as you get faster, to make the same percentage progress you only have to make smaller and smaller improvements, of the kind that become more common as you get closer to the theoretical limit of any given physical task.

So the scoring system works well for differentiating the guys who are at the very top of the sport, which I would argue is more important for USPSA's mission. There are other sports that do a good job of being simple. No other scoring system does as good a job of differentiating the best. (Not perfect, but good. And better than the alternatives.)
 
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tl;dr of this thread, for people becoming scared off by the complexity:

Shooter A had 20 more alphas but was slower than Shooter B, yet shooter B won. How? Shooter A also had two more penalties than Shooter B, which wipe out the additional points earned by all the additional alphas.
 
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bigfelipe said:
There should be a college level math class on how scoring works in USPSA... Most of the really good shooters I know can't explain it. Would probably go a long way if they simplified it for new shooters... and not so new shooters...
Click to expand...

No college needed.
1. When you shoot a stage divide the points you shot by the time you shot them in..... That is your hit factor.
2. Whoever has the highest hit factor for that stage wins the stage, and gets all the possible points for that stage. IE, if it's a 32 round field course worth 160 points (5 per A), he/she gets all 160, regardless of how many points they shot. That is the winner's "match points." For everyone that didn't win, divide their hit factor by the winner's hit factor and you get a percentage (number less than 1). You get that percentage of the 160, which is your "match points" for the stage.
3. Add all your match points up. That is your match score. If you have the highest, you're the winner. If you don't, your percentage is the result of dividing your match score by the winner's match score.

For the OP, in stage 1, you won, so you get all 140 points as match points. Everyone else can take their hit factor and divide by yours (6.8737) to the percentage of 140 they will get. In stage 2 (worth 155 points) take your hit factor (4.6667) and divide by Fry's (7.1839) to get .6496. In other words, you shot 64.96 % of him, so you get that percentage of his 155 points, or 100.68.

Once you've paid attention to it a while it will not seem complex. I've found understanding scoring to be valuable occasionally when making decisions about potentially risky stage plans.
 
9Baller said:
I


No college needed.
1. When you shoot a stage divide the points you shot by the time you shot them in..... That is your hit factor.
2. Whoever has the highest hit factor for that stage wins the stage, and gets all the possible points for that stage. IE, if it's a 32 round field course worth 160 points (5 per A), he/she gets all 160, regardless of how many points they shot. That is the winner's "match points." For everyone that didn't win, divide their hit factor by the winner's hit factor and you get a percentage (number less than 1). You get that percentage of the 160, which is your "match points" for the stage.
3. Add all your match points up. That is your match score. If you have the highest, you're the winner. If you don't, your percentage is the result of dividing your match score by the winner's match score.

For the OP, in stage 1, you won, so you get all 140 points as match points. Everyone else can take their hit factor and divide by yours (6.8737) to the percentage of 140 they will get. In stage 2 (worth 155 points) take your hit factor (4.6667) and divide by Fry's (7.1839) to get .6496. In other words, you shot 64.96 % of him, so you get that percentage of his 155 points, or 100.68.

Once you've paid attention to it a while it will not seem complex. I've found understanding scoring to be valuable occasionally when making decisions about potentially risky stage plans.
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One of the best break down explanations I've read.
 
bigfelipe said:
There should be a college level math class on how scoring works in USPSA... Most of the really good shooters I know can't explain it. Would probably go a long way if they simplified it for new shooters... and not so new shooters...
Click to expand...

I'd say this is actually simpler than a lot of the math I've seen you do quickly and easily in your head at work. With converting fraction to decimals, adding fractions, etc.

But, man, I felt very much like this when starting USPSA. I am just starting to get my head around it after several matches, but mostly because SlappyMctrigger has thorough interest and understanding and constantly drills me in it. Also, we shoot together a lot so I can compare our scores directly after a match and I can see where he is beating me.
 
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BLUF- USPSA winner is whoever gets the most combined stage points from each stage. Stage points are awarded as a ratio of winner (discussed above). Overall time and points don’t reveal too much information for overall performance.

Get Practiscore Competitor app and you can quickly compare shooters.

Top graph shows points available per stage vs. points earned per shooter. Gray is stage points available, purple(?) is Fry’s points per stage, brown is McVoy’s points per stage. McVoy tanked stage 2 and lost 55 stage points.

RDSej6I.jpg



hqQHuhG.png
 
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RJM said:
It was my 2nd USPSA match so I’m still learning. Just going to go faster and drop a few more Charlie’s. That’s why everyone shoots major right. Not forgetting to shoot a target would help too.
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I shoot major because I don't wear a dress.
 
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Travis B said:
BLUF- USPSA winner is whoever gets the most combined stage points from each stage. Stage points are awarded as a ratio of winner (discussed above). Overall time and points don’t reveal too much information for overall performance.

Get Practiscore Competitor app and you can quickly compare shooters.

Top graph shows points available per stage vs. points earned per shooter. Gray is stage points available, purple(?) is Fry’s points per stage, brown is McVoy’s points per stage. McVoy tanked stage 2 and lost 55 stage points.

RDSej6I.jpg



hqQHuhG.png
Click to expand...

Yeah, that simplifies everything! LOL
 
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Travis B said:
BLUF- USPSA winner is whoever gets the most combined stage points from each stage. Stage points are awarded as a ratio of winner (discussed above). Overall time and points don’t reveal too much information for overall performance.

Get Practiscore Competitor app and you can quickly compare shooters.

Top graph shows points available per stage vs. points earned per shooter. Gray is stage points available, purple(?) is Fry’s points per stage, brown is McVoy’s points per stage. McVoy tanked stage 2 and lost 55 stage points.

RDSej6I.jpg



hqQHuhG.png
Click to expand...

Dammit yer cheating with technology?
With this kind of advantage making master is simple!
 
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