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How to 'Rate' or 'Rank' yourself.

Are you playing foosball with your friends or colleagues and winning most of the time? Are you wondering how good you are? Are you thinking of heading down to your local rec. center or billiards hall and playing in their tournament? Are you wanting to know where you fit on the totem pole of competitive foosball?

This little rating system should help you. You will need to understand some things before you start.
1. When something is called "un-raceable" in foosball, that means it is so fast that the opponent can not react to it. That does not mean the ball is traveling so very fast, it just means the whole move happens so "quickly" the other players can't react in time.

2. When something is called "un-stoppable" or "un-seeable", that means it is so fast the other players certainly can't stop it or sometimes even see it. This only happens when a truly good player plays a much weaker player. If you walk up to a table and you see something that is faster then you can see, you are likely not going to win and you can assume that player is 500 to 1000 points above you.

3. Accuracy/Consistency: If you shoot a ball, and you score, but it did not go where you wanted to go. This is called luck, not skill. Accuracy/Consistency is attainable. Players over 1200 points can shoot/pass very accurately and people over 1500 points will do it very consistently.

4. Points: The number is a rating system uses by the biggest tour in the USA. A normal tour player starts at 900 points. So if you are the king of your work or school, you would be like 500. A 900 would beat a 500 (average good player) handily. A 1000 would crush them and a 1500 would butcher them and salt the earth they died on.

Rating Rank Comment
0 Marsupial (never played): Usually someone's kid under the age of 4.  My kids are here now.
200 Average person (played 10 times): Spin like and egg beater, misses' the ball a lot.  Not very good at all.
300 Better Player (played 25 times): Spins some, swings some. Can actually hit the ball most of the time.
500 Good player (played 50 times): Good player who does NOT practice. Can shoot the ball and block some shots.
700 Beats all their friends (played 100 times): Actually plays weekly. Learning to have a strong, consistent shot. Not very much controlled passing, just smacks at it on the 5-bar.  Always beats their friends and the guys at work or the dorm.
800 Beats everyone they know (100's of games): Has a good shot and is learning to pass the ball from 5-bar to 3-bar.  Easily wins virtually every time they play at work or a bar/club.  Thinking about going to a tournament at a bar/club and play for money.  We suspect 50% of the people reading this are at this level.  You think your good enough to beat anyone, sorry to tell you this, but you are going to be butchered for a couple years at tournaments.  There are people who will make you look like an 8 year old kid on the table.  Don't get to disappointed, give it some time and learn!!!
900 Competitive Player (Just started playing competitively, under a year): This is the lowest level of "Professional Foosball Tour" players. They do not win very much, if ever, on the 'tour'. You start to see the signs of an "un-raceable" shot or pass. This player would blow away any normal player but the tour vets are just too much.
1000 Tournament Level Player (1-2 years): This is a solid player: Starts to win money and prizes on the tour, lowest level "Pro" players. Has a strong shot, but the accuracy is not so great and the consistency is lacking. This player will have at least one "un-raceable" shot and maybe one pass.  Needs more practice.
1200 Solid tour players (3 years): This person can go to a local tournament and place in the top 5 or so. This person has a good shot, a good pass and very good defense (the key is their solid defense). A 500 point person (your average good player) would be destroyed by this person. An average player (200 points) would be lucky to score on this person more then 1 time a game. Accuracy is there, consistency may need some work. "Un-raceable" in many areas, you will start to witness shots and passes which are "Un-seeable", you just can't see them and you have to say what just happened.  An average player would not understand how good this person is because the game would be so controlled and so quick it starts to look 'easy' to an observer.
1500 Very good tour player (5 years): Places in top 10% in all events they play in. Can compete with all but the best players in the world. This person shoots and passes at a 95% range on lower players. We are now at Accuracy and Consistency, always. This player hits the spot they are shooting at, every time. Now surely you will witness shots that you do not "see". This person is going to do stuff that seems unbelievable, but they will do it over and over again.  The 800 point player (likely you) is going to be smushed.  But this person is far from the best in the world.
1800 Best 'normal' human player (10 years): Top of the game. This is the best the average person can get. If you do not have a 'knack' for the game, you will never get any better then this. You could practice 12 hours a day for 10 years and unless you are quick like a cat and smart like a fox, this is the best you can be. Everything they do is "un-stoppable" and mostly "un-seeable" to an average player. You will have fun playing this person, if you have a good sense of humor, because it is going to be funny how badly you lose. If you score on this person, celebrate like you just won the super bowl, it will happen that rarely. If it takes them more then 3 minutes to beat you, that also would be a miracle. Don't be surprised if they only shoot trick shots, their normal tournament shots would be silly easy.
2000 Fantastic player, top 1000 in the world (playing whole life): This person is a foosball machine. Can do any shot and any pass at any time and blocks everything you try to do. This player will play at such a level they will beat anyone and everyone who walks up.  These players catch any ball bouncing around the table, they block most every shot and the shoot like lightning. If you are so drunk as to play a player at this level for money, I hope you have a good job to earn the money back because you are going to LOSE EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!
Above 2000 Foosball players from mount Olympus (Playing before time started): This is where the players who win $1,000's of dollars are rated. These people are just ridicules. No matter how drunk you get, you will never think you could beat a person of this skill level. These people could beat you with 1 arm and an elbow, I actually mean that.

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