About Melee Tennis Rankings (MTR)
What is Melee Tennis Rankings?
A results-based Melee ranking system by LAKEssbm, adapting Tennis' ATP point system to Melee. The only source of bias is tournament tier assignment (Super Major, Major, Regional, etc.). Most majors and super majors are straightforward — Liquipedia assigns tiers to most of them. I assign tiers myself only when Liquipedia doesn't have one, mostly for lower-level tournaments.
How does it differ from Tennis ATP?
Tennis uses single elimination while Melee uses double elimination, which creates more placement tiers. See the table below for how the point system is adapted:
| Placement Tier | Tennis – Single Elim | Tennis ATP Grand Slam Pts | Melee – Double Elim | MTR Super Major Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Winner – Finals | 2000 | Winner – Grand Finals | 2000 |
| 2nd | 2nd – Finals | 1200 | 2nd – Grand Finals | 1200 |
| 3rd | 3rd–4th Losers of Semi Finals | 720 | 3rd – Loser of Losers Finals | 720 |
| 4th | 5th–8th Loser Quarterfinals | 360 | 4th – Loser of Losers Bracket Semifinals | 360 |
| 5th | 9th–16th Losers of Round of 16 | 180 | 5th–6th Losers of Losers Bracket Quarters | 180 |
| 6th | 17th–32nd Losers of Round of 32 | 90 | 7th–8th Losers of Top 8 Round 1 Losers | 90 |
What about head to heads — don't they matter?
Head to heads are interesting, but my system is based on points. There are many different ways to do rankings and mine is just one.
Why only top 8?
Due to the rough half-life of point allocation as placements go down, it wouldn't make much difference in the standings if say 9th–12th were included.
How do you assign the tier?
I'm open to top players determining the tiers, but for now I do it. The factors I look at for assigning a tournament's tier are:
- Prize money — how much was on the line. There is more pressure with more money, more at stake. If there is no prize pool it is marked as unranked.
- Number of players — long, grueling tournaments should be worth more points.
- Top players in attendance — there has to be a good number of top players present for it to be worth a lot of points.
- Frequency — weeklies are capped at Challenger50 and monthlies at Challenger100. This prevents top players from farming locals for points and keeps bigger tournaments more valuable.
What is Challenger50?
Challenger50 is the lowest ranked tournament tier. The name comes from the ATP Challenger tour in tennis. Weeklies are capped here, monthlies at Challenger100. See the ATP Rankings Wiki for the full tier naming reference.
When is it updated?
Usually right after a Major or Super Major — often within minutes of the tournament ending. Smaller tournaments may have a short delay but will be added eventually.
How accurate is it?
MTR is an experiment, but it seems fairly accurate up to around top 50–60. Beyond that, tournament data gets sparse. Would love to work with the community to get more local data in!
Are you open to feedback?
Yes! If the community adopts this tool I'm open to suggestions and would love to collaborate. Reach me on Bluesky @meleetennisrank.bsky, Twitter @lakessbm, or at meleetennisrankings@gmail.com.
Special Thanks
A big thanks to Mew2King for checking out the site and suggesting the first half / second half feature — much appreciated!