Four Tiers of Skill

[HotelFSR]

Having played online pretty extensively at this point, I get the impression that there are roughly four tiers of players in terms of skill, from lowest to highest.

Segregated sites like Tenhou have probably acknowledged something similar, because their four lobby levels correspond to the four-tier model pretty nicely (Normal, Dan Level, 1800+ Upper Dan Level, 2000+ Expert Level).



So, here goes:


At the bottom tier, you have the players who still have not mastered the basics of the game. They often make mistakes regarding the hierarchy of different elements and waits, discard good tiles, and regularly make bad calls in terms of attacking and defending or calling reach. They are probably not even aware of most of their mistakes.

This tends to roughly correspond to online ratings of 1200-1300, maybe getting into 1400 for those starting to move beyond this stage. They tend to be losing a lot of \'money\', and would be sitting ducks in parlor games.


Next we have the third tier. These players have started to push the 1500 rating barrier. They are beginning to master the fundamentals of the game and are tightening up. They are still making a fair number of mistakes and bad calls, but are generally not all that shabby. They are losing a little bit of money, the better ones may be starting to break even. They are starting to think in terms of scores and risk versus reward scenarios, but are still working a lot on self-control.


Above this comes the second tier. These players are perhaps in the 1700-1800+ rating range. They have finally mastered the fundamentals and play a pretty tight overall game. Occasional flashes of brilliance with few mistakes, they are looking at the board a lot more and starting to read hands here and there. They are finally getting tighter on self-control and have coupled this with intricate understanding of waits and advanced reasoning. These players are making good money and can reliably beat up on lower tier opposition.


Finally we have the first tier: the top tier, the true experts. Their ratings are over 2000. These are the players who have that extra edge over second tier players, taking their game to the next level. They can make a steady profit even over the fiercest opposition, and are reading hands and waits such that they can make bolder moves to win more hands and wrong-foot their opponents. Bluffing and deception in calls and discards starts to come into the picture more, as well as observing player psychology in live games. Against each other, first tier players are engaged in a complex battle of deception, risk taking and strategy, in order to get that edge over one another. At this level it is really starting to become a different game altogether, with endless countermeasures.



I\'d love to know more about what it takes to get into that top tier. There seem to be a handful of us gaijin players who are now solid second tier players, but I don\'t think any of us (Garthe being the probable exception!) who have started to really transition over into that 2000-2200+ elite rating zone). Those of us who do not know enough Japanese need more information in English with which to educate ourselves!


Any thoughts, my fellow Reachers?




P.S. On this page you can see a rating distribution chart for the whole of Ron2:

http://www.ron2.jp/ranking_gamerating.html

As you can see, 1400 is about the average and 1500 is above average (which happens to correspond roughly to the skill required to break even). The \'second tier\' players make up the top 10% or so, and the hardcore experts form the top 1%. Bear in mind that I\'m assuming the rating systems on Ron2, Tenhou and Toupaiou are all pretty much comparable! Do correct me if that\'s not the case.