Who is Daniel M. Oravet, the #1 ranked Eternal player?

[jazzykat]

Is this guy on the site? How the hell did he get his rating that high with only 41 events (He literally almost never could lose!)?

[Adan]

I remember that in the past, the player with the highest Eternal Rating was a guy from Guatemala. O.o

I also don't know on which events some players must have played. On page one of the global rankings there are 3 people from Germany. And from those 3 I only have heard of Patrick Richter (also trashtalked him personally at the German Legacy Champs, really cool guy and outstanding player).

I also ask myself why those people don't have a single record on deckcheck.net or morphling.de.

edit: that guy from Guatemala is on 3rd place now. O.o

[Paradigm Shift]

http://webapp.wizards.com/ratings.aspx?action=search_member&personid=1603381&brandid=1

I've played against this guy personally. He used to go the shop I play at sometimes now. All he did was just play power at a shop that had weekly vintage tourneys where no one else had any power. He simply never lost 3-4 round tourneys every week for years. He is now into newer formats as well, and T8'd States this year in Maine.

[oravetdaniel]

Just randomly came upon this post so thought I should comment since its abou:frown:t me. As far as the shift guy goes I have never played with him but he had the basic idea.

[Royal Ass.]

Back in the day it was very easy to get a really high eternal rating if you had a fully powered deck and played in a scrubby meta.

[wcm8]

No offense intended to you personally, but this kinda points out why the DCI rating system is broken/meaningless, at least for eternal formats.

[kiblast]

Just randomly came upon this post so thought I should comment since its abou:frown:t me. As far as the shift guy goes I have never played with him but he had the basic idea.

Cool story bro

[evanmartyr]

Kinda weird that you get points based on record, but with no relevance to WHO you won or lost to. Given how important rating is for some things (nationals comes to mind, right? I think?) you'd think WotC would have switched to a system more similar to the WoW arena rankings, where your rating goes up or down a certain amount based on the rating of those you beat.

Unless that is true, and these guys spent years garnering a point or two a week at local tourneys playing against peoples' Fires of Yavimaya and Squadron Hawks with Lotus and Recall...in which case, shouldn't there be a point in the ratings gap where you earn no points for a win?

[Tacosnape]

I know him. He got his points in Legacy and Legacy alone, and started playing when the format was brand new. He spent over a year bribing everyone he could find for wins. Just so he could have that rating. Whenever anyone beat him, he'd give them something, and he'd get the win. I reported it, and nothing got done.

As the #3 ranked Eternal player (I have no idea who the #2 guy is nor do I know anything about him), I've been trying to catch him the honest way forever, but it's pretty much impossible. I get between 0-2 points for a win and lose between 15 and 30 for a loss. And I need about 70 more straight wins to beat him. And it's never going to happen, because my metagame is miles from scrubby anymore.

I do have a 7-5 record against him, though. And it's worth noting he actually was very good.

It got where after awhile he would drop from tournaments if I showed up, and the last time I played him (And beat him, 2-0) he offered to let me punch him in the face if I'd give him the win. I declined. The loss hurt him more.

Also, I've heard plenty of cheating rumors about him, but I don't know that these are actually true. I suspect they're just rumors and most of the points he got was off bribery.

He's kind of like old NWO Hollywood Hogan. He'd do everything in the world underhanded to keep his title. Then, at the pay per view, when someone trapped him, he'd just win anyway.

[trivial_matters]

Damn, that's awesome. As in really interesting.

And congrats for being 3rd. That is quite a feat.

[Cthuloo]

Kinda weird that you get points based on record, but with no relevance to WHO you won or lost to. Given how important rating is for some things (nationals comes to mind, right? I think?) you'd think WotC would have switched to a system more similar to the WoW arena rankings, where your rating goes up or down a certain amount based on the rating of those you beat.

Unless that is true, and these guys spent years garnering a point or two a week at local tourneys playing against peoples' Fires of Yavimaya and Squadron Hawks with Lotus and Recall...in which case, shouldn't there be a point in the ratings gap where you earn no points for a win?

It's already like this. The DCI uses the ELO system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating).

[Tacosnape]

From the Wiki entry,


In general the Elo system has increased the competitive climate for chess and inspired players for further study and improvement of their game.[citation needed] However, in some cases ratings can discourage game activity for players who wish to "protect their rating".

Examples:

1. They may choose their events or opponents more carefully where possible.
2. If a player is in a Swiss tournament, and loses a couple of games in a row, they may feel the need to abandon the tournament in order to avoid any further rating "damage".
3. Junior players, who may have high provisional ratings, might play less than they would, because of rating concerns.

In these examples, the rating "agenda" can sometimes conflict with the agenda of promoting chess activity and rated games.

It's the inherent flaw based on this sort of thing. Daniel never ever ever plays unless he knows he's going to win. Whereas I'll do what I did two weeks ago and take a deck I'd only been playing a week into a local tournament and lose 20+ points by not being able to beat one of my best friends playing Cephalid Breakfast.

In reality, a lot of top players who aren't real big names in the magic community end up making second identities to play without having to worry about their rating. I'm unfortunately too lazy to do this, though entering a tournament as my alter ego Carlos Nicepackage would be funny.

[4eak]

Lol. This thread is sad and funny.


peace,
4eak

[Richard Cheese]

Some say...

That he never plays a match he can't win, that if you beat him, he'll let you punch him in the face for a concession, and that he once had full sex with Russell Brand's answering machine...all we know is, he's called Daniel Oravet!

http://static.blogo.it/autoblog/TheStig_01.jpg

[chags]

Some say...

That he never plays a match he can't win, that if you beat him, he'll let you punch him in the face for a concession, and that he once had full sex with Russell Brand's answering machine...all we know is, he's called Daniel Oravet!

http://static.blogo.it/autoblog/TheStig_01.jpg

Excellent

[dontbiteitholmes]

Who cares. I mean he gets satisfaction from being the #1 ranked player in Eternal but the first thing I thought when I saw that was he probably cheated the ratings system. I mean you get more props for winning an SCG event than being the #1 ranked Eternal player in the world and no one has ever heard of you, which obviously means you are not the actual #1 player in the world just some bum hunter who cares about rating way too much.

On a related note that dude Eli who owns Jupiter is the #2 ranked Limited player in the world and apparently he earned most of those points on the Pro Tour, so that's pretty impressive.

[Tacosnape]

Who cares. I mean he gets satisfaction from being the #1 ranked player in Eternal but the first thing I thought when I saw that was he probably cheated the ratings system. I mean you get more props for winning an SCG event than being the #1 ranked Eternal player in the world and no one has ever heard of you, which obviously means you are not the actual #1 player in the world just some bum hunter who cares about rating way too much.

Agreed. I think I'm pretty good, but I definitely wouldn't put myself in the top 50 of any actual ranking of the best players in Legacy. I think my Total rating's even more inflated (15th world), where I wouldn't even presume to put myself in the top 500.

Also, I'd rather play Commander most of the time anyway. I'm turning into a scrub in my old age.

[thecrav]

Also, I'd rather play Commander most of the time anyway. I'm turning into a scrub in my old age.
If you need someone to lose a bunch of rating points to, I volunteer.

[TheAardvark]

Also, I'd rather play Commander most of the time anyway. I'm turning into a scrub in my old age.

This. I have quit playing everything but EDH.

Regarding what you said earlier about taking a fairly untested deck to an event and losing points, I was in the same boat a few years ago. I hit a rating in Constructed where I could have just coasted and Qed for multiple PTs just on rating, but I preferred to actually, you know, play the fucking game. I remember losing 40ish points to one guy because I lost to him in Swiss and the finals, and it was his worst matchup. These things happen. I enjoyed playing too much to not play in events to protect my rating.

[keys]

I have quit playing everything but EDH.

This is your brain on EDH:

http://www.totaltalknonsense.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/brainOnDrugs.jpg

[Tacosnape]

My brain looks fucking delicious.

[swoop]

there used to be time where all "peasant" "allcommons" and such casual tournaments were registered as eternal/t1...

hence such a high rating on many of European/south European players..

[android]

Right around the time I actually discovered how to play magic (following a 4-5 year hiatus), I met some competitive players on the state level. I think it was 1999-2000 around about. I learned of a group of players that would go to Friday and Saturday events where only a couple people would show up. The shop owners were lazy but somehow were sanctioned to run events for which they needed some minimum number of players to remain so. One player in particular (who is actually not bad because all he does is play MTGO and crack boxes to draft), would build up his points by winning events with a dozen DCI entries but only 2-3 actual players. The shop owners would throw their own DCI #s in along with whoever else's numbers were there out of the group and fabricate the results. All of these guys would get massive player reward packages and whoever arranged to have their DCI points padded would profit. It's really sick to know that this one individual in particular still shows up to prereleases and I think actually won States and some other bigger events a couple times. He's a better Magic player than me, but he's still shit in my eyes.

[TheAardvark]

This is your brain on EDH:

http://www.totaltalknonsense.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/brainOnDrugs.jpg

I prefer scrambled.

[SpikeyMikey]

Right around the time I actually discovered how to play magic (following a 4-5 year hiatus), I met some competitive players on the state level. I think it was 1999-2000 around about. I learned of a group of players that would go to Friday and Saturday events where only a couple people would show up. The shop owners were lazy but somehow were sanctioned to run events for which they needed some minimum number of players to remain so. One player in particular (who is actually not bad because all he does is play MTGO and crack boxes to draft), would build up his points by winning events with a dozen DCI entries but only 2-3 actual players. The shop owners would throw their own DCI #s in along with whoever else's numbers were there out of the group and fabricate the results. All of these guys would get massive player reward packages and whoever arranged to have their DCI points padded would profit. It's really sick to know that this one individual in particular still shows up to prereleases and I think actually won States and some other bigger events a couple times. He's a better Magic player than me, but he's still shit in my eyes.

Around that same time I worked and worked to build my Eternal rating. I made it to mid-high 1700's which sounds like shit but was incredibly fucking difficult doing nothing but 8k tournies. I'd go 4-0 at a tournament and make like 8-10 points. 3-1 was a wash, best case scenario. Have a bad day and go 1-3? Enjoy having to win your next 12 straight matches to make it up.

The funny thing is? It's way more difficult for these nameless grinders to get the high ratings. The pros who have high eternal ratings have them because they did well in one or two 32k/64k events. Going 8-0 at a 32k is going to net you a ~120 point bump. So the top 2 ranked Eternal players here in Madison are Bob Maher and Brian Kowal. Not to take anything away from either of them, because they're both fantastic players, but neither one is exactly a Legacy guru.

[Tacosnape]

The funny thing is? It's way more difficult for these nameless grinders to get the high ratings. The pros who have high eternal ratings have them because they did well in one or two 32k/64k events. Going 8-0 at a 32k is going to net you a ~120 point bump. So the top 2 ranked Eternal players here in Madison are Bob Maher and Brian Kowal. Not to take anything away from either of them, because they're both fantastic players, but neither one is exactly a Legacy guru.

This is somewhat true. I've only attended two StarCity events. I went 4-3 in the first one due to underpreparing for green and making a couple of the worst sleep-deprived plays in my entire life and took an absolutely bonkers rating hit of 61 points. The second one I rage skipped after barely losing to Drew Levin in round three of a side event and then taking a horrible beat in round four to Dredge, involving discarding one GGT after a Nihil Spellbomb, dredging into three Narcomoebas, Dread Return, Cabal Therapy, and River Kelpie, and winning the same turn while I had another Nihil Spellbomb in my hand. This side event, even with the loss to a quality player like Drew, cost me 22 points. Rage skipping the main event turned out to be an amazing choice though, as I discovered my favorite restaurant in the universe as a result. Next time you're in Memphis, go to Kooky Canuck's.

However, I digress. The point is that the bigger tournaments can make or break you very quickly. I can't imagine how fast the 32k/64k events would do it. If I ever wanted to sneak into #1, I'd probably need to go win a high end tournament, which more than likely won't ever happen.

[pw709]

The highest K value is actually 48, which is used solely for PTs.

And it's interesting how someone can be 15th in the world in Total rating while having played in a whopping 13 non-Eternal events. You must have had a really big finish recently, otherwise I totally do not get Total rating. XD

[dontbiteitholmes]

The funny thing is? It's way more difficult for these nameless grinders to get the high ratings. The pros who have high eternal ratings have them because they did well in one or two 32k/64k events. Going 8-0 at a 32k is going to net you a ~120 point bump. So the top 2 ranked Eternal players here in Madison are Bob Maher and Brian Kowal. Not to take anything away from either of them, because they're both fantastic players, but neither one is exactly a Legacy guru.

A 120 point bump from baseline is still only 1720ish though. It's much easier for the bum hunters because they only play against people who they have an incredibly high chance of winning against. I'm familiar with the type, one guy used to show up at some local shop back in the day and "win" FNM every week until two of my friends went up there and beat him a couple times then he was never seen again. I mean this guy was shameless, when he lost he pretty much would just shamelessly offer them a bribe to take the loss or draw. Him and the TO were buddies so he would turn a blind eye and we always suspected he would continually repair DCI reporter until that guy got a matchup vs some complete noob. I mean every one of the players at this shop was basically a casual player (When my friend started going up it was in the middle of Mirrodin and he was the only guy playing Affinity out of almost 20 people) and they pretty much had an understanding that if you lost to this guy he would give you a card better than the FNM promo and you would take the loss. It was just the way the tournament went, they didn't even play to win they were all playing hoping to beat this one guy so they could get the honor of beating the one guy who owned the whole store for free and get a sick bribe. Of course since these kids were super casual no one cared about their DCI rating except him. Dude was #3 or #4 in Virginia for a long time in Constructed. Once my 2 friends started going they would just draw to each other and one of them made it on the front page of Constructed in the state and aside from a handful of Extended events he basically only played at that store every Friday for years on end. They completely ran train on those kids though, I mean unless they played in the first round of top 8 they split top 2 every week.

[cdr]

Him and the TO were buddies so he would turn a blind eye and we always suspected he would continually repair DCI reporter until that guy got a matchup vs some complete noob.

Can't comment on the rest of it, but this doesn't actually work to my recollection. DCIR pairs "randomly" but determinately - you'll get the same pairings if you re-pair, unless something (like a match result, drop, etc) changed before the re-pairing.

[Tacosnape]

You can just manual pair, though. And if he was buddies with the TO, it wouldn't be unfeasible for him to get the match of his choice each round.