In 2001, Redemption revamped it’s tournament structure. With that revamp came the implementation of the Redemption National Ranking System (RNRS). The goal of the RNRS system was to recognize and reward players that performed well at tournaments throughout the year. In the system, players receive points each time they place in a tournament. The higher the placement and tournament level, the more points a player receives. The RNRS system is category specific, so players have a separate accumulation of points for each category they play in. Each year after Nationals, the players with the most RNRS points in each category are recognized and receive prizes. RNRS points are then reset for the following year.

In 2006, I decided I wanted to use the RNRS numbers to recognize players that had performed well in multiple categories over multiple years. I collated all of the RNRS lists from each year into a single spreadsheet and created formulas to allow analysis in a variety of ways. Over the years I have expanded the number of formulas in the spreadsheet, so those like myself who enjoy playing with numbers now have a myriad of directions they can run with the data. The most common (and easiest) use of the spreadsheet is to see the ranking of the total number of RNRS points won by each player across all of the categories in every year since 2001.

Each year when I release my RNRS spreadsheet, I like to share a little bit of the analysis I did after finishing the update. One of the drawbacks of my spreadsheet is that players who have been playing (and winning) for a long time can have a huge head start on newer players. Players that started playing in the last five years have no chance of showing up in the top ten on the overall list regardless of how well they performed. So this year I want to focus on RNRS points accumulated in the last five years. Let’s start by looking at the top 5 players in each category:

Type 1 2-Player

Josiah Beers – 192
Jonathan Greeson – 187
Josh Knitt – 180
John Earley – 176
Martin Miller – 176

Type 1 Multi

Tim Maly – 250.5
David Carlson – 155.5
Brian Jones – 152
Chris Ericson – 150.5
Josiah Beers – 146

Teams

Martin Miller – 320
John Michaliszyn – 315
Nathan Voigt – 298
John Earley – 261
Mark Underwood – 235

Type 2 2-Player

Jordan Alstad – 383
John Michaliszyn – 271
Dayne Maust – 267
Justin Alstad – 261
Kurt Hake – 224

Type 2 Multi

Dayne Maust – 254.3
Jordan Alstad – 245.3
Justin Alstad – 241.3
Jayden Alstad – 218.3
John Michaliszyn – 214

Sealed Deck

Noel Mendoza – 174.5
Justin Alstad – 124
Ian Kratzer – 121
Chris Fachman – 104
Bill Voigt – 103

Booster Draft

Jordan Alstad – 209.5
Josh Knitt – 159
Bill Voigt – 133.1
Gabe Isbell – 126.5
Patrick Chaverri – 121

The first thing I notice about those lists is that three of the players leading those lists have a zero point year included (Josiah’s 2011, Dayne’s 2011, Tim’s 2015), which supports the idea that a five-year span is long enough to require consistency but short enough not to be dominated by longevity. The consistency argument is furthered when you consider that all five of the leaders in open categories have placed at nationals at least twice and won nationals at least once in the last five years.

The second thing I notice is the disparity between the numbers on the T1-2P list and the T2-2P list. Type 1-2 Player has the lowest totals and the tightest race at the top that the category has ever seen in a five-year span. The numbers suggest it has become very hard to win consistently in T1-2P and/or the field at the top of the category has become very wide open. Type 2-2 Player, on the other hand, has the highest total and the widest gap of any category. Unlike T1-2P, this is the same as how the category looks in most five-year spans. The best players in the category tend to get to a lot of tournaments and win consistently. Perhaps the most confusing thing is how the two types flip in their multiplayer categories. T1-MP has the second largest margin of victory (95 points), behind only T2-2P (112 points), and the difference between first and fifth in T2-MP is only 40.3 points, second only to T1-2P (16 points).

The third thing I look at is names that are on multiple lists. John Michaliszyn, Jordan Alstad, and Justin Alstad each appear on three of the seven top five lists. So it should come as little surprise that they lead the overall list for the last five years.

To give a little historical context, let’s look at T1-2P, T2-2P, and overall totals in three different five-year spans (01-05, 06-10, and 11-15).

Overall 01-05

Chris Bany – 977
Tim Maly – 637
Joseph Pfeister – 606
Sam Nurge – 577
Roy Cannaday – 576.5

Overall 06-10

Gabe Isbell – 1208.5
John Michaliszyn – 1193
Ben Shadrick – 857.5
Jonathan Greeson – 855
Justin Alstad – 851.6

Overall 11-15

John Michaliszyn – 1197
Jordan Alstad – 1165
Justin Alstad – 892.8
Gabe Isbell – 815.5
John Earley – 746.1

T1-2P 01-05

Roy Cannaday – 261.5
Tim Maly – 210
Justin Sangillo – 209
Jesse Pfeister – 159
Joshua Hey – 151

T1-2P 06-10

Tim Maly – 366.5
Gabe Isbell – 301.5
Jonathan Greeson – 238.5
Sam Nurge – 225
Ben Arp – 222

T1-2P 11-15

Josiah Beers – 192
Jonathan Greeson – 187
Josh Knitt – 180
John Earley – 176
Martin Miller – 176

T2-2P 01-05

Chris Bany – 339
Eric Largent – 257
Darcy Abbott – 188
Tim Maly – 186
Justin Alstad – 163

T2-2P 06-10

Kurt Hake – 418
Justin Alstad – 319.5
Gabe Isbell – 288
John Michaliszyn – 257
Tyler Stevens – 251.5

T2-2P 11-15

Jordan Alstad – 383
John Michaliszyn – 271
Dayne Maust – 267
Justin Alstad – 261
Kurt Hake – 224

Looking over these lists it feels like I accidently made a list of the all time greatest redemption players.

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By Tim

Tim has been a Redemption player since 1997 and a member of the online Redemption community, under the pseudonym "Sir Nobody," since 2001. He has always taken an interest in the finer points of the rules. This initially got him into trouble, but over time developed into something of an internship with the "Powers That Be," which enabled him to have a leading role in the first REG overhaul. He has been a judge at nationals since 2007 and an elder since 2010. Tim is also very fond of the history of the game and loves sharing what he knows about it.