Overview
Any competitor who makes it to the Regional Finals or the Global Finals receives Ranking Points. These are based first on the proportion of judges' points received, then the proportion of viewer points received.

Points earned from previous years are carried over, but become lower in value. This rewards performers who regularly do well at the Games, while preventing competitors who have ranked well on only one occasion from remaining in the Rankings forever.

These Rankings only show the Top 100 in any category. Those outside of the Top 100 can see their Ranking on the WMG Member Portal.

If you have a low ranking on the board, you're still one of the top-ranked actors in the world! If you think you are a better actor than someone on the Rankings then you'd better sign up and show them how it's done!

GENERAL Q&A
Q. Why have Rankings?
To recognise performers who've done well at World Monologue Games, especially over time.

WMG Rankings reward a combination of performance (how well you did in the judges' and viewers' votes), currency (how recently you've made your achievement) and consistency (how well you've ranked over the last few years).

Q. How do you calculate the Rankings?
A. It's complicated! These Rankings take into consideration whether or not you reached the Regionals or Globals, the % of judges points you obtained, the % of viewer votes you obtained, the number of performers in your show VS the number of performers in other shows in your category (for the Regionals), and how well you've ranked over the previous two years. Essentially:

• we use the judges' and viewers' votes to rank all of the competitors in order for each year, from first to last;
• we then allocate a certain number of points to each performer based on their position. E.g. 1st place gets more points than 2nd place;
  
• two thirds of the points competitors earned from the previous year are included in their total score, along with one quarter of the points they earned from the year before;
• if a competitor is participating for the first time, they're being ranked against hundreds of performers who are already on the leaderboard.

Q. Is the Main Amateur category ranked differently to other categories?
A. Yes! The Main Amateur category only includes the current year's performers.

If you make the Main Amateur Globals, you can only enter the Main Professional category in future. Therefore, whoever makes it to the Global Finals in the Main Amateur category in Year 1 will always be in the Main Professional category in Year 2. It doesn't make sense to keep previous years' performers in the Rankings for Main Amateur.

Q. What happens when a performer progresses to a new category?
A. If a performer moves from Tigers > Youth, Youth > Adult or Main Amateur > Main Professional, they do NOT carry any of their points with them. These are new, tougher categories and performers have to battle their way up again.

A performer's Ranking in their previous category will not be automatically removed. If a Youth performer becomes an adult, their Youth Ranking will reduce over the next 3 years just like someone who stops participating in the event. While this might seem a bit strange, there's two good reasons we do this: 1) it's not fair that a performer who turns 18 gets penalised while a performer who's only 15 gets to stay in the Rankings even though neither of them participated, and 2) we don't know performers' exact ages, so we don't always know when a performer is no longer eligible to be in their current category. We don't want to take some performers out of the Rankings because they turn 18 when others stay in the Rankings at 18 because we don't know their age or birthday.

Q. What did you consider when developing the Rankings?
A. We looked at a wide range of variables and scenarios. Certain considerations seemed like great ideas, but turned out to be genuinely terrible ideas when we crunched the numbers on them! We looked at over 100 specific cases when we first developed the Rankings system and modelled a number of potential future scenarios (e.g. "what would happen if John Smith came 5th next year then 40th the year after?"). We continued to refine the calculations until we landed on something which was fair and reasonable for the most scenarios. Our core team happen to be made up of two data analysts!

Q. This page shows the overall Rankings. Do you release the Rankings specific to each year?
A. No. Only the overall Rankings. However, you can see what the overall Rankings were for each of our previous seasons on the History page.

PERFORMER Q&A
Q. I'm one of the performers. Will you tell me what position I came in the Globals/Regionals?
A. No. Sorry. We have chosen not to disclose this information. From having run competitive creative events for more than a decade, our Founder has learned that full disclosure of judging data often leads to bitchiness and less community spirit. We already provide a lot of information, with Rankings and winner announcements, but keep it at that.

Q. What if I ask nicely?
A. I appreciate your manners, but the answer will always be no.

Q. How come I was ranked well last year and I'm not ranked so well this year even though I made the Regionals/Globals?
A. Although you made the Regionals/Globals, there were scores of very talented performers in the event and they've done better with the judges/viewers than you have this year.

Q. X performer and I both made the Regionals/Globals and X's rank went up while mine went down. What's going on?
A. There are scenarios where two performers who had similar ranks last year and reached the same stage of the event this year had their rankings change in different directions. For example, both were ranked well last year, both made the Regionals this year, one went up and one went down. This is quite simply because X performer did better with the judges/viewers this year. Two performers in the Regionals could still have Ranked 40 spaces apart this year, e.g. one came 22nd and the other came 62nd.

Q. I didn't rank as well as I thought I would. How can I improve my ranking?
A. The two things you can do to rank higher are A) reach the Regionals or Globals, and B) do so over several consecutive years. The Rankings look at your last three years at the Games, with most of your points coming from the most recent season.

Q. I'm not even ranked. What's going on?
A. We include up to 100 people in each category, and we have two years of performers to consider. Not everyone is in the top 100 for their category. If you participated and made the Regionals in the last three years, you can see your current Ranking on your Member Portal.

Remember:

• WMG Rankings reflect how well you've done at WMG according to our judges and viewers. It still comes down to a fair degree of subjectivity at the end of the day
• A LOT of people submit to WMG. Anywhere in the Top 100 is an achievement! These Rankings only include people who have made the Regionals and Globals
• We have another recognition program: the WMG Achievement Badges.