How do the rankings work?

How do I take part?

Taking part in the league is easy, if you play in a GBHL event you will be entered into the rankings for that year. Simple!

What's a GBHL number?

Once in the rankings, you will be assigned a unique GBHL number. This is to help identify you in the rankings to make it easier to tell you about from others with similar names. This number will remain the same for every season of the league.

An event organiser may ask you for your GBHL number. If you don't know yours, no problem. You can find it by your name in the ranking document here.

GBHL 100, 90 or 80, what's the difference?

There are 3 categories of events you can attend, GBHL100, GBHL90 and GBHL80. The main difference between the 3 are simply the maximum amount of ranking points up for grabs.

GBHL 100 events are some of the most prestigious events on the calendar and have the maximum 100 ranking points on offer. This means that these event tend to attract the most competitive players and lists. But often these events will also have many players not looking to win and have formats designed to ensure you will play games against people of the same mindset.

GBHL90 events are events designed for a smaller (perhaps more local) competive event. Similar to GBHL100s there will still be a variety of gamers attending, but these events are for areas with a well established local scene. Winners will take home 90pts for the league.

GBHL 80 events have a maximum of 80 rankings points on offer. This means that it is the perfect place for unique and themed events, or smaller local tournaments to hone your skills and learn a few new tricks.

How are rankings points calculated?

Depending on which type of event you attend changes how your ranking points are calculated.

GBHL events award 100 ranking points of 1st place. For all other players your score will be calculated using this formula: 100 MINUS (Your Position in the Tournament - 1) X (100/ Number of Players)

EG: Second Place at a GBHL100 with 100 players would score: 100 - (2-1) X (100/1) = 99pts.

GBHL90 - First place gains 90pts. All other players will gain: 90 MINUS (Your Position in the Tournament minus1) X (90/ Number of Players).

GBHL80. First place gains 80pts. All other players will gain: 80 MINUS (Your Position in the Tournament - 1) X (90/ Number of Players).

How do the different leagues work?

Within the GBHL, several separate leagues are designed to accomodate all aspects of the hobby and make it accesible to everyone. These work in slightly different ways, but are always awarded at the GBHL Finale (the final event of each GBHL Season):

National league

The national league is a competition where any ranking points from GBHL events can count. Any attendee to an event in the year will be automatically entered into the national league. A competitors best 4 scores across the season will count towards their final position. In the event of a tie, the number of GBHL 100 victories is the first tiebreaker. If competitors are still tied, their 5th best score will be used; this will continue until they are no longer tied anymore.

GBHL Teams

The GBHL Teams league was introduced in 2023 to encourage Fellowships of nine players to see which gathering of players scores the highest as a collection of players. The winning team is the one with the highest ten scores in the GBHL's national league but each player can only contribute a maximum of 2 scores.

Regional leagues

There are currently 5 separate regional leagues; South East, South West, Central England & Wales, Northern England; Scotland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Each GBHL event will come under one of these regions, which region is noted on the GBHL calendar.

You may only compete in 1 regional league a year. If you are new to the league, this is assumed to be the region of your first event. If you wish to change your region, leave a comment on the pinned post on our partner 'the Great British Hobbit League' Facebook page here.

Final standings for each regional league will take a competitor's 3 best results in GBHL events held in that region only. In the event of a tie, the number of GBHL 100 victories is the first tiebreaker. If competitors are still tied, their 4th best score will be used; this will continue until they are no longer tied anymore.

Artisan of Middle earth

Although most of the rules reflect the gaming aspect of MESBG, the league also rewards those who've gone above and beyond in terms of the hobbying side of the game. As such, every year the Rankings Officer keeps track of those artists who've claimed Best Army/Best Painting awards at events. The league then issues Artisan of Middle Earth to the person who has won the most, and a Runner Up prize to the the hobbyist with the second most wins.

Best Newcomer

Although many players have seen "too many winters", every year the league grows and welcomes new players of all ages. To honour those who've just joined us, we have a prize for Best Newcomer. The winner will be the player who has the best Three scores in their first league season. And because we acknowledge some may stumble in towards the end of the season, you can have a second chance at being Best Newcomer, if you attended fewer than 3 events in your first season.

Friend of Middle earth

The Friend of Middle earth award goes to the winner of the most sportsmanship awards across all GBHL events. Each event will only award 1 person towards this, except for doubles events.

If you have any further questions on how the rankings or league works, or think there is an error? Head on over to the Great British Hobbit League Facebook page and leave a comment on the pinned post and one of the committee can get back to you. - GBHL Management committee