what rank to register on igs

[otenki]

Hey guys,
I want to create an account on igs but wonder at what rank should I register on IGS ? I'm about 5k on kgs and tygem also (but it depends).

Cheers,
Otenki

[karaklis]

Last time I played I was around 5k on KGS and 12k on IGS. I guess, it wouldn't be wrong for you to register as 10k.

[otenki]

Wow 5 kyu difference with kgs, thats huge. Ok i'll try to register as a 10 kyu and see what happens.

Thanks,
Otenki

[wineandgolover]

Wow 5 kyu difference with kgs, thats huge. Ok i'll try to register as a 10 kyu and see what happens.

Thanks,
Otenki

i would be shocked if a five stone rank difference was typical.

[bgrieco]

It's not an entirely wrong guess. I would say IGS has a 4 kyu difference, by my own experience.

[karaklis]

i would be shocked if a five stone rank difference was typical.

At least in the mid-SDK ranks this seems typical. The list is already three years old, but it seems the rank differences between the servers haven't shifted very much.

[Actorios]

I'm 2k KGS and 6k IGS so I'm not shocked by the 5 stones difference raised by karaklis.
9-10k IGS should be about right.

[shapenaji]

These rank differences seem odd... I don't think they transition to the dan ranks... either that, or IGS has completely changed their rating system in the last 4 years... which seems unlikely.

I didn't notice a difference of more than 1 or 2 stones.

[shapenaji]

As an addendum,

Most of the time, when I hear about rank differences between servers at the kyu ranks, my impression is that it is an indication of the number of sandbaggers, not of a systemic difference.

[PaperTiger]

As an addendum,

Most of the time, when I hear about rank differences between servers at the kyu ranks, my impression is that it is an indication of the number of sandbaggers, not of a systemic difference.

My impression is the opposite, that the actual occurrence of sandbaggers is vastly overrated. I don't see why sandbaggers would be more common at IGS than KGS, or vice versa. On the other hand, IGS has had a reputation in the past for having a chaotic rating system in the kyu ranks. I haven't paid attention to IGS for several years, though, so this may be out of date.

[skydyr]

As an addendum,

Most of the time, when I hear about rank differences between servers at the kyu ranks, my impression is that it is an indication of the number of sandbaggers, not of a systemic difference.

My impression is the opposite, that the actual occurrence of sandbaggers is vastly overrated. I don't see why sandbaggers would be more common at IGS than KGS, or vice versa. On the other hand, IGS has had a reputation in the past for having a chaotic rating system in the kyu ranks. I haven't paid attention to IGS for several years, though, so this may be out of date.

My impression is that it may have more to do with the rank the servers treat as the lowest possible one. Any rank that is chosen will lead to a lot of instability in its vicinity, since users are improving more quickly and there is a broad range of skill being compressed into the one worst rank. A 29k, for example, may be able to beat some 30k/unranked players but not others, because some are stronger than others. Depending on who they play, they may be stronger or weaker by a few stones to hold that rank. By the time this evens out, all the users have jumped 10 or 20 ranks because they are relatively fast ones to advance through. In addition, if you lower the number of ranks, it would seem like a stable system would have to increase the average skill distance between each rank, leading to mismatches between the "same" rank.

The impression I get on kgs, also, is that a lot of beginners tend to form beginner cliques, for lack of a better word, and frequently play each other, whether because they know each other or because they are in the beginner's room or some other reason. This could lead to the particular clique getting stronger against other players, but not within the group itself, if everyone advances at a similar rate, and depending on the frequency of in vs. out play, could locally skew the ranking system.

Finally, regarding sandbagging, I think that until a point, it is easy for a player to be caught by an unfamiliar style or technique they don't know how to deal with and be torn to pieces because of fundamental weaknesses in their play, even though similarly damaging weaknesses exist in their opponent's play. This, combined with the above, can easily lead to the impression of sandbagging for the losing player. My impression is that most claims of sandbagging tend to happen in the DDK ranks, where fundamentals and accurate positional analysis are the least developed, and games are more prone to being blowouts in one direction or the other.