Median Placement

The middle value of your finishes rather than the average, so one disastrous game does not drag the number.

middle value of sorted placements

Best at

Measuring someone's typical evening rather than their worst one.

Where it misleads

Produces heavy ties with few matches, and throws away everything the extremes were telling you.

How it works

Median Placement uses the middle value of your finishes rather than the average. It's naturally resistant to outliers -- one terrible game doesn't tank your ranking.

How it works: Sort all your placements and take the middle value. With finishes of [1, 1, 2, 2, 8], the median is 2 (not 2.8 as the average would show).

When to use it: When you want to measure a player's *typical* performance rather than being swayed by extreme results. Great for sessions where someone might have one catastrophically bad game that doesn't represent their true skill.

Watch out for: Can produce many ties, especially with few matches. Also loses information about the extremes that average would capture.

Works well with

Catan Terraforming Mars 7 Wonders

Also in Average & Percentile

Average PlacementA balanced, instantly readable reading when your matches are roughly the same size.Average PercentileMixed field sizes and uneven attendance; the fairest reading in this family, and comparable enough between groups to travel to a global board.Geometric Mean PercentileGroups who believe one catastrophe should count for more than one triumph.Best N of MLong seasons where you want to forgive the occasional disaster and reward a peak.Trimmed MeanA balanced reading that neither a lucky win nor an unlucky collapse can swing.