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Coaster Tournament '17 Finals!

valleyfair!

Hyper Poster
I'll close off the voting with:
3

That means Lightning Rod is the 2017 CF Coaster Tournament Champion!

To view the final results of the entire tournament visit: http://www.bracketmaker.com/tlist.cfm?tid=467876

Big thanks to everyone who participated! I apologize that it was a little clunkier this year, than in the previous few years. With that said, hope everyone still gets enjoyment out of voting for all the matchups!
 

Hixee

Flojector
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Top work again @valleyfair!. This is an excellent poll and always good fun to see coasters getting spited as the rounds progress. :p

Plus, Lightning Rod won this year, which is clearly the correct outcome. ;)
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Is there a way to get the ranking results from 1-20 or something @valleyfair! ?
Thanks for running it as per usual, I love how CF always comes up with good final matchups, almost like we know better than Amusement Today ;)
 

HeartlineCoaster

Theme Park Superhero
Congrats to Lightning Rod.
Thought Taron would run away with it. Glad it didn't.
Was interesting to see how the tournament developed for my first time. It became quite hard for me to vote for something that may be objectively better over something with a personal attachment.
Thanks for organising.
 

valleyfair!

Hyper Poster
Is there a way to get the ranking results from 1-20 or something @valleyfair! ?
Thanks for running it as per usual, I love how CF always comes up with good final matchups, almost like we know better than Amusement Today ;)
I went through and put through what would be considered the "Top 25" for this year. Coasters that lost in the same round I give the first tiebreaker to the coaster that lost by a smaller vote differential, and the second tiebreaker to the coaster who lost to a coaster that advanced further in the tournament.

1. Lightning Rod
2. Skyrush
3. Helix
4. Wildfire
5. Taron
6. Storm Chaser
7. Outlaw Run
8. Wicked Cyclone
9. Boulder Dash
10. Voyage
11. Nemesis
12. Medusa Steel Coaster
13. Flying Aces
14. T Express
15. Flash
16. Fury 325
17. X2
18. Intamin Mega-Lite Clones
19. Leviathan
20. El Toro
21. Maverick
22. Shambhala
23. Expedition GeForce
24. Twisted Colossus
25. Superman the Ride
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
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I suspect that isn't a very "robust" way of ranking the top 25. Taron was knocked out in the quarter finals because it came up against Lightning Rod, but looking at the pairings from that round, Taron would have beaten all of the six other coasters (in my opinion). Therefore Taron would have likely been in the final. Doesn't affect the fact that Lightning Rod is a better coaster than Taron, but Taron is definitely not the 5th best coaster from that list - it's the second.

In my opinion, brackets are great at finding the number one, but after that ranking them meaningfully becomes awfully difficult.
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
^ I think that isn't the only reason why such a list isn't very robust. The fact that a lot of people haven't ridden most of the coasters in the match-ups (and still vote for/against them) makes this entire list quite worthless. The tournament is good fun, but far from reliable.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
^ I think that isn't the only reason why such a list isn't very robust. The fact that a lot of people haven't ridden most of the coasters in the match-ups (and still vote for/against them) makes this entire list quite worthless. The tournament is good fun, but far from reliable.
Still better than golden tickets :)
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
Still better than golden tickets :)
Oh yeah, I'm very happy with the results usually. My fave won twice and last year it was literally my top 2 in the final. This year almost as well :p Looking at your top 10 you can't disagree with the results either, hah. But yeah, it's far from a legit tool for rankings. But then again, you can't really make an objective list of top coasters because there aren't any universally best coasters. It will always be full of bias and that's fine. That's why we have these forums.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
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But yeah, it's far from a legit tool for rankings.
Don't confuse the point of a bracket with the point of a ranking system. A bracket like this simply aims to find the best coaster - it's never really intended to produce a detailed ranking. You can't know how Lightning Rod would have scored against Helix had they been paired up the round before (I mean, Lightning Rod would have still won, but that's not the point. ;) ). It's why third and fourth place playoffs are a thing - they're an attempt to give a ranking to the top handful.

But then again, you can't really make an objective list of top coasters because there aren't any universally best coasters. It will always be full of bias and that's fine. That's why we have these forums.
Well you can. And that coaster is Lightning Rod. :p
 

ThomVD

Giga Poster
Hah, we're all fanboys of our #1 and that's okay ;) I don't see it beating Helix for me personally (as that has a lot of factors to it that make it my #1), but we shall see.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
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Hah, we're all fanboys of our #1 and that's okay ;) I don't see it beating Helix for me personally (as that has a lot of factors to it that make it my #1), but we shall see.
I'm a fanboy of Lightning Rod in the same way I'm a fanboy of air, or water, or food. It's an absolute necessity of life. :p
 

valleyfair!

Hyper Poster
In my opinion, brackets are great at finding the number one, but after that ranking them meaningfully becomes awfully difficult.
Exactly! Better systems to rank a Top 25 than what a bracket would provide. Staying objective from bracket results to make a list has its faults.
 

TMCoasters

Mega Poster
I suspect that isn't a very "robust" way of ranking the top 25. Taron was knocked out in the quarter finals because it came up against Lightning Rod, but looking at the pairings from that round, Taron would have beaten all of the six other coasters (in my opinion). Therefore Taron would have likely been in the final. Doesn't affect the fact that Lightning Rod is a better coaster than Taron, but Taron is definitely not the 5th best coaster from that list - it's the second.

In my opinion, brackets are great at finding the number one, but after that ranking them meaningfully becomes awfully difficult.
Zero chance that Taron number 2 in the world. Maybe top 10
 

Edward M

Strata Poster
Sigh, it really is one of my biggest irritants on this site when people say they know a coaster isn't as good as *insert coaster here* even though they've never ridden it. I love thinking about what looks to be the best coasters in the world, and I have my ideas (Taron, Eejanaika, T Express, Helix all look the best of the best). However, I try to never say that any coaster is undeniably better than another but especially so with those I've never ridden. For all I know, I could ride Eejanaika, a ride that looks like X2 on even more steroids aka the best ride ever, and absolutely hate it. Same for any of them. I just try not to argue for any coaster I haven't ridden, cause I don't have any experience with it and therefore, no real ground to base my opinions on it other than a Youtube video.
 
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