Rock Band Competition Scoring

29/03/2009

At the first of the year it was announced that my company would be holding a Rock Band competition with the winning group receiving a cash prize. Shortly after I was tasked with putting together a scoring system for the competition. The performance scoring was fairly simple to figure, but for the technical side I had to hit up Google and found that there wasn’t much out there as far as a balanced, solid Rock Band competition scoring system.

Formula 1.0

After numerous searches I found a formula on the Rock Band forums that was close enough to what I wanted to accomplish and was able to slightly tweak it for my own needs.

This technical score consisted of four parts: average song execution, combined difficulty level, song difficulty, and stars scored.

Average song execution (max 10 pts)

This element took the average of the accuracy percentage of your entire team and gave a score ranging from 10 points for 100% to 0 points for less than 82%.

  • <82% = 0 points
  • 82 – 83% = 1 point
  • 84 – 85 % = 2 points
  • 86 – 87% = 3 points
  • 88 – 89% = 4 points
  • 90 – 91% = 5 points
  • 92 – 93% = 6 points
  • 94 – 95% = 7 points
  • 96 – 97% = 8 points
  • 98 – 99% = 9 points
  • 100% = 10 points
Combined difficulty level (max 12 pts)

This element gave point values to each individual difficulty level and then took the sum of the combined scores for the team.

  • Easy = 0 points
  • Medium = 1 point
  • Hard = 2 points
  • Expert = 3 points
Song Difficulty (max 8 pts)

For this element the songs were given points based on their difficulty category on the RB1 disc with a max of 8 points per song.

  • Warm-up = 0 points
  • Apprentice = 1 point
  • Solid = 2 points
  • Moderate = 3 points
  • Skilled = 4 points
  • Challenging = 5 points
  • Blistering = 6 points
  • Nightmare = 7 points
  • Impossible = 8 points
Stars Scored (max 10 pts)

This scoring element was simple enough. Take the number of stars your band received at the end of the song and multiply it by two.

  • 1 Star = 2 points
  • 2 Stars = 4 points
  • 3 Stars = 6 points
  • 4 Stars = 8 points
  • 5 Stars = 10 points

Problem solved right? Apparently not. No sooner had I finished this formula and the associated spreadsheet than I was informed that one of the groups wanted to use the expansion pack and for the Wii, the formula above only works for the main disc.

I would later find that I could work around my initial scoring issue using the information mentioned below. However, this also brought back to the forefront another issue I had with my original scoring system: it rewarded playing really well on easy songs versus playing decent on much harder ones.

Formula 2.0

I knew that a change was need, but unfortunately had no idea how I was going to achieve this. My common sense finally kicked back in and took me to the back to the new Rock Band website and low and behold, all of the songs were broken down by difficulty of instrument (a feature apparently new to RB2). With this new data I was able to put together what I felt was a more accurate scoring system that worked for any song available on any system.

Song Execution (max 40 pts)

This element is scored the same as the song execution from the first formula, however each individual’s percentage will earn points allowing for 40 possible points per song. Note: If there’s a chance that some bands may have less members in your competition you will probably want to adjust this and the next formula to take the average rather than the sum.

  • <82% = 0 points
  • 82 – 83% = 1 point
  • 84 – 85 % = 2 points
  • 86 – 87% = 3 points
  • 88 – 89% = 4 points
  • 90 – 91% = 5 points
  • 92 – 93% = 6 points
  • 94 – 95% = 7 points
  • 96 – 97% = 8 points
  • 98 – 99% = 9 points
  • 100% = 10 points
Instrument Score (max 36 pts)

Unlike the previous formula, this song factors in the difficulty of the instrument played vs. the song difficulty. Using the Rock Band website (if you’re not playing RB2), you are able to track down the difficulty of each instrument for each song. That number is added to the score given for instrument difficulty per player and then combined to create the final instrument score for the team.

  • Easy = 0 points
  • Medium = 1 point
  • Hard = 2 points
  • Expert = 3 points

Examples: Using the song Interstate Love Song, playing the drums on Expert would be worth 7 points where-as vocals on Expert would only be worth 3. In the case of Ace of Spades drums on Expert would be worth the max of 9 points since they’re devilishly hard for that song.

Problem Solved?

At this point I would say I’m still open to changing the formula, but at least it’s a start. Feel free to download the Excel spreadsheets I’ve posted. I would love to hear about real world use in RB competitions. I’m also open to improvements so feel free to submit any suggestions in the comments.

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There are 4 comments in this article:

  1. 30/03/2009Cliff say:

    The current formula is a good start, better than what I’ve seen at other tournaments. However, there is a flaw in your Instrument Score. Under the current system, drumming Ace of Spades on Medium would net you 7 points (1 + 6 = 6), as would drumming Interstate Love Song on Expert (3 + 4 = 7). These two experiences are not equal, but under your system they would be. I suggest changing the formula like so:

    Instrument Score = (Difficulty Level x Song Rating)

    And changing the Difficulty Level values such that Easy = 1 and Expert = 4 and doing the same for Song Rating (no circles = 1, demon heads = 7). You could then scale it to make it worth about the same as song execution (dividing the score by 3 brings the max to 37.3, you could fiddle with the numbers to make them nicer). Under this formula, Medium drumming Ace of Spades is worth 14 points (2 x 7 = 14) and Expert Drumming Interstate Love Song is worth 20 (4 x 5 = 20), which I think is closer to the actual difference in difficulty.

    Sorry for giving you a long-winded, more complicated potential solution to your scoring woes.

  2. 6/10/2009Cross say:

    On average when playing a song at medium difficulty I will get 97%. Switching to hard reduces this to 91%. That’s a 3 point loss in execution for a 1 point gain in difficulty level.
    The increase in diffculty between easy->medium, medium->hard, and hard->expert is not identical and I think the equation needs some work in that area.

  3. 20/11/2009Tom say:

    Great stuff! I’m organizing an RB tournament for next week. Your formulae, while very accurate (esp #2), seem to be a little too much work to figure out on-the-fly as it were, though I’m considering letting the bands submit their songlist beforehand, which would alleviate a lot of the issues.

    I’m going to noodle this, and will come back with a post if I devise something that’s simpler, but effective in a more casual setting where there are mass quantities of alcohol involved and even the organizer wants to rock out rather than hang out with a calculator!

    Great stuff! Now, I just need to figure out what the best way will be to create the “playoffs”…

  4. 12/12/2009Jonathan say:

    Hey dude, this is pretty awesome. Im gonna encorporate it to our Rock Band Bar Nights and i’ll get back to you on how it worked. Thanks !

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