Scoring method

PuppyBattle.com uses a mathematical algorithm to accurately predict which is the most fierce (aka cutest) puppy!  As you might recall from statistics class, it is possible to determine (with a fairly high degree of certainty), how an overall population feels about something using the data from only a small sample size. In this case, mathematically we can determine how cute a puppy is by judging it against other puppies in the sample size.  Each puppy is then given a score between 0 and 10.

See below for more info on how the math works.

Voting on puppies

The way the scoring is accomplished is by the head-to-head battles on the home page where one puppy is matched against another. Each time a visitor (like you) votes on one puppy over the other, the scores for each of the puppies are then updated accordingly. So head over to the home page and start voting!

The math behind it

The main component of the algorithm behind the scoring calculation is based on the ELO rating system. It was originally conceived by a physics professor named Arpad Elo as a means to rank international chess players based on the matches that they either won or lost. The original ELO system has since been adapted to countless other uses, including now this website. One of the more notable uses of it is as part of the computer rankings of college football’s Bowl Championship Series (BCS).


We can use the BCS as an example so you can see how the scoring on youattract.me is similar. In college football, the top 25 teams are ranked 1-25. When two teams within those 25 play each other there are two factors to be drawn from the outcome of that game. Whoever won should presumably move up in the rankings (and whoever lost should presumably move down), but it is also important to take into consideration the rank of the winning and losing team. For example, if the #19 team beats the #18 team, the #19 team should probably go up a little in the rankings, and the #18 team down a little. But what if the #19 team beat the #2 team? Again, the #19 team won, but this time they beat a much tougher opponent. Accordingly, they should move up much higher in the rankings as compared to if they beat the #18 team.


It is this same approach that is used in part to develop a score for a puppy on PuppyBattle.com. When you click on a puppy as being more cute than the other puppy, how much that puppy's score then increases is determined by the score of their opponent in the matchup. If a puppy beats another puppy that has previously been determined to be very cute (i.e. they’ve built up a high score themselves), that winning puppy's score should hence increase accordingly. And likewise, the puppy who lost the battle will see its score go down in a similar fashion. It is our algorithm that computes these calculations after each battle.