Darth_Jim wrote:That's the problem...guys that only play in one venue MAY actually be as good as their rating, but you'll really never know until you play the best. And the best is at GenCon.
I agree Jim, and that was the primary point I was trying to make. We can only use the tools that we have to analyze the player base. And DCI rating, or local skill, are only one piece of the data. But there are far too many examples that prove these two wrong to use them as anything more than a guide to perhaps start the conversation. I would even argue, that DCI rank doesn't just give you statistical outliers, but that perhaps as a many as 50% of the highly ranked DCI players aren't all that great at the game outside of their local venue. Although some of them, very well may be, we just can't say with any measure of accuracy.
I will add to what you said about Gencon, that I do believe there is at least one other place that gets close to it in terms of the total competition level, and that's when the Europeans get together either in France or Germany. Having played a couple of those guys on Vassal, watched others, and read their comments over the years, I can say with some degree of accuracy that they know what they are doing. The problem of course, to answer the OP's question, is that they are relatively unknown outside of Europe, and most aren't regular posters on any of the English forums. So to say they are the "business" would be an overstatement, even if they do contain what I consider a couple of the best of the best. I guess I can just argue for them, but I'm not sure that is really enough to make the case :)