what do you all think the skill curve looks like and where would the skill ceiling for toribash be currently and maybe how far along we are into maxxing out the skill ceiling for toribash?

id say from white to like 2nd-3rd dan would be pretty steep, 3rd-6th would another change in trajectory probably slowing down a bit, then somewhere around 5th - 8th you see another spike in improvement before stagnating , and then 8th-10th is a small bump in skill, and then from 10th-custom you see another massive jump in skill, and after that things get real slow, beyond this point idk how to think about it anymore cuz this is where im at xd

if i had to put all of us somewhere on a imaginary skill chart were probably around 30-40% into maxxing out toribash as far as skill goes

if we compare it to chess, whoever may actually be the best toribasher, they probably wouldnt even be above 2k elo which is like masters territory in chess, theyre probably like 1600 elo ~

Well its hard to say since toribash has replaymaking and comp so you talking about just 1 or both

2nd Dan and below unpredictable.
3rd Dan good.
8th Dan and above is really hard to beat. The skill ceiling would be Master or Custom. I can't tell how far we are into maxing out the skill because it's really competitive and that's great.

Honest question, do you honestly feel belts are viable determinants of skill levels in most cases anymore?

Nah not really. but it still helps with determining about how good someone is

So in conclusion: Belts do not determine skill level, but they determine goodiness.

Meant it as in it gives a rough idea about how good they are :P

not rlly but its the only thing that i can use for a consistent comparison between players, the numbers are arbitrary but the skill difference is there, i would much rather we switch to something like chess where its a permanent score, mod ranks will be hopefully be the new(old) standard again but we dont really have a large enough playerbase to be able to clearly see skill gaps for what they are

belts imply that there are apparent "steps" between skill levels but its more of a gradient


the things i would look for when comparing skill would be along the lines of something like
how much do you know about toribash, the physics, the ui, the gameplay, combat tactics, and how it all interconnects? and then how fast/effeciently you can use that knowledge to win your matches, as far as replaymaking goes im not really gonna speak much on it, does it look like mo-cap? then ur gud.

I think the skill ceiling and skill floors are different depending on the mod of choice, and even more so for replay making. But if we are talking classic comp mods I think we are probably closest to the skill ceiling of abd rather than mods like boxshu or lenshu, because the opener matters so much at the higher level it seems like the mod is much more limited than the other ones with what works and what doesn't at a high level of play. I think brown/black belt is when people start to know what they are doing a bit and 7th-8th dan is when you start being able to hold your own with better players a bit more, but will still get smashed by top players. 10th dan to master belt is where you really get good and then custom and later is where you maximize skill and you start to plateau if you don't focus on improvement.
I think belts can be a measurement for skill if the qi matches the games played, games played is really what determines skill, obv everyone learns at their own pace, but if you have 10k games in a mod, I would think you would be competent in it.

what if we start like a dedicated thing(org) to peer review replays or live fights by a panel for not rankings, but rating on how well they played their fight, scoring for things like dominance/control, positioning, overall tori movement/immersiveness, specific strategies used for the specific fight and how beneficial they were to the outcome, or make up your own. probably would be a pain in the ass to do but might have some fun data anaylsis we could learn from