Methodology
POWERRANK scores you against real outcomes, not against the crowd. Consensus exists so you can see where you stand — it is not a scoring input.
Community power rankings
Each submitted ballot is scored with Borda points: an item in position i of a ballot of length L scores L − i + 1. Those points are summed across ballots and divided by the total number of ballots in that sport and division — including ballots that left the item off, which penalizes teams nobody ranked. Ties break on editorial pool_order, the stored order of the rank pool, so two identical ballot sets always produce the same #1.
Your latest ballot replaces the previous one. It never stacks. Community consensus stays hidden until you submit, so the crowd list cannot anchor a first vote.
Editorial pool vs community
Who appears on the ballot is the editorial rank pool for that season, sport, and division. Community consensus reorders that pool. It does not invent teams that are not in the pool.
Game picks
Picks lock at kickoff, stored as UTC. The server clock compared to pick_lock_at (falling back to scheduled start) is what closes a pick — not your phone clock. Display times convert to your local timezone after load.
Community pick percentages are informational. They are not a sportsbook and they do not change your grade. A pick is graded against the stored result after the game is finalized.
What we will not invent
Injuries, transactions, lineups, and player news only appear when a structured, attributed source exists. Boxing and MMA fighters already live in the teams table when they are on a bout. Team-sport player pages are not fabricated from nicknames.