How the ranking works

1. Duels drawn at random

Each time, the site shows you two candidates of the same gender (Women or Men) and of the chosen category (Global, France…). The server picks the pair: it is impossible to vote directly for a specific person. Candidates who have been seen the least have a slightly higher chance of being drawn, so that everyone — including the latest entrants — is judged on a comparable number of duels. You will never see the same pair twice during a period.

2. Categories and shared votes

Every candidate takes part in Global and chooses additional categories whose criteria they declare they meet. A vote counts in every category the two people in the duel share: a duel between two candidates entered in “France” counts for France and for Global. Category changes apply from the next period.

3. Beating a favourite counts for more

The score is not a simple points total. We use the Bradley-Terry model, the same idea as the Elo rating in chess: each person has a “strength”, and the probability of winning a duel depends on the strength gap with the opponent. Beating someone ranked very high therefore lifts you more than beating someone near the bottom.

The calculation takes every duel of the period into account at once, then gives everyone a readable score around 1,500 points. To avoid extreme scores based on very few duels, every candidate starts with a small neutral cushion.

4. A minimum number of duels to be ranked

To appear in a category's ranking, a candidate must have played at least 30 duels in it during the period. Below that, they appear in the “Being assessed” section, without rank or score.

5. In case of a tie

• first, the head-to-head results between the tied people;
• then the win rate (wins ÷ duels);
• then the larger number of duels;
• otherwise, the rank is shared.

6. Provisional, then final

During the period, the provisional ranking is recalculated about every 60 minutes. At closing, the ranking is calculated one last time with exactly the same method, then frozen for good: it never changes again.

7. Protected votes

• voting is limited to accounts with a verified email address or phone number;
• at most 50 votes per day per person;
• anti-robot checks and detection of suspicious behaviour; fraudulent votes can be cancelled.