How strong is Gwanjang Go Hee-jin
The Jeong Kwan-Jang team greets fans after confirming their advancement to the playoffs at the game on the 7th.
Who is the strongest team in the women’s professional volleyball division ‘as of now’?
Most people will answer ‘Cheonggwanjang’.
On the 7th, Cheong Kwan Jang won GS Caltex 3-0 in a home game in Daejeon and won for the 7th straight time.
This is the first time that Cheong Kwan-Jang has recorded 7 consecutive wins since 8 consecutive wins from February 15 to March 15, 2009.
Still, the highest place on the leaderboard is still Hyundai Engineering & Construction (74 points).
This is because the number of ‘accumulated points (victory points)’ is the highest so far.
So is there any number that shows which team is the strongest right now?
Is Hyundai Engineering & Construction in trouble again this year?
So the ‘Elo Rating System’ appeared in the world.
Originally created for use in calculating chess player rankings, this system can be applied to any field as long as there are one-on-one matches.
The Elo rating system basically starts at 1500 points and works in a way that the stronger the opponent and the bigger you win, the more points you take, and if the opposite is true, the more points you give away.
If you are a user of the online game ‘League of Legends’ (LoL), you may have heard of this system.
The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) ranking calculation method is also fundamentally rooted in this system.
Of course, this system can be applied to professional volleyball as shown in the picture above.
In fact, as of January 1st of this year, CheongKwanJang only had an Elo rating of 1375.
Only one team, Pepper Savings Bank (1181), had a lower Elo rating than CheongKwanJang.
Then, starting with the 3-1 win over Korea Expressway Corporation on the first day of the new year, the second game of the fourth round, we started drawing an upward-sloping graph.
Now, even if 3rd place CheongKwanJang (61 points) fails to add any points in the remaining two games and 4th place GS Caltex (51 points) adds 6 points, the semi-playoffs will not be held.
GS Caltex also went back and forth with Cheong Kwan-Jang until the second half of the 4th round, but only added 2 points (1 win, 5 losses) in the 5th round, ultimately failing to cross the threshold of ‘spring volleyball’.
Because the Elo rating can be calculated at the end of each game, you can also check which team had what season through this system.
The current CheongKwanJang Elo rating of 1769 is the club’s highest ever record calculated using the same method.
So, ‘Go Hee-jin (coach) and the kids’ have built the most fearsome team since the launch of professional volleyball.
Previously, the highest record was when they beat Hyundai Engineering & Construction 3-0 in a visit to Suwon on December 25, 2011 and recorded 1745.
At the time of using the name KGC Ginseng Corporation, Cheong Kwan Jang accumulated 26 points with 10 wins and 1 loss in 11 games prior to this day.
And in the championship match, they defeated Hyundai Engineering & Construction with 3 wins and 2 losses and won their third championship since the launch of professional volleyball.
The win at that time still remains as Cheong Kwan-Jang’s last victory record.
CheongKwanJang defeated both ‘Yanggang’ Heungkuk Life Insurance (3-1) and Hyundai Engineering & Construction (3-2) in the 6th round.
Still, it would be a reasonable assessment to classify her as an ‘underdog’ in the spring volleyball stage.
First of all, Coach Ko won eight times as a Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance player, but this is his first postseason as a head coach.
Also, it is not yet known when and in what condition Lee So-young (30, outside hitter), who injured her ankle in the game on the 7th, will be able to return to the court.
As Coach Ko has been saying these days, will Cheong Kwan-Jang this season be able to have an accident like Korea Expressway Corporation did last season?
Director Ko said, “It’s not the end yet. I believe in the players. “I’m sure our players will do well,” he said. 고스톱
