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Mitch Hawker coaster polls 2013-14

John said:
It's basically an excuse to trim the ballot a bit, as I've felt for a while that it's too long. I don't want to make too many sweeping changes, but Vekoma Juniors have never been on the ballot so having other off-the-shelf family coasters on there seems rather inconsistent.

Choosing exactly where to draw the line is extremely difficult but with over 3000 steel coasters listed on rcdb it's clear that not everything can be included.

Can't it just be Fav Mack Young Star etc? Or is it that already?
 
It's already Fav YoungStar, I was going to remove it for consistency reasons - all family coasters (that aren't otherwise notable) should be removed IMO.
 
I think the YoungStars are big enough to warrant inclusion if only as one entry in the poll. :)
 
I'd personally like to see YoungStar's stay as a one entry option.

Whilst I wouldn't personally put one into my list, I think these type of coasters offer enough variety that they warrant an option should one want to include it in their list. :)
 
I agree with John - I don't think YoungStars are significantly bigger nor notable than a Vekoma Junior coaster and removing it keeps the playing field even.
 
My Ballot which remains unchanged from last year having not ridden any wooden coasters in 2013.

Code:
Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,1
Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,2
Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,3
Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,4
Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,5
Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,6

My Favorite Steel   Anypark Anywhere     **,y,y,1
Balder              Liseberg             SE,y,n,2
Wodan TimburCoaster Europa Park          DE,y,n,3
Mammut              Tripsdrill           DE,y,n,4
Grand National      Blackpool            UK,y,n,5
Wild Mouse          Blackpool            UK,y,n,6
Roller Coaster      Great Yarmouth       UK,y,n,7
Tomahawk            Port Aventura        ES,y,n,8
Nickelodeon Streak  Blackpool            UK,y,n,9
Big Dipper          Blackpool            UK,y,n,10
Tyrolean Tubtwist   Joyland              UK,y,n,11
 
Even ballots containing just the rides at BPB could influence the TST results - there's currently a very close battle between Wild Mouse and Grand National for Blackpool's top woodie. They're currently locked at 10-10.
 
Only submitting mine to influence the BPB results :p

Code:
Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,1
Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,2
Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,3
Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,4
Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,5
Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,6
COASTER NAME          PARK                LOC <-LEAVE
Grand National      Blackpool            UK,y,y,1
Wild Mouse          Blackpool            UK,y,y,2
Gwazi-Lion          Busch Gardens-Tampa  FL,y,y,3
Nickelodeon Streak  Blackpool            UK,y,y,4
Gwazi-Tiger         Busch Gardens-Tampa  FL,y,y,5
Big Dipper          Blackpool            UK,y,y,6
Stampida            Port Aventura        ES,y,y,7
Antelope            Gulliver's World     UK,y,y,8
Blue Flyer          Blackpool            UK,y,y,9
 
Final call for wooden ballots - the poll will close tomorrow.
 
The results are in:

woodpollresults2013.jpg


No change to the top 2 this year, El Toro and T Express still reign supreme. Outlaw Run is next, which could be a contender for top spot next year as it tied 32-32 with El Toro and only lost 2-3 to T Express.

Most of the usual suspects are still around, though there's a slight change to the European top 5, with Troy overtaking Colossos for #2. Wodan moves up 4 to #18 and #5 in Europe, just ahead of baby El Toro.

In the UK, Megafobia is once again our top woodie, up 3 at 34. Grand National down 5 at 49 and Wild Mouse up 1 at 50. No major changes to the positions here, or indeed to the rest of our woodies, most have moved down by about as many places as the number of new entries above them would suggest.

At the bottom, a triplle whammy of rubbish European woodies round off the poll: Anaconda @Walygator, Coaster-Express at Parque Warner and Bandit @Movie Park in last place.

So that's the wooden poll complete, and the results of the TST poll will be revealed soon!
 
Not bad results really, I have to say! Outlaw Run stormed in exactly around where I expected it to as well! I also can't say that the bottom 3 are surprising either, all of them look terrible and I can vouch for the fact that Bandit is terrible! :p

The one thing that did jump out at me however, Hades 360, falling right in at 8th from the bottom!! Whereas previously, Hades ranked 29th in the 2012 poll! Weather this is down to fewer people having ridden the 360 incarnation, I don't know?
 
The two versions were treated separately, anyone who had ridden this year was considered to have ridden Hades 360, everyone else Hades.

The pre-360 version of Hades also appears in the results at 31st, almost exactly where you'd expect it to finish taking new entries into account. It looks like they've pretty much ruined the ride during the modifications.
 
Now for the results of the TST jury, this includes an entry from Ash on PBE (well, he's a TST member too). Without further faff, here’s the full results:

[tt]TST Riders Comp W L T win% tbk Change
1 El Toro SFGAd 6 49 49 0 0 100.00 ^ 2
2 My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere 19 56 55 1 0 98.21 v 1
3 Tonnerre de Zeus Parc Asterix 12 55 51 3 1 93.64 4 ^ 2
= Troy Toverland 10 55 50 2 3 93.64 4 =
5 Boulder Dash Lake Compounce 5 52 48 3 1 93.27 new
6 Balder Liseberg 4 24 21 2 1 89.58 v 3
7 Colossos Heide Park 7 54 47 5 2 88.89 ^ 1
8 Wodan TimburCoaster Europa Park 16 55 47 6 2 87.27 v 1
9 Megafobia Oakwood 15 56 47 8 1 84.82 ^ 2
10 Phoenix Knoebel's 5 52 37 8 7 77.88 new
11 Wild Mouse Blackpool 22 56 41 12 3 75.89 ^ 3
12 Joris en de Draak W de Efteling 10 55 40 12 3 75.45 v 2
13 Joris en de Draak V de Efteling 10 55 39 13 3 73.64 v 2
14 Lightning Racer - L Hersheypark 4 46 32 11 3 72.83 new
15 Lightning Racer - T Hersheypark 4 46 31 12 3 70.65 new
16 Grand National Blackpool 22 56 37 14 5 70.54 ^ 3
17 Apocalypse S. F. Magic Mountain 2 25 16 6 3 70.00 new
18 Mammut Tripsdrill 4 44 27 14 3 64.77 new
19 Twister Knoebel's 4 46 27 14 5 64.13 new
20 Giant Dipper Santa Cruz Bch Bdwk 2 39 21 11 7 62.82 new
21 Wildcat Hersheypark 4 46 25 15 6 60.87 new
22 Viper SFGAm 2 41 23 15 3 59.76 new
23 Cyclone SF New England 5 52 29 21 2 57.69 3 new
24 Loup Garou Walibi Belgium 4 52 28 20 4 57.69 1 ^ 5
25 Colossus S.F. Magic Mountain 3 41 20 15 6 56.10 0 ^ 11
26 Robin Hood Walibi Holland 4 50 26 20 4 56.00 0 v 2
27 Blue Streak Cedar Point 5 52 27 21 4 55.77 ^ 6
28 Thunderbolt Kennywood 5 52 26 22 4 53.85 new
29 Gwazi-Lion Busch Gardens-Tampa 9 53 22 24 7 48.11 =
30 Big Dipper Blackpool 22 56 23 28 5 45.54 ^ 3
31 Comet Hersheypark 5 52 21 27 4 44.23 new
32 Gwazi-Tiger Busch Gardens-Tampa 9 53 16 23 14 43.40 v 3
33 Jack Rabbit Kennywood 5 52 21 28 3 43.27 new
34 Tomahawk Port Aventura 13 56 17 27 12 41.07 ^ 2
35 Rolling Thunder SFGAd 7 53 18 30 5 38.68 ^ 2
36 Roller Coaster Great Yarmouth 8 56 15 29 12 37.50 v 9
37 Mean Streak Cedar Point 6 53 15 31 7 34.91 v 13
38 Magnus Colossus Terra Mitica 2 19 5 11 3 34.21 new
39 Rutschebanen Tivoli Gardens 2 23 6 14 3 32.61 new
40 Thunderbolt SF New England 5 52 14 35 3 29.81 1.5 new
41 Coaster-Express Parque Warner Madrid 5 52 13 34 5 29.81 1 v 6
42 Thunderhawk Dorney Park 5 52 14 35 3 29.81 0.5 new
43 The Bandit Movie Park 10 56 16 39 1 29.46 ^ 1
44 Hurler Kings Dominion 5 46 11 33 2 26.09 new
45 Cyclone Luna Park 3 46 10 34 2 23.91 2 new
46 Rebel Yell Kings Dominion 5 46 10 34 2 23.91 1 new
47 The Grizzly Kings Dominion 5 46 9 34 3 22.83 new
48 Nickelodeon Streak Blackpool 20 56 8 44 4 17.86 new
49 Ghoster Coaster Kings Dominion 5 46 7 37 2 17.39 v 1
50 Scenic Railway (S) Dreamland 4 39 4 31 4 15.38 new
51 Racer Kennywood 5 52 6 44 2 13.46 new
52 Wildcat Lake Compounce 3 46 6 40 0 13.04 1 new
53 Antelope Gulliver's World 6 50 5 42 3 13.00 0 ^ 3
54 Stampida Port Aventura 15 56 2 49 5 8.04 v 1
55 Tyrolean Tubtwist Joyland 7 45 2 40 3 7.78 v 1
56 Anaconda Walygator Parc 6 54 2 48 4 7.41 v 2
57 Blue Flyer Blackpool 18 56 0 54 2 1.79 = [/tt]

Explanation/notes & mini-league:

For anyone interested in how these results were obtained, Mitch offers a better explanation than I could ever hope to.

‘MH’ refers to the relative position on the full poll out of the rides that make our list. Due to the large number of new entries this year, the ‘change’ column only counts rides that also appeared last year, otherwise all but the top few rides would be down and it wouldn't tell you much. ‘Comp’ is the number of other rides a coaster has at least 1 comparison against (as in, how many other unique coasters appeared on ballots containing that ride), a low number here indicates the overall position of that ride may be inaccurate. Tbk = tie break – where winning percentages are very similar the number of people preferring each of two closely-ranked coasters is used to determine the order. If 3 (or more) rides have similar %age the results of a ‘mini-league’ are used. This was only required once in our poll, with the resulting mini-league shown below:

[tt] |Coaster-Expre|Thunderbolt |Thunderhawk|
_______________|Parque Warner|SF New England|Dorney Park|
Coaster-Express| --- | T 2 2 | T 2 2 |
Thunderbolt | T 2 2 | --- | W 3 2 |
Thunderhawk | T 2 2 | L 2 3 | --- |[/tt]

Finishing top of every ballot it appeared on, El Toro is a clear winner on our poll this year. The increase in turnout also means we’ve finally got direct comparisons between El Toro, Troy and Balder making the ordering of the top coasters much more reliable. Once again there’s little change at the bottom of the poll with the same bottom 5 as last time, though the order is slightly different. In the 4 years of compiling the TTF/TST results, Blue Fire Flyer is yet to finish anywhere other than last place.

Winners and losers:

The biggest winner this year is SFMM’s Colossus, up 11 places. Cedar Point’s Blue Streak is up 6, putting it ahead of Mean Streak for the first time. Mean Streak on the other hand is the biggest loser having dropped a massive 13 places, though it still performed far better on our poll than in the full results (there were a few more rides ranked behind Mean Streak on the full poll as on ours, but 4 times as many rides ahead of it). Elsewhere, Great Yarmouth’s Roller Coaster has also fared poorly, down 9 places.

For anyone wanting to compare any head-to-head records, the full mutual rider table is also available here – it’s colour coded so upsets are easier to spot.

From the table a couple of things stand out, Wild Mouse eventually lost it’s head to head battle with Grand National despite finishing higher overall (it was very close in the full poll too, where Nash won 60-56). Joris Water beat out Vuur by an incredibly tight 5-4 margin. They had 10 riders, but I gave them the same score so my vote does not affect their head-to-head. The two sides of Lightning racer fared similarly - as with Joris I also gave the two sides the same score and they could have tied if I’d picked the less popular.

How we voted:

A new feature for this year, the following image gives a quick overview of the rides everyone has ridden and how they ranked them. Note that any rides that do not appear in the final results have been removed from the individual ballots for clarity.

resultsHeatMap2_zpsacaa13c7.png


A quick glance shows Mike ranked the coasters in the order of the TST results, and a few other people came fairly close to 'perfect' ballots too.

Finally, thanks to everyone who voted, once again there’s been a record response from TST members – a total of 22 ballots this year, up from 17 last time. We’ve also ridden more coasters than ever before – at an average of 19.8 coasters each, up from 11.7 last time. Keep riding and keep voting and next year’s poll will be even bigger. In the meantime, the steel poll should be launching soon, so get those thinking caps on!
 
In the 4 years of compiling the TTF/TST results, Blue Fire is yet to finish anywhere other than last place.
:p

Really glad that El Toro won the main poll (and the TST poll), such an incredible coaster! Need to ride T-Express, anyone up for South Korea 2015? :p


Edit: Seems I have ridden the worst 3 woodies haha, although not my worst 3.
 
The steel poll is finally online!

Once again, Jordan's ballot helper is on hand to make participating an absolute breeze. There have been quite a few changes again this year in addition to the usual list of new and removed rides, so if you're updating an old ballot make sure to check the changelog. In addition, remember to pay close attention to the list of off-the-shelf layouts at the top of the ballot. A detailed guide to these can be found in the instructions. Notable UK examples:

BPB:
Infusion - Fav Vekoma SLC
Revolution - Fav Arrow Shuttle

Flamingoland:
Hero - Fav Zamperla Volare
Mumbo Jumbo - Fav El Loco
Velocity - Fav Vek Motorbike

Note also that a few family/kiddy coasters have been removed this year, including Zierer Tivoli (Treetops, Snake in the Grass) and Vek Jr Boomerang (Ben 10).


As usual, share your ballot here to have it included in the TST poll, which I'll be running to compare how our opinions match up with those of the wider community. I need to give some serious thought to mine, but hopefully I'll be posting it in the next few days.
 
Apologies - the delay in this going live was, in part, due to me taking a while to update the helper.
 
Mine's a little more extensive from last year...next year's will be a lot longer though!

Code:
RANK THE FOLLOWING RIDING SENSATIONS <-LEAVE
Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,1
Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,2
Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,3
Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,4
Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,5
Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,6

Code:
COASTER NAME          PARK                LOC
Nemesis               Alton Towers       UK,y,n,1
Montu                 Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,2
Shambhala             Port Aventura      ES,y,n,3
Incredible Hulk       Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,4
Kraken                SeaWorld Orlando   FL,y,n,5
Kumba                 Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,6
Dragon Khan           Port Aventura      ES,y,n,7
Manta                 SeaWorld Orlando   FL,y,n,8
The Smiler            Alton Towers       UK,y,n,9
Revenge of the Mummy  Universal Studios  FL,y,n,10
Chinese Fireball      Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,11
SheiKra               Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,12
Hungarian Horntail    Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,13
Oblivion              Alton Towers       UK,y,n,14
Expedition Everest    Disney Animal King FL,y,n,15
Favorite Wood Coaster Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,16
Cheetah Hunt          Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,17
Space Mountain        WDW Magic Kingdom  FL,y,n,18
Fav Arrow Shuttle     Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,19
Rock n Roller Coaster Disney's H Studios FL,y,n,20
Pepsi Max Big One     Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,n,21
Rita                  Alton Towers       UK,y,n,22
Sonic Spinball        Alton Towers       UK,y,n,23
Big Thunder Mountain  WDW Magic Kingdom  FL,y,n,24
Thirteen              Alton Towers       UK,y,n,25
Muntanya Russa        Tibidabo           ES,y,n,26
Air                   Alton Towers       UK,y,n,27
Fav Wild Mouse        Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,28
Hollywood Rip Ride Ro Universal Studios  FL,y,n,29
Fav Arrow Mine Train  Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,30
Avalanche             Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,n,31
Fav Vek Susp Loop SLC Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,32
Journey to Atlantis   SeaWorld Orlando   FL,y,n,33
Steeplechase          Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,n,34
Furius Baco           Port Aventura      ES,y,n,35
 
Code:
RANK THE FOLLOWING RIDING SENSATIONS <-LEAVE
Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,1
Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,2
Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,3
Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,4
Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,5
Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,6

Code:
COASTER NAME          PARK                LOC <--Please leave this
Manta                 SeaWorld Orlando   FL,y,n,1
Nemesis               Alton Towers       UK,y,y,2
Montu                 Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,3
The Smiler            Alton Towers       UK,y,y,4
Expedition Everest    Disney Animal King FL,y,n,5
Hollywood Rip Ride Ro Universal Studios  FL,y,n,6
Kumba                 Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,7
Kraken                SeaWorld Orlando   FL,y,n,8
Chinese Fireball      Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,9
Incredible Hulk       Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,10
Hungarian Horntail    Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,11
Stealth               Thorpe Park        UK,y,y,12
Oblivion              Alton Towers       UK,y,y,13
Revenge of the Mummy  Universal Studios  FL,y,n,14
Big Thunder Mountain  Disneyland Paris   FR,y,n,15
Journey to Atlantis   SeaWorld Orlando   FL,y,n,16
Avalanche             Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,y,17
Big Thunder Mountain  WDW Magic Kingdom  FL,y,n,18
Saw - The Ride        Thorpe Park        UK,y,y,19
Air                   Alton Towers       UK,y,y,20
Pepsi Max Big One     Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,y,21
The Swarm             Thorpe Park        UK,y,y,22
Sonic Spinball        Alton Towers       UK,y,n,23
Thirteen              Alton Towers       UK,y,y,24
Fav Arrow Shuttle     Any Park Anywhere  **,y,y,25
Rita                  Alton Towers       UK,y,y,26
Shockwave             Drayton Manor      UK,y,n,27
Space Mountain        WDW Magic Kingdom  FL,y,n,28
Steeplechase          Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,y,29
G Force               Drayton Manor      UK,y,n,30
Fav Vek Susp Loop SLC Any Park Anywhere  **,y,y,31

No doubt this will look totally different next year.
 
Code:
RANK THE FOLLOWING RIDING SENSATIONS <-LEAVE
Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,1
Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,2
Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,3
Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,4
Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,5
Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,6

Code:
COASTER NAME          PARK                LOC <--Please leave this
Nemesis               Alton Towers       UK,y,y,1
Favorite Wood Coaster Any Park Anywhere  **,y,y,2
OzIris                Parc Asterix       FR,y,y,3
Incredible Hulk       Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,4
Expedition Everest    Disney Animal King FL,y,n,5
Black Mamba           Phantasialand      DE,y,n,6
Ultimate              Lightwater Valley  UK,y,n,7
Oblivion              Alton Towers       UK,y,y,8
Montu                 Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,9
Colorado Adventure    Phantasialand      DE,y,n,10
Air                   Alton Towers       UK,y,y,11
Kumba                 Busch Gardens Tamp FL,y,n,12
The Smiler            Alton Towers       UK,y,y,13
Saw - The Ride        Thorpe Park        UK,y,n,14
Big Thunder Mountain  Disneyland Paris   FR,y,y,15
Kraken                SeaWorld Orlando   FL,y,n,16
Thirteen              Alton Towers       UK,y,y,17
Colossus              Thorpe Park        UK,y,n,18
Rita                  Alton Towers       UK,y,y,19
Sonic Spinball        Alton Towers       UK,y,y,20
Raptor Attack         Lightwater Valley  UK,y,n,21
Revenge of the Mummy  Universal Studios  FL,y,n,22
Fav Intamin ZacSpin   Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,23
Chinese Fireball      Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,24
Hungarian Horntail    Islands of Adventu FL,y,n,25
Space Mountain        Disneyland Paris   FR,y,y,26
Stealth               Thorpe Park        UK,y,n,27
Big Thunder Mountain  WDW Magic Kingdom  FL,y,n,28
Avalanche             Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,n,29
Crush's Coaster       Walt Disney Paris  FR,y,y,30
Goudurix              Parc Asterix       FR,y,y,31
Fav Loop. Star/S.Arr. Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,32
Nemesis Inferno       Thorpe Park        UK,y,n,33
Fav Arrow Shuttle     Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,34
Fav Vekoma Corkscrew  Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,35
Pepsi Max Big One     Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,n,36
Space Mountain        WDW Magic Kingdom  FL,y,n,37
Indiana Jones et le t Disneyland Paris   FR,y,y,38
Fav Wild Mouse        Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,39
Rock n Roller Coaster Disney's H Studios FL,y,n,40
Rock n Roller Coaster Walt Disney Paris  FR,y,y,41
Fav Vek Susp Loop SLC Any Park Anywhere  **,y,n,42
Trace Du Hourra       Parc Asterix       FR,y,n,43
Steeplechase          Blackpool P.B.     UK,y,n,44
 
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