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Wood Coaster Poll 2017
- Thread starter John
- Start date
MattyH
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- GIIBBB
In the UK Megafobia was voted the best wooden coaster Coming in at 36 this worldwide, and Wild mouse was the best in England coming in at 38th overall. At the other end Blue Flyer was voted the worst wooden coaster in England at 165th overall. Antelope at gulivers was too rare a cred to be ranked.
Anaconda at Walygator got voted the worst wooden coaster in the world, what are peoples thoughts on that?
Anaconda at Walygator got voted the worst wooden coaster in the world, what are peoples thoughts on that?
Mattmash
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Wow, genuinely surprised that Wildfire got No.1! Whilst it was without doubt a very good coaster, it seemed to really die at the end, I thought it was almost going to stop at one point! Also feel Tayto's is massively overated, again I thought it was pretty good, but nothing too special. That's the beauty of different opinions though I guess. For me, El Toro is undoubtedly my current favourite woodie, although hopefully there'll be a few contenders this year, and going by the poll, there should be a pretty good chance of that!
Completely agree with Anaconda's (aka Boob Shake) ranking, it was absolutely dire...
Completely agree with Anaconda's (aka Boob Shake) ranking, it was absolutely dire...
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
I can't have too many complaints as I stupidly forgot to submit my ballot, but I am surprised with the results. El Toro down in 9 just seems wrong, it is so many people's best coaster regardless of steel or wood.
I'm hoping El Toro lives up to my memories of it when I ride it again this year, 6 years is a long time!
I'm hoping El Toro lives up to my memories of it when I ride it again this year, 6 years is a long time!
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Never mind what the rest of the world voted, what about the TST results? Well turnout wasn't great (shakes fist), but we still represented nearly 50% of the ballots from the UK, so that's not too shabby. Anyway, without further ado - here's our results:
edit - hopefully the white space should now display properly for better readability
Code:
Riders Comp. W L T win% tbk
1 El Toro-SF Great Adventure-USANJ 4 71 71 0 0 100.00
2 Outlaw Run-Silver Dollar City-USAMO 2 68 67 1 0 98.53
3 Boulder Dash-Lake Compounce-USACT 3 71 69 2 0 97.18
4 Wodan Timburcoaster-EuropaPark-GMANY 10 71 67 4 0 94.37
5 Wildfire-Kolmården-SWDEN 7 71 66 5 0 92.96
6 Phoenix-Knoebels-USAPA 3 71 63 3 5 92.25
7 Tonnere de Zeus-Parc Asterix-FRANC 5 71 63 6 2 90.14
8 Gold Striker-Californias Great America-USA 2 68 59 5 4 89.71
9 Troy-Toverland-NTHRL 5 71 62 6 3 89.44
10 Balder-Liseberg-SWDEN 10 71 61 8 2 87.32
11 Cu Chulainn-Tayto Park-IRLND 2 68 57 7 4 86.76
12 Rutschebanan-Tivoli Gardens-DENMK 3 68 57 9 2 85.29
13 Ghost Rider-Knott’s Berry Farm-USACA 3 69 54 12 3 80.43
14 Joris en de Draak (water)-Efteling-NTHRL 5 71 55 14 2 78.87
15 Megaphobia-Oakwood-WALES 7 71 52 12 7 78.17
16 Joris en de Draak (vuur)-Efteling-NTHRL 5 71 54 15 2 77.46
17 Twister-Grona Lund-SWDEN 7 71 53 16 2 76.06
18 El Toro-Freizeitpark Plohn-GMANY 2 71 47 11 13 75.35
19 Wild Mouse-Blackpool-ENGLD 11 71 50 17 4 73.24
20 Giant Dipper-Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk-US 2 68 48 17 3 72.79
21 Twister-Knoebels-USAPA 3 71 49 17 5 72.54
22 Apocalypse-SF Magic Mountain-USACA 3 69 45 19 5 68.84
23 Heidi The Ride-Plopsaland-BELGM 2 68 41 21 6 64.71
24 Lightning Racer (Lightning)-HersheyPark-US 3 70 44 24 2 64.29 0
= Lightning Racer (Thunder)-HersheyPark-USAP 3 70 44 24 2 64.29 0
26 Great American Scream Machine-SF Over Geor 3 71 45 25 1 64.08
27 White Lightning-Fun Spot America-USAFL 4 71 44 25 2 63.38
28 Thunderbird-PowerLand-FINLD 2 67 40 23 4 62.69
29 Thunderbolt-Kennywood-USAPA 3 71 41 27 3 59.86
30 Blue Streak-Cedar Point-USAOH 3 71 38 30 3 55.63
31 Wildcat-HersheyPark-USAPA 3 71 39 32 0 54.93 2
32 LoupGarou-Walibi Belgium-BELGM 4 71 36 29 6 54.93 1
33 Grand National (left)-Blackpool-ENGLD 11 71 31 26 14 53.52
34 Robin Hood-Walibi Holland-NTHRL 5 71 36 32 3 52.82
35 Grand National (right)-Blackpool-ENGLD 11 71 30 27 14 52.11
36 Jack Rabbit-Kennywood-USAPA 3 71 31 36 4 46.48
37 Comet-HersheyPark-USAPA 3 71 31 38 2 45.07
38 Big Dipper-Blackpool-ENGLD 11 71 29 37 5 44.37
39 Falken-Farup Sommerland-DENMK 3 71 29 38 4 43.66
40 Thunderhawk-Dorney-USAPA 3 71 26 41 4 39.44
41 Georgia Cyclone-SF Over Georgia-USAGA 2 71 15 31 25 38.73
42 Roller Coaster-Great Yarmouth Pleasure Bea 5 69 22 38 9 38.41
43 Vuoristorata-Linnanmaki-FINLD 2 67 23 40 4 37.31
44 Grizzly-Californias Great America-USACA 2 68 17 35 16 36.76
45 Mammut-Eriebnispark Tripsdrill-GMANY 5 70 21 43 6 34.29
46 Rebel Yell (Red)-Kings Dominion-USAVA 2 71 17 42 12 32.39 1
= Thundercoaster-TusenFryd-NORWY 6 71 12 37 22 32.39 1
48 Woodstock Express-Kings Dominion-USAVA 4 71 17 43 11 31.69 1.5
49 Coaster Express-Parque Warner Madrid-SPAIN 3 71 19 45 7 31.69 1.0
50 Woodstock Express-Carowinds-USANC 3 71 18 44 9 31.69 0.5
51 Grizzly-Kings Dominion-USAVA 4 71 16 44 11 30.28 1.5
52 Cyclone-Luna Park-USANY 3 71 19 47 5 30.28 1.0
53 Bandit-MoviePark-GMANY 5 71 17 45 9 30.28 0.5
54 Scenic Railway-Dreamland-ENGLD 2 56 12 36 8 28.57
55 Judge Roy Scream-SF Over Texas-USATX 2 68 13 43 12 27.94
56 Rebel Yell (Blue)-Kings Dominion-USAVA 4 71 15 47 9 27.46
57 Tomahawk-PortAventura-SPAIN 8 71 14 48 9 26.06
58 Hurler-Carowinds-USANC 3 71 15 51 5 24.65
59 Thunderbolt-SF New England-USAMA 3 71 14 51 6 23.94 1
60 Coastersaurus-Legoland Florida-USAFL 2 69 8 44 17 23.91 1
61 Nickelodeon Streak-Blackpool-ENGLD 11 71 12 52 7 21.83
62 Wildcat-Lake Compounce-USACT 3 71 12 54 5 20.42
63 Racer (Left)-Kennywood-USAPA 3 71 8 60 3 13.38
64 Racer (Right)-Kennywood-USAPA 3 71 7 61 3 11.97
65 Rutschebanan-Bakken-DENMK 2 68 4 56 8 11.76
66 White Cyclone-Nagashima Spa Land-JAPAN 3 71 6 62 3 10.56 2
67 Stampida (left)-PortAventura-SPAIN 8 71 5 61 5 10.56 1
68 Stampida (right)-PortAventura-SPAIN 8 71 4 62 5 9.15
69 Antelope-Gullivers Warrington-ENGLD 4 61 2 56 3 5.74
70 Blue Flyer-Blackpool-ENGLD 10 71 1 69 1 2.11
71 Tyrolean Tubtwist-Joyland-ENGLD 4 57 1 56 0 1.75
72 Anaconda-Walygator Parc-FRANC 2 68 0 66 2 1.47
moosecoaster
TS Member
Greetings, everyone! This is Jim from ElloCoaster and I want to thank everyone who voted in this year's poll. I realize that the results were a bit surprising - I see several comments about El Toro ranking as low as it did, as well as a few who were surprised at Wildfire.
There were 115 voters (yay!) and quite a few were from the eastern USA - people who get to ride El Toro a lot. When you're in that group, you have a different relationship with the coaster than you might if you only got a few rides on it years ago whilst on some trip. There is such a thing as "remote bias" in many people's rankings - you know, where that far away coaster that you'd been dying to ride ranks a bit higher than it might if it were at your home park, just because you were so happy to finally get there and ride it... and that can't be helped. The solution to that is to have a nice mix of voters from all over the place, which we did. You can read the breakdown on the results page that was linked to earlier in this thread.
What I notice when looking at the individual ballots is that the people who live nearest El Toro were more likely to vote it lower - and I'm Facebook friends with quite a few of them and I've heard some pretty nasty rants about how the ride ops at SFGAd have been stapling riders into the trains with such force that the ride has become quite painful, even before leaving the station. I've also heard a few reports that the coaster has developed some roughness as well, especially in the back of the train. That could've led to it dropping in the ranks like it did. Perhaps it will rise again.
Speaking of rising again, Voyage is getting a *lot* of new track right now. It got killed in the rankings by the people who rode it this year - apparently, the park was combating roughness by nearly stopping the train on the midcourse. Yes, right before the underground triple-drop. You can imagine, then, that the drop was neutered by that move and the whole back half of the ride suffered as well. It will be interesting to see if those people who canned it last year will ride it again and push it back up the list.
As for Wildfire, the 23 people who rode it *loved it*. Nearly everyone put it in their top five and most of them put it at #1. The only real contender was Lightning Rod, which only lost to Wildfire in a head-to-head by one vote. That's really close!
Going forward, I thank those of you who pointed out typos and such. They've been noted and fixed for the 2018 ballot. It's true, though, that you shouldn't correct them on the ballot you send in - the tabulation program will toss out your ballot as an error. I had to go back and manually "correct" a few ballots back to the misspelled versions in order for them to be counted, lol.
And YES, we're seriously considering a steel poll this year. The issue at this point is how to present a ballot that won't be overwhelming. There were 198 woodies. There are more than 4000 steelies. With the woodies, there were 39,006 possible head-to-head pairings to look at. On a steel ballot, that number is in the tens of millions.
I remember that Mitch used to do clone grouping, so rather than rank each wacky worm separately, you'd just rank "fave wacky worm" - that is mostly a good idea, but it has flaws. For example, every Batman clone I've been on would outrank every wacky worm, but if I list them just once per group, the wacky worm would look like it ranks at #2, while in reality it ranks much lower, behind the dozen or so Batmen. Also, not all clones are equal enough to be grouped. I'd rank the worst Vekoma boomerang I've been on near the bottom of my list, as I would with most of the others.... but that one at Prater with the lap-bar-only trains and the tunnel? I love that one! If I rank just my "fave boomerang" at the point where the Prater one would go, it looks like I really like boomerangs. And I don't.
So we're tossing around ideas now about how to make a steel ballot manageable. If you folks have any suggestions, I'm all ears.
We're also going to try to work up a web-based drag/drop ballot. Stay tuned on that one. The reason for the text ballot was because [1] it was familiar with anyone who'd filled out a Hawker ballot before [2] I had to teach myself to code in order to tabulate the ballots (remember the 39,006 pairings? I'm not doing that mess by hand!) and I wasn't about to attempt to add a web ballot into the mix on the first year. I've got some help now, however, so fingers crossed that we can pull it off this year.
Again, thanks to everyone who sent in a ballot this year. If you'd like to be reminded when this year's poll goes live, drop me an email at [email protected] and I'll make sure that a fresh ballot hits your inbox on Nov 1.
Jim
There were 115 voters (yay!) and quite a few were from the eastern USA - people who get to ride El Toro a lot. When you're in that group, you have a different relationship with the coaster than you might if you only got a few rides on it years ago whilst on some trip. There is such a thing as "remote bias" in many people's rankings - you know, where that far away coaster that you'd been dying to ride ranks a bit higher than it might if it were at your home park, just because you were so happy to finally get there and ride it... and that can't be helped. The solution to that is to have a nice mix of voters from all over the place, which we did. You can read the breakdown on the results page that was linked to earlier in this thread.
What I notice when looking at the individual ballots is that the people who live nearest El Toro were more likely to vote it lower - and I'm Facebook friends with quite a few of them and I've heard some pretty nasty rants about how the ride ops at SFGAd have been stapling riders into the trains with such force that the ride has become quite painful, even before leaving the station. I've also heard a few reports that the coaster has developed some roughness as well, especially in the back of the train. That could've led to it dropping in the ranks like it did. Perhaps it will rise again.
Speaking of rising again, Voyage is getting a *lot* of new track right now. It got killed in the rankings by the people who rode it this year - apparently, the park was combating roughness by nearly stopping the train on the midcourse. Yes, right before the underground triple-drop. You can imagine, then, that the drop was neutered by that move and the whole back half of the ride suffered as well. It will be interesting to see if those people who canned it last year will ride it again and push it back up the list.
As for Wildfire, the 23 people who rode it *loved it*. Nearly everyone put it in their top five and most of them put it at #1. The only real contender was Lightning Rod, which only lost to Wildfire in a head-to-head by one vote. That's really close!
Going forward, I thank those of you who pointed out typos and such. They've been noted and fixed for the 2018 ballot. It's true, though, that you shouldn't correct them on the ballot you send in - the tabulation program will toss out your ballot as an error. I had to go back and manually "correct" a few ballots back to the misspelled versions in order for them to be counted, lol.
And YES, we're seriously considering a steel poll this year. The issue at this point is how to present a ballot that won't be overwhelming. There were 198 woodies. There are more than 4000 steelies. With the woodies, there were 39,006 possible head-to-head pairings to look at. On a steel ballot, that number is in the tens of millions.
I remember that Mitch used to do clone grouping, so rather than rank each wacky worm separately, you'd just rank "fave wacky worm" - that is mostly a good idea, but it has flaws. For example, every Batman clone I've been on would outrank every wacky worm, but if I list them just once per group, the wacky worm would look like it ranks at #2, while in reality it ranks much lower, behind the dozen or so Batmen. Also, not all clones are equal enough to be grouped. I'd rank the worst Vekoma boomerang I've been on near the bottom of my list, as I would with most of the others.... but that one at Prater with the lap-bar-only trains and the tunnel? I love that one! If I rank just my "fave boomerang" at the point where the Prater one would go, it looks like I really like boomerangs. And I don't.
So we're tossing around ideas now about how to make a steel ballot manageable. If you folks have any suggestions, I'm all ears.
We're also going to try to work up a web-based drag/drop ballot. Stay tuned on that one. The reason for the text ballot was because [1] it was familiar with anyone who'd filled out a Hawker ballot before [2] I had to teach myself to code in order to tabulate the ballots (remember the 39,006 pairings? I'm not doing that mess by hand!) and I wasn't about to attempt to add a web ballot into the mix on the first year. I've got some help now, however, so fingers crossed that we can pull it off this year.
Again, thanks to everyone who sent in a ballot this year. If you'd like to be reminded when this year's poll goes live, drop me an email at [email protected] and I'll make sure that a fresh ballot hits your inbox on Nov 1.
Jim
Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Hi Jim, thank you for your insight, very interesting indeed!
Glad to hear that a web-based ballot system is being developed, this should make it much easier and hopefully increase the number of voters.
I'll actually remember to submit by ballot for next year's poll! Looking forward to it as I'll be getting on a lot of new woodies over in the States this summer, so ranking them afterwards should be good fun.
Glad to hear that a web-based ballot system is being developed, this should make it much easier and hopefully increase the number of voters.
I'll actually remember to submit by ballot for next year's poll! Looking forward to it as I'll be getting on a lot of new woodies over in the States this summer, so ranking them afterwards should be good fun.
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Thanks Jim, interesting insight regarding El Toro and Wildfire, our group wasn't really that enamoured with Wildfire, and it barely made the forum top 5, so I was expecting a similar placement on the full poll, possibly slightly lower as several top rides don't make our list due to our geographic bias.
Mattmash
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
Hi Jim, thanks for the post and thanks for running the poll, I really quite miss the Mitch Hawker one! The prospect of doing a steel one does scare me slightly these days, but I'd certainly give it a go if you did manage to get one up and running.
Interesting about The Voyage too. Myself, John and Rob (the 2 posters above), and a few others from the forum will all be riding it this summer, so I am praying they've got it running well, it's easily one of my most wanted coasters! I'm sure we'll let you know our thoughts in next years poll
Interesting about The Voyage too. Myself, John and Rob (the 2 posters above), and a few others from the forum will all be riding it this summer, so I am praying they've got it running well, it's easily one of my most wanted coasters! I'm sure we'll let you know our thoughts in next years poll
moosecoaster
TS Member
From the looks of a few posts I've seen on Facebook, Holiday World is re-tracking the Voyage extensively right now. It should have lots of fresh new wood when you ride. Of course, with Voyage, the earlier in the season you ride it, the better. That ride has so much power and intensity, it's just brutal on that track. Even if you get there pre-July, I'd suggest avoiding the even-numbered rows. You really don't want to ride over the wheels.
All of the above sounds like I'm being critical, but I'm not. I *love* that ride - it was my #1 woodie for ages. If I don't count RMCs as wood, it still is.
As for the park, if it's a hot day, my best tip is to skip Raven and head directly to Legend. Tick that one on the way down to Thunderbird. Get T-bird a couple of times, then backtrack to Raven (everyone does Raven right as they come in. The first half-hour will be the longest waits of the day.) Ride Raven and Legend until the water park opens, then explore the area on top of the hill and nab the kiddie credit. A half-hour or so after the water park opens, head down to Voyage. The water park there is INSANELY popular and the locals usually arrive right at opening, score a few rides, then the park empties when the water park opens. You might wait an hour to ride Voyage before the water park opens... and just 10 min afterward.
The water park is really good, too, but the queues are always very long. That's why nobody is on the dry rides, they're all queued for Wildebeest or Mammoth.
All of the above sounds like I'm being critical, but I'm not. I *love* that ride - it was my #1 woodie for ages. If I don't count RMCs as wood, it still is.
As for the park, if it's a hot day, my best tip is to skip Raven and head directly to Legend. Tick that one on the way down to Thunderbird. Get T-bird a couple of times, then backtrack to Raven (everyone does Raven right as they come in. The first half-hour will be the longest waits of the day.) Ride Raven and Legend until the water park opens, then explore the area on top of the hill and nab the kiddie credit. A half-hour or so after the water park opens, head down to Voyage. The water park there is INSANELY popular and the locals usually arrive right at opening, score a few rides, then the park empties when the water park opens. You might wait an hour to ride Voyage before the water park opens... and just 10 min afterward.
The water park is really good, too, but the queues are always very long. That's why nobody is on the dry rides, they're all queued for Wildebeest or Mammoth.
moosecoaster
TS Member
August? Woooooooo, DEFINITELY don't ride over the wheels, then! It will be ridiculously hot, though, so the dry side of the park will probably be deserted in mid-afternoon, giving you tons of rides on stuff. I did a whole article on Voyage over on ElloCoaster, if you'd like to read more: http://www.ellocoaster.com/the-voyage/
John
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
I noticed earlier that this uses a new algorithm and isn't just a re-launch of the Hawker poll, as the results just count how many other coasters each ride beat/lost to on all ballots, rather than comparing every possible pair of coasters like the Hawker poll did. On the head to head comparisons, 5th place Voyage beat the rides in 2nd-4th, in the case of Outlaw Run it was by quite a large margin. Wildfire still comfortably wins though.
moosecoaster
TS Member
Yes, this is by design. With Hawker's algorithm, if you have a pair of coasters that were very, very close (let's use 100 voters for all these examples) - like a 51-49 victory for coaster A - it counts exactly the same as a 99-1 victory. A win is a win.
By counting total wins rather than just head-to-head wins, you also take into account two factors that Mitch's algorithm ignores:
1. Landslide victories have more 'weight' than narrow-margin victories. This reduces the chance that a single voter (or a handful of bloc voters) can trash or artificially elevate a ride by themselves and
2. Riders with longer lists have a bit more 'weight' than riders with shorter lists. While this might initially seem unfair, it makes sense. After all, when you hear someone say later this year, "OMG, Wicker Man is my new #1 coaster!!!!" you're going to give a lot more or less attention to that statement depending on whether the guy has traveled the world and has 1300 credits vs someone who's only been to Alton and Drayton Manor.
We're in the process of tweaking, streamlining, and improving the poll for next year. Perhaps we could do a second list showing the rankings of the coasters based on Mitch's algorithm as well.
Edited to add: While the coasters in the top 25 would shuffle around a bit in the rankings just using Mitch's formula, I don't think that the coasters that made the top 25 would be much different - just in a different order.
Jordan
TS Contributor
Hopefully not! The last thing we need are diverging polls.