Every player in POACH carries a single number, his rating, and that number decides who is worth stealing and who wins the match. Because the whole game turns on those ratings, we think you deserve to know where they come from. The short answer: they are ours.
Our own model, not a video game
We do not copy ratings out of FIFA, Football Manager or any other game. Every rating in POACH is generated by our own model from public, factual information about each squad, things like the player's club and the level it played at, the era, his position and his standing in the side. The model turns those facts into a rating on a familiar scale, so a star striker sits where you would expect him to and a lower-league makeweight sits where you would expect him to.
Why we built it ourselves
Building our own model is the only way to do this properly and fairly. It means the ratings are consistent across every club and season we feature, it means the puzzle is the same for everyone, and it means POACH owns what it shows you rather than borrowing someone else's numbers.
It is a judgement, not gospel
A rating is an opinion expressed as a number, and football fans love nothing more than arguing about exactly those. You will sometimes look at a player you remember fondly and think we have him a point or two light, or spot a cult hero rated higher than you would have guessed. That is part of the fun. The ratings are our best, consistent read of the facts, not a final word on anyone's career.
The same for everyone
Whatever the model decides, it decides for all of us. The same player has the same rating in your game and in everyone else's, on the same day. That is what keeps the daily fair and the leaderboard meaningful. If you want to see how the ratings feed into the puzzle, the how to play page walks through a full day.
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