Career-based ranking baseline
Every player begins with an internal evaluation of his complete career résumé. The model considers major achievements, individual honors, career production, longevity, defensive value and era context. Exact category weights are intentionally kept internal.
This baseline seeds the leaderboard. It is separate from the point value a player contributes in the five-player game.
Modern-era eligibility
The current player pool uses a modern-era eligibility rule: a player must have at least five credited NBA, BAA or ABA seasons from the 1960–61 season onward. Once a player qualifies, his complete eligible career is considered.
How fan influence is added
The community component is confidence-weighted. A small number of matchups has limited influence. As matchup volume grows, fan influence increases and reaches its maximum at 400 matchups.
At full confidence, the live GOAT Rating can be influenced up to 70% by the fan component and 30% by the model baseline. This lets community opinion matter without allowing a handful of early votes to immediately overturn the underlying résumé evaluation.
Game Value is intentionally separate
Within the live Top 50, Game Value equals 101 minus current live rank. That produces a simple 100-to-51 point scale for Chase 470. Changes to the ranking model therefore do not change the game-scoring formula.
Why the systems are separate
GOAT Chaser separates the career evaluation, live fan opinion and game points so each serves one clear purpose: the model establishes a starting point, the community can move the leaderboard over time, and Game Value keeps gameplay simple.