TOP2013: Crunching the numbers
DeFazio's has posted a string of high scores in the TOP. But given the history of veggie pizzas, the Troy shop's record-tying score this year in the veggie round was a bit of a surprise.
We're almost to the finish line in the 2013 Tournament of Pizza -- sponsored by The College of Saint Rose. Here's a little something to snack on before the result from the final.
The Tournament of Pizza is now in year 5 of the modern 100-point scale era. So we have a lot of numbers piled up from the tournament -- and a lot of stats. Let's break some of them down...
It's important to remember... These scores are all based on the opinions of judges. And while the judges take it very (very) seriously, they are, in the end, just people with their own opinions. Your favorite shop hasn't scored well over the years? No big deal. If you like the pizza, that's what matters. Eat what you like. If anything, maybe the TOP can help you find a new spot that you might also like.
Numbers include all pizzas up to this point in the Tournament of Pizza, excluding the first (non-modern) year.
2013 overall
Previous years overall
TOP overall, all years
Bracket averages, all years
Averages by pizza type, all years
Shop averages, all years (minimum 2 pizzas)
Every pizza, all years
Scores from every pizza in the Tournament of Pizza's modern era in a chart in wide format at the top of the page -- click or scroll all the way up.
Download the numbers
If, for whatever reason, you'd like to play around the numbers yourself, here's a download link for an xls of the all-pizzas spreadsheet.
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Results from the big, big final on Thursday.
The 2013 Tournament of Pizza is sponsored by The College of Saint Rose.
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Comments
Aside from eating the pizza, this might be my next favorite part of TOP - the numbers and quantifying.
... said Albany Jane on Oct 17, 2013 at 8:43 AM | link
Pasquale's....sigh.
... said -R. on Oct 17, 2013 at 9:19 AM | link
I also miss Pasquale's. I used to live right around the corner from the shop, too. I've yet to find a pizza I like as much as their's.
I must be missing something about DeFazio's. My husband and I tried their pizza a few years ago, in the shop, after reading about how good it was here. We both thought it was fine, good even, but nothing spectacular and not really worth the drive to Troy for us.
... said Beck on Oct 17, 2013 at 9:59 AM | link
Time to over analyze the tourney ...
The first thing that jumps out in these numbers is that the judges are carnivores. In the pizza topping table, all of the meat topped pizzas have higher score averages than the veggie or cheese only topped pies.
This is Defazio's 4th trip to the finals in the modern era and they have 14 (soon to be 15) judged pizzas. The next highest is 10 (Marissa's and Marino's). Of the 14 DeFazio's pies, 8 received higher scores that DC's best with a 9th pizza receiving the same 72. Keep in mind DeFazio's seems to falter in the finals with a highest final round score of 74. The other final scores for DeFazio's 70 and 68 so anything can happen.
If Defazio's plays it safe and submits a Buffalo chicken pie, DC's could be in trouble, but anything can happen in a 1 and done tournament. We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
Back to you in the studio.
... said Jon in Albany on Oct 17, 2013 at 11:04 AM | link
Not sure if it just me but recently the tables for TOP (and maybe other articles as well?) have not been displaying for me in Firefox or Chrome on my PC or in Safari on my iPad. I just see blank space where the tables are supposed to be.
If I bring the article up in IE the tables are displayed correctly.
... said BobF on Oct 17, 2013 at 11:15 AM | link
The tables were lost to me via mobile as well. Using Chrome on a Samsung Galaxy SIII.
... said Olivia on Oct 17, 2013 at 11:42 AM | link
some people are sad when track season is over. I'm always sad when the super nerding out/number crunching/pizza snarfing TOP comes to an end...
... said Rebecca on Oct 17, 2013 at 12:05 PM | link
I'm kinda proud that D'Andrea, right down the street from me, garnered the worst score of all time...
... said Burnt My Fingers on Oct 17, 2013 at 1:05 PM | link
@Albany Jane: It's kind of crazy to think you've now judged 148 pizzas over the years.
@Jon in Albany: I'm pretty sure DeFazio's would have won the whole thing by now if they had picked a different pizza to enter in those previous finals. At the same time -- they believed in those pizzas and wanted to go for it. Gotta respect the inclination to be bold.
And you're totally right about the one-and-done format. Sometimes a shop just turns out a less-than-great pizza -- and it happens at the wrong time.
@BobF, Olivia: Sorry about that. We're using embeds of Google spreadsheet tables, which seemed to have worked in the past. Hmm. I look into and try to find a fix.
... said Greg on Oct 17, 2013 at 2:32 PM | link