Ranked results
Results accepted by the active scoring policy and included in the selected ranking run and time scope. Career weighting, multiple-entry weighting and result limits may affect how much each result contributes.
Scoring policy & methodology
Understand individual career scores and country results by competition edition. Career-scoring formulas are versioned by contest and period; Nations uses published overall ranks.
Career score data principles
- Only official results marked complete or verified sparse are eligible.
- An entry number is never treated as a rank.
- No order is invented inside a published award band such as AGA Top Ten.
- A result never receives both overall-rank and category-rank points.
Understanding result counts
Recorded results
All competition records currently linked to an aquascaper profile. This can include records that are outside the selected time scope or are not eligible under the active scoring policy.
Country · Competition · Edition
Explore Nations →AquaRank Nations
Inspired by Josh Sim’s IAPLC Nations Challenge.
Nations compares countries within one competition edition using the five best published overall ranks. It is calculated separately from individual career scores: contest points, career weights, award bonuses and population adjustments do not enter the average.
Five confirmed contributors(rank 1 + rank 2 + rank 3 + rank 4 + rank 5) ÷ 5Lower average = higher nation position.
Example — China, IAPLC 2026: (1 + 5 + 10 + 11 + 17) ÷ 5 = 8.8. See the contributing aquascapers →
Selection, ties and data coverage
Who contributes?
Select the five lowest overall ranks for the country or region in that edition. Confirmed canonical identity links help avoid counting the same aquascaper twice, keeping their best rank. A repeated name within the contributing five requires review; unresolved contributor collisions withhold the affected average and national positions.
Country assignments follow the original result source, with spelling variants normalized to a consistent country or region label. A profile’s current country does not rewrite earlier results. Fewer than five eligible contributors means no Top 5 average.
How are ties handled?
Countries with equal sums share the same nation position. The next position skips the tied places, for example 1, 2, 2, 4. Alphabetical display order within a tie does not break it.
When is a national position available?
- Complete
- A comparable overall ranking has complete, verified published coverage. Verified vacant or disqualified slots and confirmed published gaps are accounted for. Countries with a confirmed Top 5 can receive national positions.
- Partial
- Published coverage is incomplete or still requires verification. A Top 5 average is shown only when all five contributors fall inside the validated ranking prefix. National positions remain unavailable.
- Catalogue
- Category rankings, award bands or separate ranking contexts retain their source labels. Gallery cards are selected published examples; they are not a combined Top 5 or a national ranking.
- Missing
- No usable imported edition results are available. Missing averages and positions are left unavailable; they are never replaced with zero.
Which competitions are supported?
Nations explores imported editions of IAPLC, AGA, IIAC, KIAC, CIAC, ITAC and compatible contests. A Top 5 average requires a comparable overall ranking for that edition. AGA 2025 uses its published overall ranking across Aquatic Garden categories; earlier AGA award/category editions retain their original distinctions. Separate category rankings are not combined into an overall average.
What does a country overview mean?
A country overview brings together its results and competition histories across available years. It does not assign an overall national score by adding or averaging raw ranks from different competitions. Year-to-year position changes use the immediately preceding calendar year only, and only when both national positions are available.
Sources and updates
Nations reads available published edition results independently of career-ranking runs. IAPLC 2026 has an approved reference fallback when local imported coverage is incomplete; other editions use the imported database. Accepted corrections to results or identity links can update the displayed statistics.
Recorded-result totals describe the available source records, not necessarily the official number of entries. For example, the IAPLC 2026 reference contains 1,419 ranked results, a highest rank of 1,420 and a verified vacant rank 61; the published entry total is 1,452.
AquaRank Nations is an independent AquaLibs analysis. It is not an official national ranking issued by a contest organizer.
Active career-scoring rules
9 versioned rulesAquaRank
1 rule
Career aggregation
Career score aggregation
The ten strongest eligible results are weighted 100%, 75%, 55%, 40%, then 30% each. Current form covers the latest five result years.
IAPLC
1 rule
Logarithmic rank
2001–present IAPLC world ranking
Official world rank and the official edition entry count are transformed with a logarithmic placement curve, then multiplied by the configured IAPLC prestige. Official achievement-tier bonuses are added before prestige.
100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(total_participants))Multiple entries/year: 100% · cap 100%
AGA
3 rules
Published awards
2000–2012 AGA category awards 2000-2012
Only Aquatic Garden entries are included. Official medal and Honorable Mention labels determine placement points; entry numbers are never treated as ranks. Multiple entries in one AGA year use a capped diminishing-return rule.
Best Of Show100First Place90Second Place75Third Place65Top Ten45Honorable Mention35None0
Special bonuses: Most Innovative +8 Popular Choice +5
Multiple entries/year: 100% / 25% / 10% · cap 125%
Published awards
2013–2024 AGA category awards 2013-2024
Only Aquatic Garden entries are included. First, Second and Third are exact category medals. Top Ten is stored as the published 4-10 band without inventing an internal order; 2024 Honorable Mention is treated as an award, not a numeric rank.
Best Of Show100First Place90Second Place75Third Place65Top Ten45Honorable Mention35None0
Special bonuses: Most Innovative +8 Popular Choice +5
Multiple entries/year: 100% / 25% / 10% · cap 125%
Linear rank
2025–present AGA overall Aquatic Garden ranking from 2025
The official overall Aquatic Garden rank is scored on a linear 0-100 scale. Category rank is retained for display and audit but is not added a second time. Multiple entries in one AGA year use a capped diminishing-return rule.
100*(total_participants-rank)/(total_participants-1)Special bonuses: Best Of Show +10 Most Innovative +8 Popular Choice +5
Multiple entries/year: 100% / 25% / 10% · cap 125%
IIAC
1 rule
Logarithmic rank
2015–2023 IIAC world ranking 2015-2023
Official IIAC world rank and the official number of submissions are transformed with a logarithmic placement curve and multiplied by the configured IIAC prestige. The official 2020-2021 combined edition is stored as edition year 2021. Multiple entries by one aquascaper in an edition use diminishing weights capped at 125% of the best entry.
100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(total_participants))Multiple entries/year: 100% / 25% / 10% · cap 125%
KIAC
1 rule
Logarithmic rank
2022–2025 KIAC world ranking 2022-2025
Effective with Alpha 7.3.1. Placement = 100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(total published submissions)), using the audited sum of ranked, disqualified and separately listed duplicate submissions. Add AquaRank milestone bonuses: rank 1/2/3/4 receives 30/18/14/10; ranks 5-10 receive 4; ranks 11-30 receive 2; ranks 31-50 receive 1; all later ranks receive 0. Multiply by configured prestige (initial default 2.0). Bonus and prestige are AquaRank policy, not official KIAC judging points. KIAC permits one work per person; duplicate and disqualified sections remain source evidence and do not become scoring results. Career and current-form weighting use the active formula.
100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(total_submissions))Multiple entries/year: 100% · cap 100%
CIAC
1 rule
Logarithmic rank
2017–2025 CIAC published international ranking fields
Placement = 100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(verified published ranking field)), multiplied by configured prestige (initial default 2.5). AquaRank milestone bonuses are limited to the verified podium: rank 1 receives 30, rank 2 receives 18 and rank 3 receives 14; all later ranks receive no bonus. The verified published field is 100 for 2017, 2018, 2019, the joint 2021-2022 edition and 2025; for 2024 it is 100 finalists (94 ranked plus six excluded). It is not the organizer's total submission count. CIAC did not run in 2020 or 2023. Multiple works by one scaper are retained, while edition scoring uses the best work only. Images are read only from /images/contest/ciac/{year}/ and missing local images remain blank.
100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(published_field))Multiple entries/year: 100% · cap 100%
ITAC
1 rule
Logarithmic rank
2022–2025 ITAC world ranking 2022-2025
Only entries with an official numeric rank are imported. Placement = 100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(official registrations)), multiplied by configurable prestige (initial default 2.0). AquaRank milestone bonuses are rank 1: 30, rank 2: 18, rank 3: 14, ranks 4-10: 4, and ranks 11-75: 1. ITAC special mentions are retained as source awards but add no AquaRank bonus because they do not alter the official world ranking. ITAC 2022 publishes only Top 10 of 45 candidates; 2023 publishes 178 ranked plus 36 disqualified of 214; 2024 publishes 157 ranked plus 17 disqualified of 174; 2025 publishes Top 75 plus 62 unclassified and three disqualified of 140. Unclassified, unpublished and disqualified entries never receive invented ranks. One entry per applicant is allowed. Images are read only from /images/contest/itac/{year}/ and missing local images remain blank.
100*(1-ln(rank)/ln(total_registrations))Multiple entries/year: 100% · cap 100%
Independent, source-based and versioned
AquaRank is an independent editorial and data project by AquaLibs. It is not an official ranking issued by, or a substitute for, any contest organizer. Competition names and results remain attributable to their respective publishers.
When a career-scoring formula changes, AquaRank creates a new version instead of silently rewriting history. Each career-ranking run stores its formula version, input revision and the rule used for every result. AquaRank scores compare published competition records; they do not claim to measure artistic worth.
Help improve the public record
If a name, country, identity link, placement, award or work title is incorrect or missing, email the profile URL, contest and year, requested change, and supporting evidence from an official source.
Submissions are reviewed before publication. Accepted corrections update the source record or identity layer without silently altering the scoring policy.
Email support@aqualibs.com