# Two teams tied for first--is the next team second, or third?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-teams-tied-for-first-is-the-next-team-second-or-third/486027>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [February 16, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-teams-tied-for-first-is-the-next-team-second-or-third/486027 "2009-02-16T02:44:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-teams-tied-for-first-is-the-next-team-second-or-third/486027/21 "2018-02-26T21:08:47Z")

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The way I think of it, if one of those two tied first-place winners had been just a tiny bit slower, I’d definitely be third. Another competitor doing worse shouldn’t decrease my standings, so I must have also been third before, too.

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**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-teams-tied-for-first-is-the-next-team-second-or-third/486027/22 "2018-02-26T23:34:51Z")

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It depends upon what you are calling the rankings.

If you call it “first place”, “second place”, etc., then a tie for first means the next best team is in “third place.”

But if you call it “first rank”, “second rank”, etc., then the number of people/teams tied for the first ranking doesn’t affect the fact that the next best are in the “second rank”. I learned that lesson when I took the exam for Workers’ Compensation Judge in California in 1997, and ended up in the “third rank”. I thought it meant I was third highest scorer, but no, there were about 15 people ahead of me in first and second ranks.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-teams-tied-for-first-is-the-next-team-second-or-third/486027/23 "2018-02-27T00:12:28Z")

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But that’s also not implying that all of the people in the same rank are equal. It’s more like giving students grades: You can have any number of As, Bs, Cs, Ds, or Fs, and while you can tell that a B student did better than a C student, you can’t tell which of two B students is better, just from their grade.

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