ISTAF Super Series Thailand 2011 - the men's final

Three minutes of highlights from the men's final at the ISTAF Super Series Thailand 2011 between Thailand and Indonesia. And have you ever seen a match point like this one?!

Ranking Criteria

All international Regu tournaments sanctioned by ISTAF may apply to ISTAF to offer world ranking points. The world ranking points available for any international competition will be determined by ISTAF in its sole discretion, taking into account various factors, including the rankings of the participating teams.

All world ranking points are valid for 12 months, with the exception of ISTAF World Cup world ranking points, which are valid for 24 months. World rankings will be updated and published on the first day of each calendar month.

ISTAF World Cup		ISTAF Super Series		Other International
				Competition
Winner	500	Winner	250	Winner	150
Runner Up	375	Runner Up	200	Runner Up	130
Semi Finals	280	Semi Finals	175	Semi Finals	110
Qualifying	200	Qualifying	150	Qualifying	90

Ranking Overview

Sepaktakraw fans are no exception to this rule, but the lack of a defined international circuit has, until now, prevented true comparisons to be made between the sport's greatest exponents.
With the advent of the ISTAF World Cup and the ISTAF Super Series, this is all about to change. Inspired by statistics-rich exploration of playing performance in other sports, a brand new Sepaktakraw World Ranking system will, for the first time, be introduced to determine the world's greatest teams and players.

Complete Metrics

The new World Ranking system will not, however, be limited solely to a conventional team-based international ranking index. Employing a state-of-the-art electronic data collection system (which has been successfully used at several international multi-sport games such as the Asian Games and the Asian Beach Games), comprehensive tournament data and statistics, based on a host of wide-ranging parameters, will be constantly collected and processed. The new World Ranking system will instead encompass, and present, an extensive variety of toumament performance measurements and indicators.

Performance

All processed data will be available to the general public, so that one thing is sure, however: it will only fuel the debates among die-hard Sepaktakraw fans. This system will also be mirrored by a performance ranking index for all players and teams, reflecting their performances in the ISTAF Super Series.

ISTAF Super Series Ranking (as of 12 Sep, 2011)

Men's Regu (as of 12 Sep, 2011)						Women's Regu (as of 12 Sep, 2011)
Ranking		Country	New	Total		Ranking		Country	New	Total
	1	Thailand	250	250			1	Thailand	250	250
	2	Indonesia	200	200			2	Korea	200	200
	3	Korea	175	175			3	Vietnam	175	175
	4	Japan	170	170			4	Japan	170	170
	5	Malaysia	150	150			5	China	150	150
	6	Myanmar	140	140			6	Myanmar	140	140
	7	Phillippines	130	130			7	Malaysia	130	130
	8	Singapore	120	120			8	India	120	120
	9	Brunei	100	100
	10	India	90	90
	11	Laos	80	80
	12	USA	70	70

ISTAF World Ranking (as of 12 Sep, 2011)

Men's Regu (as of 12 Sep, 2011)						Women's Regu (as of 12 Sep, 2011)
Ranking		Country	Points			Ranking		Country	Points
	1	Thailand	750				1	Thailand	750
	2	Malaysia	525				2	Vietname	550
	3	Indonesia	475				3	China	475
	4	Myanmar	465				4	Korea	465
	5	Korea	455				5	Malaysia	440
	6	Singapore	430				6	Myanmar	415
	7	Phillippines	390				7	India	400
	8	India	355				8	Japan	370
	9	Japan	340				9	Cambodia	260
	10	Brunei	300				10	Indonesia	270
	11	Laos	270				11	Phillippines	250
	12	USA	250				12	Pakistan	170

Sepaktakraw ISTAF Super Series

The ISTAF Super Series has been designed to offer a regular pipeline of elite internation tournaments to Sepaktakraw fans, and featuers 4 Men's and 4 Women's tournaments staged across Asia in the inaugural Season 2011/12

Culminating in the ISTAF Super Series Finals in China in 2012, each team will earn Super Series Ranking Points based on their performance throughout the ISTAF Super Series season. In China, the overall Men's and Women's winners will emerge and be crowned ISTAF Super Series champions.

Each of the men's and women's competitions will employ the Regu playing format, and comprises a Group Phase and a Knock-out Phase, culminating in the Men's Sepaktakraw Super Series Champion and the Women's Sepaktakraw Super Series Champion respectively

The Sepaktakraw Heritage

Often described as a spectacular blend of volleyball, football, martial arts and gymnastics, Sepaktakraw is, in reality, a sport unlike any other. Astonishingly visceral and explosive, it is one of the toughest games in the world. Demanding lightning reflexes, precise control and fearless, gravity-defying leaps, Sepaktakraw delivers some of the most intense sporting action.

Historical records point to early versions of the sport being played in 16th century Thailand, at the Malaysian royal court a century before that, and even across a wide swathe of the Philipines, Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia and Laos as far back as the 11th century. The "origin" debate may sometimes evoke strong [assions, but it often obscures reality, namely that the values of the sport resonate right across national divides, and embrace a huge diaspora of Asian cultural traditions.

These cultural threads were finally united in the early 60s, with the establishment of the first codified set of Sepaktakraw playing rules. A first appearance as a medal sport at the South-East Asian Peninsular Games (the forerunner of the South-East Asian Games of SEA Games) materialised in 1965, while the formation of the International Sepaktakraw Federation (ISTAF) in 1988 was quickly followed by an invitation to join the Olympic Movement at the 10th Asian Games in Beijing in 1990.