Ranking is the process where the judges' scores are fed into an algorithm and a final overall ranking is produced for each round.
The main challenge is to combine the judges scores in such a way that the best couple or dancer wins. This may sound fairly obvious but due to flaws with some algorithms the best couples do not necessarily win!
Finals can sometimes have up to 3 songs (slow, fast, spotlight), so we must be able to combine the judges' scores for each song.
Performance categories such as Teams and Showcases often have a number of criteria, for example: timing, teamwork, technique, choreography, performance, costume etc. Some of these criteria may be weighted, for example, costume is not usually considered as important as the other criteria. Again, any ranking system must be able to combine scores for each criteria to give an overall ranking.
Another challenge is how to deal with ties. In some dance competitions ties are broken by the head judge or by examining scores from previous rounds.
The MJPI scoring system calculates the overall ranking using three different methods or algorithms. If there is a tie from the first method then the second one is used and so on. If there is still a tie after the third method then judge rankings are used to finally break any remaining ties.
Once all the finals have been scored the competition has come to an end and all that remains is to publish and share the results. The results are usually given for competitors who place 1st, 2nd or 3rd. An individual's scores are then sometimes made available online.