Since there was a movie for them all on youtube thanks to EMA (Master, MasterK) and 14 (MasterV, MasterO, MasterM), I decided to take that built in statistics from each video and compare them. Also included end time. Note that all grades except MasterO are the promotional grades. GM is still missing a video as of this date. I haven't counted the COOL!!s because it is so easy to miss one (they can appear almost at the same time, and can only be seen with the help of the sound). MasterV seems interesting because of the finish time, the last bars are kinda messed up? Same goes for the bad MasterM time. Things you can do: For each grade, add each bar together and divide by the number of bars, then compare.
I honestly don't think these bars are directly linked to the grades, they might, on the other hand, be linked to the values that determine the grade. But I doubt you can tell too much just by looking at the bars.
Recall the green and orange lines from TAP. In general, a green line means you died during the credits, and an orange means you survived them. The exception to this was the m-roll (instant invisibility). Failing the m-roll results in a green line M. Therefore an orange M is impossible. Passing the m-roll would give you a Gm... but often green lines were still given out. To get an orange line, you had to clear 32 or more lines during the m-roll. Ti is a little different. A green line always means you failed the credits, and an orange line always means you passed them. And yes, MasterM can exist in a green line game. Consider the following: The lowest possible grade (failing very quickly) after getting the instant-invisible-roll is m9. This seems to imply that no matter how well you play, the highest grade you can earn during the 0-999 period is m9. In fact, earning m9 seems to be the requirement for the instant-invisibility-roll. I hear players are almost certain of this, even though no grade is displayed until the end of the game. Here is some further convincing evidence: -Hypothetically, the highest grade you could have while entering the fading-invisibility-roll is m8. -The highest recorded grade after passing the fading-invisibility-roll is MV. -The instant-invisible-roll is only given to registered players. -Assuming m9 is possible 0-999, and that the instant-invisibility-roll will be supressed, then hypothetically the highest grade an unregistered player can have while entering the fading-invisibility-roll is m9. -The highest recorded grade after passing the fading-invisibility-roll is MO. Consider the sequence of grades: m8, m9, M, MK, MV, MO, MM, GM Then it would seem that in the case of the fading roll, registered play can attain at most m8 + 4 = MV and unregistered play can attain at most m9 + 4 = MO. That's interesting and all, but it's a bit of a digression. My thoughts on the grading system: Given that a no-medal MM has been attained with a relatively slow time, it seems probable to me that the grading system is much less "forced" than TAP. What I mean by this is that there isn't a list of arbitrary requirements that must be met. No x tetrises or y section time must be attained. Whatever system is in place, I bet it only emphasizes clean stacking. Tetrises aren't explicitly required, but they will improve your section time thanks to the +2 level bonus. Fast sections aren't explicitly required either, but will improve your ranking relative to others with the same grade. So I think the philosophy behind the grading system is such that the grading system is meant to assess your skill at building, and everything else is optional bonus stuff you do to improve your time instead of being explicitly required. It's not a bad philosophy, and it sounds a lot more flexible, at least based on what we know so far. Now, TAP had a complicated skill assessment system, and then threw it out the window during the m-roll. It checked if 32 lines were cleared for the orange line Gm, with no fancy complications. Could Ti do something similar, but with more gradients, for the M ranks? I've been looking at instant-invisibility-rolls (guaranteed m9), counting line clears and seeing if there is a simple relationship. The top tier grades are probably not so simple but I've got to try right?
Thanks ct! Some of that stuff you explained, I have already got from Needle, but you put it down more easily. You are probably right here. As for checking the instant invisible rolls. There are only one for MO, and it may be a MM because it is an exam, and limits the grade to MO. Very hard to know when you can't see the grades while playing. It is like counting COOL!!s. So easy to miss one.
It didn't take long, pursuing my line of thinking on the instant-invisibility grading system, to see that something wasn't adding up: Based on these stats, you can easily see that the m9 play performed better during the m-roll than the MK play. This is true for nearly every metric: the m9 play scored more lines, including more tetrises/triples and less singles/doubles. The m9 play made it further, level-wise, than the MK play. And when you look at my transcription of the performances, I'm sure everyone would unanimously agree that the m9 play had much "cleaner" stacking. The only inferior aspect of the m9 play was the survival time: 37 seconds compared to the MK's 44. But surely 7 seconds is a small and unimportant difference? Surely it is not enough to add two ranks to the MK play? The conclusions I draw from this are that either: The grading system for the M grades is beyond the comprehension of mortal men. Or: It is possible to reach the instant-invisibility-roll with grades other than m9.
I recommend only to compate classic rules. When entering the world of world rules, things might not be the same.
I've found out that grades lower than m9 can enter the m-roll, so my observation above is pretty irrelevant. However, a bit of work on my part has revealed a huge portion of Ti's grading system. http://www.tetrisconcept.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tetris_The_Grand_Master_3_Terror-Instinct#Grade_Recognition_System Now that I can predict the grade attained from 0-999, it should be easier to tell how performance during the credits awards the higher grades.
I can only speculate about grades above m9, but I imagine that for GM you need the TAP portion maxed to s9, and all 9 section cools. And then a great invisible performance on top of that. Oh yeah, one thing we do know is that GM has to be unlocked by first qualifying for GM.
