Kick Rocks rating
How the ranking works
HLTV has one ranking because Counter-Strike is one sport. Ultra is five sports that share shoes. Kick Rocks publishes a world ranking and five format boards so a backyard world-record holder is not asked to beat Kilian Jornet at UTMB in order to exist.
The rating is editorial. It is supposed to be argued with. The rules are public so the argument is about the sport, not a black box.
Boards
- World ranking. Top 100 across formats. Bigger monuments count more. Last 18 months of form.
- Trail 100 mile. About 100 miles on trails and mountains — Western States, UTMB, Hardrock. Hours, not minutes.
- Trail 50–100K. Shorter mountain ultras: 50 to 100 kilometers. More of a footrace than a 100-miler.
- Backyard. Last one standing. The same loop every hour until only one runner can start again.
- Road & timed. Road ultras and races against the clock: Spartathlon, 24-hour, 48-hour, multi-day loops.
- Stage & expedition. Multi-day or huge-distance events — Cocodona 250, Tor des Géants, expeditions.
What counts
Rolling 18 months, decaying. Monuments (Western States, UTMB, Hardrock, Big's Individual, Spartathlon) carry the heaviest weight. Course records and outright wins against mixed fields get a bump. DNFs at monuments cost more than quiet finishes at national races. Assists in a backyard — the runner who makes the record possible — are credited, not hidden.
What does not count
Shoe contracts. Instagram. A high ITRA or UTMB Index on a runner who has never contested the format they are being ranked in. We will use those indexes as scouting, not as a ranking.
Update cycle
Boards move on Monday after a monument, or immediately after a world record. The current stamp is 10 August 2026 — post–Western States, post–Hardrock, pre-UTMB. Chamonix will rewrite the 100-mile board.