Ranbats (ranking battles) are tournaments run in a series, usually over the course of a year. Each tournament the top players (either top 3 or top 5) are given points. The next tournament seeding of top players/priority for byes is determined by the amount of points a player has gotten so far.
For example: TGA used to run bi monthly ranbats for all their fighting games. In each game the Winner would get 10 points, 2nd place got 7 points, 3rd got 5, 4th got 3, and 5th place got 1 point. If in a particular game you took 1st place in the first ranbat of the season, and 3rd place in the second ranbat; you would have a total of 15 points when seeded in the third ranbat, and if 15 is more points then anyone else has so far you would be the first seed (first priority for byes, seeded on the opposite end of the bracket from the second seed, etc).