May 8
Math/Stats Colloquium: Nick Clark, University of St. Thomas
Thu, May 8, 2025
• 4:00pm
- 5:00pm (1h) • CMC 206
Title: eSports Analytics and an Introduction to the SCORE Network
Abstract: There are many similarities between analyzing player performance in a team eSports game like Defense of the Ancients 2 or League of Legends and in a traditional sport like basketball or hockey. Each team has five players who work together toward a common goal, while accumulating individual and team statistics that can be used to evaluate and analyze in-game performance. Unlike sports with primarily isolated one-on-one matchups and discretizable events, these games are free-flowing, with many-on-many matchups. As a result, determining a player’s individual contribution to their team’s success is challenging.
We first discuss these similarities, as well as some key differences, in analyzing players in eSports and traditional sports. We then propose a Bayesian hierarchical regression model for assessing player performance that is similar to adjusted plus-minus models used in traditional sports like basketball, hockey, and soccer. We compare the results of this regression model with several “box score” type statistics. Finally, we will introduce the SCORE network as a resource for students and educators to learn sports analytics along with statistics and data science techniques.
Event Contact: Sue Jandro