Big Data Is The Future Of Esports

"Game developers don't like me," said Sabina Hemmi. "Before I came around, there was no insight into how balanced a game was." As the co-founder of DotaBuff, a site that provides statistics about Dota 2 gameplay, she can show with hard data if certain characters are stronger or weaker, and in what areas. As access to such data is becoming more commonplace, she says, players are starting to expect it, and are reacting to it. "If I'm focusing hours of my time into the game, I want to focus on playing the characters that are actually competitive," she said. Just as it did with traditional sports, the collection, analysis, and use of all kinds of data is beginning to change the way that competitive games are played and understood. But while many scenes like Dota 2, League of Legends, and Overwatch are coming around to the value of statistics, the breadth and sophistication of statistical coverage in general is still in its beginning stages. The numbers that Sabina Hemmi's team have pulled down from Dota 2 over the years are, in a word, expansive. You can view stats from your own match history stretching back years.