wpa
Valuing Player Actions in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Xenopoulos, Peter, Doraiswamy, Harish, Silva, Claudio
Esports, despite its expanding interest, lacks fundamental sports analytics resources such as accessible data or proven and reproducible analytical frameworks. Even Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO), the second most popular esport, suffers from these problems. Thus, quantitative evaluation of CSGO players, a task important to teams, media, bettors and fans, is difficult. To address this, we introduce (1) a data model for CSGO with an open-source implementation; (2) a graph distance measure for defining distances in CSGO; and (3) a context-aware framework to value players' actions based on changes in their team's chances of winning. Using over 70 million in-game CSGO events, we demonstrate our framework's consistency and independence compared to existing valuation frameworks. We also provide use cases demonstrating high-impact play identification and uncertainty estimation.
Why we need a 'Wicked Problems Agency'
The first five months of 2020 sent a parade of "wicked problems" around the globe, including a plague of locusts in Asia and Africa, bushfires in Australia and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Wicked problems can be defined as problems that no one knows how to solve without creating further problems. We struggle to mitigate them because they transcend borders and generations. During and after World War II, policymakers also confronted significant problems, such as how to keep the peace, encourage recovery and prevent starvation. They tackled these problems by creating collaborative institutions and rules, and by providing generous aid and technical assistance.
IBM Watson Personal Assistant – answering your 'how to's
'How do I control the lights?' is my first, rage-infused question when staying in almost any hotel room. Closely followed by'how do I shut off the air conditioning?' As yet, both questions have gone unanswered. Walls, alas, cannot talk, so I am left to fiddle with the plastic key thing that for some reason also operates the room's electricity, put on an extra layer or six, and grope around in the dark. My ineptitude in the realm of all things practical isn't confined to hotel rooms. I'd also like to be able to schedule car maintenance as and when the bleeping thing on the dashboard lets me know something's up.