Welcome to Wonderstar Analytics (26/02/2014 04:46)

 Welcome to the blog!

The original first post is below, and remains to serve as a sort of introduction. But from now on, this post is going to serve as a sort of homepage, with updated links to everything I post. Hopefully you'll find it useful, and thanks for reading!

 

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DONATIONS

 

Some kind managers have thrown a few credits my way in appreciation of the blog. Thanks! If you'd like to do so too, I greatly appreciate it - but I'd like to be able to give you something back too!

 

So rather than just donate, why not get a Team Analysis for ten credits?

Or, if you don't want/need one of those, sometimes I run more in-depth analyses that end up as a pdf, rather than on the blog (recent examples include a bigger and more detailed analysis of player attribute effects, and a more complex gaining analysis that measures the effect of stars across a player's career). These usually get sent round to managers who've helped with the data/analysis ideas, or who have spontaneously donated to the blog.

Or, in the future I might make little excel widgets to use with your team. Again, if you've spontaneously donated you might get first dibs on one of these.

Finally, if you want your name in lights, why not sponsor one of the manager awards I calculate?

 

If you'd like to donate for any of those reasons, or just plain generosity, you can do so HERE. Thanks!

 

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 LATEST POSTS

The most recently updated posts are listed here!

 

UPDATED! The ManagerLeague Manager League!

A list of the top managers in Div1, created by summing the Manager Ratings from Season 112-115. 

 

UPDATED! The ManagerLeague League of Leagues!

A ranking of the 33 leagues in the game, based on a rolling 5-season weighted average of their league ratings. 

 

NEW! League of the Season S114 

An alternative award, given to the Div 1 manager who has most outperformed his or her team strength.

 

NEW! League of the Season S115 

The latest version updated for Season 115.

 

NEW! Manager of the Season S114 

An alternative award, given to the Div 1 manager who has most outperformed his or her team strength.

 

NEW! Manager of the Season S115 

The latest version updated for Season 115.

 

The Gaining Pie!

 A quarter of a million attribute gains carefully sifted through to make one delicious pie of data. How important is age to gaining? Quality? Friendlies? Find out here!

 

ARCHIVED POSTS

This section will be kept a bit more organised, with similar topics together.

 

Personalised Match Analytics - A service I offer for credit-buyers: A detailed statistical breakdown of performance, to help refine tactics (or just for interest!).

 

--- GAINING ---

Gaining Part 1 - A brief, data-light discussion of gaining.

Gaining Part 2 - Does the position you play in affect what attributes you gain? Yes. Well. Kind of.

Gaining Part 3 - A look at opposition quality: Should you be playing friendlies against strong teams? Or sides you can beat easily?

Gaining Part 4 - A more in-depth, data-rich discussion of gaining, and just how much the average lineup age really helps.

Gaining Part 5 - A quick post about interpreting statistics, and a confirmation that pumpkins have nothing to do with ManagerLeague.

Gaining Part 6 - A quarter of a million attribute gains carefully sifted through to make one delicious pie of data, and a recipe for gaining. 

 

--- STRATEGY & TACTICS ---

Introducing Match Analytics - Starting to look beyond results and performance: Separating possession from conversion rates.

Match Analytics Part 1: Stamina & Substitutions - A case study of match dynamics, emphasising the importance of substituting your less fit players.

Match Analytics Part 2: Possession Types - Delving deeper into the sim. How do conversion rates change for different possessions?

 

--- PLAYER ATTRIBUTES AND CONTROVERSY ---

Player Attribute Rating Contest - The contest is now over, but this is still a useful introduction to the next few (highly controversial!) posts. And see also this thread for some other entries and discussion.

Contest Results - The winners of the attribute rating contest. 

Player Attributes - In which I explain why tackling is a striker's most important attribute, to a mixture of sage nodding, skepticism and outright disbelief - recorded in these two forum posts.

Caveats and Details - Some additional important notes about interpreting the Player Attributes analysis that didn't fit in the original article (apparently there's a word limit!).

 

 

 

 

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"The greatest trick Spinner ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist keeping the rules to himself."

 

Managerleague is... deep. When I started playing - alongside a half dozen other online football games - it was just to kill a few hours. As I looked at the paltry 8 attributes, the simplistic formulae for player quality and the paucity of positions I was pretty confident this wasn't going to hold my interest for long.

Given how wrong I was, I guess you ought to take everything else in this blog with a large dose of salt :-) Long after those other games stopped sending me plaintive reminder emails and gave up on me, I'm as committed as ever to this one. So why is that?

Well, lots of things, obviously. But mainly, there's the creeping sense as you play this game that it's way more complex than you realised. That complexity arises first and foremost from the fact that the mechanics are largely unknown. Having spent a little time perusing the forums, the manual, and all the help guides out there one key thing struck me:

The number of mechanics asserted by managers far outstrips the number Spinner has told us about.

Essentially, people are learning by playing, and their experience lead them to conclude that things work a certain way. Or, when they begin, an older player tells them things work a certain way and that's what they remember. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're part right, and sometime they're dead wrong. That's great - it adds a whole extra layer to the game. Not only are you trying to manage your team, but you're also trying to figure out the system. The better you are at doing that, the greater your advantage. More than any similar game out there, Managerleague rewards the savviest managers. 

That brings me to the point of this blog. There's a ton of received wisdom about the game, and being a data scientist it always nags at me when someone makes a claim without supporting evidence... I've been collecting plenty of data in the few months I've been playing and reached some conclusions of my own. Of course, you should remember that pretty much every blog is just one person's view (though one that in this case is hopefully backed up by evidence). You should play your own way, and make your own decisions! However you enoy playing the game is by definition the 'right' way. That said, hopefully you'll find it interesting!  

- Belizio