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Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

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Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#21
There's a bunch of interesting tactics I've heard of people employing in the FIFA economy, including cornering certain low value cards as well as "investing" in players like Eric Dier who are likely to be upgraded in the next update so that they can sell an overrated silver who is now only attainable as a midlevel gold.

Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#23
post #16

Does anyone have a recommendation on an online course or tutorial that walks you through doing this type of applied analysis in R? I prefer learning using actual problems, where the complexity of analysis increases gradually.

The Analytics Edge[1] on edX might be what you're looking for. In one of the lessons, they do some rudimentary recreations of the analysis described in Moneyball.

[1]: https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:MITx+15.071x_2a+2T...

Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#25
post #11

In case anyone is wondering why the goal was to "win the Champions League with Accrington Stanley" in particular, it's because they've been a byword for being complete nobodies since this milk advert came out in 1989: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pieK7b4KLL4

I don't get it, why does he want to play for a team he's never heard of?

The kids are fans of Liverpool. Liverpool's star player drinks milk and says that if you don't drink it you'll only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley. The kids then want to drink milk because they want to play for a better team.

Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#26
post #13
post #4

Consider doing this "Moneyball" experiment using Football Manager [1] games. Those games are made for soccer/football management simulation. And your "Moneyball" kind of playthrough is called LLM (Lower League Management) in the FM community. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_Manager

This is the ultimate simulation game. This is the one game that taught me so much about simulations and my current job and interest in simulators. The number of ways I could affect a match was insane. It was great to understand the game and second guess how to beat the opponent (which meant studying the opponent's form, tactics, key players, injuries besides your own). I created excel sheets of players that I would s…

Same but with grand prix msnager.

Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#27
post #2

Awesome write up, but one thing I'm wondering, since I don't play FIFA, does the game heavily weight victory in favor of the player? I have to imagine the game would do that in order to make players happy, and if they do it would confuse the numbers here.

As far as my 10 year experience with FIFA is concerned, no, it does not. The dynamics are very weird and sometimes downright stupid. There is a concept of home and away matches in the league and even with a great team beating everyone easily at home, I have found myself losing consistently away from home to even relegation contenders.

I hence stopped simulating away games as FIFA seems to weight the home advantage for the away team much more than their form, team strength and tactics.

Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#28
post #4

Consider doing this "Moneyball" experiment using Football Manager [1] games. Those games are made for soccer/football management simulation. And your "Moneyball" kind of playthrough is called LLM (Lower League Management) in the FM community. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_Manager

I think this is a good concept, but like all games, it just succumbs to exploiting imbalances. In Football Manager, its just finding all the Uber Wunderkids who can easily be bought for less than the lowest rated players in their prime. Then you just invest all of your money in coaching/facilities who can also be bought for significantly cheaper than adult players and in a few years, once the players hit like 18-19,…

If a real football team did this I think it would work. Why don't they? Which step is the unrealistic one in the game?

Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#29
post #14

Weird aside, even though it's fictional I'm pleased to see that young Ryan Gauld (who went to my school) in his Moneyball'd team. It's rare for Scottish players to play on the continent - he's currently making his way through the ranks at Sporting Lisbon. It feels like our brightest prospects either settle down at Celtic/Rangers (big fish in a small pond, less so nowadays since Rangers' relegation), languish in mid-t…

Sporting Lisbon have a good school for young players, but it's also very competitive. Probably next season he will be playing in some small/medium portuguese club to gain more experience.

Re: Playing “Moneyball” on EA FIFA 16

#30
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a good concept, but like all games, it just succumbs to exploiting imbalances. In Football Manager, its just finding all the Uber Wunderkids who can easily be bought for less than the lowest rated players in their prime. Then you just invest all of your money in coaching/facilities who can also be bought for significantly cheaper than adult players and in a few years, once the players hit like 18-19,…

If a real football team did this I think it would work. Why don't they? Which step is the unrealistic one in the game?

What are the odds any football team would produce a single Ronaldo or Messi from a youth prospect? What are the odds they would produce a team full of them at every position?
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