Category: Sports

sports games and analytics

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I’m not sure about everyone out there but I’ve slowly evolved over the years into a “sports” gamer. I pretty much exclusively play NBA2K and Fifa nowadays but do try and spend some time looking at other games both within the sports genre and the more mainstream FPS and MMORPGs.

What is amazing to me is that sports games basically give you a SLIGHT improvement with the physics and graphics engine year with an updated lineup…. and that’s it! I’ve tried to self add new players into old versions just like the next gamer before buying the latest but… what is it about these games that have us coming back for more?! I don’t fully know, but I definitely do it year after year…. Should start collecting boxes and version of games and see how many years back I can go…. NBA2K yearbook!

Another specific vertical within sports games that I’m fascinated with is fantasy/manager sector. I feel that this is a sector that is ripe for change and innovation. Nothing drastic can be done, but I’ve seen a few subtle changes to games that I honestly feel bring some “freshness” to the whole thing.

Any ideas and thoughts from players, gamers and makers out there? What is the perfect formula for all this? How can we tap this sector?

Teamwork

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As we all know, a difference in position can result in significantly different perspectives and outcomes. This is a universal theme that runs deep in daily business, life and sports. Freedom fighter or Terrorist? Creating or destroying? Enthusiastic or annoying? Really hard to say sometimes and even harder to take a step to take it all in slowly and fairly. (feels like a bad sentence)
As an ex-entrepreneur and now investor, it is quite interesting to feel the emotions from both sides. Fresh from taking of the entrepreneurial hat, I fully understand that one must protect their “baby” and not allow outside mofos to run their show all over it. It’s easy to feel protective over ideas and property and hard to accept that an OUTSIDER (how dare they?!?!) could have an interesting and perhaps refreshing perspective. It’s great to be chasing dreams and even better to find supporters, but with how big of a voice?
On the other side, as an investor, I also need to understand that conversations must be held carefully and that we (as a group other than a few) cannot go in guns blazing and lighting up the joint. This is a big turn off for founders and we need to remember that we are supporting a good person+team in pursuing their dreams that in return will hopefully give us returns. This is an interesting and everlasting dilemma and not one that will end, ever.
Pretty similar to teams at school, work, and sports. Some teams start from day 1 with everyone wanting to be the winner and leader. Some teams have members that immediately claim a supporting role for the greater cause. Some teams have leaders and coaches that want a well trained lean mean fighting machine. Which one works best? The great Bulls? The Heat? the Spurs? Germany or Argentina? Do you want the best overall team or the best player? Budding with energy+potential or seasoned+savvy veterans? Dictatorship or Democracy?
I don’t know the answer. Have been involved and seen many of the different situations above (I’m sure we all have)….. Can’t say I have a conclusion……

Run and Gunners

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being an Arsenal fan, it has truly been an action packed summer of excitement.  Not only did we have representatives all over the world cup, but we will also have 3 returning world champions.

Since last summer Arsenal has shown that we no longer need to compete on a short financial shoestring and are ready to battle it out with the big boys.  Soccer fans as were universally skeptical until our team and premier league record breaking £42.5m signing of Mesut Ozil, the German maestro from Real Madrid and the show stopper of the 2010 World Cup.

Now.  We are at a better position than ever.  Even though our fiercest competitors (Man City and United) continue to try and pick off our talent, albeit our ageing talent as of late……. the Gunners are locked and loaded and ready to rock and roll.

Starting with the extension of our manager Arsene Wenger, the team has now really started to take shape. We first lost our star right back Bacary Sagna, to rivals Manchester City but Wenger found his replacement in arguably one of the only RBs that outperformed Sagna in the EPL last season, his fellow frenchman Mathieu Debuchy of Newcastle.  He then followed up with a signing that will surely send the Gunner’s attack into hyper speed next season in the form of the Chilean Star Attacker Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona.  Business didn’t finish there of course as we secured the services of the outstanding Colombian shot stopper David Ospina.  Now we are on the verge of up and coming Southampton starlet Calum Chambers for the 8th highest payday transfer for a teenager in EPL history.

With Aaron Ramsey ready to go again with a new style and fresh legs (make him captain already!) and Theo Walcott almost healed, all in all I’d say this has been a great summer.  We, the gooners, are ready to go and are thrilled wait for the season to kick off.

It is time to Run & Gun.  Watch out. (time to jump on bandwagon perhaps)

See you in a few weeks at the season opener.

Timing…. bouncing balls and momentum

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Timing.  As the years have gone I realized is that many times… timing is one of if not the biggest deciding factors in many things that we do.

During high school, I used to feel invincible and unstoppable when I played sports.  I was at the peak of my athletic abilities and thought that I was at the top of my game.  This was the same for both basketball and golf.  As I played more throughout college and thereafter in rec leagues after graduating, the game seemed to start slowing down.  Not in the sense that I was moving slower but that my understanding and anticipation seemed to form an inverse relationship with my flattening “bounce” in my step (or was it just the growing belly…. hmmm).  Are we better at our sport/thing as we gain more experience or were we better at our physical best?  Which would you choose?

Similar to investing in tech it seems.  Is there momentum pushing for growth and building up a bubble? If you catch a wave and find a great team building something when nobody cares….. does a tree falling in the empty woods make a sound?  What if you find a team building something that suddenly everyone is building…. can you hear the distinct shouts of someone in a room of 100 shouting others?  I think this is a valid question for us all to ask when looking at new companies and opportunities….. Is this something that is genuinely valuable or is it just because everyone is talking about it?  Will the business persevere and continue to grow or will it drop off a cliff after the excitement dies down?

Things to think about.  Timing.

Realities

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Under very random circumstances, quite a few things I’ve experienced recently have made me think about “reality”.  It’s not in a ‘the world is not flat’ type of way, but more about how far we’ve all come and how much there is to go.  Bare with me.

Not more than 3 months ago, I had the opportunity to truly experience Virtual Reality for the first time.  As a kid, I remember thinking of HMDs (are we really going to call it this?) as the perfect piece to a halloween Cyclops costume then eventually as futuristic private 100″ screens googles but I also remember completely forgeting about them as a consumer product. It seem to never really deliver for what it was made up to be.  But after putting on the Oculus, I honestly feel that the time has come.  What I felt was not movie screen to IMAX wow, it was radio to TV wow (so to speak…).  It may sound geeky and silly to some people but how my body felt and reacted was NOT what I expected.  The scale and size was nothing like I’ve seen before…. well other than in real life. Feeling like I was there at the live (NOT virtual) venue was amazing… again being there in person would be amazing too but I was sitting in my office…  For a second there I was a mixture of shocked, excited, suspicious, confused and happy all at the same time.  Truly spectacular stuff and I can’t wait for the proliferation of headsets in the consumer market to really see where entertainment can go.  It’s starting to play mind tricks and crossing Total Recall/Matrix lines…. but I know I’d pay good money with no hesitation if I were able to BE back at Cameron Stadium for the season home games again.

A short chat about game consoles today while at the Vectr office construction site also made me think about this.  Pong to Pacman Arcade to handheld consoles (the single game ones) to Gameboy, Game Gear, Nintendo (red and white), Genesis, Atari, Super Famicon (Asia), full scale Arcades, Playstation/Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, Wii, eventually Xbox and PS 234……all lead to VR and being “in the game”.  Reality?! Look how far its all come.  very cool.

Another realization was completely not related was from Brazil.  The shock, unity, anger, horror, sadness, more sadness, applause to opposition ending with a cynical self applause of the 7-1 score between Germany and Brazil in the World Cup semifinals was another crazy reality.  It took me a while to register witnessing what will be talked about for decades, if not forever.  Couldn’t quite believe that Brazil, of all teams, would get crushed like that… and at home!!??!?! Unbelievable.  On the other hand, I completely see and understand how the Brazilian team got, strategically and technically, crushed that way.  I guess in the historical context of Brazilian football…. unbelievable… but as the squad that day…. completely possible, obviously.

Anyways.  This is my first real post and not sure if and how it will be read but… I had a good time writing it.  Hope everyone is doing good!