1. I scraped data about eSport player performance statistics using a webscraper I built in python.
2. I used this data to build an interactive Tableau dashboard to show players that would be valuable for advertisers to sponsor.

CLICK HERE to view the TABLEAU DASHBOARD.

CLICK HERE to view the JUPYTER NOTEBOOK.

The goal of this project was to make a Tableau dashboard that would allow a user to see how valuable an eSports athlete might be to an advertiser. The eSport game I chose was Star Craft 2. This game has been played professionally for at least ten years. It has a huge fan base, with computer hardware companies currently paying for advertising exposure during games. The eSports industry is growing every year and Star Craft 2 is one of the most enduring eSports games.

With this goal in mind I assumed that two traits would make a player valuable to a brand:

1. The player wins often so that an associated brand would gain an air of success through that association.
2. The player tends to play long games, so that there is ample time during the broadcast of the game for the brand to be pictured on camera with the player. (The brand could be for computer hardware that the player uses or could be printed on the player's jersey.)

With these assumptions I next took the following steps.

1. I built a webscraper to collect data on Star Craft 2 player performances. The website I chose to scrape from is a large repository containing tens of thousands of recorded games. Using the python library, BeautifulSoup I collected records of games. These records included data about which player won, which "faction" (humans called, "Terrans"; aliens called, "Protoss"; or evil space insects called, "Zerg") they were playing as, when each game was played, during which tournament, etc.. You can find some details about the web scraper in the jupyter notebook link above; however be aware that I have not included the full web scraper so that people, on the off chance that they find this post, do not inundate the website with excess traffic.
2. I cleaned and formatted the player data that I scraped and then imported it into a Tableau Public dashboard that I developed. You can find this interactive dashboard through the tableau link, above.
3. On the left half of the dashboard are views specific to player wins and the length of games that they play. On the right half of the dashboard are views specific to the average game length within tournaments. The user may also filter by minimum game length, which faction to show, and player name to better interrogate the data.

Using my new dashboard I determined which three players would be the most valuable to target for sponsorship deals. Additionally, I also determined the tournaments in which an advertiser would want to target them.

1. Raynor is the most valuable player. His faction is, "Zerg." He has the most winning record and plays the longest games among very successful players. The "map" (the virtual space in which the game is played) that Raynor wins on the most frequently is "Royal Blood" and the map on which he plays the longest games is "NeoHumanity." I would suggest offering him a bonus for each time he played on these maps because they are likely to maximize my two defining traits of a valuable player. The tournament with the greatest frequency of these maps being played was, "ESL SC2 Masters 2023 Summer (Regionals)." Therefore, I would also recommend targeting a sponsorship for him within that tournament.
2. Serral is the second most valuable player. His faction is also, "Zerg." He has the second most winning record and also plays long games. His most winning map is, "Babylon" and the map on which he plays the longest games is, "Gresvan." I would, again, offer him bonuses for playing on these maps. The tournament, "ESL SC2 Masters 2023 Summer (Regionals)" also has the greatest frequency of both of these maps being played and so I would target a sponsorship for him in this tournament.
3. My third and final recommendation would be for the player, "Spirit." He has a strong winning record and plays games only slightly shorter than "Raynor." In picking him I am making a judgement call to prioritize game length over wins: the players, "Clem," "MaxPax," and "Skillous" all have a few more wins than him, but their games are all shorter on average. Spirit's most winning map is, "Grevsan" and the map on which he plays the longest games is, "Babylon." I would recommend giving him bonuses for playing on either of these maps. I would target him for the same tournament as the two players above: "ESL SC2 Masters 2023 Summer (Regionals)." His best maps are also played most frequently in that tournamnet.