[PUBG] My Experience Working as an Analyst for a Top-Division Pro Team

For about two seasons, I was part of a professional team competing in PUBG JAPAN SERIES Grade 1 as an analyst. Before I forget, I want to leave a record of what I experienced back then.

Table of Contents

What I did as an analyst

My main work was analysis based on statistics. I aggregated match data from scrims and tournaments, read trends from it, and turned it into material the team could use when making decisions.

I thought this was one of my strengths, so I worked on it pretty proactively. That was because I could program, so I was able to build a system that fetched match information from the official PUBG API, reshaped it into a form that was easy to analyze, and then aggregated and analyzed it.

At least as far as I know, there were very few teams doing the kind of thing where they pulled raw data from the PUBG API and analyzed it heavily. (In fact, several other G1/G2 teams asked about technical support.) I do not know about now, but in the early days of PUBG, I feel like the only people in Japan who started trying to do things with the PUBG API were probably Nicky from PSJ and me.

Off-season

During the off-season, I collected data from the scrims held day to day and summarized it as statistics. I analyzed trends that caught my attention, such as routes, position taking, and time spent in positions (turned into heatmaps), then made them understandable as graphs and diagrams.

During tournament periods

During tournament periods, I collected data for each round and shared it with the players (the shotcaller) in real time. The information I shared was easy-to-understand material that could help decide “how should we fight the next round?”—things like which team dropped where, what route they took, and which building or position they kept.

Tournament results

I was not the one playing as a competitor, so honestly I am not sure whether it is right to call these my results, but I am listing them as the results from the period when I was closely involved with the team.

• PJS Season3 Grade1 Overall 3rd place
  • Breakdown
    • PJS Season3 Phase1 Grade1 Day1 1st place
    • PJS Season3 Phase1 Grade1 Day2 5th place
    • PJS Season3 Phase1 Grade1 Day3 5th place
    • PJS Season3 Phase2 Grade1 Day4 2nd place
    • PJS Season3 Phase2 Grade1 Day5 1st place
    • PJS Season3 Phase2 Grade1 Day6 2nd place
• PJS Season4 Grade1 Overall 7th place
  • Breakdown
    • PJS Season4 Phase1 Grade1 Day1 8th place
    • PJS Season4 Phase1 Grade1 Day2 9th place
    • PJS Season4 Phase1 Grade1 Day3 7th place
    • PJS Season4 Phase2 Grade1 Day4 5th place
    • PJS Season4 Phase2 Grade1 Day5 10th place
    • PJS Season4 Phase2 Grade1 Day6 6th place

What made me happy

In the first season, my motivation was extremely high, and the results were good too, so I was simply happy about it.

Thoughts

After experiencing that first season, I realized, “this is a seriously heavy workload…”

On weekdays I had my regular job, but teams in PJS had scrims almost every day. So my life was basically finishing work, rubbing my sleepy eyes, and then collecting and analyzing that day’s scrim data.

The more time passes, the less valuable the data becomes. That was because it was used for that day’s review meeting or the next day’s preparation, so I was often told, “we want the data today.”

Because the scrims were hosted by a volunteer community, the ending time varied quite a lot from day to day. For that reason, not being able to predict “what time do I need to stay awake until today…?” was physically rough.

What I regret

My motivation gradually dropped.

In the first season, I tried to improve how the statistics were presented, thought about which metrics would be useful, got feedback, and made improvements. There was room to try all kinds of things every day, and that was fun.

But once “we can just look at this” had more or less solidified and things entered a stable period, the work became fixed. I had already finished building the automation for analysis and the system for collecting statistics, and around the time it became a task of just clicking through and running it every day, my motivation dropped sharply.

At that point, I realized that what I liked was making a dedicated analysis system, updating it, and improving how the information was shown. On the other hand, it was not good that I started thinking, “anyone could do this” about the work of just running it.

What I wish I had done

I should have communicated more.

When my motivation dropped or when I felt a little dissatisfied about something, I kept it to myself, and as a result I ended up reducing my own opportunities to communicate. I think I could have relied on others a little more.

It was a good experience

That said, being deeply involved in esports was truly a good experience. If I have another opportunity like this, I want to make use of this experience and take on the challenge again.