Saturday I had the opportunity to attend Big Data Day L.A., a tech event all about big data. Companies were there to promote their products and services, and others shared how they are using big data to their advantage.
This was an ideal conference for me because the Capcom Pro Tour database is big data, almost 7000 rows at this point. It will double by the end of the year. And with most of these events I attend, I am trying to better the database.
The lessons learned in doing the CPT database I'm applying to other databases for events, such as the Gfinity Elite Series, a database I built the other day and am starting to input numbers for.
I wasn't able to score a ticket ahead of Big Data Day L.A., but fortunately the event organizers said I could sign up at the event.
The two best presentations I heard were from The Tribune Company and Activision. Those alone was worth the trip to USC. The presentation I missed out on was from Espree Devora. Hoping someone recorded it and posted it somewhere.
The Tribune Company (they call themselves tronc today) talked about presenting readers with content relevant to them. No, it's not Taboola, and the presenter said they hope Taboola dies (me too!). The idea is to gauge what you're reading and find out what stories are best to keep you reading.
It seems like a continuous work in progress because there's always new content and more data coming in everyday. But with more data, the better the relevant content will be presented to the readers, and that's the goal.
Having been in journalism for 22 years, I see the need to do this and be extremely good at it. It seems as though this is more for the hyper local news and features instead of sports.
The Activision presentation was about catching cheaters in the various Call of Duty games using thousands of data points and scenarios to understand behavior. The data allows them to refine the ban process, and now it's almost impossible to get through with a hack without getting banned.
I asked whether esports teams have reached out about this data, and the presenter said yes, but they're not sure what data should be available to the teams because this amount could have wide ranging results.
After the presentation we chatted about my database and what could be done to better it. The guy said to keep on building it and getting more events in there.
What about convincing Capcom to release its API for Street Fighter V?
The guy said having that open could potentially end the meta and kill the game in a heartbeat because players will know what works and what doesn't. He mentioned Magic: The Gathering doing this a few years ago and tournaments having all participants using the same deck because they understood the play-to-win scenario.
How can I better present the data to everyone? It's in Excel and I don't know another language good enough to move it to another platform.
The guy asked me who was my audience. Is it the players/teams, or is it stat freaks, or is it viewers or is it someone else?
That's where I stumbled a little bit. I really don't know who the target audience is.
When I started the database, I did this for selfish reasons, because it was a curious project, and I wanted to prove that Laura videos on Twitter were not going to translate in tournament (they haven't). Plus, one of my 2017 goals is to be the official statistician for one event.
That was the big takeaway from our conversation, that I have to find my audience. And the fighting game community as a whole is not the audience. It is a group within that community. Who do I want to dive in deep with?
= = =
The booths featured data companies, many who were either selling services (store your data with us!) or looking to find people who have bid data knowledge. Almost all companies were hiring, as I found out through someone I knew who I met at the event.
I talked to them about what I was doing with the database and my interests in this space, and to them it felt like I was speaking in alien.
Again, another tech event where if you don't know a language they know, forget it. And I wasn't even looking for a job! I just wanted to find out how I could better my stats and some of these companies didn't even want to bother beyond the introductory 15 seconds.
I brought up esports, and every company rep said they didn't work with any esports companies. But two of them later followed up with their boast of having a contract with Riot. Yes, that Riot which runs one of the biggest esports leagues in the world. I had a WTF look both times.
If there was any takeaway with these conversations other than to learn another language besides Excel, it's that these company reps brought up two points I should consider.
The ones willing to talk about esports asked me who was my target audience within the fighting game community. I didn't know, which led to them telling me to pick a group. Same thing the Activision presenter told me.
Everyone said to stop giving away content, and sell the stats I have. This surprised me. I think it goes to the idea of, if I have lots of data that nobody else has, someone is going to want it so I need to sell it to that person. Who is that person? I don't know. It could be the players or it could be the fans or even the streamers.
The selling point got me. These people don't know esports and they want me to sell this content? I am still trying to figure that out. I have sold tournament stats years ago, and there was traction, but it felt icky because 1) at that time I was scared of selling anything and 2) I always had that fear of the carpet being pulled from under by the companies of the games.
There were other presenters who had interesting topics, but it ended up being a pitch about their nonprofit or global cause. I want those minutes back.
Also had an opportunity to network with people about what they've done with big data in tech. Refreshing to know many are where I am, curious and wanting to learn as much as possible so they can potentially move into the field. No, they're not into esports but they see the potential in big data helping.
Overall, the net was a positive, and I definitely would attend the next time. I originally made a pitch to be a presenter but was denied. After seeing these presentations I know what I can do and I'll try again next time.