Team Falcons Soar to Their First Major Victory
Congratulations to Team Falcons, finally breaking through and claiming their first Major victory.
Not only was it long overdue in many people’s eyes, the performance they put together in Swiss through Championship Sunday was nothing short of deserving. Let’s dive into this historic performance Team Falcons were able to put together.
Swiss Stage: 1-3
Team Falcons made quick work on the Swiss Stage, requiring only one game over the minimum required to qualify for Playoffs. The game they dropped to Team Secret? The analytics say they were expected to win, generating more Expected Goals on more High Threats in that match.
As a team, they were able to control the pace of play throughout the Swiss Stage and convert efficiently. This was evident through their Expected Goals vs Opponents (2.5 vs 1.5) and Converted Goals per Match (2.5 vs 1.2).
While possession looks even, the underlying numbers paint a very different picture, highlighted by the High Threat advantage. Despite possession essentially being 50/50, Team Falcons on defense were able to force their opponents into low scoring opportunities, limiting High Threats to 2.8 per match. For context, the field average for the Major was 3.8 High Threats per match, highlighting Team Falcons’ dominance on the defensive end as well.
Combining their stifling defense with 5.3 High Threats per match, trk511, Rw9, and Kiileerrz punched their ticket to the main stage with relative ease.
Playoff Weekend
Team Falcons were able to continue their dominance on the Main Stage all through Playoff Weekend, outscoring their opponents 33-16 through their 15 matches, only dropping 3 games in total between Saturday and Sunday.
Despite being limited to 3.9 High Threats per match, Team Falcons made the most of their scoring opportunities, converting 114% of their Expected Goals through the Playoffs. What’s even more impressive was their ability to limit their opponents to 1.6 Expected Goals and 66% conversion.
While we’re sure their opponents had opportunities they feel they should’ve converted, the pressure Team Falcons generated by allowing such limited looks at net was definitely a contributing factor.
DataCoach’s Leading Indicator & Our Analytical MVP
Sometimes analytics don’t tell a clear picture and leading indicators are hard to identify. With Team Falcons, this was not the case.
After evaluating traditional and other advanced analytics such as Total Shots, Types of Shots, Possession/Time Spent in Zones, Avg Speed, Avg Distance From Ball & more, it was clear one metric correlated to Team Falcons’ success on pitch: their ability to generate and limit Expected Goals (xG).
Team Falcons led the Major in Expected Goals (xG) with 2.2 per match; the field average was 1.8, and no other team was above 2. Not only that, they were able to limit their opponents to 1.5 Expected Goals (xG). Team Falcons had a plan and executed against it.
trk511 and Kiileerrz were 1st and 2nd for all players in Expected Goals (xG) per match, with Rw9 ranking top 3 in Avg Speed and playing a key role in keeping pressure.
Not to be surprising to most, Kiileerrz is DataCoach’s MVP of Major 2. He ranked 2nd in xG per match (0.81) and 2nd in Goals per xG Conversion (128%), leading to 1st overall in Goals per Match. His offensive performance was unmatched all weekend, converting on the opportunities he was able to generate with the strong support of his teammates.
Final Thoughts
Being able to analyze the granular, time-stamped events in each game to the roll-up of such a well-executed gameplan for Team Falcons is what we love about what we do at DataCoach.
Congratulations again to Team Falcons — we can’t wait for LCQ to get started!
