In an emerging scene of competitive gaming, where prize winning reach over $1 million, the importance of having excellent intelligence is paramount.
Understanding how an opponent will play is a vital piece of information for the highest of professional teams.
In the competitive game, League of Legends, it’s five players against five on a virtual battlefield. But behind each professional team is a well-equipped coaching staff.
In general, all professional teams employ at least one game analyst. The job of the analyst is to observe opponents to find out their tendencies and strategies, to develop counter-strategies against teams that might try to exploit a playstyle, and to watch the best teams in the world to get into their heads.
Sometimes the strategies are simple and require plenty of practice. Sometimes teams need help with communication and conveying information in high pressure situations. An analyst is a flexible role that requires a high level of critical thinking and attention.
UX Hypothesis
We believe that improving the strategic resources for professional League of Legends teams we will increase the likelihood of team success and improve the caliber of play to build a more competitive environment.
We will know this is true when we see a marginal parity between the top 10 competitive teams. We will also know this is true by seeing a minimal amount of mistakes, compared against the average number of mistakes made by teams currently.
One of the areas that I specialized was in data tracking and predictive models. I diligently scoured match histories to build profiles on player tendencies. Those profiles were then used to exploit the weaknesses of the players by anticipating the decision making of the opponent.
The second area which I specialized in was in team communication. All five players must be able to communicate information reliably throughout the duration of the match. At the start of each game, each person has his own task, but then the team comes together as the game progresses. We were able to create a communication system to convey information with the good clarity and high information density, usually words with 2 or fewer syllables and voice inflection.
Short phrases are often repeated several times in quick succession so the plan is understood by all. These tricks help make communication quick and efficient so that less time and mental resources are used to decode the communication and more time can be put towards executing the plan.
Even though games last anywhere from 30-minutes to an hour, the game can be lost in a matter of seconds if a team does not execute a plan properly. Having an analyst improves the overall knowledge of the team and increases the chances that a team will win, and ultimately end up playing in the million dollar match.
UX Skills used:
- Critical Thinking: Deeply analyzed what each person is doing at each moment during the game.
- Attention to Small Details: Found subtle tendencies in behavior and the reasoning behind the action.
- Creation of Communication Systems: Worked with the team to create a system to improve communication and split-second decision making.
- Empathic Criticism: Offered critical feedback in a way that will improve the performance of the player instead of disheartening the player.