It was way back in the mid 2000's. I had completed my PMR examinations, and were left with plenty of time of enjoy before enrolling for my 4th year in secondary school. There I was, wondering what to do with no more homeworks, no more tuitions and no more tests... My big brother, who is 5 years older than I am, persuaded me to play Football Manager. I think back then it was still Championship Manager, where Sports Interactive & Eidos are still in good terms. I have been watching my brother and my uncle playing the game for several years before, they were the fanatics of football. But I was not so into football just yet, I was more inclined towards books and studies..
But then I told myself, why not just fill up your time with this game. Just give it a go. And that was how I started my addiction to the game. Even up until now, being a married adult with two kids, I still sneak out some time to play the game.
Anyways.. The main reason why I started sharing on my experience with football manager was this, it has ENORMOUS amount of data. I remembered looking at the player's profile filled up with all sorts of attribute ratings. Tackling, Finishing, Passing, Pace.... At first there were only a few sets of data, but with time the database grew.. It even accurately estimate a player's aggression, teamwork, concentration etc, after sending scouts all over the globe.
At first I thought it was only a game, with fictitious data and ridiculous assumptions on players ability. To my amazement, Football Manager actually owns the largest number of scouts in the world! Their database of players are fairly accurate, considering they had successfully predicted the future career of lionel messi, nani, neymar, fabregas etc.. Well, there are also some players that never made it to the bigger stage, such as freddy adu or sherman cardenas.. but well, I'd say at least 60% of the data can be fully trusted will be translated on the field. That is just remarkable.
Now, more and more managers and club officials are relying on the information from the game. Instead of going from scratch to scout talents, they use the game to surface potential next big stars to scout on. Remember Dennis Wise & Newcastle? He depended too much on FM data that most of his signings were not good enough (he obviously tries to find raw talent at the cheapest price, and end up buying players from an unknown club that struggle to adjusts). Other This is what I call the advancement of technology that changes the entire landscape of an industry.
Data- the new diamonds... I bet to access the full database, clubs are more than willing to make a certain amount of payments to FM. Just to know between player A and player B, which one is more prone to injury? which one relishes big matches or which one has high temperament? All these information are now collected from FM scouts all over the world. Amazing, right?
On top of these, I was once called to discuss with a job portal agency on an IT solution that they requires.. They were planning to collect information and data from candidates to be matched more accurately with what potential employers want.. They wanted to collect data such as writing proficiency, speaking, articulating ideas, mathematical reasoning, etc so that whatever the employer wants, it can be quickly mapped to the desired proficiency level, as a first level of screening. They wanted to have a tool that will enable them to do this. So that they can later sell to potential employers not just the CV, but also let employers browse through their sets of database of candidates.. How much resemblance does that has with FM scouting system?
But then I told myself, why not just fill up your time with this game. Just give it a go. And that was how I started my addiction to the game. Even up until now, being a married adult with two kids, I still sneak out some time to play the game.
Anyways.. The main reason why I started sharing on my experience with football manager was this, it has ENORMOUS amount of data. I remembered looking at the player's profile filled up with all sorts of attribute ratings. Tackling, Finishing, Passing, Pace.... At first there were only a few sets of data, but with time the database grew.. It even accurately estimate a player's aggression, teamwork, concentration etc, after sending scouts all over the globe.
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| A snapshot of a player's profile in FM13 |
Now, more and more managers and club officials are relying on the information from the game. Instead of going from scratch to scout talents, they use the game to surface potential next big stars to scout on. Remember Dennis Wise & Newcastle? He depended too much on FM data that most of his signings were not good enough (he obviously tries to find raw talent at the cheapest price, and end up buying players from an unknown club that struggle to adjusts). Other This is what I call the advancement of technology that changes the entire landscape of an industry.
Data- the new diamonds... I bet to access the full database, clubs are more than willing to make a certain amount of payments to FM. Just to know between player A and player B, which one is more prone to injury? which one relishes big matches or which one has high temperament? All these information are now collected from FM scouts all over the world. Amazing, right?
On top of these, I was once called to discuss with a job portal agency on an IT solution that they requires.. They were planning to collect information and data from candidates to be matched more accurately with what potential employers want.. They wanted to collect data such as writing proficiency, speaking, articulating ideas, mathematical reasoning, etc so that whatever the employer wants, it can be quickly mapped to the desired proficiency level, as a first level of screening. They wanted to have a tool that will enable them to do this. So that they can later sell to potential employers not just the CV, but also let employers browse through their sets of database of candidates.. How much resemblance does that has with FM scouting system?
Again, firms are relying on data to make decisions. Hey, this was way back then, around 2012. A good few years before the idea of Big Data come to mind. They wanted to combine data, technology, psychology and business. Quite an amazing blend huh? But it never came off that time because it was so difficult to get candidates to be evaluated and mapped to the attributes and competencies automatically / via system. Maybe they should relook at the project again now given the advancement in technology and mobile apps, devices & IOT... no?
Now if you browse through LinkedIn, you realize how many data scientist jobs are available instead of traditional biology scientist. People with data analysis and data mining skillsets are highly demanded everywhere. Because firms want to know what to do and what's the best decision to make. They of course, will need data to do this.
Thus people, if you are thinking of learning something new, learn data analytics. learn what is big data, how do people collect these micro data and how do you process them. With time, probably say in the next 3-5 years, people who don't know data analysis, simple programming etc, will be left behind. Others will look at them as people who failed to adapt to change. Much like how we look at the senior colleagues of ours that struggles to use microsoft word / excel / powerpoint to do their work.
Online, you can just follow a few short courses on Coursera or EdX. You can even buy the certificates to showcase on your LinkedIn page to get more visibility. Alternatively, you can also try to contact MDEC Malaysia for some free training / courses on Big Data, Data Analytics etc. Hey, there's never a wrong time to upskill! Rather than wasting your time playing that Football Manager game, why not try upskilling in Big Data? (Opps.. I am also playing FM while writing this post. LOL)
Reference:
https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/football-manager-wonderkids-in-real-life
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3413754/Is-just-fantasy-Football-Manager-computer-game-identified-Lionel-Messi-talented-schoolboy-scouts-club-world-football.html
https://www.cybertrend.com/article/20259/the-real-future-of-data-science
http://www.mscmalaysia.my/people-development/MyProCert_SRI_MOOC
