| 24 May 2011
The beauty of seeing every match of a tournament is knowing the drama and tension from start to finish. Few tournaments broadcast these days allow for that to happen. This past Thursday, however, the guys that run the Peaceful Jay Stream began their Salty Conflict Online tournament series. Every match is broadcast on their non-stop channel.
I was able to watch the whole event and track the stats of all 31 matches. Everything is now available on the Fighting Game Stats database.
The tournament page is here, and that includes each player's offensive and defensive performance. You can also check the tags and follow each bracket as it progressed, or each player.
I should admit that I am puffing out my chest a little bit at this accomplishment; I have in the past done stats for every match of a tournament, but those were 8- or 10-player events at the very most, featuring just 16 or 17 matches. The Salty Conflict Online featured 32 players, some known, some new, playing under the most pressurized of situations; a 1-game single-elimination format.
How will players handle the pressure that comes from a 1-game, single-elimination tournament? We will see as the weeks go by. Looking at the numbers, the players aren't handling it that well.
All major offensive stats are down. First-hit win percentage, first-combo win percentage, combo rate and closeout percentages are all down. The most telling is the closeout percentage, which is a very poor .795. Anything under .825 -- and the tournament average is .830 -- and one has to wonder what is going on inside a player's head.
In the 132 rounds played, there were 26 blown leads. Out of the 16 players that won at least one game, only five did not blow a late lead: Aquasilk (six chances), Arturo Sanchez (five), Watchtower (four), Ramen Addict (four) and "Lamerboi" Andrew Nguyen (three). Latif accounted for five of the 26 blown leads in the tournament. Then again, he played the most rounds -- 25 -- and reached the finals. His closeout percentage was .705; he had 17 late leads and blew five of them.
In the finals against Porkloaf King, Latif blew two late leads, and they were fairly significant. The first enabled Porkloaf King to win Game 1. The second came in the ensuing round, and Porkloaf King took the early 1-0 lead in Game 2. Latif won the next two rounds, so again, I throw out the "what if" card. If he doesn't blow that second lead, they're playing a third game. Then again, a follower will point out that Latif had two chances to force a Game 3 and did not.
There is one ray of hope when it comes to the players closing out rounds; 24 of the 26 blown leads all happened before the Final Four.
Will players tighten things up come Thursday? Stay tuned. I'll be updating the page and making it as in-depth as possible. The more we get to see full tournaments, the more we'll know how a player truly plays from start to finish, especially under the most pressure of situations.
