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Footballer cards are the first standard in-game item core to the Matchday Universe.
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Player info is front and centre, ensuring you have all the crucial stats at your fingertips. Each card displays the footballerâs Overall Rating (OVR), which can be boosted, reflecting their performance on the pitch historically and recently. Tap the card, and youâll reveal the Core Four stats â the heart of your tactical decisions.
Beyond the surface, intricate graphical elements bring to life the âinner worldâ of each card. These details reward any player who spends the time examining their prized collection.
Prorata, Matchday's proprietary football player rating algorithm, covers thousands of players across 25 leagues and competitions globally
We set out to build a ratings system that accounted accurately for over 2000 players playing across multiple countries, different leagues and different competitions. Our work in this area takes many behind the scenes factors into account - evaluating not only if a footballer can perform on a rainy night in Stoke, but if they can bring that brilliance to the world stage. This is again an essential factor in including fans who might only have heard about a player through watching a competition like the World Cup.
Each footballer card in our system features a single âstat to rule them allâ - the all mighty OVR, or Overall Rating. As reductionist as it is to compare real-life players against each other through a single number, we nevertheless set out to make sure that our OVR was a cut above existing ratings models.
Finding the answer involved an adventure through the world of numbers, interpretation and data science. Hidden beneath the headline OVR are four major stats - the âCore Fourâ - which paint a fuller picture of each player's unique attributes. These stats are built around the four phases of football - Attack, Possession, Pressing and Defence. These major stats are comprised of a finer series of no less than twenty-three substats, fed directly from in-game actions. Normalised over playing time, the result is a distilled essence of the player's skills, a score encapsulating their on-pitch capabilities.
Dribbling, crossing, shot stopping, clearing, assisting. Just a few of the substats that are calculated behind the scenes for each player that appears on a Matchday player card.
Chasing the most accurate stats and numbers is hard. The challenge of creating an all new one is immense, but necessary. It was essential for us to have full confidence in the Prorata, not to mention ownership. Our approach enables us to tailor and refine the model dynamically, giving us the flexibility to accurately include players from all over the world and across different leagues.
Attack: The art of scoring. This stat quantifies a player's effectiveness and prowess in creating and converting goal-scoring opportunities.
Pressing: The skill of regaining possession. This measures a player's ability to apply pressure, intercept, and recover the ball from the opposition.
Defence: The craft of preventing goals. This stat reflects a player's capability in guarding their goal, marking opponents, and disrupting the offensive plays of the opposing team.
Possession: The mastery of ball retention. This illustrates a player's skill in maintaining control of the ball and dictating the pace of the game.
