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How Team Liquid's secret data analytics weapon helped them dominate Dota 2

Team Liquid makes good use of stats to help its players win before their matches even begin.

Team Liquid's dominance over the Dota 2 esports scene is not only fueled by the skill of its players, but also by its support staff's astute understanding and usage of stats provided by SAP. (Photos: Valve Software, Team Liquid, SAP)
Team Liquid's dominance over the Dota 2 esports scene is not only fueled by the skill of its players, but also by its support staff's astute understanding and usage of stats provided by SAP. (Photos: Valve Software, Team Liquid, SAP)

From their storied third place finish at The International 2022 to their current 7-0 dominance over the Dota Pro Circuit's (DPC) Western Europe regional league, Team Liquid have always been relying on a secret weapon – data collected and processed with SAP's custom analytical tool, the SAP "nxtlvl-esports-center".

Mostly used by their coaching staff, the tool allows Team Liquid's coaches to quickly understand a game, detect patterns, and pick counters when drafting.

"I can't say the specifics of what the tool does, because some of it is unique to us, but there's a function that helps us find hero counters specifically, but not just one-on-one counters, but in the game and hero combinations. It helps us figure out what they value against which hero and in that sense, helps us open up the draft," said Mathis "Jabbz" Friesel, Liquid's analyst in an exclusive interview with Yahoo Esports SEA.

Mathis
Mathis "Jabbz" Friesel, Team Liquid's analyst. (Photo: Team Liquid)

Another useful feature is the ability for the tool to help a player figure out the right play – Jabbz gave an example of when Samuel "Boxi" Svahn swapped to playing support in 2021, and requested for help with warding and vision, the SAP team then built a tool for this request.

One other feature that left Jabbz impressed was how it could easily detect repetitive patterns of a team, which provides valuable insight into how Liquid can beat them.

"Some teams have very clear patterns and very repetitive patterns where they would do a smoke move around. 15 minutes, around 20 minutes, or they always place specific words and that that will indicate that they will play this part of the map or they will take this objective," he said.

A screenshot of the tool Team Liquid is using (Photo: SAP)
A screenshot of the tool Team Liquid is using. (Photo: SAP)

However, Jabbz noted that this usually applies to lesser skilled teams, or teams that are patch based. An example would be when Vikin.gg burst onto the scene, and was spotted always playing the same way, which allowed Liquid to predict what they would do.

"I saw this on a tool, like every game looks kind of the same, so you can almost be certain that this will happen. And yeah, it ended up happening. This was two years ago at this point, but it definitely does happen."

While most of the data can be done manually, using SAP's "nxtlvl-esports-center" analytical tool helps them filter and process the data much faster.

However, having the data on hand, and getting the players to use it can also be tricky.

Jabbz credited his experience with working with the players for a long while now in knowing just how to convey the information to them without upsetting the player's own decision making skills in a game.

"At the end of the day, esports, or probably most sports, come down to a very, very small margin. And I think that's where this analysis and these statistics really come in," said Jabbz.

"I could do the greatest job in the world and have the best tool in the world, and SAP could create a tool that could predict everything at all times. But if the players don't perform, we're still not gonna win."

(Photo: SAP)
(Photo: SAP)

"I'll see something is really, really strong and I can't really bring it up because I know right now it's not what the team needs, because of the way that it'll interrupt their thoughts about the game," added Liquid's analyst.

As the Winter Tour regional league champions for Western Europe, Team Liquid will be competing at the upcoming Lima Major taking place in Peru starting on Feb 22.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com

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