Oops I Am Gaming Again (but also created a data app)

It just came to be, but while on holidays, free from everything, I couldn’t resist the urge to pick up again my two favorite sports games: Football Manager and Pro Cycling Manager. It also gave me the idea of creating a quick-and-dirty interactive application based on the stats data used in the latter game.

Ten to fifteen years ago, I spent most of my school holidays either playing Football Manager (FM) or Pro Cycling Manager (PCM). The first is a purely strategic game, where you are in charge of a football team, and you can watch games unfold. The second is a strategic game for cycling teams, but you can also race, and decide what to do with your riders based on their fitness and energy levels.

I tossed back and forth for a few days between the FM22 demo and PCM20 (bought for €3.99 online, typically the game doesn’t advance that much year-on-year), but the fact that I could actually do races tilted me in favor of PCM.

At first, I felt guilty about starting to game again, thinking that I fell pray to what is regarded as an unproductive activity, even though I never was a fanatical gamer and knew I wouldn’t become one. I decided to leave the guilt behind and appreciate the fun for how long it lasts. Currently I am leading Lotto Soudal halfway its second season, and just finished second in the Giro d’Italia with transfer Giulio Ciccone after having won three mountain stages. 🤙

Playing the game reminded me of the stats database used, which carefully defines a rider’s profile, for example if he is more a climber or a sprinter. This led me to the idea of extracting the data and developing a small data application to find the most similar riders for any input rider. I did a write-up about the creation of the app in this Medium article, which also links to the code repository and the actual Dash app. Enjoy exploring!