Street Fighter 2 and Data Analytics
In 1994, I was 12 years old. I had my own Super Nintendo from months of hard work and dedication. My brother Matt was 22 years old and temporarily living at home. We didn't have a lot in common. He liked sports while I was more of a comic book guy. The one place we could connect was sitting in front of the SNES with controllers in our hands. Our game of choice was Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

It was really the perfect combination of our tastes in entertainment – competitive enough for the sports fan, and stylized enough for the comic fan. Our skills were nearly equal, and grew in parallel as we battled daily after school.

One day Matt suggested we start keeping track of all our battles in a log. I have always been a fan of making lists, so I was all for it. We used a financial ledger that was originally intended for Matt's accounting class. We tracked which character was used in each battle, and who won and lost (or tied, which is extremely rare). We fought at least one match every weekday for three years. Our rules were simple: The winner of the previous match had to choose their character first in the next match. No choosing the same character twice in a row.

Three years after we began my brother moved out again, ending our daily ritual. We would still play a few matches here and there, but the momentum was falling. We logged our last match right before Matt left Minnesota to join the Navy. He has lived in Virginia ever since.

Analyzing the Data

Initially we only cared about the overall win/loss record. But as time progressed we realized we could use the data we had collected as a basis for optimal character selection. For example, according to our date, Sagat beat Zangief 92% of the time, while Guile beat Zangief only 71 % of the time. Clearly, Sagat was the wise choice in this situation.

In the end, we logged 5,157 matches. The results were amazingly close. I led with 2,608 victories, while Matt has secured 2,546 victories. We tied 3 times. Our most played match was between our two best characters: M.Bison (me) versus Ken (Matt). We fought that legendary battle 311 times, with M.Bison mopping the floor with Ken 182 times.

I used an OCR software to read the data sheets into an Excel spreadsheet (thank goodness I have good handwriting), and some interesting results came from analyzing the data. We only pitted characters against themselves 4% of the time. We picked Chun Li more in the summer and E. Honda more in the winter. I never once pitted Vega against Zangief.

The original log book was lost over the course of moving three times. The Excel spreadsheet was lost during a hard drive failure, before I knew the value of back-ups. I only had the statistics listed above written down in an old notebook.

Street Fighter 2 Turbo brought Matt and I together during a period of our lives when we had nothing else in common. The log book gave use both a purpose and an excuse to play. It was the longest, greatest video game battle of our lives. And I won. ;)

Luke Porter

Owner, Cyborg Arm Games

COMMENTS

Name: Matt
E-mail:
Date posted: April 11, 2008 - 02:38 pm
Message: Hey Bro!! That was a great article you wrote about our battles on street fighter. Can't believe you still have all that information. I just got off the boat yesterday. Going back out again in two weeks. Next time I am home we will have to play again for old times sake and to give me a chance to even the score. lol. Take it easy. I will talk to you again soon.
Oh ya, cool website!!

Matt

Name: Marty
E-mail: Private
Date posted: April 10, 2008 - 08:22 am
Message: sounds amazing, just sitting here reading what your guys have done over the years brought sooo many memories back for me and my brothers.

Im the middle of 3 boys, my older brother was more of a take a part and see whats in-side type of person,

my younger brother was more, I can sit here and watch all day type of person
(prity sure we could have invloved him a lot more)

me: well im a bit of both, love taking things to bits, watching others do the same..

but when it came to Street fighter 2 turbo on the snes.. it was all love and war... somthing i wished we did was keep a diary of all our games against each other, many nights the three of us would sit to at least 3-4 in the morning. and up for school at 7: playing this game

enjoyed the read thanks

M

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