The Truth Behind a Win-Matrix

I have used win matrices in the past to demonstrate a point, but it occurs to me there are many who may not know the rich story they can tell about so many aspects of competition in sport. Though the T100 is driven quantitatively, it’s still nothing more than those metrics which determine the ranked order of every team in D3MVB. And although it might seem limited to let ordinals alone prompt some of these conclusions rather than the rich underbelly of the quantitative data which leads to them, I think it is still worth sharing.

The above is just a partial list of what this year’s win matrix through January 30th for D3MVB can tell. Its purpose is to show the evolution into a simpler schematic graphic capable to summarize relative frequencies of where the wins tend to settle along the spectrum of competition, when not possible for every team to play every other. Let’s be honest – If every team could play every other, there is little need for a win matrix because that is the only time the accumulation of wins and/or losses trump where those wins and losses are located on a win matrix. Having created the graphic allows for an ability to compare what truthful models look like across all sports, mildly interesting & informational but having no higher purpose I know. However, the more important comparisons would have to be those looking at different models from the same sport which utilize the same data sets yet sometimes arrive at different conclusions. Not in the form of a chest thumping, bragging rights competition, but as a barometer. Who do we believe when there are two people telling us their version of the truth? The one most trustworthy. Well, isn’t that which is closer to the truth typically the most trustworthy?

I suspect a win-matrix may come along again at some point the rest of this season in my posts, one reason I wanted to clarify the graphic and how to interpret it. You never know when you will turn over a rock to find something other than a half dozen more rocks to look under. And when you decide to skip it along the surface of a nearby lake, it will eventually settle itself on the bottom where who knows what any water dwelling critter might do with it, then. Maybe nothing, maybe not!