applied sciences Article Identification of Players Ranking in E-Sport Karol Urbaniak 1 , Jarosław W ˛atróbski 2,* and Wojciech Sałabun 1,* 1 Research Team on Intelligent Decision Support Systems, Department of Artificial Intelligence Methods and Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Szczecin ul. Zołnierska˙ 49, 71-210 Szczecin, Poland; [email protected] 2 Department of Information Systems Engineering in the Faculty of Economics, Finance and Management of the University of Szczecin, Mickiewicza 64, 71-101 Szczecin, Poland * Correspondence: [email protected] (J.W.); [email protected] (W.S.); Tel.: +48-91-449-5580 (W.S.) Received: 20 August 2020; Accepted: 22 September 2020; Published: 27 September 2020 Abstract: Human activity is moving steadily to virtual reality. More and more, people from all over the world are keen on growing fascination with e-sport. In practice, e-sport is a type of sport in which players compete using computer games. The competitions in games, like FIFA, Dota2, the League of Legends, and Counter-Strike, are prestigious tournaments with a global reach and a budget of millions of dollars. On the other hand, reliable player ranking is a critical issue in both classic and e-sport. For example, the “Golden Ball” is the most valuable prize for an individual football player in the whole football history. Moreover, the entire players’ world wants to know who the best player is. The position of each player in the ranking depends on the assessment of his skills and predispositions. In this paper, we studied identification of players evaluation and ranking obtained using the multiple-criteria decision-making based method called Characteristic Objects METhod (COMET) on the example of the popular game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO). We present a range of advantages of the player evaluation model created using the COMET method and, therefore, prove the practicality of using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods to build multi-criteria assessment models in emerging areas of eSports. Thus, we provide a methodical and practical background for building a decision support system engine for the evaluation of players in several eSports. Keywords: e-sport; ranking; COMET method 1. Introduction Sport has always played an essential role in every culture in the past and still does in current times. Everybody knows conventional sports, such as football, volleyball, basketball, etc., but there are new sports appearing that are increasingly expanding in popularity. One of them is Electronic Sports, also known as eSports or e-sports [1]. At the beginning of the 90s, the history of e-sport began. During this decade, it became more and more popular, and the number of players increased significantly [2–5]. E-sport is a type of sport in which players compete in computer games [6,7]. The players’ activities are only restrained from being placed in the virtual environment [3]. E-sport is exciting entertainment for many fans, but it is also a source of income for the professional players and the whole e-sport organization. Professional players usually belong to different e-sport organizations and represent their teams competing in omnifarious tournaments, events, and international championship [2–4,8]. The competition takes place online or through so-called local networks (LAN). The most encounters take place in a LAN network, where both smaller and larger numbers of computers are connected in one building allowed for lower in-game latency between Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 6768; doi:10.3390/app10196768 www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 6768 2 of 35 gamers [2,6,8–10]. In e-sports, the viewership is crucial. The gameplay should be designed to attract and emotionally engage the participation of as many gameplay observers as possible. E-sport is a lifestyle for computer gamers. It becomes a real career path from which you can start, develop, and build your future. People still consider e-sport very conservatively. They think of it as something trivial and frivolous. While some people do not take it seriously all the time, spectator count records, as well as prize pool records, are regularly updated during major tournaments, reaching millions watching Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) [11]. It is full of opportunities, awards, travel, and also requires great sacrifice. It is incredibly demanding to reach a world-class level [1]. Actually, it looks like a full-time job. Players usually train 8 hours a day or more. They use the computer as a tool to achieve success in a new field. To become a professional, people have to work hard without any excuses. A player is considered as professional when he is hired by an organization that pays for his work representing that entity by appearing at events, mostly official tournaments on a national or international level [8]. E-sport has become an area that requires so much precision that even milliseconds determine whether to win or lose. Pointing out the importance of specialized skills, such as hand-eye coordination, muscle memory, or reaction time, as well as strategical or tactical in-game knowledge, increases achieving success in that area [12]. Hand-eye coordination is the ability of the vision system to coordinate the information received through the eyes to control, guide, and direct the hands in the accomplishment of a given task, such as handwriting or catching a ball [13]. The aim of e-sports is defeating other players. It could be done by neutralizing them, or just like in sports games, by racing as fast as possible to cross the finish line before your opponents. In addition, the win may be achieved by scoring the most points [2,3]. One of the most popular genres of eSports games is First-Person-Shooter (FPS) [2,6,8,14]. The virtual environment of the game is approached from the perspective of the avatar. The only thing visible of the avatars on the screen is the hands and the weapons they handle [2]. Counter-Strike is an FPS multiplayer game created and released by Valve Corporation and Hidden Path Entertainment [5,6]. There were many other versions of the game, which did not achieve much success. Valve realized how popular e-sport had become and create the new Counter-Strike game we play today, wholly tailored for competition, known as CS: GO. The rules in CS: GO are uncomplicated. There are two teams in the game: terrorists (T) and counter-terrorists (CT). Each team aims to eliminate the opposing team or to perform a specific task. The first one’s target is to plant the bomb and let it explode, while the second’s is to prevent the bomb from being planted and/or exploding. Additionally, the game consists of 30 rounds, where each last about 2 min. After 15 rounds, players need to switch teams. Then, the team that first achieves 16 rounds is the winner. When the game does not end in 30 rounds, it goes to overtime. It consists of a best of six rounds, three on each side. The team that gets to 4 rounds wins. If there is another draw situation, the same rule applies until a winner is found [4,8]. The team’s economy is concerned with the amount of money that everybody on the team have pooled cooperatively in order to buy new weapons and equipment. Winning a round by eliminating the entire enemy team provides the winners with USD 3250 per player, plus USD 300 if the bomb is planted by a terrorist. Winning by time on the counter-terrorist’s side rewards players USD 3250, and winning the round with a defusal (CT) or detonation of the bomb (T) rewards USD 3500. However, if the terrorists run out of time before killing all the oponnents or planting the bomb, they will not come in for any cash prize. If a round is lost on the T-side, but they still manage to plant the bomb, the team will be awarded USD 800 in addition to the current round loss streak value. The money limit for each individual player in competitive matches is equal to USD 16.000 [15]. For gamers, the foundation of e-sports is the glory of winning, the ability to evoke excitement in people, and the privilege of being perceived as one of the best players in the world [2,8]. In the past, players had to bring their equipment to LAN events, while having fun in a hermetically sealed society. They could then eventually win small cash prizes or gadgets. Now, these players are winning a prize pool of over USD 500 thousand, performing on big stages full of cameras and audience [1]. The increase in popularity of e-sports was not only impressive but also forced many business people, Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 6768 3 of 35 large corporations, and television companies to become interested in this dynamically developing market [8]. E-sport teams are often headed by traditional sports organizations and operated by traditional sports media. Tournaments are organized by conventional sports leagues highlighting the growing connections between classical sport and e-sport [16]. In recent years, e-sport has become one of the fastest-growing forms of new media driven by the growing origins of games broadcasting technologies [7,17]. E-sport and computer gaming have entered the mainstream, transforming into a convenient way of entertainment. In 2019, 453.8 million people had been watching e-sport worldwide, which increased by about 15% compared to 2018. It consisted of 201 million regular and 252 million occasional viewers.