Tag Archives: dke

Pong Wins Above Replacement, Part 3

What better way to spend this quarantine than looking at pong statistics? Today, I am going to return again to the idea of "Wins Above Replacement" (WAR) for pong. You may recall a couple of years ago we touched on this topic, but calculating WAR on the level of the team. You can read the two installments on team WAR here: Pong Wins Above Replacement, Read more [...]

Pong Pod #15 – Career Arcs & Matchup Tactics

Please enjoy responsibly. Read more [...]

Pong Pod: Summer Slam Recap

Super late putting this up, but better Nate than Lever!     Read more [...]

Summer Slam Fri-Lights

We played four "official" (i.e., stat-tracking-worthy) games on the Friday of Summer Slam, outside the tourney matches. The fourth was an all-time classic - more on that one to come. In the meantime, the other three produced some fun moments. Check em out: ITB. Read more [...]

Pong Pod #6: Serving, and Implementing Changes

Howdy! In this latest episode of the Pong Pod, Ezra, Bullets and I wrap up our mechanics discussion by focusing on serving form specifically, and then talk about how - in light of how infrequent we actually have the opportunity to play - one could actually implement positive, permanent changes to one's mechanics. Important note: We're asking Read more [...]

Pong Pod #5: Mechanics & Training

In the fifth installment of the Pong Pod, Ezra, Bullets and I discuss how one can improve his/her odds of winning at pong - tackling that topic specifically from the angle of what we feel proper mechanics and training regimes might look like. Please enjoy responsibly: Also of note is the new paddle Bullets designed, which we referenced Read more [...]

La Familia

On February 4, 19-year-old Timothy Piazza, a pledge of Penn State's Beta Theta Pi fraternity, died after a night of drinking and being hazed. The particulars of this happening are certainly disconcerting, but this all became especially close to home when I learned that a graduate of my alma mater Niskayuna High School was involved, and is now Read more [...]

Pong Wins Above Replacement, Part 2

Last month, I wrote a blogcat detailing the basic logic behind a computer-simulated pong game, and how we can use this logic to calculate Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for a given team. This time, I will present the results for this analysis, as performed on the data gathered during NogFest 2015. Before you read this, you should probably make sure Read more [...]

Pong Wins Above Replacement, Part 1

In case you haven't figured it out, we here at Bobcat Territory really like beer pong. Since we started the site in April 2012, we've had 8 blogcats dedicated to the subject. That's a veritable blogclowder (yes, apparently a group of bobcats is called a clowder)! In any case, this will be Part 1 of an ongoing series dedicated to trying to look Read more [...]

NogFest 2016

Entering the second annual NogFest, one player in particular was flying under the radar. After famously squandering a 15-2 lead, then following that performance with an unsurprising yet still demoralizing defeat in the Brother Pi semifinal - to the same team, no less - some questioned whether he or his partner could ever come back, mentally. When Read more [...]