The fact that the IPT provides running statistics regarding BR% and win% is great, but of course it would be nice to have more comprehensive and accurate stats. For example, the BR% is out of games won and not out of total breaks, which would be preferable.
More to the point, other statistics such as dry break %, run out % per shooting inning, and an accustats type average would be very informative. The problem is that compiling more detailed statistics would require having a semi-knowledgeable person watching each match, which is not really feasible with so many matches going on.
Here's an idea (and it's probably already been done somewhere). If there were some protocol for keeping track of every single shot of a pool game, meaning whether the shot was made, whether a safe was attempted, whether there was a foul, etc., then ideally you could keep track of every single game played in the IPT (or in other tournaments also). Then, after the fact you could go through and figure out any conceivable statistic you want using these game logs; it wouldn't be difficult using standard software tools.
This still leaves the problem of who keeps track of the matches. I think there were about 1000 matches, and I remember reading somewhere that every match was videotaped. At 2 hours a match, that's 2000 hours of pool watching required in order to get comrehensive statistics for the entire tourney. And, if we say $10 an hour, the total expense would be $20k. Hell, I'll watch pool and keep statistics for $10 an hour, and I know a bunch of other people who would as well. Of course there are other costs, like actually producing the videos and all, but I was under the impression that they were planning on doing that anyway.
For $20k, in my opinion, that would provide a huge wealth of statistical information. I'm not sure how it would be profitable for the IPT to do this, but it would make me happy
Another possibility, which would take some organizing, would be to do the stat-keeping in a collaborative internet way like open source development or wikipedia. So then anybody who wants to contribute and decides to watch any match of pool and keep a log can post the log to a website somewhere, and hopefully after a while there would be a relatively comprehensive set of match logs which anyone could look at and compute whatever statistics they are interested in.
More to the point, other statistics such as dry break %, run out % per shooting inning, and an accustats type average would be very informative. The problem is that compiling more detailed statistics would require having a semi-knowledgeable person watching each match, which is not really feasible with so many matches going on.
Here's an idea (and it's probably already been done somewhere). If there were some protocol for keeping track of every single shot of a pool game, meaning whether the shot was made, whether a safe was attempted, whether there was a foul, etc., then ideally you could keep track of every single game played in the IPT (or in other tournaments also). Then, after the fact you could go through and figure out any conceivable statistic you want using these game logs; it wouldn't be difficult using standard software tools.
This still leaves the problem of who keeps track of the matches. I think there were about 1000 matches, and I remember reading somewhere that every match was videotaped. At 2 hours a match, that's 2000 hours of pool watching required in order to get comrehensive statistics for the entire tourney. And, if we say $10 an hour, the total expense would be $20k. Hell, I'll watch pool and keep statistics for $10 an hour, and I know a bunch of other people who would as well. Of course there are other costs, like actually producing the videos and all, but I was under the impression that they were planning on doing that anyway.
For $20k, in my opinion, that would provide a huge wealth of statistical information. I'm not sure how it would be profitable for the IPT to do this, but it would make me happy
Another possibility, which would take some organizing, would be to do the stat-keeping in a collaborative internet way like open source development or wikipedia. So then anybody who wants to contribute and decides to watch any match of pool and keep a log can post the log to a website somewhere, and hopefully after a while there would be a relatively comprehensive set of match logs which anyone could look at and compute whatever statistics they are interested in.
