New Match engine and how it works

For those who did not read (or just forgot what was explained before) we really encourage to read this article first:
https://www.basketpulse.com/en/News/article/61b8928fae0a2/match-engine-update
A lot of feedback we are receiving is related to the changes in shooting situations and that is already explained there. Make sure that you understand why in the new ME teams should let players take shots from worse situations compared to previous ME.

In this article we will focus more on the new tactics, attack flow and defence-focus tactics.


Attack Flow
One of the parts that we almost completely rewrote is attack flow. In the new ME attack flow is more realistic as it has all the elements (such as inbound pass, full court press).

Most attacks start with an inbound pass, which can lead to turnover (due to coaches / players’ IQ and other skills, sometimes just random). 

Then the team has to move the ball to the frontcourt in 8 seconds.
In some cases that could lead to possibility to do:

• quick attack (the shortest attack. In most cases offensive players are closer to the basket than the defenders)
• early attack (offensive players try to shoot before all the defenders can make it back to take the right defensive positions)

In order to make this stage of attack more difficult, the defending team can choose to use full-court press. That way they increase the chances to steal the ball or provoke a turnover. 
Also, full-court press usually increases the time needed to move the ball to the frontcourt, and this way there may not be enough time to use for the set plays. 
However, full-court press has its own cons as well, that could lead to quick points after a good pass. 

Attack and set plays
When the ball is in the frontcourt, the ball usually goes to point guard (PG) and he makes a decision what to do next.
If there is enough time, in most cases the player will organize one of the set plays.
The goal of the “Set play” is to create shooting opportunities for some concrete players. 

The final player for the Set play depends mostly on:

• “offensive-focus” tactics option 
• players’ skills for that shooting position 
• players’ shooting tactics settings

Set plays’ efficiency depends on many factors: players’ skills, coaches’ skills, tactics.
Usually set-play involves movement and passing of a few players. So in order to create a good shooting situation all players are important, not just the one who gets the ball in the final moment. 

If the set play did not work and there is still enough time left, the team may continue the attack with isolation or pick&roll.
If there is not enough time, the player with the ball will take a shot or pass the ball to the leader.

Isolation (one on one)
Initially in ME we will have only one isolation type: when it starts from a three point line.
Player for isolation is chosen based on:

• Ability to drive
• Shooting from three point range 
• Shooting from middle or close range.

If a player is allowed to shoot only from three point range, he won`t be used for isolation as his defender can easily predict his actions.

Defensive/Offensive focus
In the new ME we removed the old settings of “team offence” and “team defence”. Instead we implemented new ones - “offence focus” and “defence focus”.

In the modern basketball Zone defence is never used the whole game, so in the new ME teams always use man-to-man defence. 
In the future we plan to implement some additional defensive settings that will include Zone defence, pick&roll defence and so on. But as ME updating progress is very slow we decided to do this in the next version. 

One of the biggest challenges is to calibrate how much the chosen tactics should affect the final outcome of the matches. 
If the influence of tactics is too low - there is no point to analyze the opponent and change tactics.
If the influence is too high - active teams will change tactics everyday and it will become a pure gambling game (guess the right tactics and you will have great chances to win).
Our goal is to be somewhere in the middle. If a team has great snipers it should not stop using them just to “trick” the opponent. 

So you should not expect that ideal tactics will guarantee victory. However it should increase the chances for it.

Defensive focus
If a team uses a “defence focus” tactical setting, its players will try to pressure these players more. Creating good shooting situations for these players will be more difficult. But at the same time other players will have more space so they will have more chances to have better situations.

Defence focus – leader by skills
Team increases its defence on the two best players in the court by combination of their skills (skills that are used in driving and shooting from all different positions). 

Defence focus – leader by points
Team increases its defence on the two best players in the court by points they scored.

Defence focus – shooters
Team increases its defence on shooters. Effect mostly visible on three-point range. Especially the best two shooters on the court (by skills required for shooting). However, shooters have more chances to penetrate towards the basket. 

Defence focus – playmakers
Team increases pressure on the opponent’s PG or other players that have a “playmaker” role. 

Defence focus – low post
Team increases its defence against shooting in the low post area.

We are waiting for your feedback on the above described updates.
Please make sure that:
1. You give a link to the match
2. The match is simulated with the latest version (2022-05-26-01 or newer). You can find the match engine version in the match page.
3. Write what exactly is wrong and how you think it should be
4. Copy some events from chronology that demonstrate the problem