Bringing Unrelated Games Closer: Excitements Unified with Changes Picked Through a Careful Parallax

Abstract

In a sporting context, discussions involving excitement are qualitative and subjective. A number, such as the margin of victory, may fall short in quantifying excitement. For example, a soccer game that ends 5-2 may generate more excitement - depending on when and how the goals were scored - than another. Further complications arise when one wishes to compare various kinds of games. In this work, we bring out, through objective and quantitative tools, the key medium of excitement generation: frequent and close twists and turns in an evolving system. Judiciously used, the method can shed light on several interesting issues.