A perspective on value co-creation processes in eSports service ecosystems

PurposeElectronic Sports (eSports) is an emerging sector of the sports and entertainment industry experiencing an accelerated increase in consumer and sponsor demand. This paper aims to study selected cases of eSports service ecosystems, to identify similarities and differences and to understand the different roles, relationships and multiple interactions of actors involved in value co-creation processes.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical paper follows the service-dominant logic to highlight value creation. Based on the sport value framework, an organizing logic for the actors in sports-related ecosystems to exchange service and co-create value, the authors apply the conceptualization of an eSports service ecosystem framework in which actors create value through their interactions. A case study approach was applied to qualitatively describe two cases of value co-creation by multiple actors during three eSports events. Case study 1a is the 2019 League of Legends World Championship Finals in Paris. Case study 1b is the 2020 League of Legends World Championship Finals in Shanghai. Case study 2 is the BLAST Premier Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Global Final 2020, which was entirely virtual.FindingsThe outcome is an empirically investigated conceptual framework of multiple actors co-creating value within a service ecosystem in eSports. The insights of the cases explain how actors interact with each other and co-create value during events in eSports ecosystems. The cases illustrate interactions in the context of eSports where the actors are connected within ecosystems. This enables further development of a value co-creation concept and a better understanding of value co-creation in eSports.Originality/valueThis study contributes to research by explicating a theoretically grounded framework for eSports service ecosystems based on empirical evidence. This research extends the scope of value co-creation beyond the firm–customer dyad to a service ecosystem in eSports, demonstrating the dynamic interactions of multiple actors.

Rocky Balboa: The Innocent and the Invincible Hero of Low Income Class

This study is aiming to scrutinize that how American low income class is represented in Rocky Balboa film series in regards of Rocky Balboa character. It will try to understand the mission which is given to Rocky along the film series by examining the concepts such as the values which Rocky represents, class standing, moving up in social ladder, etc. in the scripts of Rocky movies. The life line of Balboa which we have begun to witness while he was living in a poor neighborhood leads us to the different faces of his life along the six films of series: firstly, the world championship that he got by defeating Apollo Creed, then keeping his belt for a long time and defeating Ivan Drago, then losing all his wealth and has to return to the neighborhood where he was living previously and the last fight that he did during his retirement. The hypothesis of the study is that the films of Balboa series are reflecting the life of American low income class ‘realistic’ with Rocky Balboa’s character, and the hypothesis is going to want to verify it along the study.

Drawn to the Rhythm

<p>Rowing is one of New Zealand’s premier international sports, and our New Zealand rowers have won significant acclaim in Olympic and World Championship competitions. Most recently at the 2012 London Olympics, three of the six New Zealand gold medals and both of the silver medals were for rowing. The spirit, camaraderie, emotion, and atmosphere of a great sporting occasion are enhanced by a great venue; the sports stadium is not a passive backdrop but a theatre set that can only enhance the experience through its design and management. Yet unlike other premier sports in the country, such as cricket, netball and rugby, New Zealand has no permanent stadium wherein spectators can witness and celebrate rowing competitions and the training of these athletes. Typically the sport of rowing has always relied on boatshed architecture as its only relationship to the built environment. This thesis argues that the use of ‘boatshed’ architecture for rowing teams actively disconnects the sport from the public; but stadium architecture has its own distinct economic disadvantage, in that stadiums are empty more often than they are full. The thesis therefore proposes a new approach to a rowing stadium – integrating boatshed, stadium, gymnasium, and hospitality elements – to provide a new typology for rowing that remains activated throughout the year. Linda Pollak and Anita Berrizebeitia believe that our relationship to the built environment has increasingly isolated us from experiencing the landscape upon which it is sited. This thesis argues that a rowing facility provides an ideal opportunity to explore how critical boundaries separating waterfront architecture and the sea can be re-examined in order to re-enforce our experience of the waterfront built environment and its unique site, offering new ways to re-connect our experience of inside and outside. The site of this research investigation is Athfield Architects’ $100 million redevelopment of the Overseas Passenger Terminal into 76 high-end private waterfront apartments in Wellington. The Wellington waterfront is in particular need of public activation, yet this new development effectively privatises an important segment; the goals of developers and cities are often at odds with one another. The thesis argues that, when set within the context of a larger waterfront program, rowing can actually help activate that larger program and enhance its economic value in the same way that a gym adds value to a residential apartment complex and sea views add economic value to a restaurant. Our harbour cities depend on public activities along the waterfront that encourage visual as well as physical participation throughout the day. This thesis investigates how a permanent rowing facility can become a viable urban activator for both a city and a private development, while also enhancing the public’s relationship with this premier New Zealand sport. Creating the opportunity for the sport and its athletes to be celebrated in the eyes of the public is important to ensure the sport continues to thrive and receives the recognition that it deserves.</p>

Drawn to the Rhythm

<p>Rowing is one of New Zealand’s premier international sports, and our New Zealand rowers have won significant acclaim in Olympic and World Championship competitions. Most recently at the 2012 London Olympics, three of the six New Zealand gold medals and both of the silver medals were for rowing. The spirit, camaraderie, emotion, and atmosphere of a great sporting occasion are enhanced by a great venue; the sports stadium is not a passive backdrop but a theatre set that can only enhance the experience through its design and management. Yet unlike other premier sports in the country, such as cricket, netball and rugby, New Zealand has no permanent stadium wherein spectators can witness and celebrate rowing competitions and the training of these athletes. Typically the sport of rowing has always relied on boatshed architecture as its only relationship to the built environment. This thesis argues that the use of ‘boatshed’ architecture for rowing teams actively disconnects the sport from the public; but stadium architecture has its own distinct economic disadvantage, in that stadiums are empty more often than they are full. The thesis therefore proposes a new approach to a rowing stadium – integrating boatshed, stadium, gymnasium, and hospitality elements – to provide a new typology for rowing that remains activated throughout the year. Linda Pollak and Anita Berrizebeitia believe that our relationship to the built environment has increasingly isolated us from experiencing the landscape upon which it is sited. This thesis argues that a rowing facility provides an ideal opportunity to explore how critical boundaries separating waterfront architecture and the sea can be re-examined in order to re-enforce our experience of the waterfront built environment and its unique site, offering new ways to re-connect our experience of inside and outside. The site of this research investigation is Athfield Architects’ $100 million redevelopment of the Overseas Passenger Terminal into 76 high-end private waterfront apartments in Wellington. The Wellington waterfront is in particular need of public activation, yet this new development effectively privatises an important segment; the goals of developers and cities are often at odds with one another. The thesis argues that, when set within the context of a larger waterfront program, rowing can actually help activate that larger program and enhance its economic value in the same way that a gym adds value to a residential apartment complex and sea views add economic value to a restaurant. Our harbour cities depend on public activities along the waterfront that encourage visual as well as physical participation throughout the day. This thesis investigates how a permanent rowing facility can become a viable urban activator for both a city and a private development, while also enhancing the public’s relationship with this premier New Zealand sport. Creating the opportunity for the sport and its athletes to be celebrated in the eyes of the public is important to ensure the sport continues to thrive and receives the recognition that it deserves.</p>

Analysis of the competitive activity of judokas in light weight categories during the World Championship among adults in 2021

Purpose: to analyze the indicators of the competitive activity of judokas in light weight categories during the World Championship among adults in 2021. Material and methods. During the work, the following research methods were used: analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature; timing; analysis of protocols and video recordings of fights of highly qualified judokas in weight categories up to 60 and 66 kg, methods of mathematical statistics. 49 fights of judoists in the weight category up to 60 kg and 61 fights in the weight category up to 66 kg during the World Judo Championship among adults 2021 (Hungary, Budapest) were analyzed. Results: the analysis of the received comments of highly qualified judokas of light weight categories shows that most of the comments were received by the athletes for not wrestling (up to 60 kg – 35 %; up to 66 kg – 36 %), for avoiding capture (up to 60 kg – 21 %, up to 66 kg – 27 %), the use of false attacks (up to 60 kg – 16 %, up to 66 kg – 13 %) and for fighting in a defensive position (up to 60 kg – 4 %, up to 66 kg – 6 %). The analysis of technical actions of highly qualified judokas of light weight categories made it possible to reveal the total number of effective actions. So, in the weight category up to 60 kg, athletes performed 59 effective technical actions, including 48 (81 %) in a standing position and 11 (19 %) in a parterre and lying position. Moreover, in the stand, 36 (75 %) actions were assessed by the judges for «Vasari», and 12 (25 %) for «Ippon». In the parterre and lying position - 3 (27 %) for «Vasari», 8 (73 %) for «Ippon». In the weight category up to 66 kg, athletes performed 57 effective technical actions, including 50 (87 %) in a standing position and 7 (13%) in a parterre and lying position. 38 (76 %) actions in a standing position were assessed by the judges for «Vasari», 12 (24 %) for «Ippon». In the parterre and lying position - 1 (14 %) for «Vasari», 6 (86 %) for «Ippon». Also, the main effective technical actions were identified, which are most often used by athletes in a standing position, a parterre position and lying down. So, for athletes in the weight category up to 60 kg, these are: throw over the back from their knees (19 %), grab (11 %), grab from the inside (11 %), unbalance by pushing back (11 %), elbow lever (46 %), hold on top (36 %), hold across (18 %). In the weight category up to 66 kg, the most often performed such effective technical actions were pick-up from the inside (14 %), unbalance with a push back (12 %), throw over the back from the knees, through the chest with a deflection (8 %), hold across, hold from the side heads (29 %). Conclusions. It has been established that athletes of light weight categories in most cases conduct reconnaissance battles, use defensive positions, false attacks in order to catch an opponent on a mistake. When conducting fights in this manner, they most often receive comments on not fighting, avoiding capture, using false attacks and for fighting in a defensive position. It was revealed that the struggle of athletes of light weight categories mainly takes place in the standing position. Technical actions in the parterre position and lying are more effective. Sportsmen of two weight categories used the following technical actions in a standing position more: throws over the back (from the knees, grabbing an arm on the shoulder), grabs, holds, unbalance by pushing back. In the parterre position and lying position, athletes of two weight categories used different types of holdings and the elbow lever more. Keywords: judo, athletes, competitive activity, indicators, highly qualified, light weight categories.

AlphaPilot: autonomous drone racing

This paper presents a novel system for autonomous, vision-based drone racing combining learned data abstraction, nonlinear filtering, and time-optimal trajectory planning. The system has successfully been deployed at the first autonomous drone racing world championship: the 2019 AlphaPilot Challenge. Contrary to traditional drone racing systems, which only detect the next gate, our approach makes use of any visible gate and takes advantage of multiple, simultaneous gate detections to compensate for drift in the state estimate and build a global map of the gates. The global map and drift-compensated state estimate allow the drone to navigate through the race course even when the gates are not immediately visible and further enable to plan a near time-optimal path through the race course in real time based on approximate drone dynamics. The proposed system has been demonstrated to successfully guide the drone through tight race courses reaching speeds up to $${8}\,{\hbox {m}/\hbox {s}}$$ 8 m / s and ranked second at the 2019 AlphaPilot Challenge.

PREDICTORES DE LA EFICACIA DE RECEPCIÓN EN VOLEIBOL MUNDIAL MASCULINO U-21 Y ABSOLUTO

El objetivo de la investigación fue conocer las variables de recepción que predecían su eficacia, en diferentes niveles de juego (U-21, absoluto) en voleibol masculino. La muestra del estudio estuvo compuesta 3442 acciones de recepción, de las cuales 1894 corresponden a categoría U-21 (U-21 Men´s World Championship) y 1548 a categoría absoluta (Absolute Men´s World Championship). Las variables del estudio fueron: función del receptor, desplazamiento previo del receptor, tipo de recepción, posición del receptor, técnica de recepción, zona de recepción, eficacia de recepción. El análisis de regresión logística multinomial mostró que, el desplazamiento previo del receptor y la técnica de recepción fueron predictoras en ambas categorías, U-21 y absoluta; el tipo de recepción y zona de recepción fueron predictoras únicamente en U-21; la posición del receptor fue predictora únicamente en absoluta. Dicha información puede ayudar al proceso de entrenamiento favoreciendo el diseño de tareas concretas para cada nivel de juego.

Differences between Championships of Football 5-a-Side for Blind People

Research on Football 5-a-side for blind people is usually informative and does not often consider sports performance analysis. This study aimed to verify the existing differences between the 2014 World Championship of Fa5 and the 2016 Paralympic Games, analyzing the action for an effective game, the throws to the goal. For this purpose, a total of 52 matches were analyzed and the statistical analysis unit was all the throws made to the goal during the game (n = 2.227). A descriptive and differential analysis was made between the variables proposed in the study considering the type of competition. The results show the existence of differences between the championships, analyzed explicitly through the variables: Championship phases, Throwing moment, Match status, Starting zone, and Throwing result, as well as the variables Progression type, Throwing zone, Striking situation, Corporal zone, and Striking type. These results highlighted that teams played differently but also set game trends and styles for future competitions.

Do Hotels Benefit from Hosting IIHF World Championships?

This paper focuses on the impact of hosting of IIHF World Championship on the local hotel market using the case of Prague (IIHF World Championship 2015) and Bratislava (IIHF World Championship 2011). Many previous studies were focused on the impact of hosting mega sports and cultural events on destination perception and visit rate during and after the event, perception of hosting these events by residents or the effect on the local economy. Using unique daily empirical data collected from 95 Prague hotels and 25 Bratislava hotels, key findings of this study show lack of long-run positive impact but a high short-run (immediate) effect. In the case of Prague, the main increase of market performance can be identified during the final stage of the tournament, mainly in selling room rates; for Bratislava, the significant effect was determined during the whole tournament, and the entire market never reached the same level of performance. The study shows the need to examine these effects further, emphasizing more variables like seasonality and market segmentation, revenue management, and destination management.

Within-Match Performance Dynamics – Momentary Strength in Handball

Handball is an Olympic team sport characterized by changes of ball possession, where teams either play on offense or defense. In this paper, we model momentary strength in handball as scoring probabilities based on a double moving average. In this cross-sectional observational study, the aim was to describe the dynamics of momentary strength in handball from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Momentary strength can be used to further characterize the nuances of the sport by identifying different phases in a match. The momentary strength model was applied to the 2019 International Handball Federation (IHF) Men's World Championship. Ninety-six games were analyzed. The results showed that momentary strength could be used to better understand the dynamic interaction process between two teams. The Spearman correlation between the teams' median momentary strength and their final ranks at the Championship was -0.830. Virtually each team faced phases in its matches with a momentary scoring probability lower than 0.10 and with 4 exceptions also higher than 0.90. Twelve out of the 24 teams showed phases with a momentary scoring probability of exactly 0 as well as exactly 1