It is worth noting that, despite our best efforts, the World National Soccer ratings aren’t quite as precise as the previously done league ratings for 2024-2025 card sets. Back in May, FBref.com removed virtually all of their advanced player statistics overnight. Those statistics had been the backbone of the rating system used for every league release up to that point. Hundreds of statistical inputs fed into the formulas that produced ratings across every aspect of a player's game. When that data disappeared, so did the foundation of the rating model. Since then, I've spent many hours searching for replacement data sources that could provide the same depth and consistency. While there are plenty of websites with basic statistics, very few offer the comprehensive advanced metrics that made the league ratings so detailed in the first place. For the World National Soccer project, I ultimately relied on a different dataset generously shared by Parth Kapur through LinkedIn....
In anyone's favorite tabletop sports simulation board game, the associated player ratings and game engine can make up the crux of how much one enjoys that particular game. While the game engines themselves are important, typically game designers put significant thought into a game's structural design. Moreover, most games are play tested long enough to notice lacking areas and inconsistencies in the game engine, leading to most game engines being relatively stable over time and not causing too many headaches for players. This may not be the case as often, however, when it comes to the aspect of statistical distributions of player ratings. As a player of over 20 different tabletop sports simulation games, I personally have noticed a striking reality: that some games seemingly to pay more attention to their player ratings distribution and variation between players than others, and this significantly impacts one's enjoyment of the game! ...