Player role dossiers — by role, by signature play, by verified source

The players desk keeps a profile for every player on every roster it covers. Each profile splits into a verified header (handle, team, contract window) and an editorial role-meter (aim, utility, IGL) that is a directional read, not a number.

A role-meter is the desk's directional read of a player within their role cohort. It is not a publishable score and it is not a projection. The desk publishes the underlying broadcast data alongside the meter so readers can compare directly. This page is the working method, written out for readers who want to re-walk the meter for their own team.

How a single role-meter cell is built

The first input is the broadcast data desk's reading. The data desk reads every broadcast map the player appears in and extracts the player's per-round statistics: opening duel rating, first-shot accuracy, utility damage per round, utility chain efficiency. The reading is a publisher-anchored Tier-A dataset — every statistic can be re-walked from the broadcast overlay.

The second input is the player's own published interviews. The desk reads published interviews from the team's media archive; coach interviews from the tournament organiser's published press archive; and on-the-record comments made during broadcast matches. The interview reading is Tier-B unless the publisher's own published feed re-prints the interview in full.

The third input is the editor's qualitative read of the broadcast. The editor watches the player's rounds in the matches the player appears in and writes a one-paragraph scenario read of tempo choices: when the player opens a round, when the player defers, when the player triggers a mid-round utility chain. This is the desk's Tier-C layer, explicitly flagged in line.

Why the meter is directional

The meter carries three cells (aim, utility, IGL) per role cohort. Within the cohort, the meter ranks the player against other players in the same role — an entry duelist's aim cell is read against other entry duelists, not against sentinels or anchors. The number on the cell is a 0-to-100 directional ranking, not an absolute ranking.

The desk publishes the underlying data in the player's dossier so readers can re-compute the meter themselves. A reader who wants to re-rank the entry duelists does not need to re-read the broadcast overlay — they can pull the published stats and run the same cohort comparison against their own preferred weighting. The desk treats the meter as a starting point for the reader's own re-walk, not as a definitive ranking.

Three things the meter is not

The meter is not a prediction. It does not project a player's next map or next series. Predictions are filed separately, as editorial scenario, and are stamped EDITOR'S READ or editorial scenario. They are not part of the player's dossier.

The meter is not a comparison across roles. An Aim 87 entry duelist is not equivalent to a Util 87 sentinel — the cell scales are cohort-specific. A reader who wants to compare across roles is asked to read the cohort definitions first. The dossier publishes the cohort and the cell definitions.

The meter is not a salary or contract value. Contract values are out of scope for editorial coverage. Contract windows (months) are published only when a team or publisher has already disclosed them.

The desk's role cohort definitions are the boundaries within which the role-meter applies. A role-meter number is meaningful only when read against the player's own cohort; the same number on a different cohort can mean something entirely different. Below is the working method the desk uses to define and update cohort boundaries.

How a new cohort is born

A new role cohort is born when the publisher's own role taxonomy introduces a new role or when the desk observes a new sub-role appear consistently across three or more rosters over the past two splits. A new sub-role appearing once is not enough; the desk waits for repetition before formalising the cohort.

Once a sub-role is formalised, the desk defines the cohort's three cells — typically aim, utility, IGL — and one or two cells specific to the cohort. A flex controller cohort, for example, carries three role cells plus a fourth utility-chain cell.

How cohort definitions change

Cohort definitions can change when the publisher's tournament taxonomy changes. A new rule about anchor-sentinel rotation, for example, can change how the desk reads anchor cohorts. Cohort definitions can also change when the desk publishes a correction that affects a cohort boundary — the corrections log carries every cohort-defining change with a timestamp.

Why the cohort definitions matter for readers

A reader who wants to compare two players within the same cohort does so by reading both dossiers side by side. A reader who wants to compare across cohorts is asked to read the cohort definitions first, then re-read the players' role-meters against those definitions. The desk treats the meter as a starting point for the reader's own re-walk — the reader's own cohort definition is the one that matters for their own purposes.

Cohort boundary errors are rare but real. The desk commits to a 14h mean turnaround on corrections that affect cohort definitions; a correction in this category is logged on the corrections page with the cohort's affected players tagged so readers can re-walk the affected dossiers.