## 2 Materials and Methods
### The PlayerScore  
The basic consideration of the PlayerScore is that a goal increases the match score by one, so the score for a goal in PlayerScore is 1.0. The percentage for scoring a goal varies depending on the throwing position (Table 1); however, for the match score, it does not matter how the goal was scored (whether from 6 m or under hard contact from 10 m). The final action in team handball for scoring goals is a shot, and the last pass is defined as an assist [14; 16; 21]. To define the score for an assist, we used the overall statistics (available freely on the IHF and EHF homepage) from the 26 th Men's Handball World Championship 2019 (IHF 2019), the 14 th Men's Handball European Championship 2020 (EHF 2020), and the 27 th Men's Handball World Championship (IHF 2021). A total of 23934 shots during these three tournaments resulted in 14634 goals (Table 2). The calculated scoring percentage was 61.1% (~60%); thus, the score for an assist, a pass from one offensive player to his teammate leading to a goal, is 0.60. If the assist leads to a penalty, it is rated as if it led to a goal. \[\text{Assist}-\text{Goal}=\left(\frac{23,934}{14,634}\right)=0.611\approx 0.60\]  
By definition, an assist is the last pass leading to a goal, but in team handball, the decisive action for a goal is sometimes not the last pass. If the center back player (playmaker) binds two defenders, creating a numerical superiority for the right attacking side, and his pass to the right backcourt player is directly forwarded as the last to the right wing player who scores a goal, then the assist was given by the right backcourt player, but the decisive action was by the playmaker. Consequently, in such cases, both backcourt players, the decisive player with the preceding action and the player with the last pass, get the score for an assist (\"Assist--Goal\"). The percentage for a shot without scoring a goal (missed, post, blocked or goalkeeper save) was ~40% (Table 1), so we defined the score for an assist without scoring a goal (\"Assist--No goal\") as 0.40. The positive score is due to the positive action of the assist, as it enables the teammate to score a goal, even if they do not. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**All Shots**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Fast Break**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Shot 9 m**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Breakthrough**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Penalty**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Shot 67 m**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Block**} \\  & **Goal** & **Shot** & **Goal** & **Shot** & **Goal** & **Shot** & **Goal** & **Shot** & **Goal** & **Shot** & **Goal** & **Shot** & **Block** & **No Goal** \\ \hline IHF 2019 & 5239 & 8694 & 869 & 1085 & 1231 & 2947 & 605 & 812 & 519 & 686 & 4008 & 5747 & 404 & 1716 \\ EHF 2020 & 3532 & 5779 & 420 & 518 & 934 & 2009 & 402 & 547 & 316 & 434 & 2557 & 3722 & 273 & 1075 \\ IHF 2021 & 5863 & 9461 & 791 & 1031 & 1231 & 2947 & 865 & 1146 & 568 & 744 & 4409 & 6181 & 398 & 1716 \\  & 14,634 & 23,934 & 2080 & 2634 & 3396 & 7903 & 1872 & 2505 & 1403 & 1864 & 10,974 & 15,650 & 1075 & 4507 \\ Percentage & 61.1 & & 79.0 & & 43.0 & & 74.7 & & 75.3 & & 70.1 & & 23.9 & \\
**Score** & **0.60** & & **0.80** & & **0.45** & & **0.75** & & **0.75** & & **0.70** & & **0.25** & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Calculation of the different scores based on the percentage (%) of the overall statistics of the 26 th Men’s Handball Word Championship 2019 (IHF 2019), the 14 th Men’s Handball European Championship 2020 (EHF 2020), as well as the 27 th Men’s Handball Word Championship (IHF 2021). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c} \hline \hline
**Variable (Number)** & **Score** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Definition**} \\ \hline Goal (1) & 1.00 & Scoring a goal. The score increases by one \textgreater{} Score 1.0 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Suspension fetched (2)} & \multirow{3}{*}{0.80} & 2 min suspension or red card fetched by an offensive player.