What it’s like to work at PandaScore
Tags: Recruiting, Esport, Data Science, Hiring, Data

PandaScore is a startup based in Paris, France 🇫🇷 developing artificially intelligent computer vision software, PandaVision, that can deliver real-time data and odds for LoL, CS:GO, Dota2 and Overwatch esports matches. We’ve been in operation for a few years now, currently with a team of 28 Pandas🐼 and freelancers.

Data scientists Matus and Liam. Read Liam’s blogpost on how we use deep-learning to get champion coordinates

Inside the company, we have developers, data scientists, data managers, traders, business developers, one office manager (our angel, Benji ❤️), one product manager, interns, health-freaks, bronze players, one guy who uses a standing desk, a Slovak 🇸🇰, an Ozzie 🇦🇺, two Maltese 🇲🇹, a Korean 🇰🇷, an American 🇺🇸, an Italian 🇮🇹, a Mongolian 🇲🇳 and a bunch of French people 🥖.

The office is quite relaxed and open and we mostly communicate in English. Sometimes a bit in French. There are some plants and stuffed toys, but the office is really decorated by the mess Pandas left over time. You may find a map of LOTR, a tower of post-it notes and three Nintendo Switch next to the TV in the lunchroom. There are also a lot of mildly interesting photos from past events and retreats on the walls (they’re the source materials of many custom emotes on PandaScore Slack 🤔).

And then our meeting room… 😍😍😍

Some Pandas having a great meeting

We love our meeting room because of three reasons:

There is a mural of a huge, badass panda 🐼 on the wall. Pandas are the symbol of our company spirit — Pandas are badass (see Pandaren Brewmaster), Pandas are resilient (see Kung Fu Panda) and Pandas enjoy life with tranquility, integrity and love for food and sleep (see panda videos on YouTube). There are gaming computers 🖥️ along the walls. After a day of work, this is where we collectively unwind and indulge in our passion for gaming — an inseparable part of PandaScore’s identity. This is the most important and obvious reason — this is also where we hold our company meetings. Here, we share ideas, progresses, hardships and plans, everything that needs to be discussed. This is where a potential panda will be interviewed. This is where Pandas gather for the weekly Rubikscube meeting. This is where all the different departments at PandaScore meet at a crossroad and look toward the main mission together. 🤜🤛

Developer Cedric with the headmaster of data management, Milindha

We care about who we work with and company culture matters to us. To explain more, let’s introduce PandaScore ‘s core values:

🛠️ Rigor — our customers depend on us to deliver a perfect product each time, and if we send out something without thoroughly testing it, it hurts both us and our customers. Imagine you’re building an esports statistics app with our data. If our data fails, you will follow too and this cannot happen.

✏️ Learning — It’s not only video games that PandaScore has appetite for- a big part of what we do revolves around research in artificial intelligence and data science. Unless you disagree with Elon Musk, Sam Harris, Kai-Fu Lee and many other thinkers in the industry, advancements in AI will inevitably unlock the doors to levels of information processing that’s unprecedented. As a consequence, the world will likely undergo a major revolution in technology and PandaScore is committed to being a part of this transformation in human history. We build the AI, and we also follow the news, read the science journals and do the research.

Data science people: Sven, Matus, Liam, Thibaut, Jo

😉 Trust — kind of a big one. Simply put, we respect autonomy and we want our employees to keep it. Therefore, for example, if you worked late, had a rough night 🍻 or feel sick in the morning, you should take the day off or come in at noon. Or, work remote — you know yourself best so the decision’s up to you. It’s in our culture to be flexible and put a lot of trust in the pandas — we don’t want to create a work atmosphere that feels strict, interrogative and distrusting to our employees. In response, we simply ask the pandas to honor our trust, use common sense and deliver what they’re expected to, when and where.

We care about our💡 technology -it’s what we do for a living. But we also love 🎮 gaming and esports. It’s in our DNA as a company.

Our beloved souvenir wall

And last, PandaScore is a 👪 family (or a tribe, a team, a group, whatever, doesn’t matter). Since the pandas spend a lot of time around each other, it’s important that we work with people we can get along with. And we do — we’re never out of excuses to spend time together — lunch every day, pizza&LoL night every Wednesday, viewing parties, cooking, company retreats… it goes on. Plus, we’re all working toward the same goal. That’s pretty cool. It may sound like a cheesy startup fairy tale, but it’s real. You can feel it.

10/10 would recommend

When you ask a panda to tell you about a two-day Factorio rush he had with few other pandas, it seems that the tale is best told by the player himself.☝️☝️☝️ The details, the adventures, the emotions, only his own words will do them justice.

What keeps PandaScore focused, despite the company atmosphere we try to create and maintain, is keeping our eyes fixated on our goals — we have a busy road ahead. There are new products, new clients and new pandas coming in the near future. We need to keep PandaVision going and continue to deliver reliable live data and odds.

If you want to work at the crossroads of esports, artificial intelligence, and data science, if what you read here resonates with what you look for in a company, consider reaching out to PandaScore and see what’s possible. You can learn more on our site.

To read about what we do, our business & technology, click here.