Patent ID: 8433540

Claim:
A method of evaluating the contributions of individual game factors from a plurality of factor categories, said method including the following steps: identifying a plurality of team game events that each has at least one quantifiable team game event result; identifying a plurality of factor categories relevant to at least some of said team game events, wherein said plurality of factor categories each take at least one of a plurality of pre-defined category-specific factor states, at least one of said category-specific factor states being defined by the participation of said individual factor in said event results, where the number of identified team game events exceeds the total number of said category-specific factor states among all said factor categories; identifying a subset of said plurality of factor categories that do not substantially affect a subset of said plurality of team game events; calculating a best-fit solution to a system of equations using said category-specific factor states among all factor categories as independent variables and said quantifiable event results as dependent variables, said system of equations reflecting only team game event results not in said subset of said plurality of team game events, said solution assigning a contribution value to at least one of said category-specific factor states, each said contribution value representing an estimation of the contribution of the corresponding category-specific factor state toward each of said event results having said category-specific factor state present during said event; calculating a best estimation value for at least all factor states in said subset of said plurality of factor categories, using at least the calculated contribution values corresponding to said factor states; calculating, using a computer, a best-fit solution to a system of equations using said category-specific factor states among all factor categories, except for said subset of said plurality of factor categories, as independent variables and said quantifiable event results as dependent variables, wherein said best estimation values for said subset of said plurality of factor categories are substituted in for said corresponding independent variables to reduce the number of independent variables in said system, said solution assigning a contribution value to at least one of said category-specific factor states not in said subset of factor categories, each said contribution values representing an estimation of the contribution of the corresponding category-specific factor state toward each of said game event results having said category-specific factor state present during said event; and calculating the best-fit solution to a system of equations using said category-specific factor states further comprising display onto a computer screen into an organized format with machine-readable medium facilitating sorting and ordering of said quantifiable event results to generate reports.