Brecon’s first ever esports team, Scout Edge Analytics Dragons (S.E.A Dragons) has officially launched and is aiming to be a pioneer of the industry through data analysis.

Former Brecon High School student, Patryk Bialowas is the co-founder of S.E.A Dragons and has previously worked as a data analyst in football at Hereford FC and other clubs.

With an interest in esports, Patryk noticed a gap in the market. Speaking about the founding of S.E.A Dragons, which is named after Patryk’s analytics company, he said: “There’s a bunch of clubs in Wales but I realised none are in Powys, so I figured there’s an opportunity and thought about how to start up a club. We did a lot of research, spoke to a lot of people and I realised analysis in Esports doesn’t really exist.

“We’ve not just set up Powys’ first esports team, but one of the world’s first data driven esports clubs.”

The team has bought in various staff from top sports teams around the UK including a nutrionist, personal trainer to work with players, as well as analysists and media staff.

The team are looking for new players and have got scouts to find local talent, so any gamers that stream on platforms such as Twitch or post their gameplay on social media can be picked up by scouts.

In the short term, the Dragons want to secure their place in the Welsh Esports League. The video games they are involved with are: EA FC, Rocket League, F1 and Valorant.

The club’s niche is using data analysis to win games.

“Because this field in Esports doesn’t exist, we are pioneering the idea in general so everything we do will be trial and error,” said Patryk. “The first game we have done this on is EA FC (a football-based video game).

“We’ve approached it like what we would do with analysis in real life football. The things we found helpful is pitch dimensions, so we have divided the EA FC pitch into 400 tiny segments and assigned a value to each segment for how valuable it is to move the ball into a certain area.

“For example, if you are a midfielder with the most valuable position to pass on the pitch, what happens if you win or lose a tackle, how much does it cost you in terms of value and with that we can then help a player decide what tactics in the game they should be using and the players they should have in their team. We can help them optimise their performance in that regard.”

This is just one example of analysis the team is using. With this approach and more ideas they hope to progress the esports industry in Wales and are in discussions with universities and the Welsh Government.

In their first tournament the Dragons finished third in the whole country and will potentially be going to Dubai later in the year to represent Wales in the Club World Cup.