Last week I found a message in my mailbox about a Microsoft Power BI competition and the moment I saw it, my little grey cells started playing with the idea of taking part in it. The hardest piece was getting hold of data from 2017, as the most up to date sources only contain 2016 statistics. First thing that has popped into my mind, that it should be something sports related, as there are tons of 2017 data available on the net. I ended up using UEFA Champions League results, however I’m not really keeping up with football news and it does not have that special place in my heart (sorry).
Long before I started to prepare the data I decided that the visualization should look like a football pitch to broadcast the feeling of a match. The viz came out pretty simple at the end, however I brooded about the background for days: use a plain green background or change it to something more vivid, like grass. I decided to make a vote on Instagram and at the end of the day both versions got 50%. When I was heading home from work sitting on the subway, I just came up with the idea to combine the two, and this is the end result of my mental football match:
Judit Bekker 