# US Election Game submission data

These datafiles contain anonymized, scored submission data for the FT US election game [link](https://ig.ft.com/us-election-game/), an open "colonel blotto" game based on the US electoral college.

There are two CSV files:

* `submissions.csv`: contains one row for each submission
* `submissions-first-only.csv`: contains one row for each _first_ submission made by a reader, before they were given the opportunity to adjust their distribution based on feedback

Each has the same columns:

* `entry`: a row index unique to the file (does not persist between files)
* `timestamp`: a UTC timestamp indicating when the entry was submitted
* `player_id`: an anonymized UUID to connect submissions made during the same browser session
* `player_attempt_num`: indicates which of a player's attempts the row represents, indexed starting at 0 (e.g. a player's fourth attempt would have a `player_attempt_num` of 3)
* `original_win_pct`: the winning percentage against other submissions at the time of submission (result when scored against all earlier submissions)
* `original_wins`: total matchup wins against other submissions at the time of submission
* `original_draws`: total matchup draws against other submissions at the time of submission
* `original_losses`: total matchup losses against other submissions at the time of submission
* `final_win_pct`: the winning percentage against the full dataset (each row was re-scored as new submission came in)
* `final_wins`: total matchup wins against the full dataset
* `final_draws`: total matchup draws against the full dataset
* `final_losses`: total matchup losses against the full dataset
* [One row for each state in the game, indicating how many of the submissions's 100 credits were distributed to that state]

Unique submission IDs can be formed with a combination of the `player_id` and `timestamp` or `player_id` and `player_attempt_num`

Submissions were scored according to the methodology described in the story:

* Each state is winner-take-all, with its full electoral votes given to whichever player in a matchup allocated more credits
* If two players allocate the same number of credits, the electoral votes for the state are split evenly
* Whichever player wins a majority of the 100 electoral votes up for grabs wins the matchup
* If the two players each win 50 electoral votes, the matchup is a tie

Electoral vote for the swing values match those of the real 2024 election:

* Pennsylvania: 19
* Georgia: 16
* North Carolina: 16
* Michigan: 15
* Arizona: 11
* Wisconsin: 10
* Nevada: 6
* New Hampshire: 4
* Maine (statewide): 2
* Nebraska CD-2: 1

A player's winning percentage is calculated as `((wins + (draws / 2)) / total_matchups)`

If you do anything interesting with this data and want to share, feel free to email sam.learner@ft.com / oliver.roeder@ft.com

Data last updated: 2024-11-07 (retroactively, submissions ended on this date)
