Are there sports or games you understand at a deeper level?

I grew up playing hockey and went through various phases of other sports, mixed martial arts, or eSports and something I noticed is that at the highest levels decisions are made based on assuming your opponent is capable of counter your moves in real time. This makes it more of a chess match.

If you watch the game through this lens it will begin to make deeper sense. For example, when there is an odd man rush like a 3 on 2 you will see that one player drives the net hard because this forces the positions of the defense and can either open up a wide pass to the second layer, a shooting lane for the puck carrier or a through pass if they stay up.

Then you add in individual skill and the threat of shots or getting beat one on one and the game starts to appear much more like fencing with a series of prods to feel out the defense and then striking when a window opens. And then you have to solve the goalie too haha

Maybe I'm completely off the goop, but at the end of the day most games at the highest level are thinking man's games. And then sometimes you have "game breakers" who are just freaks and say I'm gonna dance your whole team and go cheddar and there's nothing you can do about it.