ShiftyPowers
Make America Great Again
Almost all of us claim to know a lot about football, in fact, most of us claim to know a lot more than most of the idiots here at Soccer Gaming. Well, this is each of our chance to prove how much about the beautiful game we know. I am proposing that 12-16 members of the forum compete in a "fantasy draft" of sorts, consisting of all players in the world. The draft will be a "snake format" to ensure competitive balance. If you do not understand what this means, I will give you an example.
In the NBA the worst team gets the #1 pick (this isn't exactly accurate because of the lottery, but it is close enough) in the first round, and then gets the #1 pick in the second round. The team that wins the NBA Finals gets the last pick in the first round and the last pick in the second round. In a 4 team league it would go like this:
1. Team A
2. Team B
3. Team C
4. Team D
5. Team A
6. Team B
7. Team C
8. Team D
However, a snake format flips the order for alternating rounds:
1. Team A
2. Team B
3. Team C
4. Team D
5. Team D
6. Team C
7. Team B
8. Team A
This ensures competitive balance. In a league of 16 teams, the team blessed with the top pick will get Messi (or Ronaldo I suppose), but then they will have to wait while every other team gets to pick 2 players before they can pick again. This ensures competitive balance between all teams.
Now the tricky part: choosing who participates in the Draft. It's possible that this will not generate any interest, but I highly doubt that. I have participated in a few of these on other forums and they are always fun. There will be 1 thread for just the official picks, and then there will be 1 thread where everyone argues about why Team D just made the worst pick of the draft. It's fantastic. Of course, there are more than 16 good members on this board, so picking who gets to participate can hurt the feelings of some. As a guide, I will post the format of the Challenge, and if you do not feel like you can abide by the format (mostly, getting your picks in on time), then please do not join.
Ideally we will have 16 people participating in the Ultimate Draft Challenge, but if we can only get 12, so be it. I will randomly provide the order using a random number generator; if I get the first pick I will scrap that order and do it again so it doesn't look like I rigged the process. I will post the Order and the member with the first pick has 24 hours to make their selection. The sooner the better. After the first pick is made the member with the 2nd pick will have 12 hours to make their selection, or else they will be skipped and the team with the third pick can pick at any time. They have 12 hours to make their pick, and Team 2 can also make their pick at any time. This is important; if you see that the team ahead of you has 30 minutes before their 12 hours is up, it's not a bad idea to wait for 1 minute after so you get the best player possible. It is also a major incentive to get your pick in on time. If you miss your pick by 4 hours you could see 6 or more players taken before you get your selection in. DO NOT MISS YOUR PICK. I understand that people have lives and this will be inevitable, but this draft will take FOREVER if we have to wait 12 hours for every selection. If you cannot check the board at least twice a day, then don't bother signing up. Most people do not sleep for 12 hours a day, and most people do not work for 12 hours a day, so these will not be tolerated as persistent excuses.
If any member becomes a hassle by constantly missing picks and holding up the draft, the rest of us have the right to kick them out and hand their team over to someone else. If you miss a pick you will be skipped until you come back; that means that if you miss one and then it comes back to your next pick, you will not get a fresh 12 hours. If you miss 2 picks you will be kicked out of the draft unless there has been fewer than 24 hours since your initial 12 hours expired. That means that if you do not show up within 36 hours of your pick you will be out and someone will assume control of your team, no questions asked. If you cannot make a pick, then PM someone with a list of players and they can select in your absence; this will not be counted against you even if this person is a "no show" for 36 hours as well. You might have to reveal a secret about your preferences to someone, but it is better than the alternative of getting kicked out.
We will do this for 18 rounds. You are required to have 2 goal keepers, but there are no other restrictions on how to make your squad. After we select our players you can do whatever you want to represent your formation. Write a quick formation on here, or create a lengthy tactical explanation with accompanying pictures, whatever you want. It would probably make sense to list your First XI.
The Players:
This is the tricky part. Now, I've been around here for 10 years and my initial thought was to simply pick the 16 best posters who sign up by myself. I would give weight to quality posts in the Soccer Forum and not the Lounge or any other Forum, so, for example, Dragan or Joe will not be anywhere near this thing. I would also try to make the 16 people diverse in what country they live in and what club they support. However, there are clearly some clubs that are more popular here than others, so I would try to represent that by making sure there were more Man U and Barcelona fans in this thing than others (unless they didn't want to participate, or the ones who do aren't frequent quality posters).
The problem is that I have ruffled a few feathers in here in my time, so perhaps most of you would not like me to have this dictatorial power. I don't think there's a better way to ensure a quality crop of members who will NOT miss picks, but if you guys want to vote, or have me just randomly select 16 from those that sign up, I will do that... begrudgingly.
The final thing I will say about picking the 16 is that I will pay NO heed to personal, club, or style animosities. In fact, I would probably give bonus points if having someone in the Challenge would make it more interesting. Again, I would NOT exclude anyone because I didn't like them, in fact I might be more likely to pick the few members I don't like, or don't seem to like.
Winning:
Ahhh, now this is where it gets tricky. How the hell do you tell who won? The way I see it there are two options and they both have several pros and cons. Personally I don't have an opinion on what we decide because most of the fun is in the drafting, not the end. Here are the options:
1) We put the teams into 4 groups of 4 and have a little Tournament. The top 2 teams from each group advance, and then we have an 8 team knockout round. The winner of each match would be determined by voting, and just for fairness let's set a minimum of 100 posts for a vote to be considered valid.
2) We extend the draft to 19 rounds, draft managers, and then someone edits a 16 team league into Football Manager and makes sure there are no transfer fees for that season. Then we simply have someone play the season, post results and screenshots, and the team at the top of the table wins.
On first glance #2 seems like the best option, but I must give you all these words of caution:
Playing the games in FM will produce more realistic results than voting, and it will probably be more fun for us to see how the teams are doing, BUT there will CERTAINLY be a few of us who draft players based on FM attributes, not real life skill. This is a problem because we don't really care who knows the most about FM players, rather we want to just have some fun with everybody's real life football knowledge. Of course, a potential solution to this problem is that we don't edit the teams until FM11 is released because at this point no one knows exactly how players will be rated in that game, and usually it is pretty accurate.
Alright, so hopefully a few of you are still with me. If you are interested, post in this thread saying something to that effect. Weigh in on how we select the members. Weigh in on how we determine a winner.
It's really all pretty simple once we start. Don't be intimidated by the length of this post.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that no matter how we decide who will be in this Challenge, I will participate because it's my idea.
Members interested:
1. ShiftyPowers
2. Rony
3. cdicicco
4. Xifio
5. Mandieta6
6. Mus
7. VantheMan
8. Coruja
9. Fender
10. simo_yes
11. Filipower
12. 4ndr3i
13. skiptomylou
14. Arnau
15. theo
16. daS
In the NBA the worst team gets the #1 pick (this isn't exactly accurate because of the lottery, but it is close enough) in the first round, and then gets the #1 pick in the second round. The team that wins the NBA Finals gets the last pick in the first round and the last pick in the second round. In a 4 team league it would go like this:
1. Team A
2. Team B
3. Team C
4. Team D
5. Team A
6. Team B
7. Team C
8. Team D
However, a snake format flips the order for alternating rounds:
1. Team A
2. Team B
3. Team C
4. Team D
5. Team D
6. Team C
7. Team B
8. Team A
This ensures competitive balance. In a league of 16 teams, the team blessed with the top pick will get Messi (or Ronaldo I suppose), but then they will have to wait while every other team gets to pick 2 players before they can pick again. This ensures competitive balance between all teams.
Now the tricky part: choosing who participates in the Draft. It's possible that this will not generate any interest, but I highly doubt that. I have participated in a few of these on other forums and they are always fun. There will be 1 thread for just the official picks, and then there will be 1 thread where everyone argues about why Team D just made the worst pick of the draft. It's fantastic. Of course, there are more than 16 good members on this board, so picking who gets to participate can hurt the feelings of some. As a guide, I will post the format of the Challenge, and if you do not feel like you can abide by the format (mostly, getting your picks in on time), then please do not join.
Ideally we will have 16 people participating in the Ultimate Draft Challenge, but if we can only get 12, so be it. I will randomly provide the order using a random number generator; if I get the first pick I will scrap that order and do it again so it doesn't look like I rigged the process. I will post the Order and the member with the first pick has 24 hours to make their selection. The sooner the better. After the first pick is made the member with the 2nd pick will have 12 hours to make their selection, or else they will be skipped and the team with the third pick can pick at any time. They have 12 hours to make their pick, and Team 2 can also make their pick at any time. This is important; if you see that the team ahead of you has 30 minutes before their 12 hours is up, it's not a bad idea to wait for 1 minute after so you get the best player possible. It is also a major incentive to get your pick in on time. If you miss your pick by 4 hours you could see 6 or more players taken before you get your selection in. DO NOT MISS YOUR PICK. I understand that people have lives and this will be inevitable, but this draft will take FOREVER if we have to wait 12 hours for every selection. If you cannot check the board at least twice a day, then don't bother signing up. Most people do not sleep for 12 hours a day, and most people do not work for 12 hours a day, so these will not be tolerated as persistent excuses.
If any member becomes a hassle by constantly missing picks and holding up the draft, the rest of us have the right to kick them out and hand their team over to someone else. If you miss a pick you will be skipped until you come back; that means that if you miss one and then it comes back to your next pick, you will not get a fresh 12 hours. If you miss 2 picks you will be kicked out of the draft unless there has been fewer than 24 hours since your initial 12 hours expired. That means that if you do not show up within 36 hours of your pick you will be out and someone will assume control of your team, no questions asked. If you cannot make a pick, then PM someone with a list of players and they can select in your absence; this will not be counted against you even if this person is a "no show" for 36 hours as well. You might have to reveal a secret about your preferences to someone, but it is better than the alternative of getting kicked out.
We will do this for 18 rounds. You are required to have 2 goal keepers, but there are no other restrictions on how to make your squad. After we select our players you can do whatever you want to represent your formation. Write a quick formation on here, or create a lengthy tactical explanation with accompanying pictures, whatever you want. It would probably make sense to list your First XI.
The Players:
This is the tricky part. Now, I've been around here for 10 years and my initial thought was to simply pick the 16 best posters who sign up by myself. I would give weight to quality posts in the Soccer Forum and not the Lounge or any other Forum, so, for example, Dragan or Joe will not be anywhere near this thing. I would also try to make the 16 people diverse in what country they live in and what club they support. However, there are clearly some clubs that are more popular here than others, so I would try to represent that by making sure there were more Man U and Barcelona fans in this thing than others (unless they didn't want to participate, or the ones who do aren't frequent quality posters).
The problem is that I have ruffled a few feathers in here in my time, so perhaps most of you would not like me to have this dictatorial power. I don't think there's a better way to ensure a quality crop of members who will NOT miss picks, but if you guys want to vote, or have me just randomly select 16 from those that sign up, I will do that... begrudgingly.
The final thing I will say about picking the 16 is that I will pay NO heed to personal, club, or style animosities. In fact, I would probably give bonus points if having someone in the Challenge would make it more interesting. Again, I would NOT exclude anyone because I didn't like them, in fact I might be more likely to pick the few members I don't like, or don't seem to like.
Winning:
Ahhh, now this is where it gets tricky. How the hell do you tell who won? The way I see it there are two options and they both have several pros and cons. Personally I don't have an opinion on what we decide because most of the fun is in the drafting, not the end. Here are the options:
1) We put the teams into 4 groups of 4 and have a little Tournament. The top 2 teams from each group advance, and then we have an 8 team knockout round. The winner of each match would be determined by voting, and just for fairness let's set a minimum of 100 posts for a vote to be considered valid.
2) We extend the draft to 19 rounds, draft managers, and then someone edits a 16 team league into Football Manager and makes sure there are no transfer fees for that season. Then we simply have someone play the season, post results and screenshots, and the team at the top of the table wins.
On first glance #2 seems like the best option, but I must give you all these words of caution:
Playing the games in FM will produce more realistic results than voting, and it will probably be more fun for us to see how the teams are doing, BUT there will CERTAINLY be a few of us who draft players based on FM attributes, not real life skill. This is a problem because we don't really care who knows the most about FM players, rather we want to just have some fun with everybody's real life football knowledge. Of course, a potential solution to this problem is that we don't edit the teams until FM11 is released because at this point no one knows exactly how players will be rated in that game, and usually it is pretty accurate.
Alright, so hopefully a few of you are still with me. If you are interested, post in this thread saying something to that effect. Weigh in on how we select the members. Weigh in on how we determine a winner.
It's really all pretty simple once we start. Don't be intimidated by the length of this post.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that no matter how we decide who will be in this Challenge, I will participate because it's my idea.
Members interested:
1. ShiftyPowers
2. Rony
3. cdicicco
4. Xifio
5. Mandieta6
6. Mus
7. VantheMan
8. Coruja
9. Fender
10. simo_yes
11. Filipower
12. 4ndr3i
13. skiptomylou
14. Arnau
15. theo
16. daS
]