Any interest in a Premiership Player draft thread?

LuckyLloyd

Ok, if there is sufficient interest in this I'll have no problem overseeing it. I think I mentioned it briefly back in the summer as an idea, but only thought about it again as I am currently participating in an American football version of it on another forum.

What is it?

Basically, we would have two threads. One for draft picks and one for discussion of draft picks. People who are interested would agree to pick footballers from the history of the premiership according to a predetermined order in turn until each participant has a team of eleven players. It would be up to them to decide what formation to play them in and they would be obliged to do one final post at the end where they sum up why they chose as they did and how they would envisage their lineup working together as a team.

The idea is a rip off of the American drafting system for their professional sports. Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Why?

Because it's fun!! If you're sad like me, you like discussing and debating best of lists and arguing over which sports teams or players from the past were better. And a process like this can help you reach a better understanding of the game or open your eyes up to players or ideas that you had never heard of before.

Plus, at the end we can pit finished teams against each other in a random draw and have polls to decide which teams are better. And winning is fun! :pac:

Sounds good, rules?

- You can only take players who participated in at least 40 premiership games during their career (this means that one season wonders are excluded from consideration - a player will need to be on a squad for more than one season);
- The player is assessed on the basis of how good he was during his period in the premiership only. Therefore, if you selected Edgar Davids or Youri Djorkaeff for example - you would be getting the Spurs and Bolton versions respectively - not the guys who destroyed European football at Juve and Inter during their primes;
- Selection order will be randomly decided by a draw from a hat and will go ABBAABBAABBA and so on;
- Clock expires on a drafter after 24 hrs. After that time, the next player on the list will be allowed to go and it will up to the skipped player to post a pick in the draft thread at their earliest convenience;
- When someone has completed a pick, they should pm the next in line to inform them that it is their turn;
- The Draft thread is for picks only and should be left uncluttered. There will be a separate thread for discussion of picks;
- People are obliged to go to google images and put up a photo of the player they are selecting and provide some sort of spiel as to why they are drafting them at that time;
- After each participant has selected eleven players they are obliged to put one more post in the draft thread which provides a final formation and discusses the tactics that would be ideally employed in an imaginary game;

Ok, I'm still interested

Good! Please bear in mind though that these things can go on for weeks until they are finished. It is also worth noting that other people will rate players differently to you and will sometimes make picks that you perceive as being retarded. It's more fun for everyone though if you can refrain from simply posting along the lines of "he's crap and that's a terrible pick" and instead trying to explain why you think selections are good or bad.

Finally, while it stunts discussion for the first round and a half or so, it is best not to mention undrafted players. So, if Roy Keane is selected with the first pick - try not to say "Vieira is much better in my opinion". Now, obviously one would assume that everyone up for participating in this kind of thing would be aware of how similar the two players are - but as things move beyond the obvious choices people who are less willing to put in research or don't know as much about the game as a whole shouldn't be let off the hook by others mentioning the best players available in the later rounds.

Now there are plenty of regular posters here who frequent the forum on a daily basis. If you only log on occasionally and either can't or are unwilling to log on more often that is cool - but you will be likely to miss your turn and hold up the process and might be best to give it a miss.

Anyway, if people are interested post here and I'll come back tomorrow evening and get it started if there is enough interest. Of course, if you have any queries or suggestions on how it could be done better - feel free to say. Cheers.

Xavi6

Sign me up

Mr.Nice Guy

I organised one for the Pro Wrestling board during the summer based on this idea where we each had to come up with rosters. It was a good laugh.

For our one we had 20 participants picking over 10 rounds and I believe it was Bubs who suggested doing a random draw before the start of each round. I found that to be a brilliant idea. That way you don't have a set order throughout the entire game and most people should have a chance of having the number 1 pick for at least one round depending on their luck. I would suggest having a similar system for this.

I'd be interested in trying the football one. I tend to be on boards every day and from my experience of the wrestling one, the game can really stall if there aren't people who can keep up with it.

LuckyLloyd

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

For our one we had 20 participants picking over 10 rounds and I believe it was Bubs who suggested doing a random draw before the start of each round. I found that to be a brilliant idea. That way you don't have a set order throughout the entire game and most people should have a chance of having the number 1 pick for at least one round depending on their luck. I would suggest having a similar system for this.

Disagree with this:

- while the random draw element does make things more 'fun' - doing a snake system means that the advantage of a high initial selection in the random draw is significantly averaged out by the fourth or fifth rounds;
- whereas it is eminently possible to run real awful / good over eleven random draws and end up at a significant advantage / disadvantage relative to the other participants;
- a redraw before every round is painstaking and time consuming;
- it makes it easier for people to not miss picks if they can gauge how long it will be to their next turn;
- it also brings a strategic element to picking in that it creates situations where you may have a relatively small number of picks until you go next and may have to take the second player you want now because you feel one of the pickers in between will snag him if they get the chance;
- it creates scope for people to trade up or down if they really want someone or feel the guy they need can drop;
- it just frames the whole thing and creates a nice rhythm for the whole process;

Mr.Nice Guy

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Disagree with this:

- while the random draw element does might make things more 'fun' - doing a snake system means that the advantage of a high initial selection in the random draw is significantly averaged out by the fourth or fifth rounds;
- whereas it is eminently possible to run real awful / good over eleven random draws and end up at a significant advantage / disadvantage relative to the other participants;
- a redraw before every round is painstaking and time consuming;
- it makes it easier for people to not miss picks if they can gauge how long it will be to their next turn;
- it also brings a strategic element to picking in that it creates situations where you may have a relatively small number of picks until you go next and may have to take the second player you want now because you feel one of the pickers in between will snag him if they get the chance;
- it creates scope for people to trade up or down if they really want someone or feel the guy they need can drop;
- it just frames the whole thing and creates a nice rhythm for the whole process;

Well if I may address your points...

- I would say having a first pick is a major advantage in the game. If you have a person with the first pick for the entire game then that person is going to have first dibs on sought after players whereas the person last in the draw will face a challenge in every round.
- If I recall from our version looking back on it afterwards we found out that most people's places in the draw tended to be fairly well balanced.
- I did the draws for our one and while it does take up time I found it quite good fun.
- I don't think missing picks is an issue because it would be 24 hours for each person following the draw so as long as people are checking in regularly there shouldn't be problems.
- I actually think there is more of a strategic element with random draws. Often I found I had a list of people I wanted but if I was stuck with a low draw of say 17 then a rival higher up could take the guy I wanted. If I was to be 17 for every round it would have been a constant challenge. With random draws you can cling to the hope that you will get a high draw for the next round and can make one of your top picks. If that makes sense. :pac:
- Not really sure what you mean by this point. It is late!
- I would argue it frames it unjustly. If you have a top 5 spot for every round you no doubt have an advantage over a guy who is in the bottom 5 for every round.

I would like to stress I'm not trying to rain on your parade or take over with my ideas. I'm just relating some of the things that worked well for our one. God knows there was a lot of stuff that worked very badly but I do believe the random draws were a major plus.

It's up to you though. I'll get behind whatever system is in place.:cool:

LuckyLloyd

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Well if I may address your points...

- I would say having a first pick is a major advantage in the game. If you have a person with the first pick for the entire game then that person is going to have first dibs on sought after players whereas the person last in the draw will face a challenge in every round.
- If I recall from our version looking back on it afterwards we found out that most people's places in the draw tended to be fairly well balanced.

- You are forgetting that is a snake. So if we have 20 participants, first guy gets no. 1 and no. 40 whereas last guy gets no.20 and 21. That helps to balance things;
- Statistically speaking, if it balances out then we got VERY lucky;

wardie

count me in

Frisbee

Count me in. When you thinking of starting? Or how many players you looking for?

shoutman

Sounds good Lloyd. Count me in.

Looking forward to this.

Wreck

Could be fun, I'm in if there is a spot.

whatawaster

i'm in

Melion

Sign me up

shoutman

Is there an amount of people that this should be limited to?
Maybe 22?

Xavi6

Is it limited to current Prem players only?

Eirebear

People who are interested would agree to pick footballers from the history of the premiership

I'll play, although in all honesty my Premiership knowledge is lacking in comparison to many around here.

shoutman

AFAIK Lloyd was thinking limited to players who have played in the premiership, but only taking into account how good they were when they played in the premiership, ie. Edgar Davids is not a good pick cause he was ****e when he played in the premiership.

LuckyLloyd

Frisbee wrote: »

Count me in. When you thinking of starting? Or how many players you looking for?

shoutman wrote: »

Is there an amount of people that this should be limited to?
Maybe 22?

I'm thinking 24 max. I'll probably get it started before I go to bed tomorrow morning.

Xavi6 wrote: »

Is it limited to current Prem players only?

NO. You can take any player who has played in at least 40 premiership games since the 1992 / 93 season

Eirebear wrote: »

I'll play, although in all honesty my Premiership knowledge is lacking in comparison to many around here.

Well it's up to yourself. If you get into it and assuming everyone else is picking well it might be a good way to learn about the better players since the inception of the league.

LuckyLloyd

shoutman wrote: »

AFAIK Lloyd was thinking limited to players who have played in the premiership, but only taking into account how good they were when they played in the premiership, ie. Edgar Davids is not a good pick cause he was ****e when he played in the premiership.

I'd say Davids was still decent when he played in the premiership - but yeah, you understand the concept.

whatawaster

Question:

Torres has 39 prem appearances for Liverpool. Will he become eligible if he makes his 40th during the draft or is there a cut-off?

Eirebear

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Well it's up to yourself. If you get into it and assuming everyone else is picking well it might be a good way to learn about the better players since the inception of the league.

Yeah i'm in dude.

Just making my excuses early!

RasTa

Inski.

LuckyLloyd

whatawaster wrote: »

Question:

Torres has 39 prem appearances for Liverpool. Will he become eligible if he makes his 40th during the draft or is there a cut-off?

He becomes eligible once he has played 40 games. However, it is worth noting that - while he is arguably the best striker in the league at the moment - he is far from being the best striker available in this process because his sample size of games will be so small. There are so many players you can take ahead of him and be sure that they will score goals just because they did it over and over during long careers. Who is to say Torres won't get injury problems or just not develop as we all expect?

So, I'd expect him to get taken in the middle to later rounds. If your instinct is always to take the players who are the best in the Premiership right now you will be missing out on a lot of value imo.

Idu

I'm in if there's room

Trippie

count me in too

LuckyLloyd

Including me, we have 13 so far. That's enough to make it worthwhile. So I'll get this started before tomorrow morning. I'll take a maximum of nine more names before then.

mayordenis

I'm 100% in.

Dont be at yourself

Sign me up!

Necronomicon

I'd like to get in on this too.

bohsman

In.

LuckyLloyd

ditpoker is in.

Mitch Connor

in, please

Bubs101

Yeah, I'd love to do this. Wrestling one was great

Gonzovision

Count me in.:)

titan18

I'll do it

LuckyLloyd

22 so far. First come first served for the remaining two spots.

Iago

I'm in

eagle eye

I think I'm 24. Inski.

LuckyLloyd

CLOSED FOR ENTRIES, THANK YOU.

will have the threads up and running in a while.

LuckyLloyd

Draft Thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57654381#post57654381

Discussion Thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57654384#post57654384