R39B

Captain's Analysis: B

• Pre draft | 5th pick
  Main goal for the draft was to draft active players, active in-game and especially active on Discord. Activity is one of the most important “skills” in Dominion, and as long as you are active, you only need to make sure that you do the “right” things any time you login. So I was not necessarily looking to draft the very best players at any costs (which was also not realistic considering my position in the draft order, 5th), but I wanted to draft players that could do well in an active team of players willing to help each other. Next to that I was also looking for people that I hadn’t played with before, since the draft is a rare opportunity to play with people from outside your usual pack.

• Round 1 | Co-captain
  It was pretty clear that Rio, Wurst and Gothia would be the first 3 picks, so I started looking who imo were the best players available next to those 3. Being 5th pick, I thought it could be realistic that at least one of Rury, Mithrandir or Faith would be available by the time it was my turn to pick. Cronel went before me and picked Faith, so I had to make a difficult decision between Rury and Mith. Mith is a player I’ve wanted to play with for a long time and I’m pretty sure we would have had a great time together, but Rury was an opportunity I could simply not pass on. Take a look at his lifetime ranks for the past few rounds and what you’ll see is “consistency” and “relevance”: Obviously you’re not a simmer, Addendum, Santa Chimney, Groenten van Hak.. I’m sure everyone remembers these names. The guy is always relevant, always competitive and it doesn’t matter if he plays fast attacker, converter or medium/slow attacker, he is always there. Playing with Rury is an opportunity for me to learn from him and to become a better player and that’s why I just had to choose him.

• Round 2 | Attacker, preferably FA
  For the second round of the draft I had false hope that Mith would still be available, but he was even picked before the second round started, since Swamp Fox chose him as his co-captain. Our goal for this round was to pick a player that may be willing to play as a fast attacker, but it wasn’t a hard prerequisite, since me and Rury were still flexible in what we wanted to play. I think every captain in this round had Merf, Fett and Bobbo on their wishlist given their performance in the most recent round and pretty soon I discovered that as a 5th pick (4th pick in this round), it’s better not to make any plans or wish list. Every player that you intend to take, will already be taken by the time it’s your turn. So I just waited until it was my turn and then went to look who was available. Lamb was available, said in his signup message “I’m flexible” and was willing to play any style. Perfect. I remember Lamb from my first round in OD, a nice guy and someone who played Kobold before tactical mastermind Merf made them cool again. He was also in another timezone than Rury and myself, so all of the above considered, Lamb was a no-brainer and we took him onboard.

• Round 3 | Attacker, preferably FA
  In the 3rd round we had pretty much the same plan as in the second round, someone who would be willing to play FA, but not at all costs. FA were very popular early on in the draft, so we would be happy if one of them was even available by the time it was our turn. When the time came to make the pick, Sugarjon was still available. I had never played with him, but in Discord he sounds like a really nice guy and he has shown great potential as a fast attacker. “We can build him a Ferrari” – Rury said – so Jon, get ready, it’s going to be a hell of a ride!

• Round 4 | Attacker Blopsplorer
  In this round I wanted to draft yet another attacker, but my co-captain lived up to the expectations (that I was going to learn a lot from him) and advised me to go for someone who was willing to play as a blopsplorer. Someone who could explore, provide ops support and/or do black ops. Preferably in a timezone that matches well with lamb and/or Sugarjon. Mannowrath, Craghack, Dean or ForPony! were preferred picks here. Manno was taken before it was our turn, so I went to take a look at Craghack’s sign up message and he said he was willing to do anything (except for FA). Perfect. I didn’t know much about Craghack, until I remembered that he is pretty active in ODA. So I went to check the ODA Discord server and website, and when I saw that he ended top-5 in the last 4 rounds of ODA, I was like: if someone can be competitive in a game with 4 ticks per hour, then OD must be a walk in the park with only 1 tick per hour. Welcome to the team Craghack!

• Round 5 | Blopsplorer
  The plan for round 5 was the same as round 4, to find a player willing to play as a blopsplorer, but this time in the Euro timezone. “The man with the voice” Agfx was the preferred option here, but unsurprisingly he was already taken by the time it was our turn. Slicer, Cosula and Jaerock were other options and all of them still available. Slicer said in his login message that he does a quiz every now and that’s all the we need to create that extra bit of cohesion within the team. Slicer was in.

• Round 6 | Attacker
  This round started with a big heart break, but ended with an unbelievably good pick. My plan here was to draft Weaser. In my opinion the steal of the draft. He is a new player, played with him 2 rounds ago, I had been speaking with him throughout the last round and he seems to pick up things extremely quickly. The original plan was to pick him in round 4 or 5, but due to him being low in the Rio Ranks, I was totally expecting (read: gambling) him to still available later in the draft. When I woke up to make the pick, I saw he was picked by Dave already and I was heart broken. Dave said he didn’t really know him, so I tried to offere him a trade: he would get to choose who was going to be my next pick and I would then trade that player with him for Weaser. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to do it (unless I was willing to trade for Jon) so I took my losses. Congratulations Dave, you’ve got yourself a great pick there! When I went to look for an alternative and saw that MattyVanHalen was still available, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had Matty already in mind as a potential pick even before the draft started, but for some reason he fell off my radar (shame on me). His sign up message was strong (made me want to pick him instantly), he is a really nice guy on Discord and has shown great potential 2 rounds ago when he played Undead. How the hell is he still available? It doesn’t matter, he is part of Team B now!

• Round 7 | Euro player
  In round 7 we wanted a Euro person in order to still keep the balance in the ream with regard to timezones. We basically had two people on the list, Cosula and Jaerock. Jaerock was picked before it was our turn, but I wasn’t unhappy. Because it meant that I got to pick the man who makes beautiful pictures of Finnish landscapes, always posts funny images in the #off-topic channel and is just a great person to play with: welcome to the team Cosula!

• Round 8 | Non-Euro player
  For our penultimate pick were aiming for a non-Euro person that could complete the balance in the team in terms of timezone. This was probably one of the easiest picks of the whole draft. I went to check the list to see who was available and a guy who already had in mind for round 4 was still available. A no-brainer. And a steal, this late in the draft. I played with him last round, he’s a very enjoyable person to play with and we even had a very similar kingdom names, and therefore similar new year resolutions, to sleep better. Welcome to the team, Dean!

• Round 9 | Whatever is left
  My last pick was going to be the penultimate pick overall, so I didn’t have much of a plan here. Just see who is available and make a pick between the two. Zooj and M4nus007 were still available, two players of apparently similar skill level. Timezone wise there wasn’t really one who was preferred over the other, so as a tie breaker here I went with my wish to play with people I hadn’t played with before. I played with Zooj – the legend – two rounds ago, so I went with M4nus007. Welcome to the team and looking forward to play together!