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TWDT 31 draft review
It is finally here, the biggest league of recent times, 30th anniversary draft league with many vets returning, new rules in place and many exciting games ahead of us for sure.
Already from first moments, the hype has been there, wonderful to see zone overcome its difficulties and vets once again returning, which promises to be one of the most tight and contested leagues in recent memory.
With new rules in place for in-game (having compulsory low star for duelling and 7.5 + 7* in base) and several rules implemented for draft (lowest total vp team getting first order and VP limits for all leagues) we already saw many different strategies during draft. It was awesome to see people trying to outsmart each other, some really surprising picks early on and some teams struggling with limits already early into draft.
Lets see how our captains did (in order of total vps in team):
Grape - Rampage
Draft strategy: Rampage> gonna wing it. whatever happens happens
The fruit loving Rampage went into draft guns blazing, getting who he wanted in league (jav) he wanted. Securing Bombed and Rough in first 2 rounds he suddenly found himself in a pretty weird position as max jav rating for next 5 rounds for any player picked could not have been higher than 7. This resulted in 2 things: Rampage picking up top basers in next rounds like cintra, cig smoke, markmrw and mouse + adding low star bick. Secondly this also meant Grape soon dropped to lowest vp team and getting first round picks for almost all rounds for remaining of draft, with a few exceptions. Looking very thin in duelling, he then made logical choice adding Best, Geio and Clark Kentaro to ranks and also having a great pick in rucci in R11. Rest of his picks were mainly 7-7.5 players with exception of beast.
WB strength: 8/10 - Bombed, Rough, Best, Geio, Bick - some decent names here, but definitely lacking activity in recent times and potential rust. Clark Kentaro as only high-rated wb makes bench very thin as well, loads of low stars though.
Jav strength: 10/10 - Bombed, Rampage, Rough, Best, Bick - this is one amazing team and it will be really hard to pick this apart. Geio and Beast are most likely subs and Winterfell for low vp, but if anything, this team needs that lineup to show. I cannot see them do the undefeated rout of Rampage in last jav cup, as key players are bound to miss games, but in playoffs, they will be team to beat.
Base strength: 8/10 - Cintra, Markmrw, Cig Smoke, Bombed, Rough, Mouse, Rampage, Nbside Domu. (Subs: Geio, Rucci, Bick, Clark Kentaro). They got solid team, but questions are about subs. I cannot expect terr/sharks to show for all games and really dont see any options for subs there, so i think the thin roster may hurt them especially in main season.
Pure Luck - Tiny
Draft strategy: Tiny> i do have one, depending on r1
Tiny was one of those captains opting to play smart during draft. By avoiding mainly 10*, he tried to keep his total vps low, to maintain early pick order for round, but other captains, mainly zid, but also dw and at some point also rampage, although probably accidentally beat him in this game. In any case Tiny played his cards smart getting players like sarger, fieryfire and flew in rounds 6-8, not really common. He also made pretty balanced choices trying to keep competitive in all leagues and picked beam up late, making his potential wb lineup really strong. Very decent picks in aprix/kesser in later rounds as well.
Btw tiny would have had much higher total VPs, but he is only team with 21 players vs 22 in other teams.
WB strength: 10/10 - Iron survivor, Beam, Rainbow Seeker, Flew, Lee - This is one hell of a lineup, not to mention there are also hulk, tiny and fieryfire on bench waiting, meaning occasional drops in activity should not change the team strength. So definitely a favorite in wb.
Jav strength: 8/10 - Tiny, hulk, fieryfire, kesser, lee - definitely a strong team with iron, aprix, beam, rainbow, paradise, scuzzy also capable of slotting in, but perhaps missing that star power besides tiny comparing to some other lineups.
Base strength: 8/10 - Tiny, hulk, beam, rainbow seeker, shayde, sarger, kesser,100. - Tiny has advantage of being 7.5 himself, so he will most probably try being terrier himself to begin with. There are some questions about sharks besides hulk, how active beam will be and rodney looking like only option from bench. Many strong spiders available besides the listed though with groan, fiery, aprix can also play terrier with some 7.5 spider going in like rozay or me. So decent team all around, but could use another option for shark.
Pwned nl - Bike
Draft strategy: bike> i mapped out generally who i think is going to be available for my turns and going from there - mostly vibing
Bike picked some really strong names on his roster with majority of them having 1 common feature - unknown showrate. On paper this team looks strong as hell, but how active they are and contribute, especially in main season, time will tell. With picking higher rated players, while rest of teams going for those underrated low stars, he also found himself last in picking order since round 6 and was stuck there pretty much until round 11.
WB strength: 9/10 - bike, turban, creature, animeboy12, sunny d - Strong team with riverside/tripin in ranks as well with loads of wb experience and also names who can easily do well in game if likes of creature/animeboy do not show. Low star is a bit of a questionmark with retroaction another choice here.
Jav strength: 8/10 - turban, commodo, creature, mikkiz, bad badger - very laggy and talented team, but only 8* available as benchers, some of them really good though like mikkiz and also tripin been playing well lately. Genx/retro most probably sharing the low vp role.
Base strength: 9/10 - mikkiz, commodo, riverside, turban, creature, genx, hercules, retroaction - animeboy can definitely make appearance, genx will probably terr those weekends mikkiz is missing, the jessup of basing Henry Saari is also waiting on bench breaking more records and of course tj hazuki, dutch baser and tripin also solid choices for spiders. Its well built team with that annoying lag element and versatile players, probably not so influenced by bad shows in base as they may be in duelling leagues.
Prime - Racka
Draft strategy: RaCka> kind of going as it goes, focusing more on dueling leagues this season tbh. RaCka> only strat
Racka lied to me and actually his early draft strategy was picking allaround top players capable of doing well in all leagues with jurassic, banzi, cape and skatarius as early picks. Having reached limits he then opted for choosing spirit as his low star pick ending with solid specialists like menel, rasaq, ogron and havok. Overall i think racka did really well, he more or less picked as in regular draft but as some competitors were being smart, he ended up with some really good picks also in later rounds covering all positions.
WB strength: 9/10 - racka, jurassic, rasaq, cape, spirit - very experienced and strong team with banzi, skatarius, ogron, jack all great subs and plenty of low vps also to be picked.
Jav strength: 9/10 - racka, cape, havok, skatarius, spirit - same can be said about javs with havok playing in this league, jurassic/banzi also in lineup
Base strength: 9/10 - ogron, menelvagor, vehicle, jurassic, cape, skatarius, zeebu, spirit - Also very solid lineup, strong players available on roster as well like rasaq, banzi, jack, who can sub if needed. X-demo option for terrier if they want to use stronger spider lineup.
Terrorist - Dreamwin
Draft strategy: dreamwin> I got a strat of some sort but first time for everything and "testing it in production" now. dreamwin> prolly truthful answer is somewhere in between
Dw decided that he is not playing terrier this season picking zizu in first round and following with bunch of other nordic players like maketso and autopilot, then went for as many sharks as possible and star low vp in christian10 and then was lucky to get at least 1 wb in lockdown at r7, balancing it a bit out. Later on he picked another bunch of sharks in joe and zap, who of course can also strengthen his wb line with paky dude, reaver probably picked for same reason. Legendary y0gi is also in his team, bound to make a jav appearance and to fill his shark lineup (probably useful for trading later) oder was also picked.
WB strength: 7/10 - lockdown, autopilot, dreamwin, zapata, christian10 - looking at LD showrates, he may not be around for many games, so best terrorist can fill up are 8.5*. In any other draft league this would be nice freq, but in this one, it definitely falls into lower side. Reaver, paky, maketso, zizu also possible for playing with no visibly stronger low stars on roster.
Jav strength: 8/10 - dreamwin, maketso, autopilot, lockdown, captain lonestar - looks stronger than wb lineup with very solid players allaround. Zizu, reaver and ardour can also play important role here incase of bad showups. Y0gi very well possible to hang in there in some games as well.
Base strength: 9/10 - zizu, joeses, zapata, dreamwin, maketso, autopilot, frozen throne, christian10 - with so many sharks on team, difficult to predict who dw will go with, but using zap could help him use that 7.5 slot on him and lineup stronger in spider. Very formidable and strong team and solid bench as well. Captain lonestar also option for 7.5.
Power - Zidane
Draft strategy: zidane> a bit of a strategy but its a weird draft. zidane> i gotta be smart with order stuff
Zid definitely brought "a bit of " strategy. Actually he was probably most strategic out of all caps with majority of rounds being first round pick. He also started earliest with quite a bit of surprise pick of yeh, followed by getting willby and spawnisen early on, not to mention dad. In the end, zid was able to make some really strong late picks like renzi, ekko, zizzo and others, but for me it looks like his team on duelling side is a bit thin.
WB strength: 7/10 - cripple, sword, renzi, zidane, warthog - Definitely weakest out of all teams with only 1 8.5 available. Good strategy for regular draft, but for this, it looks on weaker side. Sword, zizzo, junka also potential starters with several low vps also available.
Jav strength: 8/10 - zidane, yeh, cripple, spawnisen, dare - top 4 form really strong team, but looking at low vps, i dont really notice any active low stars or hidden gems, maybe there are some svs or old players returning i dont know of. Wouldnt consider them contender for title, but will definitely score some points. Jabra, zizzo also probably going to make appearances.
Base strength:10/10 - ekko, zidane, willby, cripple, sword, renzi, spawnisen, dad. - Scheming in draft, zid always had some strong base picks in his mind and this shows in the roster. What a spider lineup backed with excellent terr and sharks. Definitely contender for title. Jabra, zizzo, ra, heaven etc, very solid subs as well.
Force - Siaxis
Draft strategy: Siaxis> i had a strategy. Siaxis> and everyones fucking it
Dont worry siaxis, i think you drafted really well. Sia went really strong with wbs early on picking mythril and morph but overall he picked well getting allaround good players like hellkite, bacon and then having to face limits picked his low stars in clefairy (little bit puzzling), merc and refer. Spezza was great pick for base later on and raazi makes his wb line even stronger with spooked and draft also going to play part. Hellz was picked very late, but i think he can easily fit into siax jav team. So overall, i think he did really great choices round by round and picked a very solid team.
WB strength: 10/10 - mythril, morph, siaxis, raazi, ixador - With bacon, spezza, jz, spectacular also in lineup, this looks like a title contender. Ixador was picked very late, but i think he can do really well as 7, clefairy, cz also options.
Jav strength: 9/10 - morph, mythril, hellkite, hellzno!, raazi - also very solid team with bacon, siaxis, spezza, draft, jz, kangal, rylo, spectacular also options available. Refer can bring lag as low vp and merc has shown some good games as well.
Base strength:9/10 - spookedone, mythril, morph, hellkite, bacon, spezza, raazi, mercede$ - Solid, well balanced team with several good players on bench as well, like draft, clefairy, jz and definitely a wide selection of low stars.
Dice - Stayon
Draft strategy: Stayon> im going auto pick :P. Stayon> no time think. Stayon> but i tested once, should be enough...alot of picks after round 7 still
Stayon was true to his words and pretty much picked strongest players available until freq limits came into play and forced him to get some lower picks in rounds 6 and 7. Our Portugese charmer picked very balanced team, not really looking weak in anything and some true superstars lining up on every league. He also was the brave one picking up the stronger players in late rounds, making his team vp in the end the highest.
WB strength: 9/10 - okyo, dak, peru, jamal, rabbit! - There are definitely questions about how active peru will be, but azuline, booker and why not even jessup are also there to play. Difficult to pick the best low star, but there are many options with pressure, ph, shaun, stayon himself and ibex all available. Very experienced team with players doing great in recent leagues.
Jav strength: 9/10 - stayon, temujin, kado, okyo, rabbit! - Team looks as strong on paper in jav, jamal also there as is brunson. So options are there. Ibex/abo can definitely show what they got as low stars.
Base strength: 9/10 - pressure, ph, jamal, stayon, okyo, brunson, public assasin, shaun - same can be said about base. There are many options for players and positions as stayon did some heavy picking also in late rounds with violence, apt also available, plenty of low stars as well.
So here we go, one of the most equal drafts ive seen, although some teams still look better in one league compared to other. By early looks before trading kicks into play, force and pure luck look really strong in wb, grape in jav and power in base. See you soon in game!
Already from first moments, the hype has been there, wonderful to see zone overcome its difficulties and vets once again returning, which promises to be one of the most tight and contested leagues in recent memory.
With new rules in place for in-game (having compulsory low star for duelling and 7.5 + 7* in base) and several rules implemented for draft (lowest total vp team getting first order and VP limits for all leagues) we already saw many different strategies during draft. It was awesome to see people trying to outsmart each other, some really surprising picks early on and some teams struggling with limits already early into draft.
Lets see how our captains did (in order of total vps in team):
Grape - Rampage
Draft strategy: Rampage> gonna wing it. whatever happens happens
The fruit loving Rampage went into draft guns blazing, getting who he wanted in league (jav) he wanted. Securing Bombed and Rough in first 2 rounds he suddenly found himself in a pretty weird position as max jav rating for next 5 rounds for any player picked could not have been higher than 7. This resulted in 2 things: Rampage picking up top basers in next rounds like cintra, cig smoke, markmrw and mouse + adding low star bick. Secondly this also meant Grape soon dropped to lowest vp team and getting first round picks for almost all rounds for remaining of draft, with a few exceptions. Looking very thin in duelling, he then made logical choice adding Best, Geio and Clark Kentaro to ranks and also having a great pick in rucci in R11. Rest of his picks were mainly 7-7.5 players with exception of beast.
WB strength: 8/10 - Bombed, Rough, Best, Geio, Bick - some decent names here, but definitely lacking activity in recent times and potential rust. Clark Kentaro as only high-rated wb makes bench very thin as well, loads of low stars though.
Jav strength: 10/10 - Bombed, Rampage, Rough, Best, Bick - this is one amazing team and it will be really hard to pick this apart. Geio and Beast are most likely subs and Winterfell for low vp, but if anything, this team needs that lineup to show. I cannot see them do the undefeated rout of Rampage in last jav cup, as key players are bound to miss games, but in playoffs, they will be team to beat.
Base strength: 8/10 - Cintra, Markmrw, Cig Smoke, Bombed, Rough, Mouse, Rampage, Nbside Domu. (Subs: Geio, Rucci, Bick, Clark Kentaro). They got solid team, but questions are about subs. I cannot expect terr/sharks to show for all games and really dont see any options for subs there, so i think the thin roster may hurt them especially in main season.
Pure Luck - Tiny
Draft strategy: Tiny> i do have one, depending on r1
Tiny was one of those captains opting to play smart during draft. By avoiding mainly 10*, he tried to keep his total vps low, to maintain early pick order for round, but other captains, mainly zid, but also dw and at some point also rampage, although probably accidentally beat him in this game. In any case Tiny played his cards smart getting players like sarger, fieryfire and flew in rounds 6-8, not really common. He also made pretty balanced choices trying to keep competitive in all leagues and picked beam up late, making his potential wb lineup really strong. Very decent picks in aprix/kesser in later rounds as well.
Btw tiny would have had much higher total VPs, but he is only team with 21 players vs 22 in other teams.
WB strength: 10/10 - Iron survivor, Beam, Rainbow Seeker, Flew, Lee - This is one hell of a lineup, not to mention there are also hulk, tiny and fieryfire on bench waiting, meaning occasional drops in activity should not change the team strength. So definitely a favorite in wb.
Jav strength: 8/10 - Tiny, hulk, fieryfire, kesser, lee - definitely a strong team with iron, aprix, beam, rainbow, paradise, scuzzy also capable of slotting in, but perhaps missing that star power besides tiny comparing to some other lineups.
Base strength: 8/10 - Tiny, hulk, beam, rainbow seeker, shayde, sarger, kesser,100. - Tiny has advantage of being 7.5 himself, so he will most probably try being terrier himself to begin with. There are some questions about sharks besides hulk, how active beam will be and rodney looking like only option from bench. Many strong spiders available besides the listed though with groan, fiery, aprix can also play terrier with some 7.5 spider going in like rozay or me. So decent team all around, but could use another option for shark.
Pwned nl - Bike
Draft strategy: bike> i mapped out generally who i think is going to be available for my turns and going from there - mostly vibing
Bike picked some really strong names on his roster with majority of them having 1 common feature - unknown showrate. On paper this team looks strong as hell, but how active they are and contribute, especially in main season, time will tell. With picking higher rated players, while rest of teams going for those underrated low stars, he also found himself last in picking order since round 6 and was stuck there pretty much until round 11.
WB strength: 9/10 - bike, turban, creature, animeboy12, sunny d - Strong team with riverside/tripin in ranks as well with loads of wb experience and also names who can easily do well in game if likes of creature/animeboy do not show. Low star is a bit of a questionmark with retroaction another choice here.
Jav strength: 8/10 - turban, commodo, creature, mikkiz, bad badger - very laggy and talented team, but only 8* available as benchers, some of them really good though like mikkiz and also tripin been playing well lately. Genx/retro most probably sharing the low vp role.
Base strength: 9/10 - mikkiz, commodo, riverside, turban, creature, genx, hercules, retroaction - animeboy can definitely make appearance, genx will probably terr those weekends mikkiz is missing, the jessup of basing Henry Saari is also waiting on bench breaking more records and of course tj hazuki, dutch baser and tripin also solid choices for spiders. Its well built team with that annoying lag element and versatile players, probably not so influenced by bad shows in base as they may be in duelling leagues.
Prime - Racka
Draft strategy: RaCka> kind of going as it goes, focusing more on dueling leagues this season tbh. RaCka> only strat
Racka lied to me and actually his early draft strategy was picking allaround top players capable of doing well in all leagues with jurassic, banzi, cape and skatarius as early picks. Having reached limits he then opted for choosing spirit as his low star pick ending with solid specialists like menel, rasaq, ogron and havok. Overall i think racka did really well, he more or less picked as in regular draft but as some competitors were being smart, he ended up with some really good picks also in later rounds covering all positions.
WB strength: 9/10 - racka, jurassic, rasaq, cape, spirit - very experienced and strong team with banzi, skatarius, ogron, jack all great subs and plenty of low vps also to be picked.
Jav strength: 9/10 - racka, cape, havok, skatarius, spirit - same can be said about javs with havok playing in this league, jurassic/banzi also in lineup
Base strength: 9/10 - ogron, menelvagor, vehicle, jurassic, cape, skatarius, zeebu, spirit - Also very solid lineup, strong players available on roster as well like rasaq, banzi, jack, who can sub if needed. X-demo option for terrier if they want to use stronger spider lineup.
Terrorist - Dreamwin
Draft strategy: dreamwin> I got a strat of some sort but first time for everything and "testing it in production" now. dreamwin> prolly truthful answer is somewhere in between
Dw decided that he is not playing terrier this season picking zizu in first round and following with bunch of other nordic players like maketso and autopilot, then went for as many sharks as possible and star low vp in christian10 and then was lucky to get at least 1 wb in lockdown at r7, balancing it a bit out. Later on he picked another bunch of sharks in joe and zap, who of course can also strengthen his wb line with paky dude, reaver probably picked for same reason. Legendary y0gi is also in his team, bound to make a jav appearance and to fill his shark lineup (probably useful for trading later) oder was also picked.
WB strength: 7/10 - lockdown, autopilot, dreamwin, zapata, christian10 - looking at LD showrates, he may not be around for many games, so best terrorist can fill up are 8.5*. In any other draft league this would be nice freq, but in this one, it definitely falls into lower side. Reaver, paky, maketso, zizu also possible for playing with no visibly stronger low stars on roster.
Jav strength: 8/10 - dreamwin, maketso, autopilot, lockdown, captain lonestar - looks stronger than wb lineup with very solid players allaround. Zizu, reaver and ardour can also play important role here incase of bad showups. Y0gi very well possible to hang in there in some games as well.
Base strength: 9/10 - zizu, joeses, zapata, dreamwin, maketso, autopilot, frozen throne, christian10 - with so many sharks on team, difficult to predict who dw will go with, but using zap could help him use that 7.5 slot on him and lineup stronger in spider. Very formidable and strong team and solid bench as well. Captain lonestar also option for 7.5.
Power - Zidane
Draft strategy: zidane> a bit of a strategy but its a weird draft. zidane> i gotta be smart with order stuff
Zid definitely brought "a bit of " strategy. Actually he was probably most strategic out of all caps with majority of rounds being first round pick. He also started earliest with quite a bit of surprise pick of yeh, followed by getting willby and spawnisen early on, not to mention dad. In the end, zid was able to make some really strong late picks like renzi, ekko, zizzo and others, but for me it looks like his team on duelling side is a bit thin.
WB strength: 7/10 - cripple, sword, renzi, zidane, warthog - Definitely weakest out of all teams with only 1 8.5 available. Good strategy for regular draft, but for this, it looks on weaker side. Sword, zizzo, junka also potential starters with several low vps also available.
Jav strength: 8/10 - zidane, yeh, cripple, spawnisen, dare - top 4 form really strong team, but looking at low vps, i dont really notice any active low stars or hidden gems, maybe there are some svs or old players returning i dont know of. Wouldnt consider them contender for title, but will definitely score some points. Jabra, zizzo also probably going to make appearances.
Base strength:10/10 - ekko, zidane, willby, cripple, sword, renzi, spawnisen, dad. - Scheming in draft, zid always had some strong base picks in his mind and this shows in the roster. What a spider lineup backed with excellent terr and sharks. Definitely contender for title. Jabra, zizzo, ra, heaven etc, very solid subs as well.
Force - Siaxis
Draft strategy: Siaxis> i had a strategy. Siaxis> and everyones fucking it
Dont worry siaxis, i think you drafted really well. Sia went really strong with wbs early on picking mythril and morph but overall he picked well getting allaround good players like hellkite, bacon and then having to face limits picked his low stars in clefairy (little bit puzzling), merc and refer. Spezza was great pick for base later on and raazi makes his wb line even stronger with spooked and draft also going to play part. Hellz was picked very late, but i think he can easily fit into siax jav team. So overall, i think he did really great choices round by round and picked a very solid team.
WB strength: 10/10 - mythril, morph, siaxis, raazi, ixador - With bacon, spezza, jz, spectacular also in lineup, this looks like a title contender. Ixador was picked very late, but i think he can do really well as 7, clefairy, cz also options.
Jav strength: 9/10 - morph, mythril, hellkite, hellzno!, raazi - also very solid team with bacon, siaxis, spezza, draft, jz, kangal, rylo, spectacular also options available. Refer can bring lag as low vp and merc has shown some good games as well.
Base strength:9/10 - spookedone, mythril, morph, hellkite, bacon, spezza, raazi, mercede$ - Solid, well balanced team with several good players on bench as well, like draft, clefairy, jz and definitely a wide selection of low stars.
Dice - Stayon
Draft strategy: Stayon> im going auto pick :P. Stayon> no time think. Stayon> but i tested once, should be enough...alot of picks after round 7 still
Stayon was true to his words and pretty much picked strongest players available until freq limits came into play and forced him to get some lower picks in rounds 6 and 7. Our Portugese charmer picked very balanced team, not really looking weak in anything and some true superstars lining up on every league. He also was the brave one picking up the stronger players in late rounds, making his team vp in the end the highest.
WB strength: 9/10 - okyo, dak, peru, jamal, rabbit! - There are definitely questions about how active peru will be, but azuline, booker and why not even jessup are also there to play. Difficult to pick the best low star, but there are many options with pressure, ph, shaun, stayon himself and ibex all available. Very experienced team with players doing great in recent leagues.
Jav strength: 9/10 - stayon, temujin, kado, okyo, rabbit! - Team looks as strong on paper in jav, jamal also there as is brunson. So options are there. Ibex/abo can definitely show what they got as low stars.
Base strength: 9/10 - pressure, ph, jamal, stayon, okyo, brunson, public assasin, shaun - same can be said about base. There are many options for players and positions as stayon did some heavy picking also in late rounds with violence, apt also available, plenty of low stars as well.
So here we go, one of the most equal drafts ive seen, although some teams still look better in one league compared to other. By early looks before trading kicks into play, force and pure luck look really strong in wb, grape in jav and power in base. See you soon in game!
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