2023 Event 5

With Event 4 nearly finished loading, lets give an advance look at Event 5/6. 140 Mil next and then 200 Mil both DH.

These two events are both Live Draft OPTIONAL. Last year both Events launched 3 leagues of Live Draft. The logistics of this can be tricky, but based on how we have smoothly launched it for a few years now, we will schedule the LD on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7pm PST / 10pm EST (to give the west coasters time to get home from work). The clock on LD will be 1 minute per pick and the draft is expected to run about an hour and a half. Stadium will be chosen as one of your picks. Divisions and draft order will be chosen randomly by the draft engine.

You can send me an email NOW or wait until I send out an email to ALL asking for reservations for LD and which day you prefer. ("ANY DAY" works best but if you specify a specific day I will be sure you get it) unless you wait too long and that night fills up. Once all three leagues are reserved by players, the LD is closed and you must get into an AUTODRAFT league. So it's best to get your reservation in for LD early to avoid being shut out or losing your choice of day.

Timelines for Event 5. Start date of Aug 14. Which means the Live Draft takes place the week before on Aug 8-9-10. The autodraft leagues will be created and loading will start on Thursday evening Aug 3rd for those who ARE NOT live drafting.

If you are new to Live Draft and feel like you want to give it a try, check out the MOCK Live Drafts to see if you can get an idea of how it works.

SOM created their Live Draft app specifically with the direction and assistance of Barnstormers board of directors and we feel it works very well now. Haven't seen a glitch for a long time.

Ask questions here or email me directly.

MM

Loading has started for the Autodraft leagues. Some are filling rapidly but I will say that if any fill before the Friday deadline and it gets a start date for Monday the 7th, I will override the start date back to Monday the 14th, the official Event 5 start date. Extra time to setup your team is what every player can appreciate.

For live draft, the post in the main ATG forum shows that the Thursday league still need a few players. As of right now, thursday needs 2 and wednesday needs 1. Tuesday is technically full but waiting on players to load their teams.

I hope we get everything comitted and filled. Seems Live Draft was not as much in demand as years past.

Thursday actually had only 2 people that NEEDED that night, but the ANY NIGHT players helped to get more people into that league.

Why is live draft not as popular this year ? Anyone speculate ?

Moose

In regards to less live drafters, probably just ebb and flow from year to year. But a couple possibilities:

It's probably a minor thing, but in the LD you are not guaranteed to get the stadium you want. If you do the Auto Draft you know for sure you get your stadium of choice. It doesn't matter if the other 11 players all decided to go Minute Maid, you are welcome to play there as well. That is the reason I decided to auto this year instead of LD as there is only 1 stadium I like in the particular grouping I plan to use this round. I didn't want to run the risk of someone jumping up and taking it before me in the LD and totally sinking my plan. For future tournaments I would consider changing that and only have unique stadiums for the Finals.

I personally like the LD's, but I think it's also easier to make catastrophic mistakes and sink your team right away. 90-120 seconds, whichever it is for BS, seems like a lot of time, but it goes by really quick in the moment. After the first few picks, a lot of people are using almost the whole time scrambling to decide who to pick. The Autodraft certainly gives you much more time to think things through and be more measured on your approach.

Another possibility, there are certain strategies you can employ to "stack" talent in the Autodraft which you would never be able to accomplish in a live draft. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a consideration for some.

The times for the live draft do not work for me and I am sure I am not the only one. Now I understand that the west coast people need the 10pm start, but with 3 days I think one of the days should be earlier to accommodate the East coast people that 10 is too late for. Ideally it should be 2 days at 10pm, and one day at 7pm or 8pm

60 seconds per turn is just a bit too quick for my liking, but I recognize there's no way to please everyone so I'm happy to roll the dice with the autodraft.

The Live Draft started out as 2 minutes per pick but there was negative feedback that it was taking too long and people got bored and that also makes the draft take longer. So 1 minute was what people wanted. Yeah, hard to please everyone. What is too short for one is too long for another.

I will take into consideration making at least one of the LD's 6pm/9pm but I would have to ask the West Coasters if they will have any issues with this. Tues-Wed-Thurs was considered better than Mon or Fri as people just have more going on on those two days. And while some people say "weekend", far more people just are off doing fun things or shopping. By a wide margin I have a tougher time reaching people on the weekends.

Yeah agree 100% with the stadium and having to Live Draft it. I could put this issue to the board and get their thoughts on removing live drafting a stadium. I don't recall ever having run it by them anyway. I just felt that people would WANT to live draft their stadium as another strategic element to the draft. Such as WHEN to toss it out there and have the others see what is now off the table. More discussion is needed on this.

I appreciate the comments. This is exactly what I was looking for. Let's keep it going.

Moose

I live draft every time I can, but I'm Mountain Time, so it's an 8:00 start for me and it's easy. In years past I have filled in on at least 1 of the other nights as well to help out as a filler team, but my schedule this year was just goofy timing with a crazy week at work. Next year I'll be available again to help as filler.

1 minute per pick is just about right in a live draft. 45 seconds feels rushed and anything longer tends to drag on.

As for stadiums, I prefer to draft one during the LD. Otherwise I see people waiting until the last second post-draft to set a stadium as a strategic advantage. If we have to take a stadium during the draft, this gets it out in the open before we see divisions and I think that's a better idea in general.

You run a great tournament. Keep it up!

Moose,

If you need a filler for either an auto draft (as specified in the League Directory) or for a live draft (as per this thread), or both, I'd be happy to hop on board.

Rusty

Rusty,

The Live Drafts are full but I will need a couple of fillers for the final autodraft league. I will send you an invite to it or you can also PM me your email address.

A Private Message with the password will work fine.

Thanks!