The season Alpha draft process:
For the alpha season, we needed a special draft process that would work with a high percentage of free agents, no established PR scores, and teams coming into the league with different numbers of signed players at different ability levels.
Because, in the first season, most players are unknown quantities with only high ladder ranking as a measure of ability, it made more sense to create a process to assign teams rather than have a true 'draft'. The top consideration for this process is to create well balanced teams.
First, we convert each player's top ladder rank into a PR score using the following table:
For the alpha season, we needed a special draft process that would work with a high percentage of free agents, no established PR scores, and teams coming into the league with different numbers of signed players at different ability levels.
Because, in the first season, most players are unknown quantities with only high ladder ranking as a measure of ability, it made more sense to create a process to assign teams rather than have a true 'draft'. The top consideration for this process is to create well balanced teams.
First, we convert each player's top ladder rank into a PR score using the following table:
With 5 players per team we'll have a 5 round draft. Signed players will count as an automatic draft pick in a round determined by the player's PR score.
PR 400-450 = Round 1
PR 300-399 = Round 2
PR 200-299 = Round 3
PR 100-199 = Round 2
PR 50-99 = Round 5
So that makes our Draft table look like this:
PR 400-450 = Round 1
PR 300-399 = Round 2
PR 200-299 = Round 3
PR 100-199 = Round 2
PR 50-99 = Round 5
So that makes our Draft table look like this:
The number next to each team name is the total PR score of the team that is counting against the cap. The cap for this season will be 1,675. We get that number by averaging all the PR scores in the league, multiplying that by 5 (5 players per team) and adding 5% for some flexibility.
Next we need a fair way to determine draft order within a round. To do that, I calculated what the average PR for each round should be by averaging the top 5 players' score for round 1, second 5 for round 2, and so on. The results look like this:
Round 1 average 447
Round 2 average 403
Round 3 average 350
Round 4 average 257
Round 5 average 107
Then for each player, I calculate variance in their PR from the average score for that round. By averaging the variances for each team, we have a good measure of how far ahead or behind the curve a team is at any given point in the draft.
Positive number means ahead of the average and negative number are behind the average. Here's what it looks like:
Next we need a fair way to determine draft order within a round. To do that, I calculated what the average PR for each round should be by averaging the top 5 players' score for round 1, second 5 for round 2, and so on. The results look like this:
Round 1 average 447
Round 2 average 403
Round 3 average 350
Round 4 average 257
Round 5 average 107
Then for each player, I calculate variance in their PR from the average score for that round. By averaging the variances for each team, we have a good measure of how far ahead or behind the curve a team is at any given point in the draft.
Positive number means ahead of the average and negative number are behind the average. Here's what it looks like:
Last is the process of assigning free agents to teams from the bottom up. Starting in round 5, the team that is most ahead of the curve is assigned the player with the lowest PR. Then the team that is next ahead of the curve gets the player with second lowest PR, and so on. This continues for rounds 4 - 1, with teams that have a signed player already in that draft slot getting skipped.
Once the process is complete, the results show fairly well balanced teams that were agreed upon by all the team captains.
Once the process is complete, the results show fairly well balanced teams that were agreed upon by all the team captains.
