(S23) - PT2 - Draft Day

[Jepox]

PBE PT

[Dagumpa]

PBE PT

[The_Kidd]

Being a brand new player to sim leagues, all of my experiences have been authentically brand new and unique. During the DSFL draft, I did not know what to expect. I did not know how a player could improve their draft stock, how GM's rated prospects, nor how the league functioned in general. I simply spent my days trying to learn how to navigate throughout the whereabouts of the league and find a balance between real life and sim life. I had no emotion in the DSFL draft because I had no standard to know if I did well or poorly before the draft. I did use those experiences to help me approach the NSFL draft.

I used what I learned to become a viable prospect in the league: I became the 3rd highest TPE-earning cornerback, I slid into the top 25 of TPE in my class after being at the default 50 entering the pre-season, I started writing various media pieces, I became more active in discord and the forums as I learned my way. All in all, I became a sponge, attempting to soak up all the information I could as use it to help me build my draft stock as high as possible.
I made an emphasis to promptly return all scouting messages, after a haphazard showing in DSFL scouting where I missed about 4 teams interviews. This time around, only 3 teams did not reach out to me, two teams in the Pacific Time Zone and one in the Eastern Time Zone, but two of the teams had real life issues that prevented them from properly scouting this season. So I definitely became a made man with the effort I put in.

The issue I expected was that I would become too good at a position of need and it would deter teams from trying to trade for me as the risk would be too high versus keeping extra picks and hoping I slipped deep in the draft. The fact I was a corner, I knew I would go in the first two rounds, I just didnt know where because of this dilemma. If a team took me over other max earning players, it would be a reach meanwhile, if teams let me fall to the 3rd or lower, I had a high chance of going anywhere as I would be one of the bigger steals going that late.
The other issues was players willing to position switch to fill in a hole on the team. We had a lot of high earning defensive players overlapping at the same positions and I felt that if teams with a hole in their CB pool passed me, then they hopefully had a plan for someone to position switch or any other alternative plan.

The teams I did expect to draft me were: Sarasota - because they were brand new and could use high earning players, plus they had two first round picks. Philadelphia - because they only have two corners on their depth chart(NSFL and DSFL) and one has stalled out in the low 200's of TPE. Yellowknife - because they only have two natural corners like Philadelphia, but their corners are S17 and S13. Orange County - because AJ Lattimer is retiring and they had no extra DSFL DB's coming into the draft. Baltimore was one of the teams, I mentioned earlier about not scouting me, but they had current players and ex-players in my locker room(as did the Yeti, and I'm sure other teams) that vouched for me when they needed to get their GM's ordeal straightened out and put scouting aside during that time period. So I was simultaneously shocked, but not shocked because I was valuable, I went where I expected, I just didnt think one of the 3 teams that didnt "actively" scout me would be the one to draft me.

[Billybolo53]

Draft time is such a special moment. For me, nothing compares to the DSFL draft. When you first enter the league there is so much you don't know. Every day you meet someone cool or learn something about the sim or a new team was scouting you. The competition when I came up was super intense. The largest draft class of all time had some heavy hitters. The amount of media and analysis that was coming out every day was insane. I remember that being one of the cooler experiences. You could pop on the site at any point and see someone who has looked at what you did and appreciated it enough to give you some props for being a good prospect. I remember that every team reached out to me. One of the regrets looking back is that I didn’t join any locker rooms for pre-draft scouting. I think that would propel me into the conversation as a top pick. I decided that I just wanted to lay low until the draft as far much as discord stuff. To be honest, I was new to discord so I was just learning my way around. It all worked it out for me in the end. Going into the draft I had some really good vibes about myrtle beach. There was a swagger and energy about the team. It was something that I picked up on just a brand new rookie. I did some media pieces on some myrtle beach guys just by happenstance. I think that helped me make an impression on them. When draft night happened, I was hoping to go to Myrtle Beach or one of the expansion teams. I thought going in there was a chance for me to go in the first couple of rounds. The draft starts and I fall out of the first and out of the second. Not surprised but a little disappointed. Looking at the draft board there was a solid chance I would be there for myrtle beach in the third. The picks kept happening and all of a sudden myrtle beach was on the clock again. I just knew they picked up and was holding my breath while the pick was announced. The pick gets announced and I am fucking ecstatic. I did a huge fist bump in the air. The invite to the locker followed and the rest was history.

[Kyamprac]

My introduction to the league was getting picked up off waivers by the Dallas Birddogs for their final 4 game push before playoffs. That in itself was exciting, but in some ways made the DSFL draft after that a little more stressful for me because I got invested and very attached to the team. When my update page was moved back to the unassigned players section at the end of the season I felt a little sad and worried a lot about where I might end up and whether I would like the team as much as what felt like my home locker room after a few games.

I talked to scouts from every team except for one and felt certain that, despite being a kicker, there was a good possibility I could end up going in the first round. I've been an active, high TPE earner to date and I openly told scouts I was open to position switching, albeit had some hesitation around switching to a defensive role. I think had I been more willing to switch to defense there's a good chance I could have gone second or third overall.. but at the end of the day that draft positioning didn't matter to me as much as playing a position I wanted to play and going to a locker room that I knew I'd gel with.

When I was selected fourth by the Birddogs I wasn't super shocked, but definitely felt relieved to be going somewhere familiar and I think they were pretty happy to get me as well. Since then, I've become an active member of the Birddogs war room and hope to help other rookies realize the awesome things the team has to offer going forward.

Code:

388 words

[BenDover]

PBE Affiliate PT

[nunccoepi]

well Ive mentioned before how the draft impacted me. I had no idea where I was going to go in the draft. I knew that I was a good prospect with the potential to go first overall because I was a high earning prospect with a good history in the league (also a history of staying with one team) and I am playing in a position that is not very attractive to a lot of people so not many people there. so I wouldn't have been surprised if i went first overall to the orange county otters, but there was another really good prospect before me - jeffie. I won't come close to him in career tpe earnings so he is living up to his hype. But also, I think this is most important, I made certain demands and didn't hold back in telling the league what I wanted out of Blackstone's career. and part of that will be asking for a little more money and also moving around periodically. As a GM I understand that that's not very easy to hear. Lucky for me the Yeti decided to draft me anyways. And I say Lucky for me because (1) they were on the top of my list, but also (2) we ended up winning the Ultimus in my second year on the team. So hopefully the Yeti's risk has paid off.

[cho1325]

It was just last year when the name James Cho was called in the 3rd round. At pick 11 in the 3rd round the prime defensive end candidate was finally selected and he couldn’t believe it. The Yellowknife wraiths took a chance on this player while two other teams who selected other defensive ends ahead of Cho made a mistake. Cho ended the 22nd season leading all rookie defensive ends with 35 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 6 sacks, and 1 forced fumble. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I truly thought I was going to go in the first round. My stats and my TPE was more than enough to go in the first round and yet I fell to the third and honestly my heart sank. What made the pain worse was when I saw two other defensive ends that went ahead of me. I made a vow then and there that I would show up and show those teams that they made a mistake and at the end of the season I truly did. The wraiths went with a only one loss this last season and I would like to think that I helped contribute to that and can’t wait more this next upcoming season to go and win the ultimus like we should have last year.

[Rusfan]

I had joined later than most of the other players in the S24 class and I was a complete newbie to this and other simulation leagues, so I had no connections to anyone else in the league, but I still wanted to go as high as possible. I dove into everything I could get my hands on and tried to respond and reach out to everyone I could. This paid off come draft day. I knew I wouldn't go as high as some of the other safeties on the board who had more time with their characters and in the league itself so I wasn't concerned with being the first safety off the board, but I knew that defense and specifically secondary was a position that usually was a need and as a result, went high. So I was hoping to go in the first round, or at least the top 15 or so. When I went to the Pythons at pick #10 I was excited, I hadn't had any particular team that interested me other than the Royals and Luchadores, and even they were just barely ahead of the pack, so the team themselves didn't really matter to me.

[HENDRIX 2.0]

I’ll talk about my pre draft experience in season 21. My draft class was very strong, many of us were max earners, except somehow the guy that went first had a massive TPE lead over 2nd place, I have no idea how. But anyways I recreated a week late so I was about 12 TPE behind most of the top guys, so that annoyed me. I heard from every team except the Colorado Yeti (who were quite loaded at LB so I don’t blame them) and the Arizona Outlaws (who didn’t have a first round pick). I enjoyed that experience, I was able to get a good feel for all the teams. Philly and Yellowknife seemed the most interested, the others who contacted me seemed to be just doing their due diligence. I was pretty sure I was going to fall to 9th to the Wraiths, I’m the only one who got that pick correct in the s21 mock draft thread. In real life I was working the night of the draft, I didn’t want to go on my phone and spoil the surprise for myself, I planned on going home and watching the replay until I was picked. But that didn’t go as planned, the video was completely dead and broken, so I had no choice but to go onto discord and find out where I was drafted. I was very happy but not being able to watch the replay was a real downer. (245 words)