Last season if Legion picked 1st and 13th and Ralphis picked 12 and 24th would those teams be fair? Let&#039;s play that scenario out using those captains and last season&#039;s picks at those spots:<br /><br />[size=1]Legion, Nostar, Rottking<br />VS<br />Ralphis, Devastation, Dr.Noob[/size]<br /><br />I personally would give the edge to Ralph&#039;s team there but consider the situation using the current snake draft system<br /><br />[size=1]Legion, Nostar, Dr.Noob<br />VS<br />Ralphis, Devastation, Rottking[/size]<br /><br />Ok so the first match-up is substantially more fair. In essence that is what a straight draft does for less talented captains. I actually liked the ABC ABC CBA system because that offsets some of the strength of 4ths, which have been getting more play in the 12-team IDL system.<br /><br />While I agree that it would take a lot to make Ralphis&#039; team on par or with Legions I do think it is possible. I also think it&#039;s possible to make teams even this season. I don&#039;t necessarily agree with doing it, but I certainly think it&#039;s possible.<br /><br />My personal opinion is that Legion, Mass, and Clim should be given the first picks in a straight draft. Strangle, Naut, and Prime should be given the next tier and Rus, Tai, the third, etc. If I wanted to shoot for parity among the teams in the league I would do that. I think it&#039;s easy to make the teams even. I just don&#039;t necessarily think it is fair.<br /><br />Mass and I talked about it and I mentioned to him that during the franchise era, the straight draft was relatively effective. There was a good turnover of non-playoff teams every season becoming playoff teams and so forth (see Xen going from botch to Conference Finals). The reality is that the only way for #12 (or #8 during the franchise era) to stay competitive in a straight draft is the franchise system, having a strong core to be able to absorb a lower pick. My team picked last during every season of the franchise era and in a 3v3 format having 2 lower picks is really difficult to keep competitive. I think even with good players captaining those teams it would be a struggle to maintain winning records with the current player base. I felt that way then and did pretty much everything I could to circumvent the problem. My solution was JKist.<br /><br />The reason picking later was beneficial last season is purely because of the snake draft style and the way the player base shaped up. If 2-3 guys did or didn&#039;t signup picking early might have been an advantage. It all depends on where the drop off in veteran idl skill is. Last season it was around pick #19 or so. That is when euros (I love you guys) and inexperienced players (I loathe you guys) began to be picked. That means that pick #s 1-5 had a perceivable disadvantage that was not made up for by the initial advantage of picking earlier in the draft. Picks 1-5 were as follows:<br /><br />[size=1]<br />Goatface - Nostar, Dr.Noob, Climhazzard<br />Tai - Whiteboy, MadV, Goblin<br />Mantis - Chaindude, Mandolore, Prime<br />Legion - Bloodstrike, Kov, Beast<br />Humanbones - KBlair, dewww, MassVC[/size]<br /><br />Even if you discount Goat&#039;s team because of the the Rus/Goat trade you have 2 teams to go to the Wildcard and 2 to miss playoffs (although I postulate that Goat would have missed playoffs with that team as well and should ostensible be included). Granting me that we have 3 out of a possible 4 teams missing playoffs falling in the top 5 picks. Picking in those spots, even with veteran captains like Bones, Tai and Mantis, all of whom have been to a Masterbowl, was a disadvantage. Even with 3rds having break out seasons (Prime and Mass) and top players (White/Chain) they struggled to eek out wins.<br /><br />The idea of letting captains decide where they pick is interesting, subject to abuse and negligence and probably a bad road to travel down. I like it in theory but it would just go badly especially if we have newer captains every season, which seems to be the trend. I would file it under the heading [i]&quot;If this league was professional it would be cool&quot;[/i], if only because in pro leagues there are financial consequences to botching. An idea to give that kind of option to some captains would be to have IDL officially allow captains to trade their picks. The fact that it goes on anyway (yes I&#039;m usually involved) and is sometimes not beneficial (see Donut trading Whiteboy to Fastidious for I DON&#039;T EVEN REMEMBER WHO [u]IT WAS SO BAD[/u]) really means it should be regulated. I likened it to prostitution. Agree with it or not, it happens. Why not make it safer under the purview of the IDL Administration. That way you don&#039;t have Legion trading pick #1 for #12 in a straight draft just so Nostar can play with Chewy again. I tell you here and now I can make that happen, don&#039;t test me.<br /><br />I think the obvious answer is a straight draft or some variation of it. It would have to coincide with draft pick re-ordering but that is part and parcel with changing something as fundamental to the draft as it&#039;s format. If the league needs/wants Legion and Clim to cap and be competitive then that is the best answer so far.