[quote=&quot;Fastidious&quot;]OK first I just want to make a few comments on the draft.&nbsp; I think this season some captains totally confused playing in priv with being good.&nbsp; Playing in priv isn&#039;t required to be skilled or demonstrate you&#039;ll show for matches despite some people insisting it is.&nbsp; I&#039;ve played in priv hundreds, if not thouands of hours, I don&#039;t need to play much to get up to speed.&nbsp; As the IDL goes on this will become true for more and more players.&nbsp; Even some new players don&#039;t need loads of priv to compete at a high level (Higgs).[/quote]<br /><br />I&#039;m not entirely sure what you are getting at here but priv is one of the few events that allows you to actually see how well a player is performing. Aside from that, the only thing you really have to go off of is the IDL in previous seasons; maybe even clan scrimmages when they&#039;re played from time to time. <br /><br />Since you used yourself and Higgs as an example, I&#039;ll counter your statement. With you, I wouldn&#039;t be afraid of picking you up early because you have a long-term history with the league and doom itself. You&#039;ve won championships and have been at elite levels in your time spent in the IDL. I trust that it would only be a matter of time before you shake off some rust. Will you be what you were 2 years ago? Who knows, maybe. Even if you are, there&#039;s a relatively newer playerbase with people who are just as good as you were or have that potential. The risk I take with you is that I hardly see you play while I see them play a lot. At that point, not knowing you extremely well, I&#039;d be more inclined to take the player who is already as good or has that potential. If I knew you and trusted you more on a personal level, perhaps it would be different (not that I&#039;m suggesting I have a problem with you, I don&#039;t at all). <br /><br />As far as Higgs goes, he had a good season given what he was thrown into. Before the IDL, the guy had a few months of DooM gameplay and that was it. But just because statistics show he had a decent amount of caps doesn&#039;t mean he&#039;s more qualified than Oath, who has the same argument going for him as you do going for you. Higgs still has to get a lot better for his team to actually have a chance - it&#039;s not like he is a veteran and has maxed out and fully met his potential at some point. He hasn&#039;t and there&#039;s really no way to know that he will other than drafting him and seeing how it goes. Oath can shake his rust off and you know what you&#039;re getting. Higgs, while still rather competent with the experience he has, is a risk because you don&#039;t know if you will get just that or more. Bottom line: Oath was the safer pick.&nbsp;  <br /><br />[quote=&quot;Fastidious&quot;]Higgs wasn&#039;t playing priv much last season but he still made every match I think.&nbsp; I suspect he&#039;ll do much the same this season.&nbsp; If you compare records Higgs got 28 caps his rookie season, Oath in comparison has not managed 28 caps in 5 seasons.[/quote]<br /><br />Higgs was very good for us, I will not deny that. But this is a case of where comparing stats skews the value of a player. 10/10 times I will draft Oath before I draft Higgs until I see drastic improvement from him. Oath is more versatile and can be a formidable runner or defend. As of now, Higgs is really only limited to O because he&#039;s not a powerful fragger. So while Higgs had 28 caps and Oath never did, what gives you the indication that Ralph drafted Oath to run? Maybe Ralph drafted him to D? Maybe Ralph drafted him to float? Maybe Ralph drafted him to water his flowers? Who knows. Even then, I suspect Oath could be just as good a runner as Higgs. Basically, I don&#039;t use stats alone to justify why I pick somebody. Most captains don&#039;t either. <br /><br />[quote=&quot;Fastidious&quot;]As for DR_Noob I assume he&#039;s been very active in priv and I admit to being impressed with his play but...&nbsp; If you look at his two seasons his stats don&#039;t really stand out in anyway and most worrisome is probably his 12.5 round a season played average.&nbsp; Most other first picks are likely to be around 17 rounds a season played. [/quote]<br /><br />As far as Noob goes, this is somewhat true. Noob is a total risk but his potential is enormous. If you can get him to be committed and to use his head some more, the combination of that and his awesome shot could take you very far. But this is a total risk pick. Noob has said all the right things as of late. He said he plans not to flake and plans to be more committed to improving and doing what it takes to be a good teammate. If it pays off and he meets his potential, it could be a great move. If it doesn&#039;t, well, shit happens. When you gamble, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That&#039;s part of being a captain.<br /><br />[quote=&quot;Fastidious&quot;]I feel like people forgot a bit about the wiki as I think past history is the strongest indicator of future preformance.&nbsp; Stats do lie but often they can guide you better than assuming activity = skill from playing a lot of priv.[/quote]<br /><br />As I said above, the stats page is nice and does give you an idea of what you could be seeing from a player. While I value them somewhat, I&#039;d rather see how they do on the eyeball test. I&#039;ve been playing DooM for almost 8 years now, I think I can safely say when I know someone is good and when they aren&#039;t. <br />Sometimes I tend to not do research and actually watch them. I&#039;ve taken blind guesses a few times and those bit me in the ass big time. I did no such thing this season. I took what had the absolute most value given my position. I like to think I came out rather well. You tend to think differently. We&#039;ll agree to disagree on that one. <br /><br />Overall, the tone of your post suggests that most captains didn&#039;t do any research or built incomplete teams. I really couldn&#039;t disagree more. Whether you mean to suggest this or not, you also come off as if nobody can improve over an off-season and build on their game by adding new abilities such as running. Stats can&#039;t tell you the value of that. Your eyes and priv can. <br /><br />Most captains made very logical decisions. LB and Nostar took giant gambles. LB took a gamble on both his picks, one with potential, one with the virtual unknown factor. Nostar took a gamble on two players who&#039;ve not been entirely active as of late and with one of them flaking on a team last winter. WAD is practicing a bunch so it seems Nostar&#039;s gamble will pay off big time (if he considers it one, maybe he was in contact with them prior to the draft? who knows). If Shak and Chain can get back to where they were a few years ago, this team will be a juggernaut. If not, welp, even with their experience they&#039;ll still be pretty damn good. <br /><br />So the biggest thing is this: things change. People improve, people add on more to their games. You are right when you say it&#039;s a gamble to assume they&#039;ll be able to do it at high levels in the IDL. But that&#039;s another part of being a captain. Scouting. :)<br /><br />[quote=&quot;Fastidious&quot;]Also I was shocked by the Rus trade involving me.&nbsp; I knew Nostar wanted me but I figured pulling it off was impossible.&nbsp; I hope Rus explains himself since he did not even check with Me, Ladna or Turska before doing the trade.&nbsp; It is true I&#039;m not really into 1pm Tuesday practices but who is really?!&nbsp; I guess Euros and Ladna?&nbsp; I think Rus&#039;s team come matches will be quite a bit weaker without me but I can still see them being successful with Ladna.] [/quote]<br /><br />*dries tears* You went from one good situation to another good situation. Shit happens, be thankful you didn&#039;t get traded away to a less talented team. In all seriousness, you&#039;re a smart, savvy player. I&#039;m sure your input will help. <br /><br />[quote=&quot;Fastidious&quot;]Oh, and I&#039;ll also add only 3 captains bothered talking to me regarding my activity/status/whatever.&nbsp; If people want to demonize me for stupid comments on IRC about 10% effort that&#039;s their own fault.&nbsp; All the captains that actually spent 30 secs to PM me on IRC got the straight dope and it&#039;s not surprising I ended up being on teams where the captains (Rus, Nostar) actually talked to me.[/quote]<br /><br />Being one of the captains who spoke with you, I can withdraw the idea of me taking any personal offense to this. You can&#039;t be upset about people not wanting to draft you. I seriously doubt it was your 10% effort comment. It was probably more to do with the fact that you&#039;ll be leaving around the play-offs. Think about that. You told me you weren&#039;t 100% certain. I&#039;m not risking it. I&#039;m not going to build up a huge dependency on you only for you to leave when I&#039;ll need you the most. Most captains won&#039;t, that&#039;s probably why Nostar wanted you as a 4th. Unless he plans on dropping you into FA before the deadline or you intend to stay, your value will all but be dissolved come playoff time. I sure hope Nostar doesn&#039;t have a problem with Chain or Shak having something serious come up around that time. While it&#039;s rare, you never know. It sure would suck if you were gone and he had to rely on someone from the FA list to get him a playoff win. He&#039;s probably good enough to do it though, maybe another risk, eh? <br /><br /><br /> 