Disclaimer: Discussion based on tournaments draft taking into consideration mostly Kotd, if any mod think this topic belongs better into KOTD forums please move it there and sorry for problems caused. Long post below
Hello, as a long time esport follower / player but shortly in aoe2 I was pretty excited to see KotD, one of the reason besides being a stacked tournament (32 highest rated players) was also the draft pick for civilizations.
I actually want to discuss something I was thinking since the first round but wanted to come up with a good discussion for it, what way of playing the draft would be better for both players and entertainment? Play them in the order they pick them, play them by players choice (they pick one of the 5 based on their judgement) or other option?
I have been watching for a lot of years other esports such as LoL (League of Legends) and others and they have there a drafting system for champions (translate as civs here) and always found it very interesting as it adds a lot of in-depth analysis and preparation for matches as it does here, and basically a good draft gives you a huge advantage in the match, the way they do it there is bans happen before anyone picks (3 bans per team alternating the bans aka ABABAB) and then they proceed to pick champions, the way they do it is picking first the most OP champions that went through the ban phase and start picking the rest of the composition based on what counter-picks their rivals are doing to try to come up with the upperhand there)
What I don't understand much and I think it might be good for everyone is why players here ban the civs, then proceed to pick x amount of civs each (5 in case of KOTD since it's Bo5) but then they play them the way they want, that way they have to think about what they are going to pick and possible rival picks inside a game in a tournament which might make them do the wrong choice. Let's say I play a tournament, I am 0-1 to start and then pick a civ thinking my enemy will pick x and they pick something different, not only I'm screwed there but I have to come up with the idea of what strategy I will do shortly after.
If it's done the same way as LoL I think it will be better for players because A, they will know what civs they will choose each other in every single match and they can draft for counter picks, let's say I choose a top god-tier civ atm but my rival can go for their best counterpick possible, then he can go for counter picks of my picks and so on until everything is drafted. This would give the game a whole different analysis level, giving players the chance to come up with possible drafts days before the match, praciting those draftings and trying to get the upper hand on them and also will have more variety of strategies trained for sure, as well as not having to try to predict picks / strategies inside the game but before, increasing the overall strategy part of the game. It will also have way more importance the first pick for player A and last pick for player B to choose strong civ for player A and last counter pick for player B and it will evolve the system more into some current esport model bringing maybe the first figures of possible analysts / coaches to start helping the players develop better (in this case it can start from drafting preparations and extend it into full analysis / coaching of matches but that's another discussion)
Sorry for the long post and please feel free to discuss, I find this pretty interesting
Hello, as a long time esport follower / player but shortly in aoe2 I was pretty excited to see KotD, one of the reason besides being a stacked tournament (32 highest rated players) was also the draft pick for civilizations.
I actually want to discuss something I was thinking since the first round but wanted to come up with a good discussion for it, what way of playing the draft would be better for both players and entertainment? Play them in the order they pick them, play them by players choice (they pick one of the 5 based on their judgement) or other option?
I have been watching for a lot of years other esports such as LoL (League of Legends) and others and they have there a drafting system for champions (translate as civs here) and always found it very interesting as it adds a lot of in-depth analysis and preparation for matches as it does here, and basically a good draft gives you a huge advantage in the match, the way they do it there is bans happen before anyone picks (3 bans per team alternating the bans aka ABABAB) and then they proceed to pick champions, the way they do it is picking first the most OP champions that went through the ban phase and start picking the rest of the composition based on what counter-picks their rivals are doing to try to come up with the upperhand there)
What I don't understand much and I think it might be good for everyone is why players here ban the civs, then proceed to pick x amount of civs each (5 in case of KOTD since it's Bo5) but then they play them the way they want, that way they have to think about what they are going to pick and possible rival picks inside a game in a tournament which might make them do the wrong choice. Let's say I play a tournament, I am 0-1 to start and then pick a civ thinking my enemy will pick x and they pick something different, not only I'm screwed there but I have to come up with the idea of what strategy I will do shortly after.
If it's done the same way as LoL I think it will be better for players because A, they will know what civs they will choose each other in every single match and they can draft for counter picks, let's say I choose a top god-tier civ atm but my rival can go for their best counterpick possible, then he can go for counter picks of my picks and so on until everything is drafted. This would give the game a whole different analysis level, giving players the chance to come up with possible drafts days before the match, praciting those draftings and trying to get the upper hand on them and also will have more variety of strategies trained for sure, as well as not having to try to predict picks / strategies inside the game but before, increasing the overall strategy part of the game. It will also have way more importance the first pick for player A and last pick for player B to choose strong civ for player A and last counter pick for player B and it will evolve the system more into some current esport model bringing maybe the first figures of possible analysts / coaches to start helping the players develop better (in this case it can start from drafting preparations and extend it into full analysis / coaching of matches but that's another discussion)
Sorry for the long post and please feel free to discuss, I find this pretty interesting