Tournament ADPL 8 Week 9

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Our teams been out for a while but wanted to wait until week 9 to share some thoughts

This was a really cool experience for me! It was my first time properly managing a tour, and I think I gave it its due diligence. Spent a good amount of time on draft prep, got most of the guys we wanted, and overall drafted a very competent roster. Players underperformed and we couldn't put results together at the right time, but that's just how the game goes sometimes and that's okay. There were definitely some issues since I was basically solo managing the whole season (cicada had some unforeseen irl commitments), and I apologise to my team if you felt there was more that could've been done from my end. I know I definitely flubbed some act calls, but for the most part I think I did a good job.

Main thing I wanted to talk about here was the undrafted slot, which in my opinion, was a failure. I liked the idea a lot going into the season, but the execution felt lacking and in the end, a bit useless. It cost us points early on, we went through about 5 replacements for inactive players, a host of 1 post andys (blackmamba24 I will never forget you), until we eventually landed fran and HSK who cleaned up for the rest of the season. I'm gonna list off a few issues I feel need to be addressed if we do this again next year.
1. Tier picking is inherently unbalanced, especially when a team lucks into an RBY or GSC mainer. Yes, you want all players to have an opportunity to play their main tier, but what the fuck are you supposed to do when you have a randomly allocated pool of 5 players, and unsurprisingly none of them have even touched the tier? Its annoying for managers, its annoying for the player sacrificed to that slot, and it is completely unhelpful for player development for the guy who mains the tier. Are they learning anything by beating up on beginners?
2. Being able to move an undrafted player to the main lineup is great, but allowing drafted players into the bo3 completely defeats the purpose and rewards good luck in the allocation even further. I should not have to offer up my undrafted SV player to 15k MGdos because the other team was given a player deemed good enough for the main lineup. It is a completely useless exchange for everyone involved.
3. Random allocation of players made the first 2 weeks a complete crapshoot, praying I got a player who at least understood how to schedule (spoiler alert, they didn't!). While we did end up with some solid players, the damage had been done and we missed out on points through no fault of our own. There is no benefit to adding complete beginners to a team tournament environment. To me, this idea is designed for players who are just on the edge, interested in gaining team tour experience, and looking to break out when given the chance. I actually had multiple players in mind who I think would've benefitted from this tour, but I could not justify spending credits on (a lot of them got chances in Masters League, which I'm glad to see).

Overall if this idea is to come back next season, it needs to be workshopped heavily. I definitely think it's worth exploring, although Masters League does a fantastic job at giving opportunities to players who need it, so maybe it isn't necessary. My idea was to have managers submit the undrafted players they want to the host (in the event of multiple teams submitting the same player, coinflip it), so at least that way you make sure you're getting players you want, who you know are hungry, and who will gain the most from the tour.

Lastly, want to quickly shoutout HSK7, Brine, NotVeryCake, Antonazz, mayopockets, and pixie909. You guys were awesome all season and I hope you keep putting together great performances and being great teammates.
 
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