Official 2013 Big Soccer US Player Draft Organizational Thread

Basically, yes. I just started playing last year. There is an early vote and then a later vote. The voting sort of petered out this year. I don't recall how the voting went previous years.

It is definitely a 1-year team, so selecting a guy like Friedel (my team partner and I took him last year) or previously taking Hejduk, Wolff or Keller, is fine even though he is very close to retirement.

It is definitely not a weekly fantasy-like game with weekly "results."

You probably want a mix of players currently at the top of their games and some younger guys who you think are ready for break-out years. How much you weigh one factor over the other is a personal choice. Some teams preferred to go with more young players and then hit the jackpot when some of those players succeeded professionally. Some teams really liked to focus on guys they believe will become future national teamers. Some preferred teams of quality veterans. Some were interested in the gestalt of their team and how the players fit together in a stylistic image they liked.

bmo180 posted the "rules" that I largely copied from last year. The one difference from what he copied was that we were debating a possible shortening of the time limit teams had to make a pick from a flat 12 hours to a basic 6 hours + 9 wildcards that allowed each team 9 escapes to the longer 12-hour period. To avoid chasing anyone away, I think we should just stick with the tried and true simple 12-hour limit. As long as folks give a good effort to make picks quickly, we would rarely need 12 hours per pick. (Plus, one participant from the past who frequently shot past the 12-hour limit hasn't returned this year, so that will speed things up, too!)

 

Anyone interested in taking joe cleats on as a partner? He was a good player last year, and last year about half the teams were partnerships. Partners are good for bouncing ideas off of and you also have cover and can get your picks announced more quickly, avoiding the 12-hour limit.

Or are either of our waffling participants backing out?

 

Feel free to use a team name now if you like. Not every team chose a name diferent from the person's screen name. Team name is optional as far as I can tell.

 

Ha ha, good of you. Please send Joe Cleats a message and invite him to join your team.

 

Just a suggestion to everyone committed to this draft game, but I think we should all press the "watch thread" button to better keep track of this thread in the next couple of days.

Unless someone else volunteers to run the draft order lottery (a neutral person not in the game would be nice, but that's asking a lot of someone not playing), on Sunday (Jan 20) I will start the lottery in the same reverse order that MLSNHTOWN did last year, using Random.org to pick a team each round, beginning with the 12th pick first and working my way up to #1.

 

There have been no objections or suggestions to my comments the last couple of days, so here we go...

During today's NFL games I will begin the Draft Lottery. I'll use the teams with the following 12 assigned numbers (as they have been all week). I will use Random.org to select a number from 1 to 12 and the first number that comes up will get the 12th selection in the Draft. Then from time to time, after watching some more pointy football, I'll do the same for the 11th Draft pick, and so on. Good Random Luck to everyone!

1. Deportivo Vejete (Mr Martin/deuteronomy)
2. Real Soccer FC (soccersubjectively and joe cleats???)
3. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
4. Hararea (...probable)
5. bmo180
6. Balerion
7. Harper916
8. MI-Soccerfan
9. Neuwerld
10. Sean...
11. Sebsasour
12. MLSNHTOWN (...if needed)
Stay tuned!

 

And the 2013 US mens draft Lottery begins! The first random integer is 5. That would be bmo180, who was 5th on the list.

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12. bmo180

What this means is that bmo180 will select 12th in the 1st round and first in the second round. Basically, he chooses 12th in every odd numbered round and first in every even numbered round. His picks will be back-to-back all draft long. Neuwerld was in that spot last year, and may be willing to share some pointers about what is good and not so good about back-to-back selections. Or maybe not!

 

And the next random integer is 9. That's Neuwerld.

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11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

And as the Falcons come up with a huge goalline turnover... the next random integer is 3. That's Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti).

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10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

Looks like the 49ers will hang on... the next random integer is 11. That's Sebsasour.

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9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

Gonna slip another lottery pick in before I turn my attention to watching my Patriots defeat the Ravens. The next random integer is 7. That's Harper916.

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8. Harper916
9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

Halftime. The next random integer is 8 (Hmmm, finally an even number). That's MI-Soccerfan.

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7. MI-Soccerfan
8. Harper916
9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

Slipping in one more lottery pick before the second half of the gridiron game begins. The next random integer is 2. Real Soccer FC.

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6. Real Soccer FC ((soccersubjectively/joe cleats)
7. MI-Soccerfan
8. Harper916
9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

Ugh, the second half has been horrid.

Anyway, the next random number is 4, which is Hararea.

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5. Hararea
6. Real Soccer FC ((soccersubjectively/joe cleats)
7. MI-Soccerfan
8. Harper916
9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

Were getting close to the end.

The next random integer is 10. That's Sean...

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4. Sean...
5. Hararea
6. Real Soccer FC ((soccersubjectively/joe cleats)
7. MI-Soccerfan
8. Harper916
9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

 

Been a tough last hour, watching my boyhood team stink up the joint in the end, and now seeing my dream of the top draft pick come to an end.

The next random integer that came up was 1, which is Deportivo Vejete.

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3. Deportivo Vejete (Mr Martin/deuteronomy)
4. Sean...
5. Hararea
6. Real Soccer FC ((soccersubjectively/joe cleats)
7. MI-Soccerfan
8. Harper916
9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

I'm going to finish this shortly. I know there are millions of people just waiting out there to see how this turns out. You'll all be snug under the covers soon!

 

An now, the moment at least two of us have all been waiting for...

... the next random number to come up on the Random.org integer selector is 12. That's MLSNHTOWN, who has to settle for the 2nd overall pick.

The top pick goes to Balerion. Congratulations!

1. Balerion
2. MLSNHTOWN
3. Deportivo Vejete (Mr Martin/deuteronomy)
4. Sean...
5. Hararea
6. Real Soccer FC (soccersubjectively/joe cleats)
7. MI-Soccerfan
8. Harper916
9. Sebsasour
10. Academìa C.F. (AutoPenalti)
11. Neuwerld
12. bmo180

My recommendation is to start the 2013 US Mens Draft clock at 8:00am Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, January 22. Monday is a holiday, and the 12 teams will need that crucial extra 24 hours to work on their draft strategies and look at all those videos of the US player pool.

I'll set up a draft thread and a discussion thread tomorrow, and ask a moderator to sticky those. I'll repost the rules in the draft thread. That thread is only for announcing picks or rules issues like noting when a team misses the 12-hour deadline. All discussion of player selections should take place in the separate discussion thread, as has been done in the past.