I interviewed the WED captains to get their first thoughts on the draft, their teams, any potential surprises in the draft, as well as to find out which teams the collective captain consciousness considers the best and worst.
Draft Interviews
Severe
Well. Woke up 10 minutes before draft start and saw a message from Luke telling me to pick this exact draft, obviously not gonna question my main man Luke, surely he knows what’s up. It was only at 4th pick that I realized how dangerously low the MMR average is — full trust in everyone but the MMR average ain’t looking too good.
Thronplunder
Draft went awful. Besides my first pick, I could not get anyone I had on my priorities. But I’m still very happy with my team, since I could get people I know and like. I’m not sure how strong we are though.
Stl
I thought draft went just fine for me, there were so many 4ks that it looked a bit odd at times — I was very set on firstpicking Sucker. I thought we would have a shit round 2 but Shnoor was still in the pool so I lucked out a bit, and the two last players just fit in really nicely with my previous ones. Superhappy!
Crispy Bacon
The draft went super well! I was pretty happy with all the players I drafted, but when they joined Discord and 4/5 of us were ready to play a scrim already, I was very happy. When they turned out to be super fun talented gamers I was ecstatic! I got picks I wanted every round, got a high 4K gamer round 3 and even last round was a guy I had my eye on from the start. How lose?! Haha…. I’ll find a way. I have decided for next draft though, I’ll make an initial draft sheet with the people I wanna pick and who I think are value, scrap that sheet and call it ‘fuck madsen’, and then create another sheet with people I’ll actually be able to pick :)
Reddydas
This is the first time I didn’t have practically first pick, which was hard to adjust to. I had a great experience with Acid (doomshop mf) in the inhouse league, but he was snatched up already together with most of the midplayer pool. I ended up picking Kalimoo because I like him and because he’s good. Then I picked Grimmjow, who I have played with before and Skully who I also had good experiences with in the mini I played with him. The team might need some figuring out in terms of who plays what, but aside from that, I’m happy that I have nice people who I’m sure I can work with.
Joll
Draft was very fucked, very few high mmr cores. I had 6 or 7 potential picks marked including Boelens and Harbinger and I got none of them being 9th pick. So I just went with Kuroame and am hoping for the best. I think the rest of my draft fared a little better, I got a big dick Bangladeshi offlaner who is supposed to be really good. And then I have Fred for 4 so I’m confident we’ll win every lane except mine.
exZ
I am satisfied with the team and I hope we will do well!
Holy Harry
Draft was fairly chaotic given the number of captains, 5 man teams and the lack of cores. There were also a lot more captains lower than me in mmr (you and Gonzo sandbagging for instance) so I was expecting I’d have no chance to get any of the sort of players I usually have an opportunity for. My picks are basically two very strong players, then two weak players (but lovely and consistent) as I had a very high average team mmr. We have quite a few options in terms of how we lane, so I’m expecting we’ll be changing our positions around and seeing what works. The main question will be whether Xela/Dildawg can avoid antagonising each other, but both seem fine so far. Dildawg especially seems to be making a major effort to fit in well which I appreciate. The other matter that I need to figure out is how I can shotcall comfortably if I’m playing a core role, but I think I’ll just need some practice. I may still just whack Nonesk 3 and whip them from my 5.
Darba
My draft went pretty much how I planned, didnt expect to get a 5.5k+ player 2nd round which meant I had a pretty late pick 3rd round. My team is good, the only question is sbx offlane but he seems to become really active now that battlepass is out. I would rank my team in top 5.
Schuffi
I’m pretty happy with how the draft went for me, I wanted to create some sort of PMA team that can still compete and I think I managed to do that. Also hyped to introduce the HANS into RD2L.
Anstar
The draft was unnecessarily chaotic, with so many captains and due to other reasons but was good fun, I got if not my first choice then my second for every pick.
Madsen
I’m very happy with my team. I think it’s a really pleasant group and super well balanced so I’m looking forward to getting to play with them. Coming into the draft it was pretty evident that I wouldn’t be able to grab that big game-winning star player, but having managed to get three players who I had marked down as tier 1 for their respective rounds and one who I didn’t think I’d be able to get in the last round, I think it turned about as well as it could’ve.
Play
I had all my players in my draft list apart from 2 which were “1000 and 600” mmr above my initial picks. I’m positively surprised I got away with this. I think our team has strong sidelanes and I can basically play any hero mid. I’m sure we can go far.
BrainyGonzo
The first round of the draft went pretty much as expected. Everyone who was left you could have predicted. I probably griefed myself by picking Swagmander at his current mmr and then putting myself mid. But aside from that I’m happy with all my other picks, my pos 3 and 4 players are new to me but I like the look of their hero pools and they have both been active in Discord already which is a good sign.
Maslyy
Honestly the draft was pretty unexpected for me, I was planning to draft a stack with Valchers and co because I really wasn’t expecting to get takeshi but I did. Then ended up getting a nice team I’d say. I would say the other teams were pretty good as well.
Wesside
The moment Istarted planning the draft (10 min before draft time) I realized how trash the pool was. This brings joys to me, because there’s nothing more fun than to play with 4k’s. My team considers themselves PMA, which means no one will state what is going wrong. I will be taking a stand in this and show the balance between PMA and leadership. You better watch out Bernard…
Drakesfjord
Uhhh to be honest due to it being short notice and me being occupied with other things at the time I wasn’t able to personally attend the draft, SgtAverage drafted for me but what I can say is that I’m really happy with my team so far, all look like great people and promising players and I’m excited to play. I’ve already heard that midlaners were very scarce and it has been an issue but I’m lucky to have a balanced draft on my side.
Waloo
Draft went pretty well for the most part, I almost got exactly every player I wanted until Reddydas picked Skully right before my turn. I’m sure he was trying to grief me cus I called him bad in inhouses but realistically I ended up with a good team and his team looks awful, I feel bad for Skully cus he’s kinda getting griefed.
Melalez
Managed to draft the first 2 players I wanted, fantastic. Sad that Blackjack didn’t get grief picked by one of the 3k or 4k captains. Sad that Denden didn’t get griefed picked. Devastated. Got people I wanted to play with other than Zoren because I’ve never played with him before so was the only risky pick I made but I needed a solid pos 1/2 player and he was the best available. Raffie and Ergo already play KotH with me so I’m happy with our chances to perform well this season.
Kalisdar
I had planned for this draft to draft some players I knew somewhat to have season with a bit more fun but alas I ended up with 3 people I’ve never played with and FAllS as the only one I’ve played with. I don’t know how it will go but I have hope we can do well and so far my team seems to consist of some nice people.
Laavi
I fell asleep 30 minutes before the draft without giving anyone a list of my draft plan and I woke up to some people complaining about name changes and shit, also wtf 2 Chris’? Whoever drafted for me managed to get 1 player right, Maus, but my team would have looked a lot different if I was awake since I was planning to play position 1. I also realised that I could have gotten all the players i wanted for my team but I got no one but myself to blame. Still if my team consists of 4 human beings we will be able to work something out of this season. Overall i rate this draft 11/10, best 3 hour nap of my life.
Kimer
Hello, I offered a goat to Odin for draft order to put me before Moyo, but alas, his power was not enough to make Sbx click the shuffle button enough times. Boelens was my reserve plan if Neon got snagged that would also put me in a good place for 2nd pick and snag one of the dodged high MMR players. First time ever on a team with Boelens after us both playing about 12 seasons, so uh. About time I guess. Olav — hey free 6k player that I know is a god, whats not to love. Played previously together and in Team Sweden (shoutout to haraway for taking it upon himself to organize next Nations Cup). DmWp — remember my previous statement of whats not to love about a free 6k player? Yeah, draft order. I really wanted one of the value 4k Mids in this round (Valchers/Luke/GrimR), but they all got snagged shortly before. DmWp is another player ive played with before and we had fun together, I also think he has the potential to play WAY above his low 4k mmr. Gecko, highest MMR left in the pool and didnt have a 1 in the role i intended for him — also an associate of Mewes, has already embraced the FACT that Mewes is danish so thats a fucking A+ in my book.
Moyo
I am super chuffed with the draft, I got the players I wanted and more. Was prepping for Neon first pick and that set up my draft extremely nicely for the rest of the draft. I was surprised that Blackbriair got through and then I managed to round out a core trio with Viper. Lucky is ready to play and keen so his young supple mind will be moulded. With the right leadership this team is looking set to do wonderous things.
Haraway
My planned picks consistently got picked 1–2 captains before it was my turn. Unfortunate, but managed to scramble some backup picks that I had already done research on. If I manage to get a decent FA, I think my team looks pretty strong in an otherwise very weak season (with so many teams having players on off-roles, or having 3k cores).
Surprises
Severe: “I didn’t realize I could pick Barg, but he said he didn’t want to play with me anyway so bullet dodged?”
Thronplunder: “Kimer stealing fucking Boelens.”
Stl: “Not really — I think most teams and picks at least make some sort of sense.”
Crispy Bacon: “Yeah, Wess getting to pick before me…also when we got into Discord my first and last pick instantly being like ‘yooo man! What’s up long time no see’!”
Reddydas: “Sbx cmon man.”
Joll: “Sbx representing my country ‘well’ by turning into a nazi admin over some bullshit.”
exZ: “Dildawg getting picked mid 2nd phase.”
Holy Harry: “Honestly I think the player picks were mostly reasonable. Obviously Severe went for a theme with his team, but a stack like that is hardly out of the ordinary in RD2L. The surprise was how insane sbx came across I suppose.”
Darba: “Well not for players I picked, but there’s teams which have like 4 pos 4 players and people picking high MMR players to force them off to a position which they don’t wanna play, idk if they can get it work.”
Schuffi: “Matotimo and SwagMander first round is obviously a level of self grief I did not expect.”
Anstar: “There were a lot of bizarre early low mmr picks from various captains that confused me a lot and let me get the players I wanted.”
Madsen: “The obvious mention was the Sbx situation. I thought that it was pretty disrespectful to the other admins who were asking to just give the player out, thankfully captains were on the same page. Draft wise, I expected Crispy Bacon to end up with something significantly worse after picking after Wes, and on an overall note, I was surprised by the number of captains who opted to prioritize non-core roles even knowing what the pool was like.”
BrainyGonzo: “The only thing that really surprised me during the draft was how late Dildawg was picked. I knew he wasn’t a priority for a lot of players but thought he would be end of first round not mid second round.”
Maslyy: “Takeshi not being picked before getting to me was a suprise.”
Wesside: “Mostly surprised how we let it happen that Sgt. Average got Barg and BarTyg! insanneee in the membraiinnn”
Waloo: “Real Roo getting left unpicked until my turn, I really thought someone else was gonna snatch him.”
Melalez: “Holy Harry seemed to pick some unholy players which is something I don’t think he usually does. Nobody picking up barg until late was also weird although I think people know he’s a lil bitch so fair enough.”
Kalisdar: “Sbx anger was pretty surprising, please anger management. It went as I expected to be honest, people picked my first choices, even Den’den (who wasn’t a first choice but still I’d like to play another season with him) just got snatched pretty early.”
Laavi: “Bench first round over valchers too lmao, even dildwag mid first pick is 10 times better.”
Kimer: “Unlike some other captains I’m not gonna mention the Bar(ty)G situation. Instead the biggest surprise for me was looking at Crispy Bacons MMR and seeing 6250 matchmaking points. Like what the fuck.”
Moyo: “Yeah, as previously mentioned Blackbriar getting through to second round was really surprising for me.”
Haraway: “Power tripping admins.”
Best & Worst Team
As the final question of the interview, I asked all of the captains which team they considered the best, and which they considered the worst. These are the results.
Best Team:
Waloo (9 votes)
With over a third votes and 1st place in both published power rankings, Waloo’s team is the definitive favorite to win the season.
Worst Team:
Reddydas (8 votes)
Reddydas’ team has been chosen as the runt of the litter, garnering a vote as the worst team from a third of the captains.
Other fun stats:
- 3 teams were nominated for both best and worst: Thronplunder, Holy Harry and Stl. Holy Harry’s team is the only team to be nominated multiple times as both the Best and Worst team, with 2 captains nominating them as the best and 2 as the worst. Thronplunder and Stl got 1 vote for both best and worst.
- A total of 9 teams were nominated as the best, while a total of 10 teams were nominated as the worst.
- A total of 8 teams went without a single nomination for either best or worst: BrainyGonzo, Kimer, Kalisdar, Madsen, Play, Wesside, Crispy Bacon and Severe; this means a total of 16 teams were nominated as either the worst or best.
- Only 3 teams got more than 3 nominations in a single category — the “winners” of the poll, Waloo and Reddydas, and the “Best Team” runner-up, Anstar, whose team got 3 votes for best.
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