"Gold" Drafting: A Potential Solution to the Lottery Tournament Removal

[jacobcarson877 2,432]

I only just realized after writing the title that this idea is pretty much just the lottery tournament, but during the season, eliminating the hassle from the sim team, and actually having meaning beyond minuscule odds changes.

I could’ve sworn I wrote about this before, but with the lottery tournament being killed and static odds being put in place I thought it would be a fun time to talk about my favourite draft odds method. First created in 2012, and then more accessibly summarized in 2020, let’s talk about the Gold Drafting method.

 

It has a few goals that guide its design. Those being:

 

• Every game for every team in every season has meaning and excitement.

• Particularly exciting at the end of the season.

• End to tanking.

• End to the lottery.

 

Instead of rewarding the team that tanks the hardest with the best picks, reward teams for winning even after being eliminated by giving the best picks to the teams with the most points after being eliminated. The worst teams will have the most time to accrue these “Gold” points, even if they do so at a worse rate. The best worst teams will have the least amount of time to accrue points, but will be frantically trying to win even after disappointing playoff elimination.

 

A particularly interesting tweak to the original idea is that teams can declare themselves eliminated starting at a certain point in the season (I would suggest the trade deadline), where regardless of their standing points at the end of the season, they can not make the playoffs, and begin accruing “Gold” points immediately. Of course one would have to cap the number of teams that can be eliminated, so that the playoff structure still exists, but it allows teams who went on a weird early run but don’t have the talent to win, or would not gain from an early playoff exit to tap out, and increase their pick odds.

I think this works nicely in a sim league format, allowing GM’s more control over their destiny, and making even the worst teams have a reason to compete every day. Every sim is exciting right up until the very end, and underdog teams can ride miraculous runs to a great pick, an exciting prospect for those on the team long term.

Another important note is that picks accrue Gold Points based on the original owner, not the current holder. Therefore there is no incentive to screw with the results, assuming the original owner makes the playoffs, and if they don’t they are no more likely to want to lose than they would under a traditional lottery system.

Oh and here’s the link to the post that I’m referencing: https://hockeyviz.com/txt/gold

Curious what others think, the article is a pretty short read and pretty clear, so I’m curious how people would feel about it.