Weird ASG Bits [Reviewed]

[diamond_ace 3,106]

So it’s been some time since I last paid attention to the All Star Game. It always used to draw my attention because I was a good player and was likely to make it every season, or at least every season after perhaps my first one or two. Now, since I haven’t been as active and by extension that has been reflected in my player, I generally just assumed I wasn’t going to be anywhere near the game and haven’t followed it.

 

What this means, in a practical sense, is that I’m not actually sure if the new system of selecting most of the teams ahead of time and leaving only the last few candidates up for vote is new to just this season, or if it’s been going on for a short while now. I know it’s not an exceedingly old system, I was, of course, much more active not that long ago and it wasn’t a thing then. A quick glance at the League Voting section provides more questions than answers – S46 was the old way, S47 had a draft but doesn’t appear to have had any voting of either type, S48 looks like it had the new system but with also a vote for starters and captains, and S49 is the new system. S49 might also have a vote for starters and captains once the teams are picked.

On the whole, I think I like the new system better. In the old system, a player who clearly deserved a berth might not get selected if a less popular member was behind the player, or if his team wasn’t as active and he didn’t accumulate as many votes from the contingent that always just picks their teammates. This way, with much of the team being determined ahead of time, the obvious choices will get in one way or another. Sure, there will still be those who miss out and might have been better or more deserving than those who get in, but there can be less of a complaint if the tenth best forward misses out than if the sixth best forward misses out. The selection committee’s misses are going to be less egregious than that of the general population.

 

This brings me to my final point: me. I noticed I have been selected to be on the ballot for the final two defensemen spots. Had someone asked me, in a vacuum without knowing what I or anyone else put up statistically for the season, if I deserved a spot, I’d not only have thought no, I’d probably have assumed someone was trolling me and not even dignified it with a response. I mean I’m a 389 TPE player (at least what is applied and actively working for me) and that doesn’t exactly scream success. That said, having looked at the poll and the players on it, with their stats so nicely laid out for judgment, I honestly have to admit I belong on the poll. Not only that, I’m borderline worthy of inclusion. It all depends on what you’re looking at for a vote.

If you’re a points guy, maybe you’d rather Sleeman and Kyanon (and on points, I’m actually fifth of the six on the ballot). Shot blocks are an interesting thing to look at, but it’s been well documented that it’s a flawed stat in the sim, and players on worse teams will perform better by default. The same thing could be said for plus minus, and both of those stats should be viewed as a piece of the larger player and not as individual determinants because of their flaws. However, there’s one area in which I’m not only deserving, but I stand head and shoulders above the rest of the panel. My physical game is ahead of my counterparts by some distance. World B. Free has fewer than 75% of my hits total and he’s the only one with even an argument in that category. This certainly isn’t a plea for votes, and in fact I’ve been selected so many different seasons over the course of my time as a member that if the other candidates were newer players, I’d probably actively campaign against myself (this is not the case, however, as the two candidates with more votes than me are also members that have been on the site for at least a decent amount of time). It’s just interesting that while I always underperformed in the sim when I had a ton of TPE, I’m actually somewhat overperforming now that I’m a role player.

[Baozi 1,638]

I'd pair with you

[diamond_ace 3,106]

Just now, tfong said:

I'd pair with you

You're definitely deserving of getting in. Good points total (and highest proportion of goals out of the candidates). Decent plus minus on a slightly lesser team (still a good team, but one whose recent change in direction obviously puts them on a little different level). Highest shot blocks other than the guy on an actually shit team. The only thing you lack is hits, which is where I come in.

[Baozi 1,638]

8 minutes ago, diamond_ace said:

You're definitely deserving of getting in. Good points total (and highest proportion of goals out of the candidates). Decent plus minus on a slightly lesser team (still a good team, but one whose recent change in direction obviously puts them on a little different level). Highest shot blocks other than the guy on an actually shit team. The only thing you lack is hits, which is where I come in.

 

Sounds like a Lidstrom and Kronwall defense!

[Evans 305]

Review: I like the new way the all-star game is going too. Anytime you leave it up to nothing but votes, popularity usually wins out. Having the guys that deserve to get in make it every time is a relief. Now I know my player wont miss a season when he deserves it lol. Nice article and good luck!

[Will 4,616]

On 6/15/2016 at 4:38 PM, diamond_ace said:

A quick glance at the League Voting section provides more questions than answers – S46 was the old way, S47 had a draft but doesn’t appear to have had any voting of either type, S48 looks like it had the new system but with also a vote for starters and captains, and S49 is the new system. S49 might also have a vote for starters and captains once the teams are picked.

 

We're still kind of doing some fine-tuning to the new system and that's why you see it changing over the past few seasons.

 

 It was originally conceived in S47 but by the time we settled on this new format we didn't really have time to include all of the elements that we wanted to (like the captain vote) so instead of pushing it back a season and using the old system for S47, we decided to just do a trial run of the new voting/draft system with Phil and Sterling as our arbitrarily selected captains. S48 was the full introduction of everything we originally wanted to include in 'All-Star Week' with the captain vote and last players vote. In S48 the captain vote was based on the captains and assistants from VHL teams. For S49, we changed this to allow anyone to put their name on the vote for team captains. I think we'll probably keep this format for selecting captains going forward as it was a great turnout. 

 

But yeah, overall our goal is to make the All-Star game a point in the season that people look forward to rather than just cramming it in somewhere during off-season.