Eaglesfan's Simple Solution to Fix VHLM Lack of Parity

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

Randomized Redraft of All Players Each Season - Snake Draft

 

Recently in the VHLM Commissioner application page, I discussed two areas that I believe are currently major painpoints for the VHLM at the moment - VHLM Parity and lack of posting on game threads. The game thread posting solution is quite simple, just re-institute the rule I formerly put in place of requiring 2 game thread posts per week in order to use practice facility. With the portal this should be really easy now, and is not worthy of an entire article. 

 

My initial thought on how to make the VHLM more competitive was to implement restrictions on draft pick trading. In the past, we have capped teams to only have x number of 1st or 2nd round picks in a draft, and I am not sure if this policy is still in place. Even with that rule, it was still too easy for teams to go through the cycle of tanking or fully going for it, with not much in between. The more extreme measure would be to completely limit any draft pick trading, but that also creates a variety of problems. While many VHLM GMs are great at helping develop new members, they understandably want to enjoy the manager part of the trade in trades, drafting, etc. If we eliminate all trading of draft picks that takes away from that aspect. Additionally, it would make it very difficult for rosters to be flexible in accommodating other players, say if one team needs a defensemen and another team needs a forward. Lastly, I am just not a fan of implementing such strict rules like this in general.

 

The easiest solution to solve the parity problem in the VHLM is to hold a re-draft every single season where every player in the VHLM gets re-drafted. The draft order would be randomized and in the form of a snake draft to keep competitive balance from the draft as fair as possible. Teams would not be allowed to trade future draft picks ever, but trading up or down in the snake draft would be allowed. The benefits of this method are as follows:

 

• There would be 0 incentive for teams to tank, as they hold no pieces going into next season. Every team would be trying their best to win
• GMs would still maintain full flexibility in building their teams how they see fit
• Competition between teams every season would be extremely high, as everyone should have close to an equally balanced amount of assets
• With players equally spread out from the draft, there will be more competition for waiver players as there won't be full teams right off the bat from the draft and then other teams are empty. More competition for waivers makes members feel more wanted if many teams are calling for them

 

As for the negatives to this approach, I can only think of two. Let me know if you can think of any more negatives or positives:

 

• Players would not build loyalty / remain with the same team more than one season. I don't think this is a huge problem though, as most players don't spend more than two seasons in the VHLM anyway
• It would be more work for the commishes and the portal to re-draft players to a new team every season. It seems like it would be reasonably manageable though.

 

Please let me know your thoughts VHL. This seems like an extremely simple solution with minimal downside, unless there is something I am missing here. I hope this great big beautiful idea gets the attention it deserves. 

 

Edited October 4, 2020 by chatfan036

[Banackock 7,634]

Very few posts on VHL game threads too. Need new members to replace the olds one.

 

Agreed in the comments though. Being back an incentive to comment. 1 TPE/week uncapped. Don’t be cheap. 

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

1 minute ago, Banackock said:

Very few posts on VHL game threads too. Need new members to replace the olds one.

 

Agreed in the comments though. Being back an incentive to comment. 1 TPE/week uncapped. Don’t be cheap. 

Same rule could be implemented for VHL practice facility too yea. It's lame no one ever comments on game threads in either league

[Spartan 3,994]

1 minute ago, Banackock said:

Very few posts on VHL game threads too. Need new members to replace the olds one.

 

Agreed in the comments though. Being back an incentive to comment. 1 TPE/week uncapped. Don’t be cheap. 

EFL offers 1 capped TPE for commenting on presentations, could make "game attendances" a thing here as well. 1 TPE for 2-3 relevant sentences about the game - probably follow a similar length to reviews. Adding that could get people out of the trivia rut as well since that's something that I've heard folks grumble about, that most people just siphon answers off of a handful of members. Add Game Attendances and eliminate Trivia, or make it uncapped for seasonal payouts. Few ways to go down that route.

[Banackock 7,634]

2 minutes ago, Spartan said:

EFL offers 1 capped TPE for commenting on presentations, could make "game attendances" a thing here as well. 1 TPE for 2-3 relevant sentences about the game - probably follow a similar length to reviews. Adding that could get people out of the trivia rut as well since that's something that I've heard folks grumble about, that most people just siphon answers off of a handful of members. Add Game Attendances and eliminate Trivia, or make it uncapped for seasonal payouts. Few ways to go down that route.

Used to have them back in the day. I’m not writing 2-3 sentences on a game posting though. 1 sentence max. 

 

DAMN! Good game HSK. Is what you’re getting lol we need more uncapped  

[Spartan 3,994]

Just now, Banackock said:

Used to have them back in the day. I’m not writing 2-3 sentences on a game posting though. 1 sentence max. 

 

DAMN! Good game HSK. Is what you’re getting lol we need more uncapped  

Yeah it was a spitball to try to meet what staff would expect for 1 capped TPE. 2-3 sentences may be a lot, but the "gg, glad we won" comments are minimal effort though. Not sure if that's worth capped TPE, let alone uncapped.

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

1 minute ago, Banackock said:

Used to have them back in the day. I’m not writing 2-3 sentences on a game posting though. 1 sentence max. 

 

DAMN! Good game HSK. Is what you’re getting lol we need more uncapped  

 

Kevin Malone had 9 saves. He is good.

 

There 2 sentences not hard

[Banackock 7,634]

4 minutes ago, chatfan036 said:

 

Kevin Malone had 9 saves. He is good.

 

There 2 sentences not hard

2 sentences aren’t hard. Do you know what is?

 

 

 

3

Edited October 4, 2020 by Banackock

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

@diamond_ace  I would be curious to hear your thoughts on this

[bigAL 2,176]

Holy shit the redraft every year is great. Actives really only spend one season in the minors anyways, and the draft is a great time to dump inactives. Make players "register" themselves for the draft so only the active players sign up to be drafted. Everyone else that becomes active again or joins late gets picked up on waivers.

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

8 minutes ago, bigAL said:

Holy shit the redraft every year is great. Actives really only spend one season in the minors anyways, and the draft is a great time to dump inactives. Make players "register" themselves for the draft so only the active players sign up to be drafted. Everyone else that becomes active again or joins late gets picked up on waivers.

Genius!

[Berocka 2,186]

A couple of statements/questions about your ideas:

 

1. Random draft order can still screw one team there is a chance that they pick 12th 3 seasons in a row and that would suck.

 

2. I think the game thread thing will turn into the lottery again. It will just be people saying GG Well played. Also game threads need to be easier accessed, we made a bot that posts scores in all the discords but there is no way of people getting to the thread easily. Clicking the link opens up the score and you need to go digging to find the forum thread.

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

40 minutes ago, Berocka said:

A couple of statements/questions about your ideas:

 

1. Random draft order can still screw one team there is a chance that they pick 12th 3 seasons in a row and that would suck.

 

2. I think the game thread thing will turn into the lottery again. It will just be people saying GG Well played. Also game threads need to be easier accessed, we made a bot that posts scores in all the discords but there is no way of people getting to the thread easily. Clicking the link opens up the score and you need to go digging to find the forum thread.

 

1) Snake draft negates that point. Teams with 1st pick doesn’t pick until pick 24 then. Team with the 12th pick also picks 13. So i dont think i would even want 1st overall as a gm. 
 

2) Maybe im just a boomer but i hit view new content every day and just check game threads that way. Maybe if we had a system where teams or people could opt in and the portal notifies them when there is a sim

[Berocka 2,186]

4 minutes ago, chatfan036 said:

 

1) Snake draft negates that point. Teams with 1st pick doesn’t pick until pick 24 then. Team with the 12th pick also picks 13. So i dont think i would even want 1st overall as a gm. 
 

2) Maybe im just a boomer but i hit view new content every day and just check game threads that way. Maybe if we had a system where teams or people could opt in and the portal notifies them when there is a sim

Yeah that is a fair point for number 1. I wonder if we did this if we would need a de-expansion.

 

Yeah, as someone who doesn't get on a computer sometimes its easier to check scores on phone on discord and from there is a pain to get to the game.

[Beketov 8,639]

18 minutes ago, chatfan036 said:

2) Maybe im just a boomer but i hit view new content every day and just check game threads that way. Maybe if we had a system where teams or people could opt in and the portal notifies them when there is a sim

Holy shit, someone else that actually uses that!

[Mr_Hatter 1,603]

I don't know if snake draft eliminates that issue, but it does help to alleviate it. 

 

One downside to this is drafting strategy and trading strategy will, in my opinion, be harmed a lot by this change. I think we'd still have teams full tank/full compete, but it would be a lot harsher to the players; a team trying to compete would trade their future picks for win now assets one season, then be left with nothing to build on, at all, the next. Part of the whole strategy of a rebuilding team is picking guys who may stick with you for a season or two, to compete in a future window. This eliminates that strategy, and makes it completely hoard picks or completely dump picks. 

 

As others mentioned,  this would harm player experiences in my opinion by making them lose all sense of team loyalty they maybe had

Edited October 9, 2020 by Mr_Hatter

[Berocka 2,186]

On 10/4/2020 at 2:29 PM, chatfan036 said:

Teams would not be allowed to trade future draft picks ever

 

1 minute ago, Mr_Hatter said:

I don't know if snake draft eliminates that issue, but it does help to alleviate it. 

 

One downside to this is drafting strategy and trading strategy will, in my opinion, be harmed a lot by this change. I think we'd still have teams full tank/full compete, but it would be a lot harsher to the players; a team trying to compete would trade their future picks for win now assets one season, then be left with nothing to build on, at all, the next. Part of the whole strategy of a rebuilding team is picking guys who may stick with you for a season or two, to compete in a future window. This eliminates that strategy, and makes it completely hoard picks or completely dump picks. 

 

As others mentioned,  this would harm player experiences in my opinion by making them lose all sense of team loyalty they maybe had

 

There will be no trading strategy

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

@Mr_Hatter there would be no trading of future draft picks. Teams carry nothing over from one year to the next. So there is 0 incentive to tank. Only trades would be teams trading up or down in the draft with the current years picks, or player for player trades during the regular season

[DangerGolding 222]

Does sound like a good idea, the minor league's primary goal is to retain new members anyway rather than see who's the best GM, and from my experience new members love drafts a lot.

[Gustav 6,091]

13 hours ago, Berocka said:

There will be no trading strategy

 

13 hours ago, chatfan036 said:

@Mr_Hatter there would be no trading of future draft picks. Teams carry nothing over from one year to the next. So there is 0 incentive to tank. Only trades would be teams trading up or down in the draft with the current years picks, or player for player trades during the regular season

 

I could still see a meta emerging from this.

 

Think "I'll give you a lower-TPE player who will stay under cap for you next season for your capped guy this season"

[eaglesfan036 4,583]

51 minutes ago, GustavMattias said:

 

 

I could still see a meta emerging from this.

 

Think "I'll give you a lower-TPE player who will stay under cap for you next season for your capped guy this season"

 

Maybe I am saying this wrong because so many people seem to not understand the idea:

 

Teams keep NOTHING from one season to the next. All of their players who remain in the VHLM get redrafted

[bigAL 2,176]

FANTASY DRAFT EVERY SEASON

[Gustav 6,091]

1 hour ago, chatfan036 said:

Maybe I am saying this wrong because so many people seem to not understand the idea:

 

Teams keep NOTHING from one season to the next. All of their players who remain in the VHLM get redrafted

 

I guess so, I'd still like to see some level of management strategy present.

 

Basically, I feel like VHLM GMs should still be allowed to do what they'd like with their team, but the policies in place at the moment are too loose and allow for a lot of abuse of the system. I kind of see this as a hyper-egalitarian policy where, while it's going to be hard to stack up a team (which is good), it's also kind of pointless as a GM to do much of anything other than be good for retention. The league should be retention-first, while this seems a bit too retention-only. 

 

Of course, if it ideally did turn into "the GMs who are best at retention end up having the best teams," then that would be great. I see the effects of this as fairly marginal, though, and I question whether something like this--which would bore the GMs--would go farther down the ladder and end up boring the players when every team is just about the same.