2026-08-13, 07:35 PM - Word count:
Its Thursday night and tensions are rising high as draft day approaches quickly. All of the prospects who attempted to make names for themselves in the Academy are anxiously awaiting the Draft Live Stream which will air this Sunday. I know I am eager to finally join a team's locker room and truly get my player's career under way. While the Academy was fun, I feel very ready to graduate from it and move into the Minors to get to meet my new team and start playing meaningful league games.
Going into the draft, I have read a few Mock Draft articles which I have mostly disagreed with. Quite a few have been using sim stats as a metric to grade where players will be drafted, and I feel like this is probably not the logic that GMs will use when selecting their next crop of players, at least I wouldn't pay attention to it if I were a GM. I feel like Academy stats will have little to no bearing on how well a player will do, as we are so early into our careers and it is a marathon and not a sprint. While the sim is important, the SSL is more community-oriented and finding the best fit for a team personality and activity-wise would be much more important to me as a GM and I think it would be strange if the actual General Managers did not view drafting in this way. Thats why when reading these Mock Draft articles, I feel like my player Bonnibel Bubblegum has been pushed up boards a bit too far. Undoubtably Bonnie had a great season in the Academy, being second in goals and picking up 2 assists on the way. She looked like one of the most dangerous attackers out there. But attackers are not exactly a coveted position, so I expect that to be one reason I will be selected later than others are anticipating. Sure, the goals are great, but attackers are abundant in the league and it is unlikely that a team will be clamoring to draft a striker high in the draft when that position is truly a dime a dozen. Another reason I do not think I will go as high as others expect has been my activity. To be fair to myself, I have updated every week and have completed all Academy Tasks and Weekly Predictions, but I have also missed many weekly PTs, resulting in myself only being ranked 20th in the class in TPE. TPE is what makes a player good, not stats in the Academy, so I would be shocked to see myself taken above other attackers like Tex Star, Karry Hane, Daan Wouters, and Scott Newman. Another reason why I don't think I will be a top pick is because while I do chat in the Discord and am not a ghost by any means, I am a relatively busy guy and I'm not exactly a chatterbox in the Discord. I think I have been kind and positive in all my messages, but teams will likely be looking for players who will be staples of their culture in the early rounds and I do not think I've exactly come off as that guy. I'm happy with how I carried myself and I don't wish to pretend to be somebody I'm not, so I'm totally okay with this being the case. I'm also a new and unknown face to the sim league community, and I think it makes a lot of sense for GMs to draft users who are veterans and proven successes in this sim leagues or others. Why would a team draft me when a player like Captain Metalbeard is on the board backed by a user who seems to have a long history in other leagues with connections to many.
I have been talking down on myself a lot in this article, but it's not meant to be in a "woe is me" type of way. I'm perfectly happy with how I've been interacting with this league. It sucks to miss some weekly TPE, but I'm taking this at my own pace. I think that as long as I am updating every week and remaining a positive presence in the Discord, even if I'm on the quieter side, I can make a nice home for myself somewhere and be a useful piece to a team. I'm also not bent out of shape about being drafted behind other attackers and being drafted on the later side. Draft position is just a number and it's up to me to shape my own legacy completely independent from that number. I'm sure there have been number one overall picks who have flamed out and last round players who have become staples of their organizations. I think being one of the latter is a great story and something to strive for. If I'm drafted later, that just means expectations for me will be lower and when I do become a useful player, it will be a pleasant surprise and an advantage to whoever drafts me. Much like real sports, I'm sure as you get later into the draft, it becomes less and less likely to pick up a player who actually makes an impact. If I manage to become a useful player as a 3rd round pick, that will be a pick that extracts much more value for my team than other teams were able to with their own third rounder. I enjoy the thought of that. Overall, while I could have been more intentional about writing an article every week, doing my career PT right away, and making sure I'm able to buy max equipment, I feel content in my performance as a user. I don't need to be the top pick and a complete worldbeater to have fun. As long as I can find a fun organization to call home and feel like I am contributing, I'll have a good time. This league has been a lot of fun, and I like how you can interact with it at your own pace and carve your own way. I look forward to seeing what team I get drafted to and meeting all of my new teammates. Here's to the future.
Going into the draft, I have read a few Mock Draft articles which I have mostly disagreed with. Quite a few have been using sim stats as a metric to grade where players will be drafted, and I feel like this is probably not the logic that GMs will use when selecting their next crop of players, at least I wouldn't pay attention to it if I were a GM. I feel like Academy stats will have little to no bearing on how well a player will do, as we are so early into our careers and it is a marathon and not a sprint. While the sim is important, the SSL is more community-oriented and finding the best fit for a team personality and activity-wise would be much more important to me as a GM and I think it would be strange if the actual General Managers did not view drafting in this way. Thats why when reading these Mock Draft articles, I feel like my player Bonnibel Bubblegum has been pushed up boards a bit too far. Undoubtably Bonnie had a great season in the Academy, being second in goals and picking up 2 assists on the way. She looked like one of the most dangerous attackers out there. But attackers are not exactly a coveted position, so I expect that to be one reason I will be selected later than others are anticipating. Sure, the goals are great, but attackers are abundant in the league and it is unlikely that a team will be clamoring to draft a striker high in the draft when that position is truly a dime a dozen. Another reason I do not think I will go as high as others expect has been my activity. To be fair to myself, I have updated every week and have completed all Academy Tasks and Weekly Predictions, but I have also missed many weekly PTs, resulting in myself only being ranked 20th in the class in TPE. TPE is what makes a player good, not stats in the Academy, so I would be shocked to see myself taken above other attackers like Tex Star, Karry Hane, Daan Wouters, and Scott Newman. Another reason why I don't think I will be a top pick is because while I do chat in the Discord and am not a ghost by any means, I am a relatively busy guy and I'm not exactly a chatterbox in the Discord. I think I have been kind and positive in all my messages, but teams will likely be looking for players who will be staples of their culture in the early rounds and I do not think I've exactly come off as that guy. I'm happy with how I carried myself and I don't wish to pretend to be somebody I'm not, so I'm totally okay with this being the case. I'm also a new and unknown face to the sim league community, and I think it makes a lot of sense for GMs to draft users who are veterans and proven successes in this sim leagues or others. Why would a team draft me when a player like Captain Metalbeard is on the board backed by a user who seems to have a long history in other leagues with connections to many.
I have been talking down on myself a lot in this article, but it's not meant to be in a "woe is me" type of way. I'm perfectly happy with how I've been interacting with this league. It sucks to miss some weekly TPE, but I'm taking this at my own pace. I think that as long as I am updating every week and remaining a positive presence in the Discord, even if I'm on the quieter side, I can make a nice home for myself somewhere and be a useful piece to a team. I'm also not bent out of shape about being drafted behind other attackers and being drafted on the later side. Draft position is just a number and it's up to me to shape my own legacy completely independent from that number. I'm sure there have been number one overall picks who have flamed out and last round players who have become staples of their organizations. I think being one of the latter is a great story and something to strive for. If I'm drafted later, that just means expectations for me will be lower and when I do become a useful player, it will be a pleasant surprise and an advantage to whoever drafts me. Much like real sports, I'm sure as you get later into the draft, it becomes less and less likely to pick up a player who actually makes an impact. If I manage to become a useful player as a 3rd round pick, that will be a pick that extracts much more value for my team than other teams were able to with their own third rounder. I enjoy the thought of that. Overall, while I could have been more intentional about writing an article every week, doing my career PT right away, and making sure I'm able to buy max equipment, I feel content in my performance as a user. I don't need to be the top pick and a complete worldbeater to have fun. As long as I can find a fun organization to call home and feel like I am contributing, I'll have a good time. This league has been a lot of fun, and I like how you can interact with it at your own pace and carve your own way. I look forward to seeing what team I get drafted to and meeting all of my new teammates. Here's to the future.
![[Image: F8SELs4.png]](https://imgur.com/F8SELs4.png)
