GRADED: S20 Draft roundup

[Dompatterson]

*Disclaimer* The opinions and grades in this article are 100% fictional and made up on the spot! Please don't blacklist me...

Welcome to the (unofficial) draft roundup for the S20 class. We delve into team selections and look at the needs filled by the various teams, giving a draft grade for each team. This draft was almost unprecedented, with the variety of both users and players on show in what was the biggest ever draft, culminating in some very happy academy players raring to show their worth in the Minor (and some cases Major) leagues.  

        DRAFT GRADE: D+

After a disappointing season in the Majors and Minors, Buenos Aires and Athenai concentrated their picks on upgrading in defence, securing CB Don Lorenzo, possibly my favourite render in Tyranno Criminal, roaring into the Minor league's right back position, and solid goalkeeper Satoshi. This was much needed with Athenai only just scraping the basement battle by not being as bad as Tokyo who were awful, with Athenai conceding almost twice as many goals as they scored. 
Buenos Aires fared a bit better in the majors finishing 4th, with 7 wins and only 4 points off the top, however a pretty average goals scored and conceded ratio of almost 1:1 ended up costing them.
In the end a few solid picks to improve but lacking the real fire power to improve either Majors or Minors team sufficiently to title challenge next season. Only 4 new players with value picks available and passed up on in the later rounds leads to a disappointing draft for them.

9th - Don Lorenzo
(Traded 21st to Dragons - BigMac Johnson)
33rd - Tyranno Criminal
45th - Askito Satoshi
57th - Giacomo Santori

    DRAFT GRADE: B -

Catalunya and Seoul had an underwhelming season and this seemed to be reflected in the draft. A mix of solid picks and wildcards should lead to an improvement next season, with some excellent value if the manager can keep the ego's in check in the dressing room. Rumour has it the dressing room doors have been widened to fit in a few of the player's heads!
In the majors Catalunya finished 7th, winning only 5 games and conceding 38. Seoul had a mixed bag winning and losing exactly half their games, scoring 25 and conceding 33. 
The draft picks were used securing the spine of the team with GK, CM, ST and CAM being a priority for this team, and the value of "Bad Boy" Badrick and "Zlat Attack" Gibra could prove excellent value, along with a solid core of Barr, Lasso and Asprey, and we will be watching Seoul with interest next season. 

4th Daibhi Barr
(Traded 16th to Hollywood - Juozas Kupinas)
18th Bread Lasso
(Traded 28th Marean Dohbra)
40th James Asprey
Pass
64th Badrick Blackwood V
76th Zlatan Gibrahimovic

 DRAFT GRADE: C+

Hollywood had a pretty bang average Majors campaign, but Kaapstad were a lot more involved in the title race, eventually finishing 2nd and being one of the Minor league's most free scoring teams. Midfield was on the menu with RAM, LAM, RM being strengthened for a push next season towards the minor league Championship. 41 goals and 22 conceded is usually enough to win the title, however they came up against an even stronger Montreal side. 
We've all heard the saying "Attack wins games, defences win titles." Kaapstad have went against the mould with their picks, and opted for the Keegan philosophy of "We'll score 1 more than you." and they would love it, just love it if this powers them to the championship.

5th - Louis Ashworth
16th from Catalunya - Juozas Kupinas
17th - Andres De Giron
28th from Catalunya - Marean Dohbra
(Traded 29th to Sao Paulo Ashito Aoi)
(Traded 41st to Tokyo Tank Denstro)
(Traded 53rd to Tokyo Sergej Nadj)

 DRAFT GRADE: B

An impressive season ending in being crowned Major Champions left Reykjavik entering the draft not needing many reinforcements. A 3rd place finish in the minors led to many of their higher picks being traded away, with only a few key players being introduced to the already solid dressing room. After 48 goals scored it was clear that the minor league team needed to address the 31 conceded and every pick was used to sure up the leaky defence. A title charge is again on the cards over the next couple of seasons, and the team from Iceland will be hoping to complete the clean sweep in the Majors and Minors.


(Traded 12th to Dragons - Tony Delvecchio)
20th from Dragons - Denis Mobek
(Traded 28th to Tenochtitlan - Draz Tathille)
26th from Reykjavik - Chris Warrick
36th - Rokuv Gibraltar
38th from Reykjavik - Santiago Mitidiero
(Traded 48th to Tokyo - Beckett Sinclair)

   DRAFT GRADE: B -

I think the word "shitshow" can often be thrown about willy nilly these days, but to sum up last season for both teams it is the first one that comes to mind. A combined 3 wins between the two teams, and 83 goals conceded reminded me of being back in the Jakarta early days where the sky seemed that little bit greyer, and the days leading up to matches that little bit longer. Both teams will be praying to whatever Godly entity may care to listen, but this draft is more of a rebuilding job in the dressing room, rather than any real hope. Plenty of really solid Academy players, starting with 3rd pick speedster Kim Minjeong would suggest a tactic of 11 men behind the ball and pumping it up long to try and make use of the 20/20 pace, however this draft seems to be more bringing the right characters to turn around a disgruntled dressing room.

3rd - Kim Minjeong
15th - Pablo Kawasaki
27th - Ryan Van Eyndhoven
(Traded 39th to Tenochtitlan - Cesare Pinkman)
42nd from Tokyo - Stefan Davidovic
51st - Pizzly Bear
55th from Romana - Ben Kaufmann
63rd - Arthur Cain

 DRAFT GRADE: D

A solid but underwhelming season culminated in a 3rd and 4th place finish in the Majors and Minors respectively, with similar records of 7 wins to 4 losses, and 6 wins with 4 losses led to plenty of Spiderman pointing at Spiderman memes being thrown about in the group chat. Only 16 goals conceded in the top division was impressive, however more firepower is needed to shoot their way to a title charge. Similar goals record of +10 in the minors meant that Strikers were the order of the day in the draft. However picks were leaning towards gthe more defensive side, and shouts of "1-0 to the Uniao San Paulo" from the stands carrying on, being about as imaginative as Arsene Wenger banning ketchup in the canteen. Fans will be wondering why players like Gibrahimovic were passed over in the later rounds, with budgets apparently being tighter than the Tyne bridge at rush hour.

6th from Tokyo Jakob Fensterhausen
(Traded 10th to Tokyo Ronflex)
22nd Dunkler Sowerwine
29th from Hollywood Ashito Aoi
(Traded 34th to Tokyo Xavius Kenderlin)

 DRAFT GRADE: A -

The Schwarzwalder "Nicht Aufzuhaltende Maschine" had an unbelievable season which led to them being 1 point of securing a double SSL Championship. Goals, goals and more goals were the order of the draft, with the highly impressive Cade, Predrag and Takeda hoping to Power the German outfit to doing the double next year. Power had a very different fortune to strike partner Gibra, going 11th in the draft and the Jakarta Slayer Dobric (not that I'm bitter at all) proving a steal at 23rd, after being predicted to go 1st round at one point. Some highly efficient drafting can only leave those teams behind them feeling extremely jealous at the well run management of this team.

11th - Cade Power
23rd - Predrag Dobric
35th - Takeda Takahashi
37th from Dragons - Matias Xavier
(Traded 47th to Dragons - Jared Scott)

 DRAFT GRADE: A -

Welcome to the fun zone! This season's startup had more chats than a season of Love Island, and more drama than an episode of Coronation Street (with slightly more comings and goings too). What some may have seen as a curse, this manager turned into a week of wheeling and dealing, ending up with 1st pick overall in the draft, and a healthy hydration for his team (cheers Voda... remember 2 litres a day keeps the doctors away)
Drafting a full Minors team in the process, while they may initially struggle, the dressing room will build and could even have a "Class of 92" feel to it in a couple of seasons time. It will certainly be interesting to see how this team evolves.

1st - Marcel Voda
8th - Trick Johnson
12th from Reykjavik - Tony Delvecchio
13th - Damian DeSoto
(Traded 20th to Reykjavik - Denis Mobek)
21st from Buenos Aires - BigMac Johnson
25th - Sam Albinson
32nd - Thomas Jimotheus
(Traded 37th to Schwarzwalder - Matias Xavier)
44th - Diego Budo
47th from Schwarzwalder - Jared Scott
49th - Stig Stampe
56th - Goomy Von Berg

 DRAFT GRADE: A+

The second of the newbies, and a cultural melting pot of Azteca and Asian fusion. Coca Cola's are on us with the drafting of tricky trio Tut, Elliott and Big Dom, with Foster's dancing younger brother Billy a later addition. Other fantastic academy players rounded off a brilliant draft, with more trades than Del Boy being driven around by Harry Redknapp, and coincidentally he was seen outside their training ground sticking his head out the window shouting "T'rrific stuff Jota". Again its going to be a hard start for the new team, but if the Jakarta boys know anything its how to rebuild in the face of disappointment and adversity. One thing is for sure is that this team will have stickers coming out it's arse with the Panini crew doing their best to pay their way on Krung Thep.

2nd - Tonto Tut
7th - Andre Caetano
14th - Jonny Foster
19th - Dom Patterson
24th from Reykjavik - Draz Tathille
(Traded 26th to Reykjavik - Chris Warrick)
30th from Tokyo - Bobby Green
31st - Roger Roger
(Traded 38th to Reykjavik - Santiago Mitidiero)
39th from Romana - Cesare Pinkman
43rd - Billy Elliott
(Traded 50th to Tokyo - Alexis Ramos)
(Traded 55th to Romana - Ben Kaufmann)
62nd - Esa Nahka

 DRAFT GRADE: C -

Tokyo and Cairo had mixed fortunes, with the former fairing pretty well, winning 7 and only ending up 4 points off the top in the majors. Cairo however had one of the worst seasons in the history of the SSL, winning only 2, losing 10 and conceding a ridiculous 47 goals. Moses may have well have been parting the Red Sea in the middle of their defence, and Cairo went deeeeeeep into the draft to try and fix that. Cult heroes Ronflex, Kenderlin Tank and TERMINUS will look to change the fortunes of the bottom club, with possibly some of the best names selected, however, going into the 9th round when most teams had finished their business by the 5th says more "panic" than "planning", but Cairo will hope they can strike lucky. Xavius is the stand out value with 15 goals in the minors, and the top scorer going at the end of the 3rd round potentially allowing the club to walk like Egyptians again soon.

10th from Sao Paulo - Ronflex
(Traded 18th to Catalunya - Bread Lasso)
(Traded 30th to Tenochtitlan - Bobby Green)
34th from Sao Paulo - Xavius Kenderlin
41st from Hollywood - Tank Denstro
(Traded 42nd to Romana - Stefan Davidovic)
48th from Reykjavik - Beckett Sinclair
50th from Tenochtitlan - Alexis Ramos
53rd from Reykjavik - Sergej Nadj
54th - TERMINUS ULTIMUS
66th - Carlos Narvaez Jr.
78th - Norberts Slakteris
90th - Miguel Cosme
102nd - Karl Haase


So here we have it, the draft is over, war lines are starting to be drawn, and if I have offended anyone by my purely fictional draft grades then put it down to me buzzing at being picked at number 19 in the first place.

Big Dom *mic drop*

[DivogoJota]

Dang, I’m good at my job. 


Vamos Aztecas!

[norththegreatestshowman]

based

[Daleks]

Great article! However, I feel there is some bias in the author putting their team as having the best draft :)

In the end, time will tell with MD1 (and some friendlies!) being all about the S20 team derby.

[omniscius]

These are some interesting grades. Btw, Pablo Kawasaki and Andres De Giron were both traded to Catalunya on draft day.

[Dompatterson]

based

Oh there’s definitely some bias (that’s why it’s unofficial), and it certainly wasn’t meant as propaganda to hype up Tentochtitlan and Krung Thep ? maybe get in the heads of a few rivals ?

[CROney3]

I love it! Well, I should say that I hate it because my club was given a poor grade, but the best part about mock drafts and draft reviews is that it's always a crapshoot! They're fun because you can't mirror the real world here, where people can switch positions and make crazy demands, so those internal discussions are paramount as to how players are viewed. Obviously I'm a bit biased as I thought we did an amazing job but I can definitely see from the outside where it might not have looked great on paper. That's what I love about it, there's so many intertwining thoughts and ideas and plans that you never really know who "won" or who "lost" a draft until much much later.

At USP, we feel we did a great job moving around in the draft, as the first 2 users we got were very familiar to the war room via the ISFL. Then our 3rd pick was someone that was super active in our locker room before the draft, so we get to see more activity than other teams to see about the fit of the user. You did an amazing job breaking down each teams draft and so thank you for the great media!

[Dompatterson]

I love it! Well, I should say that I hate it because my club was given a poor grade, but the best part about mock drafts and draft reviews is that it's always a crapshoot! They're fun because you can't mirror the real world here, where people can switch positions and make crazy demands, so those internal discussions are paramount as to how players are viewed. Obviously I'm a bit biased as I thought we did an amazing job but I can definitely see from the outside where it might not have looked great on paper. That's what I love about it, there's so many intertwining thoughts and ideas and plans that you never really know who "won" or who "lost" a draft until much much later.

At USP, we feel we did a great job moving around in the draft, as the first 2 users we got were very familiar to the war room via the ISFL. Then our 3rd pick was someone that was super active in our locker room before the draft, so we get to see more activity than other teams to see about the fit of the user. You did an amazing job breaking down each teams draft and so thank you for the great media!

To be perfectly honest the research was a very brief overview of how each club did last season, and the positions of each player drafted. It would have taken weeks and weeks to delve into the users behind the players (which would have been the biggest factor in drafting them), I didn't even look at the trades that took place, and I know that loads of players have already rerolled to different positions. I'd take the draft grades with a tub (not even a pinch) of salt haha. I did have a great time writing it, and it is definitely biased because I was buzzing I got picked with my mates! But the grades are a stab in the dark, and don't really reflect how the draft actually went. Building a locker room is so much bigger than who drafted a rookie striker (also I'm English so we don't actually have drafts over here)! I just didn't expect hundreds to read it to be honest

[Vishy]

While Pointment doesn't follow the league or know anything about any of these players, he knows that he's going to want to go to a team that needs ST. Seeing as ST is a position that is heavily sought after, he doesn't mind WHERE in the draft he goes as long as he fits a positional need. Seeing these ratings, it seems that most teams didn't fit the rater's criteria. I'm hoping that Pointment goes hard in the Academy games where whoever chooses him automatically makes their draft grade in S21 an A+. Pointment is hoping that they do get that #1 pick, regardless of positional need, however. He wants to be that player who NO ONE KNOWS that comes out of nowhere, and takes the league by storm. He wants to secure that #1 pick and play like a #1 pick. Pointment sees that his S21 class is already going to blow the S20 class out of the water, so he's looking forward the author's S21 Draft Roundup where the grades will automatically be higher. Pointment and this S21 draft class is taking these draft scores into mind, and whatever the author decides to do, they'll take it personally.

[Hero19]

I suppose in a way I'm grateful that I've been drafted into one of the newer teams. Been a big fan of the rags to richest storylines since day 1 and whilst I predict a rough start to the season, I can see future seasons looking bright for us dragons. Additionally being part of the first class for the newer teams gives me the extra panache of being the start of a new legacy which I'm proud to be a part of; and hopefully can meaningfully contribute to.

But enough about me, this is some good work mate. While I have to agree with the sentiment that there is clear bias in you receiving the best draft; you've clearly missed the exception Voda at number 1 and myself at the preposterous 32 spot ;). I think this is a great article that overall covers the draft efficiently. Time will tell naturally how the players coming through the draft will impact the league but I think nonetheless it's going to be an interesting season, and a busy one at that with such a populace class. 

It's definitely making it harder to complete predictions with so many new faces influencing it.

Tl;dr - Good job mate.