GSL 2016 Season 1 - Writers' Draft


The first season of GSL 2016 is finally complete, and thus so is our Writers' Draft. Much like the Grand Final, it all came down to a straight shootout between Destructicon and Soularion. The final standings are listed below, with squad breakdowns by draft position.

Destructicon: 170 points
+ Show Spoiler +
1. Zest 115
8. Rogue -5
9. Dark 20
16. Curious 5
17. Dream 25
24. Bbyong 0
25. Trap 10
32. Creator 0

Soularion: 143 points
+ Show Spoiler +
2. TY 80
7. SoulKey 1
10. MyuNgSiK 15
15. Dear 45
18. Forte 0
23. Super 1
26. SpeeD 0
31. Seed 1

TheOneAboveU: 64 points
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3. herO 20
6. Classic 1
11. aLive 1
14. DongRaeGu 1
19. DeParture -5
22. Bunny 5
27. Cure 40
30. Journey 1

hexhaven: 36points
+ Show Spoiler +
4. soO 10
5. Solar 5
12. TaeJa 10
13. Leenock 0
20. Stork 1
21. Losira 15
28. Symbol -5
29. HerO 0


First things first then—I'm writing this to ask two questions:

1. Did you enjoy following this?

Poll: Did you enjoy following the Writers' Draft?

I didn't follow it at all (200)
 
62%

Yes (111)
 
34%

No (14)
 
4%

325 total votes

Your vote: Did you enjoy following the Writers' Draft?

(Vote): Yes
(Vote): No
(Vote): I didn't follow it at all



2. Would you like us to continue?

Poll: Would you like us to continue with this for Season 2

Yes (170)
 
81%

No (41)
 
19%

211 total votes

Your vote: Would you like us to continue with this for Season 2

(Vote): Yes
(Vote): No



While I (and the four contestants) enjoyed writing and updating the standings, that may have been because it's something new that we haven't attempted before. I'd rather leave it here than get diminishing returns every time we repeat this.

If we do repeat this for Season 2 though, we're already thinking of changes we can make to the formula. While it's great that we collectively picked the two finalists as our first two picks (conveniently ignoring the other 30 for now...), it's also a bit galling that with such a top heavy points distribution, the standings were effectively decided by the order writers picked in.

One suggestion mooted was to allow a 'ban' phase to hopefully reduce the predictable top end scorers, but that would also go against my idea of this being a 'true' Power Rank, ranking everyone strictly by how likely they are to progress while taking into account the bracket. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

On that note, please let us know if you have any comments about our coverage at all, whether that's our Proleague / GSL / SSL / WCS previews and recaps. We're in the process of rejigging our content (hopefully changes will be here soon™), and it would be nice to know what you like / dislike. For example, we're not big fans of strict recaps, but would you like something akin to the Proleague Weekly Wrapup that we write for the starleagues in future? How much of our stuff do you actually read? Comments and feedback are highly appreciated.