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ATD2025 Draft Thread

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rmartin65 said:
It’s a shame the traditional ATD timing doesn’t work with your schedule. Would you be able to participate in next year’s ATD if we started in March?
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Possibly - let me see how this year goes. My practice is doing really well (which is great!) but I've never been busier (even outside of the traditional busy times). I'll let everyone know. (On an unrelated note, I'd really like to see an auction format ATD - even if it's done on a trial-run basis over the summer).
 
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Hockey Outsider said:
Possibly - let me see how this year goes. My practice is doing really well (which is great!) but I've never been busier (even outside of the traditional busy times). I'll let everyone know. (On an unrelated note, I'd really like to see an auction format ATD - even if it's done on a trial-run basis over the summer).
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I've done some auction-style drafts in the GM Games subsection, like a decade ago. They're extremely fun and strategic, but it's so easy to mess up your roster construction if you aren't careful.

(which is what makes it fun, to be clear)
 
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Hockey Outsider said:
I know you're a Pens fan, but for some reason I thought you were Canadian. Unfortunately I don't have any business contacts in Pennsylvania.

This might be an odd thing for a Canadian to say right now, but thank you for your service. This will pass. Both of our countries are stronger together.
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I meant to respond to this earlier and then got side tracked but I do appreciate you thinking of me HO.

And I appreciate the kind words regarding the service. I look back on that time as a pretty eye opening experience for a 19-22 year old kid, especially given the time frame (spent a lot of time in combat zones) and what was going on around the world.

I was very fortunate to see a lot of western Europe (Prague is as far east as I got there), the bulk of ME, and a bit of SW Asia. We always stopped (coming and going) in St John's (Halifax a few times), and I absolutely adored that area and would pick it as one of my top choices for places to permanently relocate to, gun to my head. The people were among the most friendly and genuinely laid back groups I've ever encountered in my travels. I know the winters can be quite extreme but there is just something stunningly beautiful, whether you're on the coast or traveling more inland and north, especially.

Seeing so many different cultures and understanding that people, regardless of where they are on the planet, aren't terribly different in most cases, ight be the biggest reveal I took from the 4 years in the AF. The vast majority of us, want to live good lives, honest lives, with a core group of family and friends, and co-exist in a general sense. A lot of (by design) really great people and deeds get overlooked and canceled out by the noise of politics and entertainment sadly.
 
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Dawson City selects Scott Stevens, D.


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nabby12 said:
Where the heck are the picks? :popcorn:

Slow start this year it looks like!
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I'm not sure if this is true, but I feel like the last 5 ATDs went by extremely fast compared to how it used to be 10 years ago. I remember waiting several days to make a pick.
 
BenchBrawl said:
I'm not sure if this is true, but I feel like the last 5 ATDs went by extremely fast compared to how it used to be 10 years ago. I remember waiting several days to make a pick.
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You are correct. There used to be a lot more time between picks and a lot more discussion about each pick. I’m not sure which was the cause and which was the effect. There was also a lot more public criticism of picks and team chemistry, which I miss, as long as it’s done correctly/politely. Same goes for the assassination thread, that used to be pretty brutal at times. But, I’d rather know what people don’t like about my team so I can try to either make an adjustment or a counter argument. It felt like I learned more back then.
 
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Hawkey Town 18 said:
You are correct. There used to be a lot more time between picks and a lot more discussion about each pick. I’m not sure which was the cause and which was the effect. There was also a lot more public criticism of picks and team chemistry, which I miss, as long as it’s done correctly/politely. Same goes for the assassination thread, that used to be pretty brutal at times. But, I’d rather know what people don’t like about my team so I can try to either make an adjustment or a counter argument. It felt like I learned more back then.
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All true.

We were younger and the ATD was more up-and-coming. Everyone was on a computer. Forums were still a popular medium. There were still real old-timers around the History section. The zeitgeist was different.

But today it's not that bad. We still get 20-25 people every year to play this months-long game. Kind of amazing in a way.
 
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What I do like more since 2018-ish, is the level of research being done is more systematic and from primary sources than it used to be when we didn't have access to the newspapers archives. If you want to research a player from 1917 thoroughly, you can do it game by game now.

Just too bad we didn't have this in the early 2010s, it would have been incredible.
 
BenchBrawl said:
All true.

We were younger and the ATD was more up-and-coming. Everyone was on a computer. Forums were still a popular medium. There were still real old-timers around the History section. The zeitgeist was different.

But today it's not that bad. We still get 20-25 people every year to play this months-long game. Kind of amazing in a way.
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I'd like to see some things from the past return. I didn't feel like I could do assassinations in my first couple of years, and then it seemed like it faded out.

I was also thinking the other day that I'd like to see the post draft survey that used to be done make a reappearance.

Bit yeah, I think even at the beginning of my time with the ATD there used to be more discussion around picks. Nowadays, it only seems to happen if there's a shocking pick or something like that.
 
HT18 say it felt like we learned more and he's right. The vets back then were better than us in that sense, they interpreted the knowledge and shared their thoughts more systematically. Called out bad picks and said why. When you made a pick as a rookie, you were apprehending the reaction of the vets.

But we do know more in another sense today, at least about the early eras. Just what @rmartin65 did on his own in the last few years uncovered a massive amount of information.
 
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Sometimes it doesn't take many guys to do this.

seventieslord and TheDevilMadeMe excelled at "dealing with traffic" in terms of calling out bad picks, sharing their thoughts, or praising some picks. Sturminator too although his style was different, I don't think he called out bad picks to the same extent, was more into generating discussions and influence.

It's also a matter of personality. I would never become like that even if I could call out bad picks. I might sometimes, but not as regularly as them (and I'm not as knowledgeable as they are anyway). Because it's not my natural flow, even if people think I really like confrontation, which I sometimes do, in reality I'm more a guy who tries to make things run smoothly.

They were other strong vets, but not all of them were doing that neither. It only takes 2 or 3 and then the discussions take form on their own.
 
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