The Draft
Short of counting those dreaded gym class activities like picking teams for kickball when I was in elementary school, I can't say I have ever been part of a "draft pick"...until last night. Although I am on a pre-determined team (All About That Base) for the upcoming Philadelphia tournament there will be a second round of competition with teams that were decided by a draft selection that took place yesterday online. What a weird experience!
The first weird thing is the fact that we were assigned ratings for a playing ability based on… I haven't a clue what. When I registered I was asked to give a 1 to 10 numeric assessment on how I perform in areas of offense, defense and communication. The flaw with that is two-fold… One, who can truly honestly assess their own abilities? Laser tag is an ego minefield and I'll own my little piece of that too. Second, since I have only had one big tournament experience so far (Armageddon) the only way I can compare myself high or low is in relation to what I saw in that scenario and what I know to be true in my home arena...and that gap is as wide is the Grand Canyon! So coming up with an accurate ranking to begin with is difficult. Then it was subsequently adjusted, so it isn't as if the numbers I provided were the end of the story. I think the adjustments were intended to be made by people who knew your playing ability and could balance out a fair assessment. However, the only people from the Syracuse area in this mix are other new players connected with my team, so nobody else here really knows any of us well enough yet to make any assessment at all. And based on the listed assessments of others, either this whole system is ridiculously skewed or just a lot of fluff and nonsense to make or break egos with little to no empirical value. I don't say that because I have any problem with my own assessment (I'm actually fine with it), but simply from observing those of others.
In the tournament scene I am a very green newbie. I know that most of these players involved have not got a clue who I am. That's understandable. This couldn't have been more strikingly apparent than while watching the live feed on the screen during the draft and hearing the voices in the background of the captains preparing for their selections. One voice loudly asked "can somebody tell me who the f*** Tivia is?" Paul thinks I need to have that printed as a slogan on a t-shirt :)
(56:28)
Another odd thing about this draft was how the rules and guidelines seemed to change throughout the process (as several people noted as it was happening. At one point the question of having at least two female players per team was raised. Personally, I resent the notion that a team must fill a quota of women as that makes us seem perceived as less capable, but I'm pretty sure that one fell by the wayside anyhow.
Now, I have realistic expectations of myself and do clearly understand that regardless of what I do locally that I am not amongst the top of the crop players in this realm (yet). Although I thought I had some awareness and comprehension of a few very impressive veteran players and either I am so far off base it's not funny or there's a lot more being factored here. Regardless, this is how the draft shook out...
Well, I made out better than kickball not being picked last. Although this is another area where the draft was bizarre, as I seriously doubt the woman actually picked last deserved that. But ultimately the draft is just a means to an end...more teams to play more laser tag. So, back to practice in hopes that by the end of this all nobody will be asking "who the f*** is Tivia?" any longer. :)
Comments or questions? Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com
Blog: tiviachickloveslasertag.blogspot.com
