Drew, it's actually Brian.
As for the draft, it was awesome. It really wasn't much different than a typical live online draft you'd see in fantasy sports, which I've always enjoyed doing. It wasn't quite as "real-time", since it's done via MSN, then manually entered into the game later, but it was darn close to being real-time with the incredible job Rahim (rk2k3_OIL, here at TBL) did running the draft. He had both the Draft Board and Top-200 lists up-to-date within the minute, usually sooner. Huge thanks to him for doing such a good job with that, and making it so easy to make selections.
Comparing it to an offline draft: it was so much better being online. It felt like 100 times more of an event than it does solo. We started at 12:00 noon, and ended at about 16:30. Which says even more for the job Rahim did - manually coordinating a dozen or so people through a full 7-round draft, and getting it done in about the same time it would take for a computer-run fantasy draft.
The only "loss" is that we can't use the staff recommendations since we don't draft in-game. But for me, that wasn't a big loss - I never use that feature offline anyway, at least not until I hit the late rounds and get bored, and use it simply to get the draft over with without making horrible picks. Once you're online, it's fun to go and find your own players - especially since you have plenty of time to do it while waiting for your turn at the podium. Just like a real draft. Which actually becomes an advantage, because you're forced to have time to think about your next pick and do some proper research, instead of making impulsive picks like you might do offline.
And now: we look forward to seeing how our picks turn out. I'm excited for my first rounder: Defenseman, Boyd Higgins. I'm gonna have two very good, and young defensemen on my team in a few years with him and Diego together. I'm disappointed I couldn't get a better goalie, though. I decided to take a gamble that Redlihs would still be there for my 3rd round pick, but Charbs had to go and steal him in round 2! I had a feeling it would happen, though - there weren't many good goalies to choose from, so they were probably gonna go fast.
But yeah, overall, it was a lot of fun, and very involving. It's just one more thing making online play so much fun.
