NE 20th Anniversary / H2H Mock Draft - All Stars Edition

Last night on the discord, we held a H2H mock draft with Gustav, Liampie, Xtreme, Kumba, Scoop and Recurious picking teams. As a tie-in with the 20th Anniversary celebrations, this time the field was open to the full roster of H2H players since the very first edition all the way up to H2H9, and the mock captains were also eligible to be picked with captains of each team being decided after. An additional rule was enforced that each team must draft two players from any edition pre-H2H5, to make sure they weren't just focused on present day players. The final teams are outlined below, with a poll to decide which team is best.
 

Other mock captains, feel free to post your roster and lineup in the comments!
 
Heaven's Retirement Home
1. Liam ©
2. Turtle
3. Cocoa
4. Alex (VC)
5. ANDREW
6. Rene
7. Pierrot
8. StormRunnerFan
9. Ride6
10. RCTFAN
11. Loopy (F)
12. Posix
 
R1: Liam + Alex + RCTFAN + Loopy
R2: Turtle + Cocoa + Ride6 + Loopy
R3: ANDREW + RCTFAN + SRF + Loopy
R4: Alex + Rene + Pierrot + Loopy (RCT2)
R5: Liam + Cocoa + Loopy + Posix (LL)
SF: Turtle + Alex + ANDREW
F: Liam + Cocoa + Rene + SRF + Ride6

The thinking behind my team started out focused on atmosphere and aesthetics, largely drawing from recent H2Hs with Cocoa, Alex, ANDREW and Rene. Turtle is of course a legend with atmospheric works, and Liam can theme almost anything and has an unstoppable H2H drive. I then decided to dip into the LL space with Pierrot (and already having Liam, Alex and Cocoa), who has also shown excellent RCT2 work that was well ahead of its time. I think his versatility pairs well with Alex who has that ability to jump between a variety of aesthetics with ease. StormRunnerFan felt like a steal so couldn't resist at that point, and I think Glacier Cove shows an excellent dedication to small details. The remaining picks were largely based on all-time status and potential pairings. Ride6 is a superb fantasy player, RCTFAN can make magic as proven with Kukuana and Vampyre if he shows up, Loopy has a deep catalogue of excellent LL parks which could match well with Liam and Cocoa, even if the obvious LL pairing seems to be Alex and Pierrot (who could very well lead a knock-out LL park alone). Posix is more than just a meme pick too, I think he could match that LL grouping very nicely when he's not running the site.

Okay so let me elaborate on why exactly I chose my picks and what my strategy is.

So first off I really wanted to start with AVC, WhosLeon or Tolsimir. Reason being these were imo some of the MVP's from last season. Even though the choice was made for me I feel like Tolsimir is a good pick. He has shown to be a good captain last season and is also one of the best performing H2H players of all time according to Liam's excel sheet.

After my first pick was locked in I decided to choose FK as my second choice. My reasoning was as follows: both players can produce very high quality content, but more importantly, both players are also very flexible and can do both Fantasy and Realism. I am last to pick so I have to wait a long time before I can pick again. I don't know what players will be left at this point and by picking two flexible players as my top picks I can decide to pivot my team later on still depending on the picks available. Also this pick gave me one of the two required pre H2H5 picks.

When my third pick came around I decided to go for shogo, this is a bit of a wildcard and probably my riskiest pick, but the quality is there. Shogo is also a fast builder and again has that flexibility of being able to do both fantasy and realism. If we ever get into a manpower issue in my team I know shogo will pull through for us. Also pretty good for ghostbuilding.

After that I decided to pick Robbie92, honestly I think picking Robbie92 in round 4 is a freaking steal. Robbie is reasonably highly ranked in Liam's spreadsheet and having worked with Robbie92 in the last two H2H robbie generally pulls weight. In the last two H2H's Robbie won all the match ups he has been a part of. Robbie just delivers the quality and the wins.

The next two picks were a bit less flexible and on opposite sides of the spectrum.

For my next round I decided to go with Hoobaroo. I remember getting destroyed by Stardust and this time our team will be the team bringing the Stardust to the opponents. House at the Sea was unfinished but with shogo on my team I feel like any unfinished hoobaroo work could be easily touched up and finished. I am also a sucker for fantasy so would love to work with Hoobaroo on that. Because of the flexibility with fantasy in my first 3 picks I can pair hoobaroo with any of those three players and have them smack out something amazing.

Afterwards I decided to go with dr dirt. He was my captain last season and I think he did a pretty good job. He also has a pretty good H2H history with multiple championship wins. World of Tim Burton, Galaxy Geeland, Dig Site 4,  Zerzura, Bellum Aeternus. All winning parks. Dirt also brings good landscaping skills to our team and could be paired up well with someone like Robbie, someone he has worked together with often in the past in H2H.

After this my picks are a bit more random. I picked Stoksy because he was just a good player that was left and I didn't think he'd last another round. He also has a decent H2H track record and could pair well with any of my other realism players.

The same reasoning was also why I chose inthemanual, although his H2H track record isn't that good looking purely at the stats, he is still a very good player and can deliver quality work. He would be a good complimenting player to one of my higher picks and has also shown flexibility in his H2H parks regarding style.

After this I picked Louis. I picked him for multiple reasons: he can deliver good layouts to our team, he could pair well with Robbie and he was again another strong player that was just left. Also I am a big fan of his Circus Circus park from H2H7 and in general I think he has a pretty decent H2H record.

BarNID was my next pick, chose him because of his work on El Dorado. Also he seems decently active so I figured he would be a good pick to have on the team.

For my last two picks I first I picked RCTNW, this is mainly because I needed another pre-H2H5 player and I have always been a fan of his work. Not sure how other people may view this pick but I would be excited to work with him.

For my last pick I picked myself as floater. Reasoning being: I'd love to work with all the people I picked; I picked them for a reason, so you bet your ass I would be motivated as fuck to work with this team. Giving myself a floater spot means I can jump in on any park. During each of the two H2H seasons I have been in I have always had large shares in parks and large player shares overall. (64% in H2H8, 100% in H2H9). For this hypothetical H2H I wouldn't do that. I would make sure my top picks/heavy hitters would be leading parks and delivering that quality. I usually devote a lot of time to H2H, as floater I can spread this time over each park and make sure that every park we make gets finished and we never have to deliver anything even remotely resembling unfinishedness.

For pairings I was thinking of something like this:

R1: Shogo + Hoobaroo + FK + Recurious (F), fantasy park of the ages.

R2: Robbie92 + Louis (layouts) + inthemanual + Recurious (F), Realism park, I could see this group making something inspired like Ocean Park Hong Kong, the section near Hair Raiser. That would combine best assets from each player: Robbie Asian architecture (see Tubiao), Hair Raiser layout by Louis (see NE work bench), landscaping by in themanual (see Whispering cliffs), I would tie things up in the end and make sure everything is finished.

R3: Stoksy + RCTNW + BarNID + Recurious (F). Another realism park, each of these players have a tendency to build what I like to call colourful realism. Realistic stuff that has very happy colours. I think they would pair well.

R4: Tolsimir + dr dirt + inthemanual + Recurious (F). This would be a semi-fantasy park similar to Zerzura but with more of a heavy focus on landscaping. All three players have a good track record for this so I am sure it would be good.

R5: Shogo + Robbie92 + Recurious (F). This could be a semi-realism heavy detailled architecture focused park. Maybe something like port of entry but with all the glitching fixed by Robbie's attention for detail. If by this point we have already placed ourselves in the semi's I'd save this park for our semi finals and submit a filler park.

SF: Tolsimir + FK + Recurious (F). Here I am thinking a fantasy park again. But it could also potentially be something realism related like Tromso or Christchurch city center.

Finals: Robbie92 + Shogo + dr dirt + inthemanual + stoksy. A realism park with again a focus on landscaping. Stoksy brings in the nice colours in the end to make it all tie together.

The Hurricanes

Hydroportal

Pacificoaster

Corkscrewed (VC)

Kumba ©

Xtreme97

Fatha'

Phatage

Scoop

natelox

mamarillas

Toon

Roomie (F)

Possible match-ups:

R1: Hydro + Xtreme97 + Toon + Roomie (So many new objects it's just amazing) 

So I just remembered Kumba and I made history with a mock trade. With that said, here's the new AAAAAA!

 
AnAchronistic AmAlgAmAtion (or AAAAAA) 
Gustav Goblin
AVC
J K
Scoop (replacing Fisch)
nin ©
bigshootergill
sloB
K0nG (VC)
BelgianGuy
Pacificoaster (replacing Airtime)
Six Frags
Terry Inferno
Saxman (F)
 
R1: K0NG/Belgian (Son of Frankenstein)
R2: Nin/Six Frags/Gustav (Zoo Because Of Course)

R3: Pacificoaster/Scoop/sloB (Even Better Realism)
R4: J K/K0NG/sloB (Throwback Thursday)
R5: AVC/BSG/Terry (Obligatory Fantasy Park Like How Could I Not)
SF: Pacificoaster/Nin/Belgian (Disney)
F: J K/AVC/BSG/Six Frags/Nin (AAAAAA title park with a bunch of elements from different time periods smooshed into one big H2H-winning map)

Saxman builds half the park when neccessary. Excited to see how the new Hurricanes turn out with Airtime and Fisch!