Round 1 of the Inaugural 8-Pod is over. We managed to get 11 players in the event, so we had 5 matches in the first round with one player taking a bye.
The Pool
Players were able to draft from
Shayle
Rattlebones
Halftusk
Finvarr
Keera
Lorsann
Rangosh
Grimgut
Each archetype saw a representation here, though Maelstrom probably forms the oddest and perhaps defining feature of the pod. Grimgut is the only Maelstrom without a non-ultimate ability to destroy multiple followers per round (though his Retchlings can get a few themselves), as well as limited ability to attack Champions. This could potentially define how people value other champions in the pod with the other Maelstroms being absent.
The Drafts
Every champion was drafted, but Shayle, Rangosh, and Grimgut saw play in each game. Surprisingly to me, the Guardians of the group seemed to be the least popular.
Shayle and Grimgut took opposite ends of the success spectrum here, with 4-1 and 1-4 records respectively. This is largely driven by the 3 matches in which they faced off, in which the Earthquaking champion swept Grimgut 3-0. Though Grimgut has a strong attack against Landslide, it's likely that picking Grimgut into such easy pushes from the same follower often made it hard to take advantage of Grimgut's strengths.
Closing Thoughts
With only five matches on the board, some other stats so promising numbers. First drafter had a relatively even split of wins, taking the victory 2/5 times. The first player in the deployment phase similarly took a split of 3/5 victories. With every champion chosen at least twice, the pod felt balanced and gave players lots of options; no two drafts looked the same. In fact, drafts were so varied, that no draft portion shared more than a single pick with another draft. That means that if Halftusk was picked second in one battle, if another draft also picked Halftusk second, no other picks were common between the two. It's cool to see such variation in small pods.
Next week will be starting soon; and players will be getting their pairings this weekend. Overall responses from this week can be found here.