It’s draft day!

MILUG is holding it’s first draft tomorrow night! I first heard the word draft in a LEGO context at BrickCan 2016. I had absolutely no clue what it was and I fully intended on being a spectator at the BrickCan draft event so that I could get to the bottom of it. Regrettably I somehow double booked my time and missed my chance at seeing a draft in action. So the Mystery continued!

I heard an awful lot of talk about drafts over the weekend of BrickCan. It seemed to be one of those things that AFOLs just knew. But I didn’t know. So was I no longer the AFOL I thought I was?
It seems that “draft” can be filed alongside the copious number of acronyms, abbreviations and general “LUG” language. Clearly I am in need of expanding my limited LEGO lexicon!

I feel like I now have a slightly better than vague idea of what a draft is. I am looking forward to the experience but I am dreading the stress and anxiety of wanting a pile of particular pieces only to have it snatched by a fellow MILUG member ahead of me in the rotation. I’m sure it’s not this ruthless…or is it?
Funny thing is I am not even sure what pieces I should be after. Is it common practice to have a MOC in mind when going into a draft or is it best just to go in there without an agenda and just pick “neat” pieces and see if I can come up with a use for them down the road? Mind you last time I did a pick-a-brick I ordered a ton of pieces for what I thought was a cool idea only to scrap the project before the shipment had even arrived.
Oh the allure of the unknown! (Generally I do not like the unknown but this just sounded good lol).

My questions about a draft do not end at what pieces to pick:
How does the order get determined? Straws, out of a hat, birthdate, oh wait – maybe a LEGO dice! Ooh that would be fitting.
Which direction do you go around the table to determine who is next?
How do you even out the piles? Are 15 1×2 translucent plates equal to 12 1×4 tiles? Or even more complicated, are the plates or tiles equal to 8 2×2 windows? How do regular bricks stand up against decorative or functional pieces? If I don’t know what I’m going to build then how do I know how much value to place on each pile?!

So here I am on my first draft eve, the draft sets (31053) placed by the door for when we’re ready to leave.
Frantically searching part values to ensure I make a good decision. So when I return home from the draft I will have my next MOC vision!