For the first time in DMBL history, the first round of the draft has been decided by lottery. All other rounds will follow reverse order of standings, like in the past. The rule was intended to give less incentive for teams to lose games in order to get a better draft pick. The following is the result of the lottery:

Position	Team
1	Hillsborough Destroyers
2	Westwood Deductions
3	Phoenix Dragons
4	Harrison Rats
5	Hoboken Cutters
6	Philadelphia Endzone Animals
7	Columbia Rattlesnakes
8	Vancouver Ironfist

The lottery went according to form for the top three picks (Hillsborough, Westwood, Phoenix)... Hillsborough had the worst record and won the #1 pick, followed by 13th place Westwood and 12th place Phoenix. Also, the #6 pick goes to the sixth-worst team, Philly. So those teams pick where they would have without the lottery.

Here are the changes:

Harrison, with the #4 pick, got a little lucky... they finished with the fifth-worst record. Hoboken had the fourth-worst record but fell to the #5 pick. So those two switched spots. But it's hard to feel too bad for Hoboken, since they went 74-88 and Harrison went 75-87.

The same thing happened with the 8th and 9th place... the Columbia Rattlesnakes finished with the 8th-best record, but moved up one spot to the #7 pick. The Iron Fist, who finished 1 1/2 games worse than Columbia, dropped one and get the #8 pick in the first round.

So... no major surprises. Harrison and Columbia moved up one, Hoboken and Vancouver moved down one.

Remember, the other rounds are determined by reverse order of finish. The lottery only affects round 1.

How does this compare to last year, the first year we did the lottery? Last year was a lot wilder.

Last year, Tijuana (#1), Columbia (#3) and Hoboken (#5) were the only teams that picked where they would have under the old system.

Harrison, which had the second-worst record, dropped all the way to the #6 pick, so they get a little comfort from moving up one spot in this year's draft.

Phoenix had the fourth-worst record, but they jumped up two spots to #2. Philly had the sixth-worst record and they moved up two spots to #4.

The Iron Fist had the seventh-worst record but they dropped one spot to the #8 pick, the same thing that happened to them this year. They are the only team that Yaro screwed for two straight years. He must hate that team! Westwood, with the eighth-worst record, moved up one spot to #7.