First player advantage?

[galehar]

The first player advantage has been discussed a lot on BGG and elsewhere. Rules have been changed to reduce it (only 1 challenge card at setup). But is this enough? Good question.
Already, more than 10 thousands game have been played on BGA. First player is one of the stats being recorded. @Mistergos: could you tell us what is the win rate of the 1st player?
Thanks.

[Mistergos]

56% winrate for the first player.

[galehar]

Thanks! I've taken the discussion to BGG for increased visibility

[Ogid]

56% winrate for the first player.

Interesting it's bigger than I thought...

Is this for all games or only for Competitive draft? In Random Pool Draft is usually better going second for how that mode is set up (6 heroes, 1/1 picks, so the first players get the worst champions)

If that % include that mode the gap may be even bigger...

[galehar]

I just checked, the first player winrate is now at 49%. It's currently not possible to apply filters to stats so we can't break it down by draft type.

[Ogid]

Ty for checking. It's a pity we can't see the stats by type...I'm pretty sure the wr for competitive/casual and random draft have to be quite different. I guess the publisher will handle that in round 3 for competitive, there is nothing we can do about that right now without using house rules...


But the random draft (RD) could get tweaked a bit... the official mode is using a pool from 6 to any number; so changing that to 7 or 10 doesn't go against the official rules and may help with that low wr for the first player.

In my experience RD with 6 is too much of a luck fest, there are drafts where you almost loses at draft as the first player if there are 3 strong champions + 3 "situational" champions there... in those cases you better be on point and have luck on your side... and that's unfortunate with how enjoyable are the games when the teams are even.