Okay, here’s my write-up on tackling the “WWE Draft Simulator” project, just like I’d share it on my blog:
Alright folks, buckle up! Today I’m gonna walk you through my experience building a WWE Draft Simulator. Sounds kinda nerdy? Maybe. Was it a blast? Absolutely!
It all started with me, a lifelong wrestling fan, complaining about how unrealistic the WWE drafts have become. I mean, seriously, trading top stars for mid-carders? It’s an outrage! So, naturally, I thought, “I can do better.” That’s how I decided to code my own draft simulator.
First things first, I had to gather the data. This was probably the most tedious part. I scraped wrestler names, their current brands (Raw or SmackDown), and some basic stats (win/loss record, title reigns) from a few wrestling websites. It wasn’t super accurate, but hey, it’s good enough for a starting point.
Next up, the actual coding. I went with Python because it’s what I’m most comfortable with. I started by creating a simple class for each wrestler, storing their name, brand, and stats. Then, I built the core logic for the draft. The idea was:
- Randomly select which brand (Raw or SmackDown) gets to pick first.
- Simulate the picks, trying to balance things out based on the stats I had. This was the tricky part. I didn’t want Raw to end up with all the top guys.
- Implement some ‘logic’ for trading picks. I’m talking like, “If Raw really wants this particular wrestler, they might offer SmackDown a future draft pick to move up.”
The first version was… rough. Raw always ended up with Roman Reigns, and SmackDown got stuck with enhancement talent. Clearly, my balancing algorithm needed work. So I tweaked the weights, messing with the influence of each stat on the picking probability. I even added a bit of randomness to simulate the unpredictable nature of WWE management.
Then came the user interface, showing the results. I used a simple terminal-based output to show the draft picks round by round, and who ended up where. It wasn’t fancy, but it got the job done. After each simulation, I reviewed the results and made small adjustments to the code. It was all trial and error.
One of the cool features I added was a way to influence the draft. Before the draft starts, you can tell the simulator which wrestlers you absolutely want on each brand. This allows you to see what would happen if WWE actually listened to the fans for once.
Right now, the simulator is pretty basic. But it works! And it’s a fun way to kill some time while pretending I’m running WWE. In the future, I’d like to:
- Improve the UI. Maybe build a simple web interface with drag-and-drop functionality.
- Add more stats. Things like popularity ratings, social media influence, etc.
- Implement more realistic trading logic. Maybe even add tag teams and factions.
All in all, this project was a great way to combine my love of wrestling with my coding skills. It was a lot of work, but the end result is something I’m actually proud of. Who knows, maybe one day WWE will hire me to run their drafts for real!
