Why I built Outdraft

I'm a Shen OTP, I've played him for many years and I know the champion very well.

At the start of every game, in the lobby, I try to work out a game plan based on each team's picks.

What role am I going to play? Do we have enough engage, frontline, control, damage? Who am I up against? Are they AP or AD? And the damage ratio on both teams, are they balanced? What will my build path be? Lots of AD on their side, so Randuin's Omen if I'm able to get onto their backline. But if my support has no engage, and neither does my jungler, it'll be on me to be the frontline and open the fights, and for that I'll need mobility, so it'll be Dead Man's Plate instead.

My read gives me a truth. Not a certainty.

All of that thinking happens in a few seconds, and that's what makes this game rich and complex. Making decisions, the right ones, at the right time. The game goes on, and I don't know whether I was right or wrong in what I decided.

And in the end, that decision wasn't really mine alone. My support has no engage: their pick is what decides my build. It all starts there, and that's where the name of the site comes from.

The numbers exist, they're true, and they don't answer my questions

Like most of you, I use a few reference sites that show the most played build and its win rate. It's factual and it's true.

But a build at 53% across hundreds of thousands of games is an average. My game is one data point out of N (I like the mathematical angle). And the bigger N gets, the more the granularity disappears.

And I don't know every item in the game. There has to be a way to know that this one is the right buy, in this case, at this exact moment. While staying within the meta, because the meta genuinely matters.

I don't want to be told what to do, I want a tool that helps me understand what to do and why.

In practice, here's the difference.

My virtual mentor

xPetu has been my virtual mentor, through his videos. He's a Shen OTP, and he explains what he's doing. I've been following him for years, on YouTube and on his Discord, and hats off to him for the work he puts in. He's the one who made me want to play this champion, and to dig deeper than just: people do this, so I do this.

I naturally ended up following Shending Help too, who has a different way of playing and of reading situations.

But a video isn't there at the moment I'm making the decision, in my game, with my comp. And that's not what I'm looking for. I'd rather go back over the game later, with a clear head, and understand what actually happened and how I could have done better. You get better by practising, by understanding, by letting it sink in.

That's why Outdraft does nothing while you play: its value is post-game. The analysis comes afterwards, when you have time to read it, and while it can still be useful for the next game.

Where it comes from

I'm a software engineer, these days a project manager. I was a developer for many years. And I owe you the truth: at the start, Outdraft was just a small Discord bot. Its job was to notify me when my friends were playing. That was my first contact with Riot.

Then it became a small site to follow that activity in real time, with notifications and summaries by day and by group.

And the draft side arrived naturally, because there were two questions, not one. The first is the one I ask myself every morning: who played, how much LP they gained, who played with whom. The second: how can I get better with all this data I have at hand.

What it does today

It all starts with the draft, because that's where everything is decided. Outdraft suggests picks and bans that fit you: the meta is the baseline, but the ranking is derived from your own match history. It shows you the threats and helps you prep your lane. And you can build a draft together, each on your own screen, live on a shared URL: everyone sees the changes and the recommendations in real time.

Then comes the build, adapted to what the draft gave you. When it suggests an item, it tells you whether it's there because of your team, or because of theirs.

And once the game is over, it analyses it. It also tracks your progress towards a goal: what you're aiming at, what's holding you back, how to get there. Along with a feed that brings together your games and those of the players you follow, the pros as well as your friends, and that groups the games you played together.

It's far from perfect, and I'm working on it: the project is nowhere near finished.

In my case, I did improve thanks to this tool. Last season I was Platinum 4, this season I climbed to Emerald 4. So no, it's not spectacular, but one division while barely playing, I'll take it (I replaced part of my playing time with building this project).

And to be straight with you, Outdraft played its part, but not without work. It isn't magic. It helped me reason things through, spot my weaknesses, and understand: why this decision rather than another one. And after a while it becomes a reflex that sharpens.

A website will never teach you to play better, but it can give you the keys to think better and to reach a realistic goal. That's all I promise.

What I refuse

In all honesty, the server and the domain name cost me around 300 euros a year, out of my own pocket for nearly a year now. I could cover that with advertising, and I won't. I may monetise part of the site one day, but for now everything is absolutely free.

I also refuse to sell dreams. I think for a long time before proposing anything, I try to consider every situation, and if an answer isn't solid, it stays neutral.

What I'm really after is a useful tool, not a dream.

What's still missing

What the tool can't do is read the direction of the game. Am I ahead in lane? Is my team ahead too? Is someone on the enemy team snowballing, and who? Those branches exist, drawn by hand on a sheet of paper months ago. They aren't built.

There's also a desktop client in the works. But I have to juggle Riot's requirements with the time I actually have, and I'd rather ship something clean than something rushed.

Any feedback is welcome, an idea, a bug, something that feels off, or just to tell me what you think: [email protected]. Don't be shy.

Knowing what to do is reading your team and the direction of the game. Knowing how is experience.

On the first, I can help. On the second, I can't.