Introduction
With six unique draft formats and a multitude of specialized options for each, it is impossible to make a one-size-fits-all guide. No two drafts are exactly the same, but this article will explain the most common elements found in draft rooms among all formats.
Since Drafty's bread and butter is auction drafts, let's begin there and dive right in.
Player Nominations
Most auction drafts begin with player nominations. Put your cursor over a player in the Undrafted pool or touch them on a mobile device to expose the player menu. From the player menu that appears, you can hit the Nom button to nominate them, the eyes emoji to add them to your watch list, or adjust your opening bid which will be automatically placed at the start of this player's auction.
Once nominated, the player will appear in the nomination queue for all draft participants. If you hover over them now or touch them in the queue, you can still adjust your opening bid or undo the nomination. Note that these options may be turned off by your commissioner in the draft settings.
If your draft is using a traditional, turn-based nomination format, there is no queue so you'll need to set your opening bid prior to hitting the Nom button and you cannot undo your nomination.
Making a Draft Pick
In a non-auction format, making a draft pick selection works the same way as a player nomination.
Put your cursor on a player or touch them to bring up the player menu. Click on the eyes emoji to add a player to the bottom your watch list or hit the Draft Next button to put a player at the top of your watch list. This is now your active player. If time expires while you're on the clock, your active player will be automatically picked for you.
To confirm your selection before time expires, click the Confirm Pick button next to the active player's portrait.
When you're on the clock, the Draft Next button will be replaced by a red Draft button which is functionally identical.
Bidding Mechanisms
There is always a bidding phase in an auction draft but your controls will vary based on the draft format and specific settings as defined by the commissioner.
The Min Bid button will increment the current bid by the minimum bid increment. The default bid increment is 1 but may be different in your draft.
Auto Bid enables a bidding AI that monitors the current bid and places a new Min Bid on your behalf as needed to keep you in place as the high bidder. Once the bid exceeds your Target Bid, auto bid will disengage itself.
The Flash Bid button is how you can manually place a bigger bid equal to what you've entered as your target bid. If a draft participant increases the current bid by more than a few value points, a shield appears to protect you from accidentally clicking on any bid button immediately following a sudden price jump.
Match Bid lets you take over as the high bidder without incrementing the current bid. It is only usable by the team manager who nominated the active player. If your commissioner has enabled Match Bid for your draft, it will replace the Flash Bid button when the active player is one you nominated.
For Dojo members, you can see a history of the recent bids by putting your cursor over the current bid or touching it if you're on a mobile device. Learn more about the Dojo at Drafty Sports dot com.
In a Silent Auction format, you only have one button option to lock in your bid. If time expires and your bid is not locked, your bid will be zero.
Timers
All timers can be adjusted by the commissioner, but here's an overview of each one.
When your draft's nomination format is turn-based, the player nomination timer keeps things moving while everyone waits on the next nomination.
The bidding timer ensures that all bidding wars must eventually end. Any new bid that comes in under 10 seconds will reset the bidding timer back up to 10 seconds.
The draft pick timer appears on the draft board and counts down the time you have to make your selection.
The commissioner can adjust timer durations at any time in the Draft Settings.
Draft Settings
Each draft participant can open the Settings panel to review all the rules, timers, toggled options, and analytics for your draft room.
Note your connection lag which can help you avoid timeouts in critical moments. You can also adjust the volume of sound effects, resize your draft board, and toggle your autodraft status.
Wrap Up
Our mission at Drafty is to innovate online draft rooms and make draft day the best day of the year.
If you have any questions just drop a comment or open a mock draft to try a draft room for yourself. Need tech support? Use the help panel inside your draft room for fastest response time.
FAQs
Commonly repeated questions will be posted here. Ask a question