First Timer?
Drafty works a bit differently from the stale auction drafts on mainstream fantasy sports sites. You may want to take the virtual tour or read the FAQs to familiarize yourself.
Quick Glossary
- Draft - Your entire auction draft from start-to-finish.
- Auction - The bidding cycle for each player. Many auctions happen in one draft.
- Queue - The list of nominated players who are coming up for auction next/soon.
- Watch List - A list of players being given close attention (private to each team).
Table of Contents
Nomination Mechanisms
Freeze Tag Nomination Format
For auction drafts
Freeze Tag is the default nomination format. Each team can add a single player to the public nomination queue by selecting them from the Undrafted Players list. After nominating, that team's nomination privilege is frozen until their nominee comes up for auction. Then they are put on a cooldown before they will be able to nominate another player.
This fun-filled nomination format eliminates downtime between auctions and keeps the draft moving, never stopping to wait on one team to nominate the next player. After the initial frenzy to be first in line it feels a lot like a turn-based system since the cooldowns will stagger. But it is exciting when a team isn't paying attention to their cooldown and another team steals their spot in the queue.
Other nomination formats are available in draft settings.
My Watchlist
Teams can pin players to the top of their Undrafted pool by clicking the blue watch icon. Each team's watch list is private. If a team disconnects from the draft room, any players they're watching will be returned to their original spot in the Undrafted Players list.
Empty Queue
For auction drafts using Freeze Tag or Czar nomination format
If the nomination queue becomes empty, the draft will automatically pause until a new player is queued up.
Queue Undo
For auction drafts
Once nominated, a player can only be removed from the queue by the team that nominated them, so it depends on your nomination format.
- In the Freeze Tag format, the owner who nominated the player can mouse over or touch the player in the queue and press the Undo button. They'll be able to nominate again instantly.
- In the Czar format, the commish can mouse over or touch the player in the queue and press the Undo button.
- In the Snake/Round Robin/Winner Takes Next formats, there is no nomination queue because each nominee hits the auction block immediately. So in these formats, commish can let the auction timer expire, pause the draft, and use Commish Toolbox > Undo Last Auction to send that player back into the Undrafted Pool.
Bidding Mechanisms
For auction drafts
Opening Bids
The opening bid for each player auction is defined at the moment a player is nominated, and the nominator automatically claims the opening bid when the player auction begins. If that team's roster or budget is empty when the player comes up for auction, the opening bid will reset to the minimum bid for the draft, and any team can claim it.
Minimum Bids
When a minimum bid exists, nominating a player (except in Czar Mode) will automatically place the opening bid for the minimum amount. The minimum opening bid can be adjusted in draft settings.
If a player receives no bids at all - which can only happen when using Freeze Tag (rarely at the end of a draft) or Czar formats - they will be moved to the bottom of Undrafted Players.
Bid Increment
Drafty now supports bid increments from $0.01 to $10MM in all auction draft formats. The default bid increment is $1.
Max Bid Rule
Max Bid Rule can be set to 1 of 3 states:
- ON = Max bid is calculated to ensure each team has sufficient budget to fill their roster.
- OFF = Teams can spend their whole budget on one player if they want.
- OVERSPEND = Teams can violate the normal rules of budget and roster limits. Any bid is allowed unless a team already has a negative budget or roster capacity.
Max Bid Rule is ON by default and can be edited in the draft settings panel.
Target Bid
Set your target bid and use the various bid buttons to increment the current bid towards it.
Auto Bid
In live and poker auction draft formats, set a Target Bid and toggle on Auto Bid to let the Drafty AI automatically outbid opponents without overspending.
Flash Bid
Enter a Target Bid and use the Flash Bid button to manually bid that amount.
Overbid Shield
The Overbid Shield will appear if the current bid jumps $10 or more. It protects teams from accidentally placing a new bid in the event of a sudden price increase. This feature always co-exists when Flash Bid is enabled.
Silent Auction Bid Locking
In a silent auction draft, set a Target Bid and lock it in. When the timer hits zero, the high bidder will win the auction.
Silent Auction Stewardship Rule
In a silent auction draft, the high bidder will only pay $1 more than the second highest bidder. This option can be disabled in draft settings.
Silent Auction Tiebreakers
In a silent auction draft, if two or more teams tie with the same highest submitted bid, the player auction will automatically rerun. Commish can define in the draft settings who gets to participate in the rerun - all teams or only the teams who tied.
If a tie occurs twice consecutively, the following tiebreaker sequence is invoked to determine the winner:
- The team with more roster vacancies
- The team with fewer budget dollars
- The team who nominated the player
- The team who least recently won an auction
Steal Bid
The Steal Bid button overtakes the current high bidder without incrementing the current bid. It is only usable by the team that nominated the current player being auctioned.
Steal Bid is OFF by default. Commish can turn it on in draft settings (advanced/clubhouse drafts only).
Last-Second Bids
Don't wait until the last second to place your bid. Any lag whatsoever may cause your bid to be delayed, and even a fraction of a second might mean you miss out. Any bid under 10 seconds will reset the timer to 10 seconds so there is no advantage to sniping, only risk.
Last 5 Bids
Review the last five bids by mousing over the current bid.
Timer Mechanisms
More Time Plz
The More Time Plz button adds 10 seconds to the auction timer, usable by each team once per player auction. Commish can adjust or disable More Time Plz in draft settings.
Fast-Forward
The Fast-Forward button is a commish power that will remove 10 seconds from the auction timer, useful to expire an auction early or offset your leaguemates getting cute with More Time Plz. Fast-Forward can be enabled in draft settings.
Under 10 Seconds
Any new bid placed with under 10 seconds on the timer will reset the timer to 10 seconds. Commish can adjust the reset timer in draft settings.
Silent Auction Acceleration
In a silent auction format, when all teams have locked in a bid, the timer will fast-forward itself to 3 seconds.
Slow Draft Timer
In a slow draft, the timer cannot be paused once the draft starts but the commish can reset the timer as needed.
Server Lag
Review your connection to the server by mousing over the draft room timer. A big server offset means you should be extra careful letting the timer get low because your connection may experience some lag when submitting a new bid.
Commish Toolbox
When the draft is paused, the commish has these special abilities in-draft:
All Drafts
- Undo Last Auction - (auction draft formats) Reverse the last auction, sending the drafted player back to the Undrafted Players pool and reimbursing the high bidder for the cost and +1 roster spot.
- Draft Rewind - (snake/round robin draft formats) Reverse the last auction, sending the drafted player back to the Undrafted Players pool and reimbursing the high bidder for the cost and +1 roster spot.
- Reset Time Limit - Reset the timer to its full duration (slow drafts only).
- End Draft - Save draft results and terminate the draft room.
Mock Drafts
- Mock drafts operate with Advanced features enabled.
Basic Drafts
- Team Settings - Adjust team names.
- Team Assignments - Add and remove team owners.
- Upgrade Room - Upgrade your basic draft room to an advanced draft room.
Advanced/Clubhouse Drafts
- Team Settings - Adjust team names, roster sizes, and budgets.
- Team Assignments - Add and remove team owners (with support for co-owners).
- Reassign Draft Pick - (snake/round robin drafts only) Facilitate trades by reassigning draft pick to another team, or vacate any pick altogether. If a player has already been drafted at that pick, the player will move between rosters automatically.
- Move Player - Drag and drop any drafted player from one team to another. Team budgets and roster spots will adjust automatically and the commish will no longer be able to use the Undo Last Auction superpower.
Advanced Options
- Steal Bid - Edit various settings in-draft, such as minimum bid, current turn, current turn direction, etc.
- Reset Timer on Bid - When
Miscellaneous Notes
Saving Draft Results
Draft results will not be saved until the draft ends. The draft will end automatically when all teams have zero roster capacity, or the commish can end it early using their commish toolbox.
If the draft does not end automatically (e.g. if Max Bid Rule is turned OFF and some teams still have open roster spots), commish can go to Commish Toolbox > End Draft.
Idle Drafts
Drafts can be paused indefinitely and resumed at any time, but draft rooms left idle for more than 30 days will be terminated automatically. To reset the idle timer, simply start the draft and pause it again. Easy.
Draft Host Server
The draft host's browser acts as the server for your draft room. If they disconnect, the draft will automatically pause until they come back.
Multiple Browser Tabs
To avoid problems with your draft, do not open the draft room in multiple browser tabs. Especially for the draft host, this can confuse the system and potentially wreck your draft. Each participant needs to have their own (free) Drafty account. Co-owners can be assigned to the same team as needed in an advanced or clubhouse draft room.
Player Search
Use the search box provided (at the top of Undrafted Players) to search for an undrafted player. Press CTRL+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) and type a player's name to find any player whether they've been drafted or not.