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.

Freeze Tag Nomination Format

In the default nomination format, a team can add any player to the public nomination queue by selecting them from the Undrafted Players list. After nominating, that team is placed on a freeze and cannot nominate again. Once their nominee comes up for auction, their freeze becomes 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 free-for-all to be first in line it feels a bit like a turn-based system since the cooldowns will stagger, but if a team isn't paying attention to their cooldown they may lose their place in line.

Alternate nomination formats are available in custom rooms by request.

My Watchlist

Teams can pin players to the top of their Undrafted pool by clicking the blue watch icon. Each team's watchlist 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

If the nomination queue becomes empty, the draft will automatically pause until a new player is queued up.

Undo The Queue

Once nominated, a player cannot be removed from the queue. If they come up for auction and receive no bids, they will be returned to Undrafted Players. A special "Queue Undo" commish power is available in custom rooms by request.

Opening Bids

The opening bid for each player auction is automatically placed by the team who nominated the player. If that team's roster or budget is empty, any team can claim the opening bid.

Minimum Bids

When a minimum bid exists, nominating a player (except in Czar Mode) will automatically place the opening bid for the minimum amount.

Max Bid Capping

By default, Drafty enforces full rosters which means each team's max bid is capped based on their open roster spots and the draft's minimum bid.

$1 Bid Increment

Drafty's strict $1 bid increment ensures that every team has a fair shot at winning any auction without overspending on a custom manual bid.

Max Bid Tiebreakers

In the event that multiple teams with identical max bids want to spend their entire budget on a player, the team who succeeds at placing the final +1 bid will win the auction. This allows for more strategy than a traditional auction tiebreaker whereby the fastest on the trigger to force the max bid will win.

More Time Plz

The More Time Plz button adds 10 seconds to the auction timer, usable by each team once per player auction.

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. Available in custom draft rooms by request.

Under 10 Seconds

Any new bid placed with under 10 seconds on the timer will reset the timer to 10 seconds.

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.

Auto Bid w/ Target Bid

Set a Target Bid and toggle on Auto Bid to let robots attempt a bid on your behalf every few seconds.

Commish Powers

The commish has these special abilities in-draft:

• Undo Last Auction - 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.
• 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.
• Team Settings - Adjust team names, roster size, and budgets. For teams not yet seated, adjust their assigned email address to ensure an exact match.
• End Draft - Save draft results and terminate the draft room.
• Add AI - Add not-so-smart robot teams to draft against. Available only in mock drafts as a means to understand how Drafty's bidding action works.

Saving Draft Results

Draft results will not be saved until the draft ends, either automatically when all teams have zero roster capacity, or manually when the commish elects to end the draft via the toolbox.

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.

Force Bid

Enter a Target Bid and use the Force Bid button to manually place that bid. Available in custom draft rooms by request.

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. Included in custom draft rooms with Force Bid.

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).

Match Bid

Usable only by the team that nominated the current player being auctioned, the Match Bid button overtakes the current high bidder without incrementing the current bid. Available in custom draft rooms by request.

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

Do NOT log into your draft room from multiple locations (browsers nor tabs). Especially for the draft host, this can confuse the system and potentially wreck your draft.

Player Search

Press CTRL+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) and type a player's name to find them, whether they've already been drafted or not.