How the draft game works

Pick a sport and a player pool, two to eight teams, a pick clock (30, 60 or 90 seconds, or none), the draft order (random, or set by the host), a private or public lobby and the sport's lineup options. A private league is reached only by its five-letter code or its link. A public one is listed in the public lobbies until the draft starts.

Friends join from the code or the link and name their team. The host can add computer teams one at a time or fill every open seat, and any seat still open when the draft starts becomes a computer team. Playing solo is a league with one person and the rest computer teams, with no clock.

The first round runs in draft order and the second comes back the other way, so the team that picks last in one round picks first in the next. That repeats until every team has filled every slot in its lineup. A player can go in any open slot that takes his position. Every pick shows up on every screen as it is made.

When the clock runs out, the pick is made for you: the best available player for the open slot that carries the most team strength. Miss two picks in a row and your team drafts on autopilot until you tap to take it back. With no clock, the host can make a pick for a team that has gone quiet. Computer teams draft the most value over what will be left at each position, weighted by how much the slot matters, with a little randomness so they do not all draft alike.

Each team's strength is its players' ratings weighted by slot. The season is a round robin schedule where every game samples both scores around the gap in strength, so the better roster wins more often but not every time. The top four teams (top two in a league of two or three) play off for the title. The box scores, highlights and MVP race are simulated from each game's score and each player's rating. The whole season comes from the league code, so everyone sees the same results.

The results page at /games/draft/league/ and the code stays up for 30 days, with the champion, the MVP, the playoffs, the standings, every lineup and a share image. Draft again starts a new league with the same settings.

Your browser keeps a random id so it knows your seat and remembers your leagues. The server keeps only a one-way hash of it, along with the team names typed into the league. There is no sign in and nothing to download.