Alternative Draft Position Method (1 Viewer)

[Atticus]

With some of the talk that has been going on about the problems with the basic serpentine draft and the attempts to remedy the advantages and disadvantages of this method, I thought I would describe what my league mates and I do that seems fair.

The league that I'm in has done something that I haven't really seen done before. We've been doing it for the past 14 years. We pull a new draft order for every odd round and we just serpentine for the even rounds. For example, this year I have the 9th pick in the 1st and then 4th pick in the second, just like a normal serpentine draft. However, in the third round I have the first pick and therefore I have the last pick in the 4th. And it switches up again in the fifth. We continue this method through all 18 rounds. We've found this to be the most random and fair way of balancing out the draft. Anyone else do something similar?

 

[sweetness34]

Not trying to come across as a jack-A at all, but auctions solve all these problems. My league loves it. It's worth it, trust me.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

We've done this for years in my local redraft league. But it doesn't really "balance" anything - it's completely random so there's no offsetting (except by accident) of perceived disadvantages in certain draft spots. There are probably more "fair" ways to balance a draft (double-secret-reverse-upsidedown serpentines or some such), but I really don't think it's all that important. We do it mainly for the spice factor & not in an attempt to balance things out.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Not trying to come across as a jack-A at all, but auctions solve all these problems. My league loves it. It's worth it, trust me.

Though I've never done an auction, it's hard to imagine a more fair way to disperse players IMO.

 

[Atticus]

Not trying to come across as a jack-A at all, but auctions solve all these problems. My league loves it. It's worth it, trust me.

I'm not really familiar with auction style leagues. Do you try to outbid your league mates in order to land the players that you want? The person who is willing to shell out the most wins? Or do you do it in such a way that teams could have the same players on them. In other words, players are given a specific value and you are given a salary cap and you fill your team accordingly?

 

[sweetness34]

Yes, we all have a fictional salary cap ($200.) We take turns nominating players and the highest bidder wins. Obviously, it's not that simple, but the basic premise is. Everyone has a shot at every player. that's the beauty of an auction. I know some guys love serp drafts, and that's fine, but once you try an auction, you'll (most likely) never go back. I'd be happy to give you more info if you'd like. Also, there are a few auction threads floating around if you do a search.

 

[Atticus]

We've done this for years in my local redraft league. But it doesn't really "balance" anything - it's completely random so there's no offsetting (except by accident) of perceived disadvantages in certain draft spots. There are probably more "fair" ways to balance a draft (double-secret-reverse-upsidedown serpentines or some such), but I really don't think it's all that important. We do it mainly for the spice factor & not in an attempt to balance things out.

I guess if you crunch the numbers enough you would find a method, such as 3rd Round Reverse, that balances out the draft positions more effectively, but there will always be a few owners who maybe don't "get it" and therefore would rather not do it. By choosing randomly from a hat or having a computer randomly pick every other round, we've found that fewer owners complain about draft position because you get a new chance every other round. It may not always be mathematically fair, but more owners than not will perceive it as fair. And in reality, perception is sometimes all that matters.

 

[Sclaffer]

We use this for our draft order:

12 Team League(pdf)

10 Team League(pdf)

Don't pay any attention to the numbers on the far right. We've used this for years and no one seems to mind. I've brought up switching to other ways of drafting, and everyone wants to keep what we've got.

ETA: We're a ten team, redraft league, and only draft 16 rounds, if this matters.

 

[face105]

I'm one of the apparent few who has done several auction drafts and actually prefer regular drafts. I won't go into every detail but I'll just say that I think it's more fun on about every level. I think for an auction to be successful you need to have a league composed of really involved owners. If they aren't they tend to get exposed during the auction. I know for many they'll say that that's the point. You should bring your A game, take advantage of their weakness and win it all, etc.... My feeling is that if even two out of twelve owners don't know what they are doing during the auction then it's fun and any advantage it would have over a regular draft goes out the window.

My keeper league does the first two round of the draft NFL style (1-12, 1-12) and rounds three through the end serpentine (1-12, 12-1). It works well.

 

[by_the_sea_wannabe]

Seems like the articles that Jeff Pasquino posted, that Third Round Reversal is the way to go, for non auction drafts

 

[by_the_sea_wannabe]

I'm one of the apparent few who has done several auction drafts and actually prefer regular drafts. I won't go into every detail but I'll just say that I think it's more fun on about every level. I think for an auction to be successful you need to have a league composed of really involved owners. If they aren't they tend to get exposed during the auction. I know for many they'll say that that's the point. You should bring your A game, take advantage of their weakness and win it all, etc.... My feeling is that if even two out of twelve owners don't know what they are doing during the auction then it's fun and any advantage it would have over a regular draft goes out the window. My keeper league does the first two round of the draft NFL style (1-12, 1-12) and rounds three through the end serpentine (1-12, 12-1). It works well.

I like both, but agree that I prefer "regular" drafts over auctions, I find it more fun. I will continue to do 1 auction a year though.

 

[Atticus]

Yes, we all have a fictional salary cap ($200.) We take turns nominating players and the highest bidder wins. Obviously, it's not that simple, but the basic premise is. Everyone has a shot at every player. that's the beauty of an auction. I know some guys love serp drafts, and that's fine, but once you try an auction, you'll (most likely) never go back. I'd be happy to give you more info if you'd like. Also, there are a few auction threads floating around if you do a search.

It seems that this would make trading an impossibility. It also seems like it would take for-GD-ever to get through a draft that way. I'm guessing it's simpler than it sounds though. How about free agents? How would that work?

 

[sweetness34]

Yes, we all have a fictional salary cap ($200.) We take turns nominating players and the highest bidder wins. Obviously, it's not that simple, but the basic premise is. Everyone has a shot at every player. that's the beauty of an auction. I know some guys love serp drafts, and that's fine, but once you try an auction, you'll (most likely) never go back. I'd be happy to give you more info if you'd like. Also, there are a few auction threads floating around if you do a search.

It seems that this would make trading an impossibility. It also seems like it would take for-GD-ever to get through a draft that way. I'm guessing it's simpler than it sounds though. How about free agents? How would that work?

To the guys who prefer regular drafts, that's cool - everyone has a pereference - i just happen to like auctions better (and I've done both as well.) to each their own. do you mean trading during the draft/auction or during the season? once the auction is over, trading works exactly like it does in regular leagues.

Yes, it takes quite a bit longer than a regular draft. i know some auctions take about the same length of time, ours happens to be quite a bit longer, but we love it. again, to each their own.

free agents work like a regular league as well. ours is a redraft league, BTW. the auction is used to acquire the players, after it's through, the league works like every other league regarding free agents, etc...

BTW - sorry for hi-jacking this thread. That wasn't my intent.

 

[sizzer55]

I'm one of the apparent few who has done several auction drafts and actually prefer regular drafts. I won't go into every detail but I'll just say that I think it's more fun on about every level. I think for an auction to be successful you need to have a league composed of really involved owners. If they aren't they tend to get exposed during the auction. I know for many they'll say that that's the point. You should bring your A game, take advantage of their weakness and win it all, etc.... My feeling is that if even two out of twelve owners don't know what they are doing during the auction then it's fun and any advantage it would have over a regular draft goes out the window.

My keeper league does the first two round of the draft NFL style (1-12, 1-12) and rounds three through the end serpentine (1-12, 12-1). It works well.

wow. the first couple rounds are by far the most important and the first two rounds are the main reason to have a serpentine. if you look at your #1 and #12 draft slots:slot #1's first four picks: 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.12

slot 12's first four picks: 1.12,2.12,3.12,4.1

i would call 1.12 and 2.1 pretty much a push. also, 2.12 and 3.1 are almost a push (yes the 12 slot has a slight advantage by picking first in both of these instances). so what is left? well if those picks basically cancel out then you're left with 1.1 and 4.12 versus 3.12 and 4.1.

your system gives a huge advantage to higher draft picks which is what the serpentine is designed to reduce.

we used to re-draw the serpentine order every other round but decided it was too much of a hassle and some guys liked thinking that they could take advantage of having the same draft slots throughout so we did away with the re-drawing the order every other round. i really don't see anything wrong with the normal serpentine. it's a fast, fair(in my opinion), easy, and non-confusing way to draft. some tweeks or variations of the normal serpentine are fine and may be just as fair. i also like in my league where we're allowed to pick our draft slots. we draw names from 1 to 12 and then #1 gets to pick whatever slot he wants and then #2 picks and so on.