Dynasty Start-up Draft (1 Viewer)

[I was in the pool]

I convinced a few of the local redraft owners I play in a league with to give dynasty IDP a shot in 2011. We settled on the roster size, scoring, etc. I wanted to know the best way to draft the league. I love the startup drafts I've seen in the other thread with all the trades and strategy. What is the best way to draft so that trading is encouraged during the draft? We meet and have a draft party for the redraft league, but this dynasty draft will likely be online even if a few of us get together.

My first thought is that a live online draft with a 1:30 clock per turn makes trading virtually impossible and that the slow email draft is the way to go. Thoughts? I think they would need some convincing because somehow 4 straight hours on a weekend is easier than checking in on the draft a few times a day over the course of a week or so....

Thanks in advance for all the opinions.

 

[bengalbuck]

In my opinion, the easiest way to encourage a lot of trading is to pick the draft order at least a week in advance (and to get a good group of owners). I've been in 2 dynasty startups and in the 1st, the order was picked and the draft started immediately (email draft, 12 hour clock). Despite the fact that the draft took forever (like 2 weeks), there weren't many trades. I believe there was one trade before the draft started (the #1 overall pick was traded), but other than that, there weren't any pre-draft and only a dozen or so trades (with 14 owners) overall in 20+ rounds.

In the 2nd startup draft I participated in, earlier this summer, the order of the draft was set but the draft didn't start for a week or two. A lot of us owners were kind of antsy to get started which led to a ton of maneuvering before the draft (probably 20 trades) and then plenty more once the draft finally started, even though the draft moved much quicker than the 1st league I was in. I think the increased activity was partially due to the wait as it allowed time to think about moves, negotiate them back and forth and get to know the other owners, etc. Also, a good group of owners who all had different strategies and enough confidence and knowledge to make trades helped. Nearly all had been in dynasty leagues previously and with the draft being in June of a year with a lockout going on, it attracted die hards. Lastly, (and this isn't for everyone) the startup draft was veterans only (no rookies) and the rookie draft was separate (will take place soon). That also led to more trades as some owners were willing to move down in the startup to move up in the rookie draft and vice versa which seemed to be the catalyst for many of the trades.

Here's a link. Its hard to even figure out who was initially slated to have which pick as half the 1st rounders changed hands at least once:

http://football29.myfantasyleague.com/2011/options?L=59285&O=17

 

[hook014]

Don't be surprised in a slow draft that you get more done on weeknights than weekends. If just one guy has a commitment, birthday, BBQ, etc it holds up the whole draft.

But on week nights after dinner people are free to show up and draft. Just my experience.

 

[sspunisher]

Awesome question, I'd love to see some other responses. My draft is a slow online draft so I did what I'm about to explain to you in an excel spreadsheet...

But what I did was make a draft board and label each pick (1.01, 1.02, etc). When a name gets called, I'll delete 1.01 and write in Adrian Peterson for example. But then owners are aware of the picks. I then made a ON THE BLOCK area in the spreadsheet, where everyone would update the players or picks they wanted to trade away. Below that, I had a negotiation area. Basically each team had a column and below that was TEAM X. So if I had an offer to make, I'd just find my column, delete TEAM X and write in whatever team the offer was for. The discussions would bounce back and forth. I'd also have a TRADES ACCEPTED area, so if a trade is accepted, I could clear up the negotiation area.

Couple things: Our draft is scheduled to be a slow draft, so that'd be much more difficult in a 1:30 second clock draft. Dry erase board with some tape would work if you'd like to make something to use at a draft instead of a spreadsheet, unless everyone will have a laptop at the draft. It's cool b/c it's a Gmail shared document, so everyone sees it update if one person changes it.