Preferred Draft Type - Auction or Snake?

[Hawkeye21 1,852]

I'm sure this has been brought up on here before but I haven't seen anything lately so I thought I'd ask because I enjoy discussing it.

 

I had always just done the typical snake drafts in the past and most were just auto because it was easy and I didn't have many friends at the time that played fantasy football. About six years ago I joined my brother's draft and they do a live auction draft. It's more of a hybrid style though to speed things up some. We get $100 to draft 10 players and then do a snake draft to finish out the final 6 of the roster.

 

After doing this I struggle getting anywhere near the enjoyment I get from an auction draft. The prep and planning along with strategy makes it so much fun. I know it's time consuming and that's the biggest reason most don't do it. What are your thoughts?

[petekrum 20]

A snake draft is checkers, an auction draft is chess. I much prefer auction, as it allows me to more closely build the team I want.

[weepaws 2,456]

In two leagues that are auction and two that are snake , like either one myself . Like the fact that I get do to both it mixes things up .

[Hawkeye21 1,852]

I'm in up to 10 leagues each year. A combination of snakes and auctions drafts. Some regular some dynasty. Nothing beats a good auction draft though. I've already started working on my spreadsheet for player values. Not many stat projections are available yet but I'm putting in the rookie draft class.

[Quickolas1 80]

A snake draft is checkers, an auction draft is chess. I much prefer auction, as it allows me to more closely build the team I want.

well said

[Flgatorguy87 160]

I play both and enjoy both. One is think on your feet and the other allows for a more direct reflection of your strategy going into the draft.

[Voltaire 4,556]

I love auction drafts, just can't ever find anybody that wants to do them. I love hearing you guys talk about them like they are a legitimate option, maybe they're getting more popular without me realizing it.

 

Man, it's been years and I'm getting a real itch to start one now.... free .... long online draft. Anybody interested?

[Flgatorguy87 160]

I'll play

[Col Hogan 2]

How would you do a long online auction?

[Hawkeye21 1,852]

You don't have to know anyone to do an online draft. Only one of my auction leagues is with people I know, the rest are just random online leagues. If you want to get into one just go to the league finder section of the forum. If you want practice I saw that Yahoo already has mock auctions open. As for doing a long auction, they are all long basically. They take about three hours.

[Voltaire 4,556]

How would you do a long online auction?

The last time I did it, and this is a while ago so my memory may not serve me, it took a long time, like a bit more month. It was significantly longer than a slow draft, like double. What Hawkeye's talking about is getting everybody together online for about three hours which we can do too.

 

The way we did it worked pretty well and I remember the jist of it. Let me outline my thinking a bit. Toss everything I'm about to say out if we agree to do a live auction in which case maybe Hawkeye could take the lead in organizing it as commish rather than me.

 

We had 12 participants and up to 12 players available all the time. We'd all start at first throwing a name in. If you threw a name in, you also bid $1. Once a high bid stood for 24 hours, it closed. The guy who got the player would then be required go ahead and bid another $1 to submit another name.

 

After rosters were full some folks had used all the money some didn't. That leftover money was done/unused/gone. We'd go into the season with our rosters full and all start with the same money for FA pickups if we'd spent all our money at the draft or not.

 

I'll flesh it out more. If we can get eight interested we'll do it for sure. Ideally I'd like twelve or fourteen. if it's a go, I'll bug Mike to set us up a new forum where we'll conduct the thing then take it over to a free site to play. I'm familiar with and like ESPN, CBS, and Yahoo well enough (MFL is still my favorite but is a pay site). But I'd like to kick the tires at somewhere I'm not familiar, people around here have said good things about fleaflicker, I've never been there but -if you guys don't mind- this'd give me an excuse. Once we get our participants we'll give us a couple of weeks to get our heads on straight and figure out what we're doing and comb over the 2014 results before we go. Speaking for myself, I am NOT ready to draft for 2015. Although I follow all the daily transactions and news all offseason not just draft time, I'm still hibernating a bit and feeling lazy. It's usually July when I kick into gear not May.

 

And again, this is cost-free to participate. If I say we have $1000 budget, that's imaginary fantasy money with no need for PayPal. I'm not collecting a real penny from anyone. Also, like I said, this is how a slow draft would work. If we want a one session three hour one, it seems Hawkeye has been around the block a few times doing it online and so would surely know better than me what to do.

[Flgatorguy87 160]

I like it. Waiver bid system as well?

[Hawkeye21 1,852]

I have never heard of doing a draft like that Voltaire. That sounds like it would take forever.

[GreenTD 56]

I have never heard of doing a draft like that Voltaire. That sounds like it would take forever.

This is what I was thinking. So at the 23rd hour another owner bumps the bid $1, the 24-hour timer restarts again? Training camp would start before you ever get finished.

 

The auction drafts I've done are where an owner nominates a player for $1 & everyone can bid with a 15-second timer restarting each time the bid gets raised. Total draft time takes about 3 hours but gives each owner ample time to place bids. Used ESPN personally & have enjoyed their auction set-up.

 

I only do one auction style redraft each season but it's one of my favorite leagues. A much different strategy compared to snake drafts. It allows you to target your top end studs as well as sleepers. Plus the fun of trying to drive up bids on a player that you have no interest adds another strategy. I did this last season & ended up going too far with this strategy. Got "stuck" with the player I bid up. That was Jordy Nelson. Sometimes it works out in your favor & sometimes it doesn't.

 

Strongly encourage anyone who hasn't done an auction draft to try it this season.

[Flgatorguy87 160]

I think his goal is to have an open time frame but it is difficult in the auction format.

[Hawkeye21 1,852]

This is what I was thinking. So at the 23rd hour another owner bumps the bid $1, the 24-hour timer restarts again? Training camp would start before you ever get finished.

 

The auction drafts I've done are where an owner nominates a player for $1 & everyone can bid with a 15-second timer restarting each time the bid gets raised. Total draft time takes about 3 hours but gives each owner ample time to place bids. Used ESPN personally & have enjoyed their auction set-up.

 

I only do one auction style redraft each season but it's one of my favorite leagues. A much different strategy compared to snake drafts. It allows you to target your top end studs as well as sleepers. Plus the fun of trying to drive up bids on a player that you have no interest adds another strategy. I did this last season & ended up going too far with this strategy. Got "stuck" with the player I bid up. That was Jordy Nelson. Sometimes it works out in your favor & sometimes it doesn't.

 

Strongly encourage anyone who hasn't done an auction draft to try it this season.

 

I use ESPN and Yahoo both for doing auction mocks. I'm hoping to do a Yahoo one one of these days when I get some time.

[Voltaire 4,556]

I like it. Waiver bid system as well?

Yes. Money resets after the draft. Everybody starts the season equally whether they spent all their draft money or not.

[Djgb13 2,338]

Never did a serious auction draft before. Like the others said it is definitely a chess type of draft. You can go in there and blindly start bidding $50 on someone like ODB or Bell. You'll be left with nothing for the other spots. I prefer the snake draft just cause I don't have the time to prepare for auction drafts

[petekrum 20]

Auction drafts seperate those who know what they're doing from those who don't. You'll see a lot more 10-3, 11-2, and 3-10, 2-11 type final records in an auction league.

[GreenTD 56]

Auction drafts seperate those who know what they're doing from those who don't. You'll see a lot more 10-3, 11-2, and 3-10, 2-11 type final records in an auction league.

Yes & no.

 

I think in an auction draft, you'll see a huge difference between good auction drafters & newbies.

 

Newbies will spend all their money on 3 studs & round out their rosters with scrubs. Good drafters will get one stud & load up on a bunch of tier two players. This results in solid depth & a more competitive squad.

[petekrum 20]

Yes & no.

I think in an auction draft, you'll see a huge difference between good auction drafters & newbies.

Newbies will spend all their money on 3 studs & round out their rosters with scrubs. Good drafters will get one stud & load up on a bunch of tier two players. This results in solid depth & a more competitive squad.

Uh yeah, that's exactly what I said

[kutulu 1,545]

I have never heard of doing a draft like that Voltaire. That sounds like it would take forever.

 

Volty is a doosh, first of all.

 

Never met someone who did an auction and after didn't agree it was the best, fairest way to go, but I could never convince my high school buddies to change. Some people just like the same old same old.

 

At a certain point, an auction "turns" into a regular draft as owners run out of money and those left only have dollar bids. Course if you can out bid at that point $2 to $1 you may be able to find some nice sleepers at the end

[Hawkeye21 1,852]

I like the way my Houston league does it. Everyone gets $100 to draft their first 10 players. After that we take a break and then start a snake draft to pick up our remaining 6 players. It works perfect and speeds things up some.

 

I have never talked to anyone that hasn't liked an auction draft yet. The biggest reason they don't do them is because of time restraints. I can't even gets friends together to do a live snake draft because no one has the time.

[Super Cubs 132]

on average how long does a live 16 round auction draft take?

 

we keep 6 and draft 10 rounds keeping the same draft order each round and it takes us almost 4 hours

[Voltaire 4,556]

I like the way my Houston league does it. Everyone gets $100 to draft their first 10 players. After that we take a break and then start a snake draft to pick up our remaining 6 players. It works perfect and speeds things up some.

 

I have never talked to anyone that hasn't liked an auction draft yet. The biggest reason they don't do them is because of time restraints. I can't even gets friends together to do a live snake draft because no one has the time.

If we can get enough bodies to do a live draft, that could work. The slow draft is safe but time consuming.

[Voltaire 4,556]

Volty is a doosh, first of all.

I realize you guys don't care and the last thing I want is to hijack this thread to bring up something I could never prove but there's a back story here. I'll just put it out there, but I'm not going to respond to other posts. I'd as soon put this behind me, not restart the conversation.

 

During the Super Bowl playoffs the year before last, kutulu cheated in a contest by editing his selections after the playoffs started. Since his entry had been accidentally skipped by the guy running it, he took that to mean that he could change his selection and re-enter the contest after the games had started. Likely nobody was double checking and he could get away with it. But as it turned out I DO pay attention to this stuff. You could say I tend to be obsessive. I was onto him, knew he was full of sh*t, and called him out on it immediately. We had a huge fight, it was pretty nasty. Others nominally took my side, but none were sure like I was, they only were pretty sure I was right without having the certainty I had. Lots of back and forth name calling. We took our problem to Mike which made us both look juvenile and stupid. Unfortunately, the site admin doesn't have a function to record which posts have been edited. So... Nothing.

 

So it was all pretty funny to those watching and they got a big laugh at our expense. Since I couldn't prove my case -the only thing I did prove is how excessively hyper competitive I am and how frequently I helicopter over fun stuff, get bent out of shape when people cheat, and take it way more seriously than others- my reputation went in the ringer along with his.

 

And I soon realized nobody knows nor few really cared what happened...

 

I don't bring it up with him anymore, I just ignore him, but we're the only two who know the truth. In the end, his cheating didn't affect the outcome of the contest, but it did effectively give him a first round bye and he was able to ride all the way to the Super Bowl until he got eliminated. Obviously, we've not made up.

[Flgatorguy87 160]

Well this thread escalated quickly..

[Hawkeye21 1,852]

on average how long does a live 16 round auction draft take?

 

we keep 6 and draft 10 rounds keeping the same draft order each round and it takes us almost 4 hours

 

When I do mock auction drafts online they take between 2.5 to 3 hours. I would just set aside 3 hours for an auction draft no matter what.

[WhoDat 1]

Acutally, Im in a 12 year old Dynasty league and we did it auction. 16 teams, starting budget $200 a team. What this did was keep down that meddling $1 bump and another 24 hours. Also, we had ALL 16 team nominate 1 player for $1 so that we had 16 players on the auction at all times.. It didnt take as long as one would think. And we have IDP's, and a 41 man roster. Its been a BLAST. Auction took less than a month. multiple players were coming off everyday. Folks put out players at put a $30-$40 cost, they spent a 1/5 of their budget but got the player they wanted. Best way to go. EVERYBODY has a shot at everybody. Just depends on how high you'll bid for him..