Using Bravara's Auto-Draft to Create Balanced Teams

Auto-Draft is an easy, automated way for your league to evenly distribute players onto teams without manually selecting each one. It's especially useful for blind drafts where player identities aren't shown, just their evaluation scores.

How the Auto-Draft Works

When you run an auto-draft, players are automatically assigned to teams based on their evaluations or rankings to ensure fairness and competitive balance.

Before the Auto-Draft

To ensure the auto-draft works smoothly, certain things need to be set up in advance:

• Frozen Players: Coaches and their children (e.g., Coach John and his son Jack) should be pre-assigned or "frozen" to their specific teams before running the auto-draft. This ensures they are placed correctly during the draft.

Bravara provides a step-by-step wizard that walks you through all these necessary preparations, so there's no need to worry about missing a step.

Draft Rounds

You can customize each round of your draft based on specific criteria. Here's how it works:

• Round-specific Criteria: You can set each round to focus on a particular skill or overall ability. For example, if you're running a softball league:

  • Round 1 might be for pitching, so players who tried out for pitching will be ranked specifically on their pitching scores.
  • Round 2 could focus on catching.
  • Round 3 might look at overall skills, combining hitting, throwing, and fielding scores.

• Randomized First Round: The order in which teams draft in Round 1 is randomized, ensuring fairness.

• Automatic Selection: Bravara assigns players automatically based on the criteria you've chosen. Coaches or administrators don't manually pick players during auto-draft; Bravara handles everything.

Handling Siblings

Bravara identifies siblings based on the guardian's email address. This helps keep siblings on the same team automatically:

• If siblings have different skill levels, they won't necessarily be placed in the same round. Instead, each sibling will be drafted in the round that matches their individual skill level.
• For example, if one sibling is highly skilled and rated for Round 1, and another needs more development and is suited for Round 6, they'll both end up on the same team but at their appropriate rounds.

Hat Picks

Players who haven't been evaluated will be "hat picks," meaning they're randomly assigned to teams at the end of the draft. To ensure the best possible team balance, evaluate as many players as possible before the draft.

Draft Methods

There are two types of draft methods you can choose from:

• Dynamic Draft (Recommended):

  • After each round, Bravara checks the cumulative skill ratings of teams.
  • Teams with lower overall ratings pick first in the next round, creating more balanced teams.
  • This approach has been tested thoroughly and results in teams that are more evenly matched.

• Snake Draft:

  • Teams pick in a fixed order that reverses each round (e.g., 1-5, then 5-1).
  • This method is simpler but doesn't balance teams as effectively as the dynamic draft.

Undo and Trades

• After the draft, you can easily make changes or trades between teams.
• There's also an Undo button that resets the entire draft if you need to redo it. Redoing the draft will yield the same result every time unless you have new players added or removed.

Important Notes

• Always ensure guardian email addresses are accurate to effectively identify siblings.
• Choose the dynamic draft method for the most balanced teams.
• Remember, the auto-draft system is fully automatic, but you're always free to adjust teams after drafting if needed.