Best Practices for Holding Evaluations

This guide explains the recommended evaluation flow used by most leagues.

The Recommended Evaluation Flow

Most leagues follow this exact sequence:

1. Import players

2. Import volunteers

3. Lock evaluations and hide evaluator averages

4. Unlock evaluations when evaluations begin

5. Evaluators score players

6. Lock evaluations when evaluations end

7. Unhide averages before the draft

8. Optionally hide averages again after the draft

If you follow this flow, you avoid early scoring, score manipulation, and confusion around rankings.

Step 1: Import Players

Start by importing your players.

You can import players directly from your registration software. No changes are required before importing. This is the fastest and most common method.

Once players are imported, they will be available for evaluations.

Step 2: Import or Add Evaluators

Next, invite the people who will evaluate players.

You have three options:

• Import volunteers from your registration system

• Use the volunteer import flow, which links to a detailed help article

• Manually add evaluators one at a time

After evaluators are added, they can be invited immediately or later.

Step 3: Lock Evaluations Before Inviting Evaluators

Before inviting evaluators, most leagues lock evaluations.

The Lock Evaluations division setting prevents evaluators from scoring players.

Key points:

• Only admins can change this setting

• Locking and unlocking applies instantly to all evaluators

Locking evaluations before invitations prevents early or accidental scoring.

Step 4: Hide Evaluator Averages Before Evaluations

Most leagues also enable Hide Average before evaluations begin.

When this setting is enabled:

• Evaluators only see their own scores

• They cannot see the all evaluators’ average

• Only admins can see all evaluators' average

This setting cannot be bypassed by evaluators.

Hiding averages prevents evaluators from adjusting scores to influence rankings.

Step 5: Unlock Evaluations When Evaluations Begin

When evaluations officially start:

• Unlock evaluations

• Evaluators can now score players

All evaluators can enter scores during this window.

Step 6: Lock Evaluations When Evaluations End

Once evaluations are complete:

• Lock evaluations again

This prevents further changes to scores.

Many leagues lock evaluations immediately after the final evaluation session.

Step 7: Unhide Averages Before the Draft

Before the draft, most leagues unhide evaluator averages.

When averages are visible:

• Coaches can see player rankings

• Rankings are based on the all evaluators’ average

This gives coaches a shared reference point for drafting.

Step 8: Optionally Hide Averages After the Draft

After the draft, you may choose to hide averages again.

This is optional and based on league preference.

Controlling Who Contributes to the Average

On the Evaluators page, each evaluator has an Include Scores option.

• Checked: their scores are included in the all evaluators’ average

• Unchecked: their scores are excluded from the average

This is useful if:

• You want only trained evaluators included

• You want to exclude guest evaluators or observers

This setting does not affect whether an evaluator can score players. It only affects whether their scores count toward the average.

Summary

The most common and recommended setup is:

• Import players and volunteers

• Lock evaluations and hide averages

• Unlock evaluations during evaluations

• Lock evaluations afterward

• Unhide averages for the draft

• Optionally hide averages after the draft

This approach keeps evaluations fair, consistent, and easy for everyone involved.