All About That Email Draft

Fleaflicker offers three different draft options, the live draft, an import rosters feature for offline drafts, and an email draft. This article walks through the ins and outs of the email draft.

Fleaflicker’s convenient email draft tool is the perfect option for commissioners who anticipate having a hard time coordinating a live draft date and time or simply want to take their time with the draft.

You can start a live draft whenever you like, and owners can visit the site at their convenience to make their draft selection. All members of the league will get notified via email as each pick is made.

Here’s how the email draft works: 

Step 1: Commish starts the email draft via League Settings > Start Email Draft
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Step 2: The email draft banner appears on the site and owners get an email that the draft has started

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Step 3: The owner with the first pick of the draft goes into the Players Draft listing

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Step 4: The owner uses the initial Draft button to select their player, then selects Draft again to confirm their choice; the player is added to their roster

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Step 5: The league is alerted about the pick as the draft moves to the next owner; the email includes who is on deck for the upcoming picks

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Steps 3-5 continue in a cycle until the draft completes!

FAQs About Email Drafts:

  1. How long will the email draft take?
    Email drafts, also referred to slow drafts, can take a few weeks to complete, depending on league size, roster size and any custom time limitations commissioners mandate. Commissioners should keep this in mind of they are getting close to the start of the season. A 4-team league drafting 5 players a piece may finish in a week, and a 24-team league drafting 22 players may take a month.
  2. Can I schedule an email draft?
    Not currently — you simply start the email draft when you are ready to get going and it kicks off right away. You can communicate to your league when you plan to start it via a league forum post and/or by putting it in the Commissioner’s Note on the main league page.
  3. Can I stop an email draft after a certain number of rounds?
    Yes, you can end it when you want to by using League Settings > Stop Email Draft.
  4. Can I reset an email draft? 
    If you stop a draft and need to clear out anyone drafted thus far, go to League Settings > Clear Non-Keepers and this will clear the board for you.
  5. Can I transition from an email draft to a live draft to finish it out quickly?
    Yes, you can do this by going to League Settings > Finish Email Draft as Live Draft.
  6. Is there an email draft timer feature I can use to set a time limit on picks?
    We don’t have a timer feature currently for the email draft (this only exists with a live draft), but we hope to add one in the future. For now, the commish would need to communicate to the league that there is a specific time limit they want everyone to adhere to, and perhaps stipulate that if they go past the deadline, the commish will make their pick for them. The commish could also encourage any owners who know they will be offline to send the commish their top picks so that the Commish Draft feature can be used to draft for them.
  7. How can I draft for another owner? 
    If you need to draft for another owner, simple go into the Player Draft listing and you will see green Commish Draft buttons you can use for the selection.
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  8. Can owners trade picks and players during an email draft?
    Yes, they can. Picks can be traded for the current draft or future drafts as well. Commissioners should consider using the Commish Execute option to push trades through quickly or you might end up going past the traded picks spot(s) in the draft. Make sure your owners are aware that there are scenarios where they may not end up with supplemental picks added to the draft if they decide to trade away players.
  9. Can I remove owners during a draft? 
    Yes, you can remove an owner by going to League Settings > Remove/Replace Owner, and you can also invite a new owner in during the draft as well!
  10. Is there an auto-draft feature for email drafts? 
    Not at this time, although we do offer this in live drafts. For now, we recommend any owners who know they may be offline and unable to make their pick in a timely manner to send their top choices to their commish to Commish Draft for them.
  11. Can I back up the draft?
    You can have the most recent person who drafted cut their player to undo the most recent pick. If you need to go back several picks, just go in reverse order and have each owner cut their most recently drafted player until you get to where you need to be in the draft.
  12. What if owners are being prevented from adding a player because they have hit the max threshold for that position? 
    You have two options:
    1) You can stop the draft, update your roster maximum settings, save all of the players drafted so far as keepers and then restart your draft, or
    2) You can “call an audible” — consider allowing owners in this situation to choose veteran players still in our system or 5th stringers that wouldn’t otherwise get drafted as placeholders and “call an audible” as to which player they want. The commish would communicate that that player is off limits for draft purposes, and after the draft, use League Settings > Edit Rosters to remove the placeholder and then add the correct player(s) to the roster(s).
  13. What if an owner traded a player during the draft and didn’t get a draft pick added to replace that player?
    You have two options:
    1) You can “call an audible” — consider declaring a pause when you get to the point in the draft where they should have had their pick and allow the owner to declare which player he wants to add. The commish communicates that that player is off limits for draft purposes, and after the draft, uses League Settings > Edit Rosters to add the player to the roster, or
    2) You can direct the owner to use the waiver system to complete their roster after the draft.
  14. I’m not getting draft emails. What do I do? 
    First, check your email alert notification settings and make sure you are opted in. Secondly, make sure the emails aren’t going to your spam/junk file. If you spot them there, mark them as “not spam” and considering adding our email address (info@fleaflicker.com) to your contacts/address book.

We hope this article helps give you more insight into how an email draft works! Please reach out if you have additional questions we can help with.

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