Snake Draft

In a snake draft the order reverses every round, so that having a late first-round pick is compensated by an early second-round pick.

How it runs

In a 12-team league:

• Round 1: picks 1 → 12
• Round 2: picks 12 → 1
• Round 3: picks 1 → 12
• and so on

Manager 1 holds picks 1, 24, 25, 48. Manager 12 holds picks 12, 13, 36, 37.

The turn

Picking at either end of the order gives you back-to-back selections. The “turn”. Manager 12 picks at 12 and 13 with nobody in between.

This is a genuine strategic difference rather than merely a fairness mechanism. At the turn you can take two players from the same tier, but you also wait 22 picks between opportunities, so positions can be stripped bare while you wait.

Picking in the middle gives you more frequent, more evenly spaced choices and less ability to secure a pair.

Strategy

The recurring debate in snake drafts is between positional scarcity and best player available.

Scarcity reasoning says to take positions where the drop-off between tiers is steepest, because the difference between the fifth and fifteenth best player at a scarce position is larger than at a deep one.

Best-player reasoning says to take the highest-projected player regardless, since the waiver wire and trades can address positional gaps later.

Neither wins outright, and the correct balance depends heavily on scoring settings and roster requirements, which is why draft advice copied from one league format frequently fails in another.

Against auction

A snake draft is fast, simple and constrains you: you cannot have the top player unless you hold the first pick.

An auction draft removes that constraint entirely, everyone can bid on everyone, budget permitting. It takes considerably longer and is generally regarded as the more skill-intensive format.