The Creation of PC Drafter

by Brandie Searle

“There has to be a better way.”

That was the phrase I kept repeating to myself every year when I prepared for my fantasy draft. Being a person who takes competition seriously, I would literally spend hours or days each year preparing my player projections, looking at bye weeks and team schedules, and making spreadsheets to track what players each team was drafting.

During the draft, all these pages of information would be organized so I could properly track the draft and plan out my next pick. While this organization and preparation led to reasonable success, I still kept wondering how I could simplify all this work to make the draft more enjoyable, without giving up my competitive edge.

In those days, very few leagues were computerized. Our weekly scoring was completed using the USA today and paper and pencil over a lunch with friends. Our draft was primarily in-person, with a few people calling in their picks if they couldn’t physically be at the draft. (Always annoying those of us who were in person, as large amounts of time were wasted trying to recap the draft several times each round.) During the year, transactions were either called or mailed to each owner, and free agent pickups were all by phone. We eventually moved to an online league management system when they became more prevalent to automate the in-year transactions.

However, one thing that was still missing was any good toolset to actually help during the draft. Yes, some sites provided cheat sheets. However, these were not dynamic and configurable to match my league and my projections. Additionally, the ones that were available were all web-based, which didn’t really help my offline draft. It was this background that led to the creation of pcDrafter.

When I designed the software, I listed the important features that I needed to include. It had to track player projection and include the league scoring rules to calculate the points projected for each player. It had to track each team throughout the draft and provide simple views to quickly modify my strategy throughout the draft. Most importantly, it had to update the player rankings throughout the draft so that I could accurately see who was the most valuable player for every pick.

It was the last requirement that ultimately led to the “Simple VBD” player valuation method contained in pcDrafter today. The Simple VBD method is based on the core Value Based Drafting principles. First, the points for each player are calculated. Secondly, the league roster requirements are checked to determine how many players from each position will typically start for each team. The number of starters provides the scoring baseline for each position. At this point, the players at each position are compared to this baseline position score to calculate a draft “Value” for each player. The real power of pcDrafter is that this value is updated throughout the draft, thus ensuring that as players from different positions are drafted, the most valuable players are always displayed first.

When I was preparing for my first draft using pcDrafter, I also realized that I spent a lot of time validating my projections by running mock drafts. This was time consuming to make every pick by hand and then compare these results between each run to determine if there were any players I needed to modify. This led me to add the “Mock Draft” feature. This allowed me to run any number of mock drafts for my league to help me pan my draft strategies. As part of the mock draft, I also added the small feature that allowed the mock draft to stop at my picks so I could really have the feel of a real draft.

Once I had the software completed and the calculations were tested, I was ready for my first draft. It was an overwhelming success. During the draft, I no longer needed to worry about shifting through papers. Other people were definitely jealous, and I was literally spending zero time on mundane tasks like updating the roster after each pick, tracking players that were still available, and determining who other teams might draft. I could actually spend time relaxing an enjoying the draft between each pick.

“That sound great, but how did the season end?” you’re probably asking. This particular league (one of two leagues in which I participate) is a very competitive 14-team league with very strict roster requirements and experienced owners. PcDrafter led me to back-to-back league championships the first two years after it was developed. In the 8 years I have used pcDrafter, I have won two Championships, participated in the league championship game 3 other occasions, led the league in scoring 5 times, and set the all-time lead scoring record 2 times.

Three years ago, I entered an auction league with another group of friends. As soon as we started planning this league, I knew I had to modify pcDrafter to support the ability to manage an auction league draft. Never one to be satisfied, I knew that not only did I want pcDrafter to track the money being spent by each team and the money bid on each player, I also wanted pcDrafter to calculate how much I should spend on each player. More than anything, managing your money wisely is the key to auction success and I wanted to make sure the pcDrafter helped me spend my money wisely.

Providing pcDrafter with the ability to accurate judge the bid amount for each player took some time to develop, but the final results were perfect. I started by again determining the “Value” for each player based on their position and their league rules. At this point, I again look at the number of players that will be drafted from each position. I also determining the total money that will be spent during the draft and the minimum bid that must be made for each player. By determining the value of all the players that can be drafted for a position, I allocate an appropriate amount of money to each position. Once the money is broken up into each position, I then go through each position again and based on the Value of each player, I can assign a projected bid amount.

Once the player calculations were ready, I was ready for pcDrafter to see what it could do in a real draft. The results were again spectacular. During the draft, other owners were spending most of their time tracking how much money they had to spend, how much money other teams were spending, and what players were being drafted. I literally spent only 5 seconds on this for each pick (just long enough to select the player and assign a dollar amount). PcDrafter took care of the rest. While other owners were trying to keep up with their paperwork, I was adjusting my strategy and simply having a good time. While pcDrafter has not led to a championship yet in this league, I could not see ever doing another draft without it.

Early this year, I was approached and asked if I would be interested in distributing pcDrafter to other people. After considering the request for a good 10 seconds, I jumped at the opportunity. While pcDrafter was initially developed for my personal use, I enjoy thinking about how the tool can help other people with their drafts.

In addition to taking my existing code, an exciting new “Gold Algorithm” was developed with help and insights from Greg Alan at 4for4.com to help drive the pcDrafter player rankings. The Gold Algorithm takes Value-Based Drafting to a whole new level by targeting each pick to your specific team. It considers what players have been drafted in your league, by other teams, and by your team and looks at the remaining players to value each pick. In this regard, it takes dynamic player valuations to a whole new level to accurately make the best suggestion for each pick by further automating the thought process that goes into each selection. When I saw this in action during our sample drafts, I was blown away and am looking forward to using it out this year myself.

As you’re using pcDrafter for your league, I’d love to hear any feedback. While I can’t guarantee you’ll have the same level of success I enjoy, I can guarantee that your drafts will be easier and more enjoyable. Feel free to email me at any time ( ) with either positive feedback or opportunities for improvement.

Good luck and good drafting.

Sincerely,

Brandie