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Live drafts are one of the best parts of fantasy football. Getting people together in a room to draft their fantasy teams is a tradition like no other. But what makes for a great live draft? Here are some things I have found from my 20+ years as a fantasy manager:

If you’re going to do a live draft, you have to have a live draft board. Back in the day, this was the only option, but with the advent of mobile phones and WiFi, they’ve become something of a relic of a time gone past. People can still draft on their devices, but it’s way more fun with the in-person touch. Trust me: Get a draft board, and get one with stickers.

If you have the time or the money, you can also hire someone to be in charge of placing the stickers and announcing the picks as well. This is a fun twist to a live draft that I’ve seen multiple times, but I have never done this myself. This is even more fun in auction drafts where you can have someone act as an auctioneer. Think of them as the emcee of the event, announcing each pick to the room and making the entire draft that much more grandiose.

If you opt not to have someone run things, you can still have fun yourselves. I love the added pomp and circumstance of walking up and placing the sticker on the board of the player you’re drafting. It just feels right. It’s a way to add a little bit of drama to every pick. Some like to make it quick and simple while others like to play into it. Either way, it makes things so much more fun than just clicking a button on your laptop or phone.

In most of my live drafts, we’ve selected our draft slot well ahead of the draft itself. I don’t mind this at all because it lets you plan things out and do a lot of mock drafts from your draft slot, but it also gives your opponents time to prepare. We don’t need that.

Assigning a draft order right before the draft allows the better players to get an advantage. If you’re reading this, you’re probably already in the top 25% of all fantasy managers. This will benefit you. Trust me. It also allows you to make the draft order process a lot more fun by adding a game to it or picking numbers out of a hat with everyone present. It’s chaos, but it’s worth it.

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This one’s a little underappreciated, but you definitely want to make sure everyone in attendance has the ability to plug in their mobile devices if needed. Most live drafts take a few hours and with all of the information available, people will want to have their computers to help them out. As long as your league allows this, it’s something you want to check before you plan your spot.

Alternatively, one thing I’ve heard of as a twist to this is to NOT allow any mobile devices at all at the draft. This puts everyone on equal footing and takes some of the luck out of things. I even heard of one live draft where the commissioner handed everyone the same rankings list to draft off of and you couldn’t bring your own. It seemed extreme but also sounded like a lot of fun as something different.

You don’t really need to “add” trash talk to have a great live draft; it’ll most likely come naturally, and that’s what makes it great. Getting everyone in a room together tends to bring the trash talk out organically. People will comment on each other’s picks and make snide remarks when they get sniped. It’s so much more fun than reading messages via chat, trust me.

In my home keeper league, we have a trophy that gets engraved with the winner each year. This trophy gets presented to the last year’s winner at the draft and that manager holds the trophy all year, likely on their mantle for the world to see. With the new draft year, it’s a nice touch to have a small ceremony to present that trophy to the new owner. It allows them to gloat and everyone else to get jealous.

Right after that, we tend to have our loser punishment go into effect as well. In our league, the worst team the previous year has to wear a custom-made Colin Kaepernick T-shirt for the entire draft that never gets washed. It’s a small thing but a fun way to call out the loser without being too rude. Not every league has a rule like this, but we like it as a way to make coming in last as unappealing as possible. That, and it’s just hilarious how bad that shirt smells with each passing year.

Something else our home league does is we have a whole day of activities planned around the draft. We almost always draft on a Friday and a lot of us take the whole day off. It’s pretty much a holiday for me, and my boss knows it. Whoever can make it goes out to lunch, and maybe to the casino before the draft. After it’s all done, some of us stay up late playing cards. If you’re going to get together with your friends once a year, you might as well make a day of it. I highly recommend making plans around your live draft as well.

The No. 1 thing you need for a great live draft is three of the four Fs (the last F being family). Anytime you can get friends together for a fun activity with some great food, you’re in for a great time. A lot of drafts will involve drinking some alcohol, but be careful. Drinking too much (or at all) can really wreck your season. Know your limits, and take care of yourself.

That being said, getting your buddies together once a year to draft is one of the best parts of fantasy football. If you draft at a bar or restaurant, pick one with a good menu. You’re going to want options. If you’re drafting at someone’s house, either plan on ordering pizza or make it a potluck. Whatever you do, make sure you have tons of great food, and some of your closest friends, and you’ll be sure to have fun.

If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Trade Analyzer – which allows you to instantly find out if a trade offer benefits you or your opponent – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.

Andrew Hall is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Andrew, check out his profile and follow him @AndrewHallFF.

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