TellyDraft is an interactive game based on your favorite reality TV shows. In the game, players create or join "leagues," which are groups of players (otherwise known as "league members"). Within leagues, each member takes turns choosing a contestant from the current season of the show to be on their team (or "roster"). This process is called "the draft". Once the draft is completed, the game begins.
From that point on, as each episode of the show airs, league members earn points based on the actions of the contestants within their roster. At the end of the season, the league member with the most points wins the game for that league.
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After creating an account, you will be taken to your dashboard. From your dashboard, you have two options: "Join a Public League" and "Create a Private League".
"Public Leagues" were designed for players who don't know other fans. If you click the "Join a Public League" button you will be automatically placed into a league with other (randomly selected) TellyDraft players. You can join up to 4 open leagues each day.
If players join an open league and then become inactive during the draft, TellyDraft will automatically enable auto-draft for them. A member is considered inactive when it has been their turn to draft for over 12 hours.
"Private Leagues" were designed for players who have a group of friends, family members, or co-workers in real life that also watch the show. Private leagues give you the option of inviting specific people to a league.
If you create a private league you become the "commissioner" of that league. League commissioners have a specific set of responsibilities, including sending out invitations to the other players and starting the draft after all players have responded to their invitations.
Part of the responsibility of a private league commissioner is to send out invitations to the league. Invitations are sent via the invite link presented on your league dashboard.
Simply send the invite link to anyone you'd like via email, text message, etc and they will be given the option to either accept or decline the invitation.
An additional responsibility of the league commissioner is to start the draft for their league. This is done by clicking the "Start Draft" button that appears
Ideally, the draft should not be started until each invited league member has either accepted or declined their league invitation. Once the draft begins new members cannot be invited to the league, and any members who had not explicitly accepted their league invitation will be removed from the league.
A TellyDraft league "draft" is the process during which each league member takes turns picking which contestants will comprise their roster. Each league member can choose one contestant during each draft round, in an order that is randomly determined. The draft is a "snake style" draft, meaning that whoever picked last during one round will pick first during the next one.
The draft automatically ends once there are no more contestants to choose from. If you were unable to get a contestant you wanted on your roster, trades can be made proposed between league members during the season.
League members have the option to trade contestants during the season. This gives members the opportunity to add a contestant to their roster that they were unable to pick during the draft.
To propose a trade, click the "Propose Trade" button on your league trade page. You will then be asked to select the contestants you'd like to remove from your roster, and the contestants you'd like to add to your roster in their place. Contestants who have already been eliminated cannot be traded. Once you propose a trade, the member who owns the contestants you requested will be given the option to either accept or decline your proposal.
If your trade proposal is accepted, the traded contestants will move between rosters at the end of the current week (a TellyDraft "week" ends when a contestant is eliminated, or when the final contestant is eliminated during a multiple-elimination week). You will not receive points earned by traded contestants before they were on your roster, and likewise, you will not lose points earned by traded contestants if you trade them.
If a trade is accepted, and one of the contestants involved in the trade is eliminated at the end of the week, the trade will be automatically canceled.
League members have the option to request "swaps". A swap involves dropping a contestant currently on the members roster in order to pick up a contestant that was either not picked up during the draft or added to the season after the draft finished.
Requesting a swap does not guarantee the swap will be completed, as multiple members can request a swap for the same contestant. Instead, a swap priority order is determined by our system each week to decide which swaps are completed. This process is kicked off at the end of each week after an elimination.
League members earn and lose "points" in TellyDraft when contestants on their roster make certain actions in the game. For instance, if a contestant on your roster wins the Head of Household, you will earn points. If they are nominated for elimination, you will lose points.
Points are only earned or lost for actions that occur during aired episodes of the show. Points for achievements that happen before the league's draft ends do not count, unless points are backdated. More on that below.
As previously mentioned, points for achievements that occurred before a league's draft ended do not count towards the league. For example, if your league's draft starts before episode one but ends after, any points earned during episode one will not count. In private leagues, however, league commissioners can override this by backdating points. The "Backdate Points" option can be found in the league settings dropdown, and if the owner enables it, points for every achievement from the beginning of the season will be counted towards the league.
From before the season premiere until shortly before the first elimination, users have the option to select their "Winner Pick". Your Winner Pick represents your gut feeling on which contestant is going to win the entire season. After choosing your Winner Pick, the Winner Pick page will update to show a list of the contestants from most to least likely to win statistically, based on the average votes from our users.
From before the season premiere until shortly after, users have the option to select their "First Boot Pick". Your First Boot represents your gut feeling on which contestant is going to be eliminated first. After choosing your First Boot Pick, the First Boot Pick page will update to show a list of the contestants from most to least likely to be first eliminated, based on the average votes from our users.
Each week, users have the option to rank all contestants in the season from their most to least favorite. Once your rankings are submitted for a week, they cannot be changed. In addition to your own rankings, the popularity page will also display all contestants from most to least popular, based on the average weekly rankings by all of our users.