The Z Files: Online Auction Tips

Nothing beats the real thing. However, due to the circumstances, many fantasy leagues are opting to conduct their auction online. Some younger, more tech savvy crowds are incorporating video conferencing, or even running their entire auction in that manner.

Last week, Tout Wars was forced to move our four auctions online. As the member of the five-person board overseeing the group with the most experience in this area, I took the lead organizing and administering the festivities. What follows are some tips for running and participating in an online auction. For the record, we used Fantrax as I am very familiar with their platform and confident I would make it work. That said, the ensuing discussion transcends all site mechanisms.

Even though Tout Wars weekend went off smoothly, I'm kicking myself for not remembering a league I've been in for several years has used CBS to run our online auction with the league commissioner mandate we're all on an audio Skype call. I have no idea if our auctions would have worked even better or have been more enjoyable with everyone able to speak with one another. I do know it's added to the experience in the private league. While obviously the hope is we never have to deal with this situation again, next time I'd include a group Skype call.

For those wondering, sure, you can carry out your entire auction via some sort of audio conferencing. Back in the day, before online auction software was available, auction via conference call was a common practice. Some may prefer it, but be prepared to deal with everyone having to tag each bid with their name (or team name) and be cool about breaking ties. In addition, more frequent money checks are necessary. Expect your conference auction to take longer than the in-person version.

Commissioner Tips

1. If you are not already, become intimate with the commissioner controls

Make sure you understand how to roll back players, suspend/resume and nominate for other participants. Learn how to control the timing mechanisms (nomination, delay until the count and reset time when a bid occurs during the count). Determine if these settings can be adjusted during the auction.

2. Learn the layout of the room

Know the location of the draft board and where to find rosters and budgets. Explain how everyone knows when someone else is in the room. Get a feel for the chat mechanism, exploring it to see if there's a means to send and recognize a private message to another participant.

Most sites allow for a direct bid (typing in the desired amount) along with "+" bids. That is, there's a "+1" button, increasing the current high bid by $1. Some sites have "+2", "+5" etc. Explain to everyone while using the "+" mechanism may increase chances of being the next person to raise, you can get caught at the business end of a jump bid and be saddled with a player for more than you intended.

Thoroughly understand how to nominate and how to set up a queue, including how the search function works. Check to see if there's a means to pre-load personal rankings.

Determine how the room handles multiple eligibility players. Does it automatically move them around, allowing the drafter to bid on all players they are legally able, or does the drafter have to manually move players around, physically clearing the position so they can bid? By means of example, say a roster has Jose Abreu at 1B, Brian Anderson at 3B, Justin Turner at CI, and Nelson Cruz at UT with an open OF spot. C.J. Cron is nominated and the person wants to bid. Will the site recognize Anderson can go to OF with Turner filling 3B, clearing CI, or does the drafter have to shift the players around themselves before bidding? If the person must do it, explain this and detail how.

Take screenshots of as many of the above as possible and send it to the league, describing how to access/utilize each.

3. Contact support and inquire about any known compatibility issues.

Most sites are designed for desktops/laptops and in the current scenario, hopefully everyone will be able to do the auction in that manner. However, many are more comfortable on other rectangles. Some of the room features, such as audio, may not be compatible with tablets or phones. Sometimes, the room works best on a particular browser. Contact site support and find out the optimal devices and those which are incompatible. As an example, Fantrax works with Mac products, but the audio doesn't work with Safari; it's necessary to use Chrome to hear the auctioneer.

4. Double and triple check all settings are correct

If you're running the auction on the same site the league uses, you should be all set. Otherwise, specifically set roster requirements and position eligibility. Often, the default positions aren't in sync with your league parameters. Identify players with an incorrect eligibility and find out if there is a means to force the proper eligibility. This is most apropos for minor leaguers and players coming from overseas.

Make sure the player pool has everyone eligible in your league (most do). Along these lines, verify the room can accommodate how you handle Shohei Ohtani. As an example, on Fantrax, Ohtani's default eligibility is UT. Tout Wars uses two separate Ohtanis (pitcher and hitter). Therefore, I had to force pitcher eligibility onto the pool Ohtani and ask his nominee to declare which version. When someone wanted to nominate the other Ohtani, they were instructed to use a placeholder with no chance of being drafted and announce the nomination in the chat. Since Ohtani is only UT eligible in most leagues, it may be necessary to predetermine the Ohtani hitting surrogate and force UT only eligibility so only those with an open UT can nominate and bid if the pitching version is already off the board. If this is the case, relay the information to the league so everyone is aware and there is no confusion in the room.

If you find something in your rules not meshing with the player pool, be creative finding a workaround, using surrogate players or expanded rosters filled with placeholders to be dropped after the auction. To illustrate, American and National League Tout Wars utilize a swingman (SW) position in lieu of the fifth outfielder. The SW can be occupied by any hitter or pitcher. Fantrax doesn't have that specific position, so we added a second UT and 10th pitcher along with giving everyone $261 to start the auction. Once everyone had their legal 23 players, they were instructed to declare and nominate a surrogate who they would obviously win, completing their roster. If they filled SW with a batter, a pitcher proxy was used and vice versa.

5. Keeper league commissioners

Most sites allow commissioners to declare keepers and salary, automatically adjusting each player's budget. The key is absolutely ensuring everything is set up correctly with all the keepers accounted for, placed in the right positions and assigned accurate salaries. The reason this is so important is most sites don't allow keeper adjustments once the auction has commenced. If a mistake is discovered, there's usually a clever workaround, but it's best to avoid the scenario. The best process for checks and balances is to require each participant to confirm their team's validity as well as one other so everyone's squad gets two sets of eyes, along with the commissioner's.

6. Schedule a practice run in advance of the auction date

Insist everyone attends, unless they are accustomed to using the room in other leagues. Some sites allow for mock drafts. Other don't require payment until later, so you can go through the practice and let the league disappear. Worst case scenario is running the practice on your league site and backing out all the pretend purchases.

Run the mock until everyone is comfortable. Test out all the features on your end along with asking the participants to stay long enough so they're comfortable with the nomination and bidding process.

One of the keys to an online auction is the nomination. Personally, my advice is setting an extremely long nomination time (two or three minutes) and trusting everyone to be respectful and courteous. Even with a practice session, nominations may be slow at the beginning of the real auction. There's enough going on, preach patience and understanding. As commissioner, the room will follow your lead. Everyone is already on edge with the current scenario. Do your best to keep the auction cordial. Long nomination times can be frustrating but it's just not worth getting tilted. The auction should serve as an escape, not ignite short fuses. To that end, encourage everyone to keep a loaded queue, facilitating the nomination process.

As the auction proceeds, there's nothing wrong with shortening the time before the auctioneer begins the automated count as well as the reset time after someone bids during the count. During the practice run, experiment with different combinations. Decide on something comfortable to use at the outset, in the middle and for the end game. Make sure you give everyone a heads up when adjusting the settings.

The most common issue encountered is inability to hear the auctioneer. Hopefully, you were out in front of this by contacting support for incompatibilities. If a problem persists, suggest trying alternate devices or browsers. If this doesn't work, collect as much information as possible (device, operating system, browser, etc) and contact support. If the issue can't be solved, make sure the person can follow the countdown clock and suggest they don't tempt fate and just bid without letting the count approach running out.

7. Contact info

Share as many means of contacting you as possible, within the limits of what you'll able to see. That is, if you don't plan on having Twitter or Facebook open, tell everyone not to use direct messaging or chat. If you have a land line and cell, ask for calls to the land line, leaving the cell clear for texts.

Be liberal with respect to rolling players back, assuming the drafter contacts you in a timely manner. If a player is sold but someone was unable to bid due to a technical issue, roll back, nominate the player again and have the person originally winning take the bid to that amount. From here, only the person with the technical issue and initial winner can bid.

8. Timing

Without knowing how fast/slow you usually conduct your auction, it's impossible to say whether the online version will be faster or slower. That said, by means of perspective, Tout Wars usually takes four to four and a half hours for 12-team leagues, including breaks and reserves. Online, the entire process lasted about an hour longer.

9. Reserves

Some sites allow for reserves to be done on site directly following the auction, while others require reserves to be done separately. If this is the case, it's best to set up a Google Doc spreadsheet and grant everyone editing access. When it's their turn, they type in the name of their pick.

Drafter Tips

1. Practice run

Even if you've used the room previously, attend the practice. Who knows, your expertise may come in handy.

Don't leave the practice until you are completely comfortable, and then stay for another round or two of nominations.

The areas to be fluent are nominations (including search), setting up a queue and bidding. Know where you can see your roster and your competitors, including available money, players needed and max bids. If necessary, learn how to move players around your roster.

2. Too busy to attend the practice run

See #1.

3. Keep it simple

I don't use drafting software such as RotoWire's, or another source such as Rotolab or the Fantistics, so who am I to say not to use it during the online auction. That said, keeping the software up to date along with following along in the room can be a chore. Obviously, use the practice run to get used to doing both, but be prepared to abandon the draft software if you get too far behind. It's easier to orate a bid when frantically catching up than switching keyboards or windows.

4. Courtesy and patience

These aren't mutually exclusive. Do your best to be prompt with nominations, but don't get put off by others taking more time. There are far more important things to worry about than waiting an extra 20 or 30 seconds for someone to make a nomination.

5. Be careful with the "+" buttons

Some benevolent commissioners may roll back the auction after someone announces they got caught by a jump bid, but most will chalk it up to caveat emptor.

A personal tactic is to quickly jump players I want to a few bucks below my max price. This is a common ploy in live auctions as jump bids often serve to freeze out others, but in online auctions it serves another purpose. If someone is caught by a jump bid and raises, you're still below the highest price you'll pay so you can bid more. More importantly, after a jump bid, everyone is more cautious, allowing you to get the bids in before them.

6. Technical issues

If you lose connectivity, or freeze, contact the commissioner as soon as possible so the auction can be suspended. The faster you alert everyone, the better the chance of a roll back.

During breaks, reboot your system.

To reiterate, nothing matches the atmosphere of a live auction. However, assuming some semblance of a season is played, the thrill and camaraderie derived from in-season competition lies ahead. An online auction isn't ideal, but it sets everyone up for what will hopefully be months of something closer to normalcy. Please feel free to share your own observations and tips in the comments. I'm happy to help concoct a workaround to any speed bump encountered in the process.