How a snake draft works

In a snake draft, you and your league mates take turns picking players in a set order — but that order doesn't repeat every round. It reverses. That back-and-forth pattern is the "snake."

Draft order

Before the draft, your league sets (or randomizes) a pick order — for example, 1 through 12 in a 12-team league. Round 1 runs in that order: team 1 picks first, then team 2, and so on through team 12.

Why it reverses

Round 2 runs in the opposite order: team 12 picks first, then team 11, down to team 1. Round 3 flips back to the original order. Every round alternates direction — that's what keeps any one team from picking first (or last) every single round.

Why pick position matters

Picking first in round 1 gets you the top player on the board — but then you wait the longest of anyone before your round-2 pick, since the order reverses and you're now picking last. Picking last in round 1 means you pick again almost immediately at the start of round 2 (often called "the turn"), at the cost of everyone else picking ahead of you first.

• Early picks (near #1): first choice of the best player available, but the longest wait until your next pick.
• Late picks (near the last slot): a short wait between your first two picks ("the turn"), but the whole league picks ahead of your very first selection.
• Middle picks: no extreme wait and no extreme first-pick advantage either way.

A quick example (12-team league)

Round 1 goes picks 1 through 12. Round 2 goes 12 through 1. Round 3 goes 1 through 12 again. So the team picking 1st picks at overall picks 1, 24, 25, 48... and the team picking 12th picks at 12, 13, 36, 37 — that back-to-back 12/13 pair is the turn.

Where to see this in Tier One Picks

The Draft room tracks the live pick order and whose turn it is, and surfaces an AI-backed pick suggestion once you're on the clock.