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Hi everyone! Thanks to the many folks who took the Auto Draft survey. I wanted to take a moment to share my impressions, along with some planned follow-ups.

Key Takeaways

1. Quick Draft is the clear favorite. About 70% of respondents prefer the Quick Draft. That’s not a huge surprise, but it is a big number—and it really highlights how valuable the Quick Draft experience is to the site.
2. Daily Drafters are fewer, but passionate. While a smaller audience prefers Daily Drafts, they largely like the format as it exists today. Their needs are different from Quick Drafters: they enjoy the slower pace, having more time to think, and build their roster on a schedule that works with busy lives.
3. Most respondents only care about baseball. A whopping 75% of responders said they have no interest in basketball or football. This didn’t surprise me, but it does underscore how hard it is to gain traction with other sports. Baseball is uniquely well-suited for a stats-based sim, while other sports are simply less intuitive in this format. (I absolutely love the basketball game, and I know we have a passionate fan base in basketball, but there just aren’t as many of them.)

What’s Next?

Despite the lower popularity of other sports, it’s clear that a Quick Draft option for basketball and football is highly desired—and it may even help draw a few more players to those leagues.

This also required a Waiver feature for those sports, which I’m happy to report is now LIVE. Custom basketball and football leagues can start using waivers immediately.

Improving the Baseball Quick Draft

Overall, the feedback on the current Quick Draft balance was very encouraging. Many people appreciated how the new formula keeps teams more competitive than in the past. That was great to hear, especially considering the initial drama around the change (including a few folks leaving the site over it). Your feedback reinforces that this was the right move for the long-term health of Pennant Chase.

That said, two recurring concerns came up:

• The draft can feel repetitive
• Some owners struggle to fill all positions

The repetition issue is admittedly tough to solve—it’s somewhat the nature of the beast. However, I think we can make things feel more dynamic by:

• Adding a slightly larger player pool to each league
• Ensuring owners are offered players at all positions, especially late in the draft when a position remains unfilled

Quick plug: If repetition really bothers you, check out Random Player leagues. They use a fresh player pool every season and offer a totally different experience.

Bots, League Fill, and the Draft Room

Interestingly, there weren’t many complaints about bots. Still, I plan to revisit how bots fill leagues so that we prioritize humans joining first, with bots stepping in only to fill the less desirable final spots in Quick Drafts.

I’ll also continue trimming down the overall number of leagues—this is an ongoing effort to keep things healthy and active.

As for the “Draft Room” idea, many people found it intriguing, but there wasn’t enough enthusiasm to justify pursuing it right now. That said, I do have ideas for special one-off leagues that I think people will enjoy, and that’s something I’d like to experiment with this year.

Other Draft Ideas

Several of you suggested ideas like hybrid drafts or auction drafts. I’ll definitely keep these in mind, although the site really shines with Custom Leagues, so I don’t want to over-invest in endless variations of Auto Drafts.

That said, some of these ideas could absolutely fit into future one-off or experimental league formats.

While I know a few of you would like a faster Daily Draft, there was a lot of passionate feedback to keep it exactly as it is—so no changes are planned there.

And yes… hockey. I know it’s still on many wish lists. That said, many people once wanted basketball and football too—especially football—and now hardly anyone plays them. Building a new sport is a multi-year commitment, followed by permanent maintenance, so it’s hard to justify lightly. I’ll never say never. Hockey is still possible someday, and I admit it would be a fun project. We’ll see where things go.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to share feedback. It genuinely helps shape where Pennant Chase goes next.