DRAFTS · 05 of 05
What is Chaos Mode?
Chaos Mode is one extra round at the end of a draft. Not a round of picking. A round of stealing.
When the last pick is made, the draft doesn't close. Everyone gets an email that says CHAOS MODE, and nobody is safe until it's over.
It's off by default. The commissioner turns it on.
How a round of chaos works
Protect one
Pick one of your own picks to protect. Nobody can take it. Choose the one you'd be most upset to lose, or the one you think everyone else wants. Those aren't always the same pick.
Steal one (or don't)
Then name one pick from someone else's haul to steal. Or choose NO STEAL and keep your hands clean. Nobody has to steal.
Then it all happens at once
Nobody sees anyone else's moves. You can change yours as often as you like. The moment the last player locks in, every steal lands at the same time:
- The pick was unprotected: it's yours now.
- The pick was protected: you get nothing.
- Someone else went after the same pick: nobody gets it. Greed cancels out.
Every steal is judged against the board as it stood after the last pick, so the order people submit in never matters. If you steal from Charlie while Charlie steals from you, you both get what you went after.
What you see after
The draft closes, and a CHAOS RESULTS section shows what everyone protected, what they went after, and whether it worked. Stolen picks are marked on the board. Then you vote for the winner, with the rosters as they ended up.
The fine print
- Everyone in the draft plays, commissioners included.
- Skipped picks can't be protected or stolen. If you have no real picks, you have nothing to protect, but you can still steal.
- The commissioner can switch Chaos Mode on or off any time until the last pick is in.
- Positional drafts (the QB, RB, WR kind) can't use it. A stolen pick would need a slot to land in.
- Anyone who hasn't locked in gets a reminder every day for a week, then every week after that.
Should you turn it on?
A normal draft ends with the last pick. Every argument after that is about whose board is better. Chaos Mode gives the argument one more chance to change the board itself.
It also changes how people draft. Grab the obvious favorite early and you have to protect it, which means everything else you own is fair game. (Which, if we're being honest, is the kind of paranoia that makes a group chat worth reading.)
Leave it off if your crew wants the draft to be the draft. Turn it on if your crew believes no lead is safe.