User Guide - NBA Category Auction

User Input

User input is required in yellow highlighted fields.

• Enter your League ID in the Yahoo League ID field. Your League ID can be found in your league's settings page or in the URL of your fantasy client.
• Checkboxes for one-time actions (Authorize Yahoo Fantasy API, Update League Settings, Update Player Prices, Update Player Projections, Update Avg/StDev Values) will remain checked after completion. These actions may be repeated if necessary by unchecking and checking the checkbox again.
• Checkboxes for repeatable actions (Run Algo, Update Draft Results) will be unchecked after completion. Please wait until the checkbox is cleared to run again. If the checkbox is not clearing for an unusual length of time, the action trigger may have failed, so please try unchecking and checking the checkbox again. If you are continuing to have issues, please contact us for support.

Algo Variables

• Start with Must Draft off. The Algo will be faster with this off.
• Max Algo Time of 5 seconds is typically good. You can adjust it depending on how fast or lenient you want the Algo to be, although if you set it too short, the Algo may not have enough time to find valid rosters.
• Budget Adjust and Opp $ Leftover are typically used during a live draft in order to more accurately account for the inflation/deflation of player prices.
• Cheap Players and Cheap Price can be set to match your preference for the quality of your bench players. These settings only apply for Daily Lineup leagues since the Algo will not select bench players for Weekly Lineup leagues.

Team Scores and Z Scores

The Algo uses math to generate the ideal roster for your team, so to understand why the Algo picked these players, you need to know what a Z score is. A Z score is a measure of how far (above or below) a stat is from the average. Z score of 0 = average, Z score of 1 = one standard deviation above average, Z score of -2 = two standard deviations below average, etc. In short, higher is better and lower is worse. Player Z scores for each category are shown in Player Data columns Y to AG.

• Average Team Score is the Z score of your team's average in a stat category. These values show how good or bad your team is projected to be in each category. Average Team Score Total is the sum of your team's average Z scores across all categories. This can be seen as the overall strength of your team.
• Adjusted Team Score accounts for the punt strategy applied by the Algo. Categories that are punted will likely have very low Average Team Scores, bringing down your Average Team Score Total. Adjusted Team Score Total fixes this by ignoring the punted categories, reflecting the strength of your team given your punt strategy.
• Effective Team Score takes the Adjusted Team Score and applies a cap (Z goal + .2) to each category. This measures how well-balanced your team is across the categories. For example, a team could punt several categories and have insane Average Team Scores for REB and BLK, but be average or below in the rest of the categories. The Adjusted Team Score Total will be inflated because of REB and BLK. A team that is above average in many categories will have the advantage over this team. Effective Team Score Total accounts for these scenarios.
• GP (Games Played) Z score is not included in Team Score calculations. All averages and standard deviations are weighted by GP to account for projected player availability, and are adjusted for league size. This is done by activating Update Avg/StDev Values.

Player Prices

• $Avg: Yahoo $ Average shown for each player during the draft. These values are retrieved from Yahoo directly, providing a rough estimate for how much a player may go for in a draft.
• $Val: The auction value of a player based on projected stats and league size. Algo Fantasy assumes a budget of $200 per team. See Default Z Scores for more details.
• $Adj: In order to estimate the auction price of a player, you must account for the available money in the entire draft. The total amount of money in a draft depends on the size of the league and fluctuates throughout the draft as money is spent on players. The Algo calculates the inflation/deflation value as the adjustment percentage $Adj% at any given point in the draft. This is applied to the $Avg for each player to give a more accurate estimate of the price of a player in the draft at the given moment.
• $Paid: The actual price paid for a player in the draft. These values are retreived from Yahoo directly.

Default Z Scores

• On the My Team page, you can turn Default Z Scores on or off.
• When On, Player Z scores remain unmodified and represent projected stats compared to league averages.
• When Off, Player Z scores are multiplied by the Z score multipliers from Algo Outputs on the My Team page, adjusting Z scores to your current draft strategy.
• $Val is calculated based on current Player Z scores. With Default Z Scores On, $Val shows the baseline value of that player given their projected stats. With Default Z Scores Off, $Val shows how much a player is worth to your specific draft strategy.

Punt Variables

In H2H Category leagues, punting is a valuable strategy that can really give you an edge over other teams. The tricky part is creating a balanced team that excels in all the other categories. The Algo handles this for you.

• Under Punt Variables, turn off the categories you want to punt. Try testing different combinations to see what works best.
• The Z Score Target is the target threshold value that the Algo will use to generate your roster that has an Average Team Score above the Z Score Target for every category that is not punted. For example, if you are punting 3PM, PTS, and TO with a Z Score Target of .150, the Algo will search for the best roster that has an Average Team Score of .150 or higher in FG, FT, REB, AST, STL, and BLK.
• A higher Z Score Target will equate to a more well-rounded highly projected team, but if it's set too high, the Algo may fail to find a suitable lineup that meets the Z Score Target requirement.
• As you prepare for you draft, search for punt combinations that's maximize the team scores while staying competitive in as many categories as you can.

Do Not Draft

• Manually enter player names to exclude them from your roster.
• Utilize this feature to test draft strategies or to avoid players you prefer not to draft.
• Player names are simplified (punctuation and suffixes are removed) and must match exactly as shown in Player Data.

Must Draft – On

• When Must Draft is on, the Algo identifies players crucial to your strategy by testing alternate lineups without each player in your ideal roster.
• These are the players you may be willing to spend extra money on.
• The number of Must Draft players identified by the Algo can also be an indicator of how flexible or ambitious your current draft strategy is. You may wish to adjust your Punt Variables accordingly.
• The Algo will also display a Backup Team roster to provide an example of different roster that fits the current draft strategy.
• Having Must Draft on may make the Algo slower, so turn it off for quicker results during the draft.

Player Data

• The Player Data page contains player info, player prices/values, custom player projections imported from our projections dataset, and player Z scores based on these projections. Projection values are similar to those from Yahoo or other major sources.
• You can overwrite player projections by entering new values in Player Data, but activating Update Player Projections will overwrite your edits to the projections.
• Yahoo $Avg prices fluctuate frequently throughout draft season, and the Algo is heavily dependent on the player prices. For best results, activate Update Player Prices periodically and prior to your draft.
• Player names have conditional formatting to show availability during the draft—players already drafted are greyed out and players selected by the Algo are highlighted green.

League Teams

• The League Teams page contains every team in your league and the players drafted by each team during the draft.
• Team info is updated by activating Update League Settings, and drafted players are updated by activating Update Draft Results.
• Use the Team Comparison Tool to compare your team with other teams in your league. Just enter their team name in the Opp Team Name field.

Daily vs Weekly Lineups

• Your league's setting for Daily or Weekly lineups will be fetched directly from Yahoo into the Roster Type field on the My Team page.
• Utilize Cheap Players and Cheap Price to adjust to your league's setting on Daily or Weekly lineups.
• For Daily lineup leagues, all of your players contribute to your weekly score. Drafting stronger players in your bench is more likely to be beneficial. Set Cheap Players to around 2 or less depending on your preferences.
• For Weekly lineup leagues, only your starting lineup will contribute to your weekly score. Your bench is less consequential to your success. The Algo will output only your starting lineup. Draft your remaining bench players using $Val on Player Data or using your own fantasy expertise.

Pre-Draft Preparation

• Try different punt combinations and search for appropriate Z Score Target values that allow the Algo to succeed. Identify various builds and key players based on the Algo roster outputs.
• Try removing specific players using Do Not Draft, to see different combinations of players that exclude certain players.
• Try choosing a player and manually enter his name under your team on League Teams A:T. You can run the Algo to find suitable teams for that player containing that player.
• Try a Mock Draft with Algo Fantasy. Enter the League ID for your mock draft in Yahoo League ID field. This will enable live draft result integration with your mock draft.

Live Draft

• Before the draft, update player $Avg prices by activating Update Player Prices.
• Set your Algo Variables and Punt Variables to your desired settings. You may wish to adjust your settings as the draft progresses.
• Activate Update Draft Results at any point retrieve all currently drafted players. Do this before activating Run Algo for the most current and accurate results.
• You can turn Must Draft on to see which players are key to your strategy, and turn Must Draft off when you are running the Algo during time pressure.