import { Link } from "react-router"; import { Button } from "app/components/ui/button"; import { ScoringPointsTable, QualifyingPointsTable } from "~/components/marketing/ScoringTables"; export function meta() { return [ { title: "How To Play - Brackt" }, { name: "description", content: "Learn how to play Brackt and compete in multi-sport fantasy leagues", }, ]; } export default function HowToPlay() { return (

How To Play

Brackt is a multi-sport fantasy league where you draft athletes and teams across dozens of sports, then watch your roster compete all year long. Here's everything you need to know to get started.

{/* The Big Picture */}

The Big Picture

Before the season starts, everyone in the league participates in a draft by picking real teams (and athletes in individual sports) across a set of sports chosen by your commissioner. Over the following months, those picks compete in their actual seasons. When it's all said and done, whoever earned the most points from their picks wins.

{/* Building Your Roster */}

Building Your Roster

Your league includes a set of sports selected by the commissioner, such as the NFL, NBA, Golf, Formula 1, Tennis, and more. Your roster has one dedicated spot for each sport, so you need to draft at least one pick from every sport in the league.

Extra draft rounds beyond the number of sports create{" "} flex spots. Flex picks can come from any sport. These are great for grabbing a second (or even a third and a fourth!) player in a sport where you see value, or doubling down on a safe bet. How you use your flex spots can be the difference between winning the league and finishing at the bottom of the table.

Example:{" "} Your league has 20 sports and 24 draft rounds. That means you fill 20 dedicated sport spots and have 4 flex picks to use however you like.

{/* How Points Work */}

How Points Work

Points are awarded based on where your picks finish: 1st through 8th. The better they finish, the more you earn. Your commissioner can adjust point values before the draft, but here's what a typical league looks like:

If nobody in your league drafted a team that finishes in the top 8, those points aren't awarded to anyone in your league. In other words, if no one picks Indiana to win the NCAA Football championship, the manager who drafted Miami, the team that lost to them, still only would receive the 2nd place points.

{/* Major-Based Sports */}

Sports with Majors

Some sports don't have a single championship, they have multiple major tournaments spread throughout the year. Classic examples are golf and tennis, but other sports may be scored by majors as well. You can see on your league pages how each sport is scored. For these sports with majors, players earn{" "} qualifying points (QP) {" "} at each one:

QP don't go straight to your score — they determine the final ranking within that sport. Once all the majors are done, total QP are added up, and whoever's ranked 1st through 8th earns the standard league points. Consistency across majors is the key.

{/* The Draft Room */}

The Draft Room

Because Brackt is a "draft and done" league, the draft is your only opportunity to take action. Once the final pick is made, your roster is locked for the entire year. There are no trades, waivers, or mid-season pickups. Your success depends entirely on the strategy you execute during the draft.

{/* Timing Mechanics */}

Timing Mechanics

The draft uses a snake format where the pick order reverses every round. You can configure the timing of the draft using one of two primary mechanics:

  • Standard Clock: {" "} A traditional fixed countdown (such as 60 seconds per pick). It is a straightforward and consistent pace.
  • Chess Clock (Fischer Increment): {" "} This system uses a Time Bank and an Increment. You start with a pool of time (for example, 2 minutes). Each time you make a pick, a set bonus like 15 seconds is added back to your bank. This allows you to pick quickly in the early rounds to save up time for more difficult decisions later on.
{/* Flexible Pacing */}

Flexible Pacing

These mechanics can be applied to any draft speed. Whether you want to finish in an hour or over the course of a week, the system scales to your needs:

  • Live Drafts: {" "} Uses short timers (seconds or minutes) for a fast-paced, single-session event.
  • Slow Drafts: {" "} Uses extended timers (hours) for leagues that want to draft over several days. Slow drafts include a customizable{" "} Overnight Pause . The commissioner sets a uniform window (such as 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM) where the clock stops for everyone. This ensures no one is forced to make a pick in the middle of the night.
{/* Queue and Autodraft */}

Queue and Autodraft

To keep the draft moving regardless of the pace, you can use the{" "} Draft Queue{" "} to pre-rank your targets. If your clock expires, the system automatically selects the highest available player from your queue. If your queue is empty, the system will select the highest-ranked athlete remaining in the pool to ensure the draft never stalls.

{/* The Meta Game */}

The Meta Game: Brackt

Some leagues include Brackt as an optional meta-sport. Instead of drafting an athlete or team, you draft{" "} another manager from your own league. At the end of the season, their final overall fantasy ranking — 1st through 8th across all the other sports — earns you the standard placement points.

Strategic angles:

  • Draft timing matters — managers who pick strong early show higher projected value.
  • Drafting yourself is allowed and is a valid strategy.
  • Brackt scores are revealed at season end, after all other sports finalize.

Brackt is resolved automatically once every other sport concludes. It's the last piece of the puzzle — and sometimes the most dramatic.

{/* During the Season */}

After the Draft

Once the draft ends, your roster is locked. No trades, no waivers, no pickups. Just watch your picks compete across the year and see how your draft decisions play out. Points accumulate as sports seasons wrap up, and standings update in real time.

If there's a tie in the final standings, it's broken by who has more 1st-place finishes. If that's still a tie, it goes to 2nd-place finishes, then 3rd, and so on.

{/* Links */}

Want the full breakdown? Read the{" "} official rules .

); }