Starting a League

Every league starts from a league file: the teams, players, contracts and coaches it begins with. The files on the New League sheet are fictional universes: thirty franchises in real cities with their own names, colours, arenas and logos, made-up players with realistic ratings and contracts, and real colleges, pro clubs and countries in the players' backgrounds. No player or coach in them carries a real person's name. (Some leagues that started before the universes, or that the site admin set up, use real rosters; nothing about them changes.)

When you create a league, the New League sheet lists the files with a badge, a one-line blurb, a few logos and the team and player counts. Every new league uses the North American Hoops Federation unless you pick another. Generated (a league of entirely new procedural players) is always on the list too.

Rosters built from real league data are only offered to the site admin and to accounts the admin has unlocked. Anyone else gets the default file.

• North American Hoops Federation (the default): thirty fictional clubs in real North American cities, stocked with today's level of talent.
• Federation Open: the same thirty clubs, with a player pool that is 40% international.
• Intercontinental Hoops League: thirty clubs from London to Lagos to Tokyo; most players come with club careers abroad.
• Federation Classic '84: back to 1984-85, that season's talent spread across the thirty Federation clubs.
• Federation Classic '89: the 1989-90 player pool, rebuilt across the Federation clubs.
• Federation Classic '09: the 2009-10 player pool, rebuilt across the Federation clubs.

Each club gets a sensible spread of guards, forwards and centers and a fair payroll. Coaches are fictional too. Players added later, and every draft class the league generates each season, get a real country, a name that fits it and a real school or club, with the international share the universe calls for.

Players without a photo, which in a fictional league is everyone, get a generated face. It's drawn from the player's identity, so it's the same face every time, on your phone, your computer and on cards. Faces are shown in black and white like the card photos, in a jersey (your team's, or a plain one for free agents and prospects). A face is only a face: it says nothing about how good a player is. While a face loads, or if one can't be drawn, you see an outline bust in team colours.

A league can start with a creation draft instead of set rosters: every player in the file goes into one pool and the clubs draft their teams from scratch. In the lobby you claim a team (switching is free); unclaimed teams are drafted by AI GMs, each card showing its persona (All In, The Rebuilder, The Mercenary, The Developer, The Quant, Old School, The Wildcard or The Rival). The lobby shows the random pick order, which the commissioner can reshuffle, and a preview of the pool. There's no ready button: the commissioner starts the draft whenever they choose, so claim your team before then. Starting means choosing a pick clock: 30 seconds, 5 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hours, or off (then the commissioner makes any picks that are left). No league days pass during the lobby or the draft.

The draft is a snake: the order reverses every round. AI teams pick at once. If your clock runs out, you get the best player you can afford from your own draft board, so keep it ranked. In a solo league your clock never runs out.

Every pick has to fit under the hard cap (the league's second apron) with room left for a minimum salary for each pick you still have to make. Players you can't afford are greyed out on the board. If nobody fits with that room held back, you can take anyone under the hard cap itself. If nobody fits at all, you pass and the slot is dropped. You're never stuck: contracts are fixed before the first pick, so the price you see is the price you pay.

When the last pick is in, undrafted players become free agents and the league opens a Training Camp window. Depth charts are filled from your drafted roster. Sign free agents (minimum deals sign on the spot; other offers settle on the next sim day), set your depth chart and game plan. If you have fewer than 8 players you get a note: sign some now, or the league signs minimum deals for you when the preseason opens on the next advance.

A multiplayer league has human GMs, a commissioner and a shared clock; any team without a human is run by an AI GM. A solo league is your franchise against AI GMs, and it's never public. You press SIM (to the next game, the next event, or a number of days, up to 14), offseason steps run as you go, and decisions you skip get sensible defaults. Trades go through at once, cuts need no approval, drafts have no clock and the awards are announced at the Finals. League settings replace the commissioner's area, including a trade difficulty (Strict by default; easier settings make AI GMs take worse offers). League chat, PP, cards, Reads and The Show all stay. Solo leagues have no invites, ready gate, advance notices, veto, Awards Night, league-wide splashes or GM vs GM games.

When season passes are switched on for the site, your first season in a league and the offseason after it are free, and each new season after that has to be opened. The more PP you earn yourself in a season, the less the next one costs, down to nothing; the PP page shows what next season will cost. One pass opens the new season in every league you play. Until it's open, a solo league's SIM stays locked, and in a multiplayer league your team is run by its AI GM while you watch.