We have a new setting available for leagues to use, and it's being offered as a way to help snake drafts be a little more balanced. 

Typically, most fantasy platforms offer two basic options for draft type - Linear and Snake.

Snake is more commonly used as it moves back and forth throughout the draft, giving the 1st and last teams in the draft order two consecutive picks every time.

3rd Round Reversal (sometimes referred to as 3RR) is basically what it sounds like. It's the exact same thing as a regular snake draft, except the direction of the draft reverses at the start of the 3rd round.

So instead of having the team with the 1st overall pick get two in a row to end the 2nd round and start the 3rd, that last team to pick will get the first pick in the 3rd round, and the draft will continue as a regular snake draft from thereon. 

In the above draft example, Ken drafted McCaffrey and Golladay with his first two picks, and would normally be up next to begin Round 3. Instead, Alex's team would get to pick next as the order would start again from right to left for Round 3 and continue as a regular snake draft the rest of the way.

The 3rd Round Reversal option makes your league's draft a little more balanced, and it also de-emphasizes the draft order a bit.

It's not a huge change, but it offers a little more even approach for each team. 

An example of how this would play out in a 12-team league:

In a regular snake draft:
Team 1 would get overall picks 1, 24, 25, 48, 49   (Mean of top 5 picks = 29.4)
Team 12 would get overall picks 12, 13, 36, 37, 60  (Mean of top 5 picks = 31.6)

In a snake draft with 3rd round reversal:
Team 1 would get overall picks 1, 24, 36, 37, 60  (Mean of top 5 picks = 31.6)
Team 12 would get overall picks, 12, 13, 25, 48, 49 (Mean of top 5 picks = 29.4)

The differences aren't that noticeable, but we believe this makes your draft even fairer for all teams as it allows the first team to get an elite player, but gives later teams a chance to get more upper-tier players in return. 

This option is available for redraft, keeper, and dynasty leagues.