DRAFT 2012:

END OF SEASON / RELEASE PLAYERS

You will see this screen when the Japan Series is over. It's a good idea to save here so you can reload and re-do the draft that follows as many times as you want.

Release Players: When you release players here they will be added to the Free Agency list (up to 5). It's a good idea to do this because the more free agents on your list the more cash you'll get in your budget. Also, since some of the chosen FA players seem to be selected randomly doing this may prevent players you want to keep from being added to the list. Also, old players might dissapear (retire.)

RETIREMENT NOTIFICATIONS

When you proceed from the above screen, the game will tell you about a bunch of players who will now retire. The number in the bottom row is how long their career was. 

It will then show you a top free agent which will be in the upcoming pool (this player is picked at random.)

Sometimes, when applicable, the game will also tell you about foreigners whose contract will be ending and become a free agent. 

DRAFT BEGINS

DRAFT SCREEN

Next you will enter the draft. In the first round Giants will pick first, Buffalo's second and Lions last. In the next round, the order reverses and Lions will pick first and Giants will pick last. In Round 3, it reverses again and this keeps going for 9 rounds.

In the first round if more than one team picks the same player there will be a lottery to determine the winner. If you lose you simply pick again and repeat process until you win the lottery or pick a player nobody else wants. This process is explained in detail below.

To make things move faster you can click the square button to show all picks, circle or X button displays picks one at a time (images are from Vita version.)

DRAFT PICK

When your turn is up you'll see this screen to make your draft pick. You can see some circles and triangles next to the players' names. The first symbol is how good the player is at the moment. The 2nd symbol is how much potential he has. Double O is the best, Triangle is medium, no symbol is bad.

In the middle there are 9 small icons of other teams. These are the clubs interested in this rookie, so if you pick him there's a chance you might need to do participate in the lottery. THIS IS A MONSTER ROOKIE so you will for sure end up in the lottery! In my testing some draft classes were crap with almost all players ranging between 20-40. A player like this rated in the 70's is rare. We'll use this player for our step-by-step guide to round 1 below.

At top right you have 62 players on your roster with a max of 70. If you exceed 70 a warning message will appear.

DRAFT OPTIONS

Press Square to: 1. Look at current team or 2. Release players.

The draft can go for many rounds as long as you have enough space on your roster. The 'Release Player' menu is handy here so you can release somebody at any time and draft another rookie if you have no space left.

If you're done drafting (no more roster room, or you don't feel like any of the rookie is worth drafting), go to the grey rectangle in the upper left area and select "End Draft". You will then stop drafting and watch the CPU teams finish up the remaining rounds. I usually go 5 or 6 rounds and quit because the guys left by then usually suck anyways.

ROUND 1 STEP-BY-STEP

In each square the top part is the player name and the bottom part his position details.

Round 1 is unique because its a "blind" round where all teams choose a player in advance then all picks are revealed at the same time. I'm playing as the Giants and you'll notice 8 other teams picked the same player as me. This is the "Monster Rookie" I mentioned 2 images up.

LOTTERY NOTIFICATION

You'll see this when yourself or other teams are going to enter a lottery. You can see the player name under the yellow icons. Click to enter lottery.

LOTTERY

Here you can see all 9 teams which picked the player with each in possession of an envelope. 8 of them will be empty and one will have a piece of paper inside annoucing that you are the winner. In some cases you can choose which envelope you want, but in this case I had no choice so I had to pick the one shown. I think envelope selection order is set randomly, kind of a lottery within a lottery.

LOTTERY WINNER

When you click the button the winner will be announced. The Swallows (who originally had the 5th pick in the draft) get away with the best player in the draft.

RE-PICK

After the lottery the round 1 screen appears again. As you can see my Giants are left without a pick so I have to re-start again.

Notice the Fighters, Buffalo's, and Carp are now set with their chosen player. I cannot enter into a lottery with their chosen picks! That what makes the lottery interesting because although the Carp had the 10th pick they can slip in with one of the top picks in the draft (as long as they choose not to get involved in the lottery with the hottest player.)

In addition, during the next round the draft reverses so the Carp will have the 3rd pick. In a way being last (in the first round) can be an advantage because you have nothing to lose going after the best player, or you can be sneaky and get away with a solid pick.

ROUND 1 CONTINUES

Poor Giants, after my re-pick I ended up in a lottery with the Hawks and lost again. I then ended up in a lottery with the Lions and won. If I had lost that one then I would've ended up with the very last pick in the round!

ROUNDS 2-9

There is no lottery after round 1, simply pick the player you want and you'll get him. Towards the later rounds some teams will choose not to participate (due to their roster being full or lack of quality players.) Here the Swallows, Tigers, Baystars and Marines are opting out of this round.

Note: To avoid confusion this image was taken from a different draft and is not related to any prior draft images.

FREE AGENCY BEGINS

Please view our Free Agency section for those translations.