Fantasy Quickstart

Stand up your first NuroPicks fantasy league in five minutes. This guide covers the 21-command Fantasy MVP across NFL season-long, NBA season-long, and the May 10 rookie draft.

What you can do

NuroPicks fantasy supports three flavors of league:

Season-long redraft (NFL, NBA) with full snake or auction draft, weekly head-to-head matchups, FAAB or priority waivers, trade deadline, and playoffs.
Best ball with no in-season management - draft once, lineups auto-optimize.
Rookie draft / dynasty add-on built around the 2026 NFL Rookie Draft (live Apr 24-26, league rookie draft May 10).

All commands live under the /fantasy-* namespace. Run /learn in Discord for the full command index.

Five-minute league setup

Pick your channel. Run /fantasy-channel-setup in the Discord channel you want to host the league. The bot will set permissions and pin the league header.
Create the league. Run /fantasy-create-league (or /fantasy-nba-create-league for NBA). You will set: league name, size (8 or 12), draft type (snake or auction), scoring (PPR / half / standard / categorical), waiver style (FAAB or priority), and entry fee (free or buy-in).
Invite players. Share the join link the create command returns. Each invitee runs /fantasy-join with the league code. Buy-in leagues require Stripe checkout before the slot is locked.
Schedule the draft. Run /fantasy-schedule-draft and pick a date / time. The bot DMs every drafter 24h before, 1h before, and on-the-clock.
Set your bankroll context. Run /bankroll unit once so future units math in /lineup-check and /start-sit advice respect your real risk tier.

That is league live. The bot now drives every weekly action.

Draft room mechanics

When the draft window opens, run /fantasy-draft to enter the live draft room. The bot embeds:

Current pick number, on-the-clock user, time remaining.
Best-available board (position-filterable) with NuroPicks AI tier and projected points.
Auto-pick safety net if the timer expires (highest tier remaining at a position of need).
Pause / resume controls for the commissioner via /fantasy-commissioner (rolls into the broader commissioner toolkit).

For rookie drafts (May 10) the AI tier comes from src/services/ai/rookie-rankings.ts (refreshed nightly during NFL Draft week, then weekly through training camp).

In-season weekly loop

When	Command	What it does
Tue morning	`/fantasy-waiver-wire`	Browse free agents with NuroPicks add-priority score (workload trend, injury context, schedule).
Tue night	`/fantasy-waiver`	Submit FAAB bid or priority claim. Multi-claim supported.
Wed	`/fantasy-trade`	Propose a trade. The bot returns a fairness score and highlights asymmetric value.
Sat / Sun	`/fantasy-lineup-check`	Pre-game lineup audit (injury flags, weather, vegas total, start-sit nudges).
Sat / Sun	`/fantasy-start-sit`	One-on-one comparison between two players at the same slot with a model-backed recommendation.
Anytime	`/fantasy-roster`	View your full roster with NuroPicks tier per player.
Anytime	`/fantasy-leagues`	All your leagues at a glance, with next matchup + waiver deadline.
Anytime	`/fantasy-standings`	Standings with tiebreakers and playoff-seed projections.

Categorical NBA leagues (created via /fantasy-nba-create-league) use the same loop but score across the 9 traditional H2H categories.

Waiver wire: FAAB vs priority

FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budget): every team gets a budget (default $100) and bids blind. Highest bid wins, ties go to lowest current standing. Run /fantasy-waiver bid:25 player:"Name" to submit.
Priority: rolling waiver order based on inverse standings. Lower standing = higher priority. Submit the same way without a bid arg.

The bot enforces the league's chosen mode at create time. Mid-season switches require commissioner override.

Payouts

Free leagues: bragging rights only. The standings page shows champion + runner-up + regular-season leader.

Buy-in leagues: payouts run through escrow (src/services/payments/escrow.ts). Default split is 60% champion / 25% runner-up / 15% regular-season leader, but the commissioner can override at create time. Run /fantasy-payouts to see the current pot, the split, and projected per-rank payout.

Disputes route through /fantasy-dispute and pause payout settlement until resolved. The escrow service holds funds until commissioner closes the dispute.

Rookie draft (May 10, 2026)

If your league has the dynasty add-on enabled at create time, your rookie draft auto-schedules for May 10. Coverage timeline:

Apr 21: 48h pre-NFL-Draft refresh of src/services/ai/rookie-rankings.ts.
Apr 24-26: Live NFL Draft. NuroPicks #nfl-draft-live channel posts a pinned embed updated pick-by-pick with AI grade A-F + dynasty fit. Tail with /fantasy-rookie-draft preview.
Apr 27-May 9: Daily rookie tier refreshes as landing-spot context settles.
May 10: Live rookie draft via /fantasy-rookie-draft. Same draft room mechanics as the season-long draft, with rookie-only board.

See docs/rookie-draft-playbook.md for the full rookie draft spec.

Creator leagues

Cappers can publish a public league via /fantasy-creator-publish. Subscribers join with /fantasy-creator-subscribe. Revenue split follows the standard 85 / 15 capper marketplace model. Creator leagues respect the same rules as standard leagues but are gated behind the capper's subscription tier.

Referrals

Run /fantasy-refer to get your personal invite link. Both sides earn $20 in store credit when the invitee plays their first paid league. Leaderboard at web/src/app/fantasy/referrals/leaderboard.

Responsible gambling

/fantasy-rg opens the responsible-gambling controls (deposit limits, time limits, self-exclusion). Buy-in leagues require active RG settings and 21+ verification before entry. The 1-800-GAMBLER footer appears on every paid embed.

Need help

/learn - command index, surfaces this doc.
docs/QUICKSTART.md - general bot quickstart.
docs/FAQ.md - tier-specific FAQ.
docs/RESPONSIBLE_GAMBLING.md - full RG resources.
Discord channel #fantasy-support for live triage from David / Mar / Glizzy during alpha.