Commissioner setup guide
Prop Picks: Commissioner Setup Guide
Run a prop sheet for one big game: pick the game, start from a ready-made pack or write your own questions, publish, and the sheet locks itself at first pitch. Automatic results, corrections, voids, the tiebreaker and paper entries explained.
Prop Picks is a prop sheet for one big game: a World Series game, the Super Bowl, a rivalry night. Everybody answers the same questions (who scores first, total runs over or under, will anyone hit a home run) plus a tiebreaker, and the sheet locks itself at first pitch. Most points wins.
It is built for the night itself. Every tap on the sheet saves on its own, so nobody loses their picks to a closed tab in the last minute before the game, and the lock is enforced by our server clock rather than by anyone's phone. Before lock nobody can see anybody else's picks. After lock everyone sees how the room picked, question by question.
Results come in two ways. Almost every library question grades itself from the official MLB play-by-play, the same feed Event Bingo marks itself from: the result and the score, home runs, doubles, triples, steals, errors, double plays, walks, the first batter and the first pitch, extra innings and walk-offs, and named players' hits, home runs, RBIs, strikeouts and outs, so most of the sheet grades itself as the game goes. Everything else, including any question you write yourself, you settle on the Results screen with one tap. A correction regrades every sheet at once, and a voided question counts for nobody.
Creating the contest
From your org console, New contest, then Prop Picks. Three steps.
- Which game
- Pick it from the real MLB schedule and the sheet takes its team names, its first-pitch time (the default lock) and its automatic results from that game. A game that is not on the schedule can be typed in; you then enter every result yourself.
- Start the sheet from
- A ready-made pack (fifteen questions that work for any baseball game, or a pack written for a specific game such as World Series Game 1), or an empty sheet. A pack is only a starting point: every question can be edited, removed or reordered afterwards.
- Contest name
- Suggested from the game, and yours to change.
Building the sheet
On the Sheet screen. Change anything you like until the first answer comes in.
- The library
- Every library question has a written rule that says exactly how it settles, and is marked either "graded automatically" or "you enter the result". Add one with a tap; a question already on the sheet says so.
- Write your own
- Yes or no, pick one from a list, or over/under a line you set. A question you write is always graded by you. Save a good one to your library and it is there for your next contest.
- Points
- Every question is worth 1 point unless you say otherwise. Make the hard ones worth more.
- The line
- On an over/under question, the number. Use a half (8.5, not 8) and it can never land exactly on the line; if a whole-number line is hit exactly, that question is void.
- Lock time
- First pitch by default. Moving it earlier is for a question about something that happens before the game, and you are asked to confirm that. It can never be after the game starts, and it cannot move once a result is in.
- Publish
- Nobody can play until you publish. Publishing checks the sheet first: every question needs two answers, every over/under needs a line, and the lock has to be in the future.
- Frozen once answered
- The moment anybody answers, the questions stop changing, because changing a question under someone who already answered it changes what they said. If you must change it, Clear all answers wipes every sheet so everyone starts again; it is recorded in the contest's history.
During and after the game
On the Results screen.
- Automatic results
- Questions marked automatic grade themselves from the MLB play-by-play every fifteen minutes or so. A question decides as soon as it can: a home run in the 3rd settles "Will anyone homer?" right then, while No, Under and head-to-head questions wait for the final out. A missing or partial feed never resolves anything, and an official scoring change is picked up on the next check. "Check the box score now" grades the score questions on demand.
- Settling a question
- Tap the answer that happened, or for an over/under type the number and the line decides. Every change keeps a history: what it was, what it became, and who changed it.
- Corrections and voids
- Change an answer and every sheet is regraded at once. Void a question and it counts for nobody. A result you enter is never overwritten by the automatic one; Clear hands a question back to the box score.
- Tiebreaker
- Total runs scored by both teams, filled in from the final score (or by you on a typed-in game). A tie on points goes to the answer closest to the actual number, over or under.
- Finalize
- When every question has a result, Finalize makes the standings final. Reopen if something needs correcting; it is recorded.
- Paper entries
- Somebody filled in a printed sheet? Add them by name on the Results screen and key in their answers before the lock. The printable sheet is on the contest's Rules tab.
FAQ
Can I change the questions after people have started?
Not while anyone has an answer on the sheet. Clear all answers first (everyone starts again), then edit. This is deliberate: a question that changes under somebody who answered it changes what they said.
What happens if somebody tries to change a pick after the lock?
It is refused by the server and their last saved answer stands. The countdown on the sheet is corrected for the phone's own clock, but the server's time is the one that counts.
Which questions grade themselves?
Almost every library question grades itself from the official MLB play-by-play, the same feed Event Bingo marks itself from: the result and the score, home runs, doubles, triples, steals, errors, double plays, walks, the first batter and the first pitch, extra innings and walk-offs, and named players' hits, home runs, RBIs, strikeouts and outs. Questions you write yourself, and a couple of judgement calls (a replay overturning a ruling), you settle with a tap.
How are ties broken?
Most points wins. Level on points, the tiebreaker answer closest to the actual total runs wins. A sheet is ranked once every question and the tiebreaker are answered.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Prop Picks is free on every plan, including Free, with no limit on how many people play.
Set it up in a few minutes — every option here is right there in the wizard.
Start a Prop Picks contest