Rough Draft

Rough Draft is a ranking game dressed as a draft board. Six athletes sit at the top in two columns, six numbered slots wait underneath, and one stat decides the order. The category is the whole puzzle and it roams well beyond box scores: one board's strip read Instagram Followers at Peak, ordered most to least, across a lineup that mixed footballers, an MMA fighter and two basketball players. Each name carries only the decades that player was active, which is the sum total of the help you get.

1. Read the category strip at the top. It names the stat and the direction.
2. Tap an empty slot or a player to place a pick, and fill all six positions.
3. Press LOCK IN DRAFT BOARD. That is the single submission you get for the day.

Ranking games live or die on the category, and Rough Draft is willing to leave sport entirely. A board that lines up a retired centre, a footballer and a cage fighter and asks who had the bigger following is a different kind of knowledge from who scored more. The two, one, zero scoring is the other good decision, because it rewards getting the shape of the list right even when you fumble the exact order, and the draft grades hand you something to be annoyed about afterwards.

Scoring is positional and generous with near misses. An exact placement is worth two points, one spot off is worth one, and anything further is worth nothing. The total converts into a draft grade: A+ Hall of Famer at eleven or twelve, A All-Star at nine or ten, B Starter at seven or eight, C Backup at five or six, D Practice Squad at three or four, and F Cut at two or under. Twelve is the ceiling, so a board where every single athlete sits one slot out of place scores six and grades as a Backup.

Daily draft

One board a day and one submission. The help panel says a new puzzle drops every day at midnight ET and that your progress is saved if you close the app.

• Because one spot off still pays, keep the names you cannot separate next to each other. Swapping two neighbours costs two points, swapping the first and last slot costs four.
• The decade tags under each name are the only data on the board, and on a category like peak social following they carry more weight than how big a star the athlete was.
• Read the ORDER badge before you commit, not after. The board states its direction next to the category, and the whole grade turns on it.