A draft lobby (a draft room in the app) is a pick-up game with structure. You host a room, players join, teams get formed the way you chose, and the match starts, no spreadsheets, no "who's captain?", no arguing about the pick order.
Draft rooms live in the Draft rooms section of the Play page: the open rooms to join, and a bar to host your own.
Host a room opens a room in one click. Pick three things and press Open 5v5 Room (the button names the format you picked):
| Choice | Options |
|---|---|
| Format | 5v5, 3v3, 2v2, or 1v1 |
| Draft style | Captains draft, Host assigns, or Auto-split |
| Who can join | Open, Friends, or Invite |
A quick room uses the same match settings matchmaking uses for that format and your preferred regions. A captains draft picks the Top 2 by Rank as captains and drafts in snake order, and a 1v1 is always auto-split since there is nobody to draft. Everything else is under All settings.
- Re-host last recreates the last room you hosted on this device, with the same settings.
- If you already have a room open, the bar takes you Back to your room.
- In a party, only the party leader can host.
- On a LAN you're asked whether the room plays on the LAN or online, and the button reads Open 5v5 LAN Room for a LAN room. See LAN or online.
Until you've hosted your first room, the section opens with a short explainer, Run your own pick-up game., showing how a captains draft works. It goes away once you host or dismiss it.
All settings opens the full form. It is one page, with a live preview beside it that shows the format, the exact pick order, and the rules you've set, and a Create button that stays in reach.
Pick how teams get formed:
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Auto-Split | No draft, teams are auto-balanced when the lobby fills. |
| Captains Draft | Two captains take turns picking players. |
| Host Assigns | You build both teams yourself. |
| Pre-Made Teams | Pick two saved teams to face off. |
Pre-Made Teams has an extra wrinkle: a single team is enough. Set Team 1 (required) and leave Team 2 (optional) open for a team-against-the-world match, or turn on Inner Squad to split one roster across both sides for an intra-squad scrim. Starters fill in automatically and you can tap a player to swap them between the lineup and the bench.
In a party, Keep Lobby Together puts everyone in it on the same team.
For a captains draft, choose how the two captains are decided under Captain Selection:
- Top 2 by Rank
- Host & Next Highest (only when the host is playing)
- Random Two
- Manual: you pick them in the room
and the Draft Order:
- Snake (1-2-2-1)
- Alternating (1-2-1-2)
- Front-Loaded (1-2-2-1-2-1)
The preview spells the resulting order out pick by pick.
Map pool, MR, best-of, overtime, knife round, coaches, map veto, and region are set inline. See Matches for what each option does.
When the instance has custom game modes, pick one to load its plugins on the server, or leave it on Competitive. Custom modes never count toward ELO, and rooms using one are listed as unranked.
- Lobby Access: Open, Friends, Invite, or Private. Setting both teams up front locks the lineup, so the lobby stays private.
- Rank Gate (optional): a minimum and maximum rank for joining.
- Require Approval: players request to join and you pick who plays from a queue, instead of first-come-first-served.
- Host Only: create and manage the lobby without being added as a player.
The room fits the screen it's on: chat sits beside the board on a wide screen, the join or invite prompt moves above the board on a narrower one, and on a phone your pick becomes a bar pinned to the bottom of the screen.
- A clock band shows who is On The Clock (or Your Pick), Pick 3 of 8, and the time left. Each pick has 30 seconds.
- A pick track lays out the whole pick order, numbered, with the team each pick belongs to. Picks fill in as they're made and the track scrolls to the current one.
- Team slots carry their pick number, open slots read Pick 4, the slot on the clock pulses, and a new pick flashes and is announced to screen readers.
- Team 1's captain makes the first pick: with Top 2 by Rank that's the higher-rated captain, and with Host & Next Highest the host.
- When a captain runs out of time, the highest-rated player still in the pool is picked for them, ties going to whoever joined first. The captain on the clock is told who that will be ahead of time, and the pick is marked Auto on the track.
- Once the draft is over, the pick track stays on the page as the Draft Log.
- Lobby Chat runs alongside the draft (players only during the draft itself).
- Drag a player to the bench to make them a backup, per side or unassigned.
- In Host Assigns, fill the open slots to add players straight to a team. With Manual captains, Choose Captains to start the draft.
- The lobby expires on a timer, and the host can keep the room open for another 30 minutes.
- Copy Invite Link pulls people in directly, and you can invite friends straight from the room.
- Edit Settings changes the room's settings, and Cancel Draft closes the room for everyone, after a confirmation. A room opened with Host a room keeps its format, mode, and match settings when you edit it.
If the lobby is full, players can Join Waitlist. When a slot opens they auto-join, no one has to notice and re-invite them. Backups sit on each team's bench and can be swapped into the lineup at any time.
With Require Approval on, the host gets a Join Requests queue, which can be searched and sorted by rank or most recent. Each request can be accepted into the lineup, Accept as backup, or Deny.
When both teams are set, the host hits Start Match. Players check in, the server is provisioned, veto runs, and from there it's an ordinary 5Stack match, demo, stats, replay, and highlights all included.
The veto runs in the room on the same veto board as the match page, with veto scouting where it's on. After the last pick the room reads Match starting until it hands over to the match page.
If no server region has a server available, the room says so and won't start until one comes online.
Every open room is listed on the Play page with its format and draft style, access when it isn't open, average rank, regions, a custom mode if it uses one, its player and sub counts, and why you can or can't get in: 3 spots left, The host approves, No room for your party, Full, or You're in.
Narrow the list by Format, search for any player in a room, and under Filters show Only rooms with space or an Average rank range. Sort by Filling up first, Newest, Highest average rank, or Lowest average rank.
You can Join as yourself, Join with party to bring your whole matchmaking group into the room, or Request a spot in a room that needs approval.