How to Run a 10-Man Dota 2 Lobby Draft - Steps

Updated 2026-07-13

How do you run a 10-man Dota 2 lobby draft?

You run a 10-man Dota 2 lobby draft by adding all ten confirmed players to a draft tool, selecting two captains, letting those captains alternate picks in snake order until eight players are placed, then assigning positions and copying the finished rosters into a Dota 2 custom lobby. A 10-man is the standard full 5v5 in-house format, and the captains draft is the fairest way to split it without a spreadsheet or a coin flip.

The process below covers the exact flow of a 10 man Dota 2 lobby draft, from ten names to a lobby you can start.

How do you add all ten players to the draft?

Add players by pasting Steam IDs, which pulls each person's rank medal, best positions, and win rate from OpenDota, or by typing plain names if you'd rather skip that step. For a 10-man specifically, having rank data visible matters more than in a casual mixed group, since a 5v5 in-house is usually trying to produce two genuinely competitive teams rather than just a fun scrimmage.

Confirm the full ten before you start picking. A 10-man draft that begins with nine players and a promised tenth is asking for a mid-draft reshuffle if that player never shows.

How do you pick two captains for a 10-man?

Choose captains manually, by random wheel, or by auto-selecting the two highest-MMR players in the pool — whichever method your group trusts as fair. For a 10-man specifically, picking the two highest-MMR players often works well because it puts your most experienced decision-makers in charge of the picks, though the random wheel is just as valid if your group values variety over optimized picks week to week.

Whichever method you use, lock it in before names go into the pool — captains announced ahead of time also give the other eight players a moment to guess who they might end up picked by, which is part of what makes the live draft fun to watch rather than just a mechanical sorting step.

How does the snake order fill exactly two 5v5 teams?

Once the two captains are placed on opposite teams, the remaining eight players draft in snake order: A, B, B, A, A, B, B, A. That sequence places four more players on each captain's team, so every 10-man draft ends at exactly 5 players per side without any extra math. Each pick has a 30-second timer, and a captain who lets the clock run out gets a random player auto-picked from the pool, which keeps a 10-man from stalling out over one indecisive pick.

This is also why a 10-man draft specifically works out so cleanly with the snake pattern: two captains plus eight remaining picks divides evenly into two fives, with no leftover player and no need to manually balance a ninth or tenth slot after the fact. A smaller or larger lobby can still use the same pattern, but the math lines up exactly for the standard 5v5 format.

How do you assign positions 1-5 after the draft?

After the last pick lands, check the suggested positions 1-5 on each roster and confirm both teams have real role coverage, not five players who all want to carry. A 10-man specifically tends to break down when this step gets skipped — a team that drafted for raw skill and ended up with three position 1 mains and no support will lose the laning stage before it starts, regardless of individual rank.

DOTA DRAFT suggests positions based on each player's role data and shows a balance score as a percentage — 85% or higher is generally a fair, competitive game. A roster anchored by a position 1 like Phantom Assassin still needs a position 5 like Crystal Maiden covering vision and setup; the suggested positions make that split visible instead of leaving it to be sorted out after the game already loaded.

How do you copy both rosters into the Dota 2 lobby?

With positions confirmed, use the shareable result link to show both finished teams, then set up a Dota 2 custom lobby and place each of the ten players on the matching side. The result link stays useful after the lobby loads too — if there's any dispute mid-game about who was drafted where, the link is the record.

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