How the 5 Picks Simulation Works
When the draft ends, 5 Picks does not flip a coin. Both players' browsers run the same simulation engine on the same shared seed, so the game that decides the match is identical on every screen. Here is what is happening under the hood.
From real stats to ratings
Each player card is built from real per-game averages for that player's time with that team — points, rebounds, assists, shooting splits, and more — drawn from a public-domain statistical dataset. Those raw numbers are converted into a compact set of 0–99 ratings covering scoring volume and efficiency, three-point shooting, playmaking, rebounding, rim protection, perimeter defense, and basketball IQ.
Crucially, the ratings are era-relative. A 25-point scorer in a slow 1990s season and a 25-point scorer in an up-tempo modern one are not treated as identical; the model accounts for how the game was played around them, so a 1990s big and a 2010s guard can meet on fair footing.
Possession by possession
The engine plays the game out one possession at a time. Each trip down the floor, it weighs the lineups against each other — who creates the shot, how good a look it is, whether the defense forces a turnover or a miss, and who cleans up the glass — and resolves the result. Stops, second-chance points, and efficient scoring all move the needle, which is why a balanced two-way roster tends to beat five ball-dominant scorers.
Because the whole thing is deterministic, the same rosters and the same seed always produce the same final score and box score. There is no hidden randomness that one player sees and the other does not.
Why determinism matters
In an online match there is no server refereeing the game in the middle — the two browsers are connected directly. A shared, deterministic engine is what lets both sides trust the result: run the same inputs, get the same output, every time. It also means a match can be re-simulated later to verify a reported result, which keeps the leaderboard honest.
Keep reading: browse the team & era guides, sharpen up with the drafting strategy, or start a match.