82-0 Glossary: Every Term Across the Genre, Explained

Terms and jargon used across this genre, defined plainly — whichever version of the game you’re playing.

Flawless season

A completed run with zero losses across the full simulated schedule — the literal meaning of going “82-0” (or the equivalent perfect record for a shorter, era-accurate schedule length in earlier decades). The rarest possible outcome, by design.

Slot machine draft

A randomized team-and-era (or team-and-decade) selector, used by several games in this genre including the original 82-0.com, that determines your candidate pool each round. You don’t pick freely from the entire history of basketball — you pick the best available option from whatever the spin lands on.

Strength Rating

A cumulative stat total — used by several games in this genre, including the original 82-0 format — that sums raw statistical output (commonly points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks) across your drafted players into one number the season-projection engine runs on.

Era fit / era-adjusted scoring

A system that weighs a player’s real statistical profile against the pace, spacing, and scoring environment of whichever decade the simulation represents. A given stat line meant something different in a slower 1960s league than it does in a fast, three-point-heavy 2020s league, and era-adjusted scoring accounts for that difference rather than treating every decade’s numbers as directly comparable.

Chemistry breakdown

A named, transparent list of bonuses and penalties a specific lineup earns based on how its skills genuinely fit together — for example, Elite Spacing (multiple knockdown shooters), Twin Playmakers (two or more real shot-creators), Dominant Frontcourt (rebounding at both big-man spots) as bonuses, or Usage Conflict (too many high-usage scorers), Crowded Paint (two non-shooting bigs), and Poor Era Fit as penalties. It’s the specific answer to “why did this roster win or lose,” rather than a single opaque score.

Blind Draft

A mode that hides every player rating during the draft, so you’re picking based on position, era, and memory alone rather than visible stats. See our full Blind Draft explainer for how it compares across the genre.

Positional restriction

A draft rule that locks each round to a specific real position (point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, center), so you can’t stack multiple players at the same spot. Several major games in this genre state plainly that they have no such restriction — this site’s own game was built specifically around having one.

Daily Challenge

A shared, fixed sequence of draft options that everyone playing on a given day receives, turning individual results into something directly comparable on a public leaderboard rather than each player’s own random run.

Seed

A short, shareable code that reproduces one exact sequence of draft options. Entering someone else’s seed puts you through the identical spins they had, making a head-to-head comparison possible without needing a live daily challenge or an account.

Playing your own definitions out

82-0 uses every term on this page directly — positional locks, era-adjusted ratings, a full named chemistry breakdown, shareable seeds, and a Daily Challenge leaderboard. Free, no account required.