How long should a draft round last by official rules?

Question

I'm making an app for assist player during Magic gameplay, and I'd like to add a section for drafting. But I can't find anything official, the only official source about it, is inside the comprehensive rules document, in the paragraph about Conspiracy Draft. It only say that a draft consists of three draft rounds, in which a player drafts one card in front of him, then passes the rest to the next player (in the first and third rounds the booster pack are passed on the left and on the second to the right).

And that's all.

Where I go to play, the tournament organizer has an app that sets a timer for each round, every "draft" from the same booster becomes progressively shorter, and the last two last no more than 5 s. Also, the third round is overall shorter than the first two (as a player now knows what deck he can build).

But I haven't found anything from Wizards about timing.

Are all these rules house rules or there are some guidelines from Wizards? I'd prefer to stick to those if they exists. But if they don't, how do you manage timing in your drafts?

Answer 1

Appendix B of the Tournament Rules provides required and suggested time limits for official events. Check this document for all the details you need.

In general:

• Required minimum game time is 40 minutes. Recommended game time for typical Limited/Constructed Swiss rounds is 50 minutes.
• WotC recommends giving players 30 minutes to register and construct a draft deck.
• The individual booster draft timer values in judge apps come from a chart in Appendix B (page 43 as of the current revision). Note the sentence after the chart that provides short "evaluation" periods in between packs as well.

Note that organizers are allowed to deviate from most of these conditions, but are required to announce it clearly in advance.

Answer 2

Wizards of the Coast makes no official rules on timing the draft phase

The official tournament rules cover drafting in section 7.7 and do mention timed drafts, but make no mention how those timing rules look, so tournament organizers are free to implement their own.