How to play Yahoo Survival Football

Each week, you'll try to pick Professional Football teams that will win their real life games. Compete against a group of other players to see who can get the longest streak of correct picks. If you're incorrect, you could be eliminated from your group. The last player (or players) standing wins. Get started by visiting the Survival Football homepage.

Join a group of players

There are 2 group types that you can choose from. While you can be in a total of 10 groups, you can only be active in 1 Public Group at any given time. Once the first pick deadline in passes in a group, you can't join or leave it.

  • Public Group - Up to 50 people can join from around the world. Default settings are used. You can join Public Groups from the Survival Football homepage.
  • Private Group - Up to 100 people that you know can join. The group creator (commish) can adjust the settings used. These groups aren't open to the public. You can either create one from the Survival Football homepage or be invited to one.

Make your weekly team pick

The object of the game is to pick teams that win their games each week. At the beginning of the season, you'll be asked to pick just 1 team. Depending on the group you join, you may be asked to pick 2 teams each week as the season progresses.

  • 1 pick weeks - Pick 1 team you expect to win each week.
  • 2 pick weeks - Pick 2 teams you expect to win each week. Public Groups begin to require 2 picks in weeks 14-18. A Private Group's commish can turn this on or off during weeks 9-18.
  • Pick deadline - By default, you'll have until 10 a.m. PT to make your pick. Private Groups can change this to be 5 minutes before the first game of the week.
  • No repeat picks - Each team you pick is locked to you after that week, preventing you from picking them again for the rest of the regular season. If your group enters playoffs, the locked teams are reset. Make sure to save your super bowl pick for the super bowl so it's not locked.

Strike out and get eliminated

If you forget to pick a team or the team that you picked loses or ties, you get a strike. Once you reach your group's strike limit, you're eliminated from the game. While eliminated, you'll still be able to observe the other players until there's a winner.

  • Public Groups - 1 strike will eliminate you.
  • Private Groups - The commish can set up to 2 strikes before you're eliminated.

Details on winning, ties, and prizes

  • How to win - Be the last active player in your group and you're the winner.
  • Tiebreakers - There are no tiebreakers. If the last group of active players all get eliminated or all make it to the end at the same time, they're all declared winners.
  • Trophies - If you're among the last active members of groups with 6 or more teams and have made it through 8 weeks, you'll earn a trophy. You'll get another one if you don't miss a single pick throughout the entire season.