1st Competition, “Everyone’s A Winner” – Regular Season weeks 1 - 6
The first competition is called “Everyone’s A Winner”. You have to make a pick for each of the games each week. Your pick is made using the point spread. So, for example, if the Patriots are playing the Titans, and the Patriots are favored to win by 10 points, then you have to factor that 10 points into your pick. Because if the Patriots only win by 9 points, they are the losing pick – they have to win by 10 or more to represent a winning pick.
Using the point spread to define the winning and losing picks for each player, a winning percentage is established by dividing the number of winning picks by the total number of picks. Players are ranked according to their winning percentage. Each week the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place players win money.
In addition to making picks for each game in a particular week, a player has the OPTION of making a “Lock Pick”. A player does not have to make a Lock Pick, but if they do, then they simply designate one of their picks of that week as their Lock Pick. Where any pick is designated as a Lock Pick, it will count double – meaning that if it’s a winning pick, it will count as 2 wins, and if it’s a losing pick, it will count as 2 losses.
Since this is one of 6 competitions during the season, $20 of each player’s entry fee is put into the pot for this competition. That pot is divided by 6 – for each of the 6 weeks that is this competition’s duration. For example, if there are 27 players X $20 = $540 divided by 6 = $90 for each week’s pot.
First place each week gets 70% of the pot ($63). Second place gets 20% ($18) and third place gets 10% ($9).
It is very likely that there will be ties. If, for example, 3 players tie for the highest score in a particular week, then they will split the first, second and third place money (the entire pot for that week). If one player has the highest score, one player has the second highest score and 3 players tie for the third highest score, then 10% of the pot (the 3rd place money) will be split 3 ways between the 3 players in that spot.
At the end of the 6-week contest, monetary awards earned during the contest will be added up and checks will be mailed (or Venmo, Zelle, Paypal, etc.) to each player that placed in the money during any of the individual weeks.
Rules for Last Man Standing:
Duration of competition is the entire regular season – or until only one (or zero) player is left – whichever is soonest.
Each player begins Week #1 with 3 picks. The player must pick winners of games – the point spread does not determine anything.
The player chooses which teams (games) to pick for his first 3 picks. He is free to choose any team, but he does so knowing that he will not be allowed to pick that team to win in the future unless he has finished picking all 32 teams and he’s still alive.
If the 3 picks he makes in Week #1 are all winners, then he had 3 picks to make in Week #2. If, for example, one of his picks loses, then he had only 2 picks to make in Week #2. If two of his picks are losers, then he had only one pick to make in Week #2.
As long as a player has at least one winning pick, he proceeds to the next week and continues with that number of winning picks that he had in the previous week.
When a player has all of his picks in any given week end up as losers, then he is out of the competition. The last player with at least one entry in the competition wins the pool. If some number of players all have their last picks lose in the same week, and they are the last players in the pool, it will be deemed a tie. A tie also would exist if 2 or more players reached the last week of the regular season and made winning picks in that last week. In the case of a tie, the tie-breaking rule will be used, i.e. the player who had more live picks for more weeks in the competition, shall be deemed the winner. So, for example, if Spud and Surf each have one pick left in the 12th week of the regular season, and if both of their picks lose, then we have a tie. But if Surf had carried two picks into the 8th week, but Spud had carried two picks only into the 3rd week, then Surf would be the winner.
Pot is split 70% for first place, 20% for second place and 10% for third place.
Top 5 Rules - all 18 weeks of the regular season:
Prior to the start of the regular season - generally one week in advance of the first game - the Commissioner’s office will post the Vegas projected win totals for each of the 32 NFL teams. At that point the win total predictions will become final for the purposes of our Top 5 competition.
The win total prediction is divided into 100 in order to create a ‘points per win’ value for any given team. So, for example, if the Bengals have a win total prediction of 5 wins, we divide 5 into 100 to give the Bengals ‘20’ for their points-per-win value. Whereas, the Colts have a win total prediction of 10 wins which, when divided into 100, gives a points-per-win value of ‘10’. Ultimately, whether a player chooses the Bengals or the Colts, if the team hits its expected win total exactly, the result for the player is the same.
Each player, prior to the beginning of the season, and no later than the deadline for the regular pick of the season’s opening game, will choose any five of the NFL teams. Those five teams will represent the player throughout the 18-week regular season. Each time that one of the player’s five teams records a win (this does not involve the point spread), the player is credited with the ‘points per win’ value that is associated with that team. Ties do not count as a win and provide no points.
The points-per-win value will be calculated out to three (3) decimal places - not beyond.
At the conclusion of the regular season, aggregate point totals will be calculated for each player and the players with the most points will be deemed the winners. The payout will be 70% of the pot to the player with the highest point total, 20% to second place, and 10% to third place.
Administrative and Rule Qualifications Related to COVID / Unforeseen Contingencies
Putting the Last Man Standing and Top 5 competitions aside, the other 4 competitions consist of a sequence of weeks / games that represent a subset of the total NFL season. In our first competition - “Everyone’s A Winner” - because monetary winnings are defined on a weekly basis, for each week where NFL games are played, we will calculate winnings and pay them out even in the case that the NFL season is suspended before the conclusion of week 6.
For the other 3 formats which comprise weeks 7-12, weeks 13-18, and the playoffs, in a case where all of the weeks designated for a specific competition include active NFL games, then we will declare a winner and pay out what is due to the successful players.
If the NFL plays any games in a particular week, then that week will be considered an active week for the benefit of defining the duration of any of the Tournament of Masters competitions even in the case where one or more of the NFL games originally scheduled for that week are postponed or canceled. If a game is postponed into a week associated with a different competition, then it will be part of that other competition.
If the NFL season is terminated and we are not able to complete all the weeks for a specific competition, then that competition will be declared void. In the contingency where the NFL season is prematurely terminated, the $20/player associated with any unfinished competition will be returned to each player.
For Last Man Standing, we will void the competition if the NFL season terminates prematurely when there are still at least 3 players with all three of their original picks remaining. However, beyond that point, we will declare winners using the tie-breaker methodology that we’ve used in the past, i.e. which players carry multiple picks the longest.
For the Top 5 competition, we will consider the competition complete if there are at least 16 weeks of NFL games. Ideally, and according to Top 5 rules, player scores are based on the results from all 18 weeks of the NFL regular season. But if, for some reason, one or two weeks gets suspended and are not played, we’ll calculate a winner based on the results from 16 or 17 weeks. If 16 weeks are not completed, then we’ll void the competition and return $20 to each player.
Ultimately, the Commissioner’s office may not correctly anticipate all the things that may happen this season. If you choose to play, understand that rules and procedures could be modified in an attempt to deal with whatever happens. If this becomes necessary, the Commissioner’s office would consult with the Governing Council prior to imposing any changes to an ongoing competition. Remember, the primary objective of the Tournament of Masters is entertainment. That is always the overriding priority.