Last Man Standing football rules

How it works

Each league follows a real competition — Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 — or the Champions League. Every gameweek, each player still alive picks one team. Only that team's result in that gameweek counts:

Results are recorded automatically after every match: no organiser chasing picks, no spreadsheet to keep up to date. The league ends when one survivor is left, and they take the trophy.

Each team only once

Once you've picked a team, it's gone for the rest of the league. Backing Arsenal or Bayern in week one is almost safe, but it also burns your best option for later. That's the whole game: managing your pool of teams matters as much as calling results.

Your pick is final as soon as you confirm it — you can't change it afterwards, even before kick-off.

Deadlines and gameweeks

Picks close one hour before the first match of the gameweek kicks off. After the deadline, it's too late.

No pick, no survival: a player who hasn't picked a team by the deadline is knocked out, exactly as if their team had lost. Turn on notifications and SURVIVOR will remind you before every deadline.

A gameweek isn't always played in one block: a match can be brought forward by weeks, or postponed. SURVIVOR anchors the gameweek on the bulk of its fixtures, and the deadline follows that block. A match played well away from it can't be picked — so nobody can back a team whose result is already known.

Special cases

Your match is postponed or called off

If your team's match is postponed or cancelled during the gameweek, you survive: a postponement doesn't count as a defeat. The team still counts as used.

Everyone goes out on the same day

If all the remaining players are knocked out in the same gameweek, the league ends with no winner. No reprieve, no shared trophy: the job was to survive.

The season ends with several survivors

If more than one player is still alive after the last gameweek, nobody wins and no trophy is awarded. A Last Man Standing never ends in a tie.

Extra time and penalties in the Champions League

In the knockout rounds, the winner of the match is what counts, extra time and penalties included. A first leg, on the other hand, can end in a draw — and that knocks you out, even if your team goes through in the second leg.

Cup rules: the Champions League

A Champions League league follows the competition all the way to the final: the eight matchdays of the league phase, then the knockout play-offs, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. Every first leg and every second leg is a gameweek of its own.

Your pick is judged on that night's match, not on who goes through: win the first leg 1-0 and lose the return 0-1, and that's a win followed by a defeat.

With only a handful of teams left, the "each team once" rule would soon become impossible to keep. So when every team playing in a gameweek has already been used, your pool is reset and you can pick them again.

Playing with friends

Everything happens in a private competition: you create it, share its invite code, and your friends join in seconds. It's free.

Inside a competition, the admin starts a round and picks one or more leagues: each becomes its own Last Man Standing, with its own survivors and its own trophy. When a round is over, a new one can start from scratch.

A player who joins midway enters the leagues that haven't started yet; leagues whose first gameweek has already locked carry on without them. A competition lasts one season, then can be replayed in one click with the same players and a new code.

Last Man Standing, survivor pool: the variants

The format goes by several names. In the UK it's Last Man Standing, run by pubs, clubs and offices, mostly on the Premier League. In the US it's a survivor pool, usually on the NFL. In France it's simply called Survivor.

House rules vary. Some versions let a draw through; others bring everyone back when all the players go out together, or split the pot at the end of the season. SURVIVOR goes for the strictest version: only a win takes you through, and there's never a joint winner.

That choice changes how you play: a team that's hard to beat but draws a lot becomes a trap. Which team should you pick? Our stats by league →