Amara’s NFL Survivor Picks

Each entry costs $10 and lasts for the season or until elimination. Multiple entries are allowed; give each its own nickname.

Submit one NFL team per entry each week through the organizer’s pick form, or email the organizer. Select your nickname, enter your code word without extra spaces, choose an unused team that plays that week, and submit. Always verify that the pick appears in the list.

Posted deadline: the supplied rules say the end of Friday. For an earlier game, confirm the applicable cutoff with the organizer and submit before kickoff. Our report uses an earlier working target: ready Friday at 9 a.m. Pacific, with our entries submitted by noon.

Hidden picks lock immediately. Once you choose to hide a pick, it is set in stone and cannot be changed. An unhidden pick can be resubmitted under the organizer’s deadline rules. Hidden picks become public after finalization.

No pick by the deadline: the organizer assigns the highest-ranked available team you have not used and that has not played yet that week. Rankings come from NFL.com, with ESPN as the fallback.

Repeating a team (“Double Dipping”): you are responsible for checking your own history. Before the deadline, submit a replacement. After the deadline but before results are posted, notify the organizer; the pick is treated as not sent and the missed-pick rule applies. If the error goes unnoticed, the rules treat the entry as knocked out in the week of the mistake.

A bye-week selection is also invalid and is handled similarly. The sheet tries to flag duplicate selections, but its warnings are not a substitute for checking.

A win keeps the entry playing. A loss or tie adds a strike; two strikes eliminate the entry. If entries reach the postseason, play continues until one survivor remains or there are no games left.

Used teams do not reset in the playoffs. If an entry cannot make a pick, it receives a loss before that week begins.

• 1st, 2nd and 3rd: the entries surviving longest, second longest and third longest.
• Survivor: the longest run before the first loss. Ties use how long the tied entries survive for the rest of the game.
• Post Survivor: the longest run after the first loss. Ties use how long the entry survived before that loss.

Ties for 2nd or 3rd first use survival before the first loss. Tied 1st-place entries keep playing while they can make picks; if still tied, the winner is determined by the longest run without a first loss.

Except for 1st place, remaining ties use Pick Strength; if still tied, the prizes are split. Prize distributions are listed in the organizer’s Control Panel.

Strikes / Losses

Count of weekly losses and ties shown as L or T. A loss or tie adds one strike; two strikes eliminate the entry. The column also keeps any higher organizer loss count for hidden, missed, or ruled weeks.

Pick Strength (PS)

The cumulative power-ranking numbers of selected teams: #1 is strongest, #32 weakest. A low PS can mean more strong teams have been used; a high PS can reflect more risk. It is an inventory clue and the final non-first-place tiebreaker, not a win probability or a reliable pick-quality score.

Record

The number of weeks with correct picks. For an undefeated entry, it is also the win streak. After a loss, the organizer may show streaks in parentheses as (Before Loss / After Loss).

Place (PL)

The organizer’s position indicator. The table here sorts by your chosen measure; it does not assign official prize places.

Weekly Stats

The organizer’s format is Wins / Losses / Knockouts – Win Percentage.