How to play: picks, reports and pool rules
Everything a player needs, start to finish. If your commissioner sent you here, start at step one. If you have already joined and just need to get back in, skip to making your picks.
Joining
Open the link your commissioner sent you
It looks like sundaysurvivor.com/join/… and works for anyone who has it. There is no code to enter.
Create your account
Name, email and a password. If you have played in a pool here before, use the same email and choose Log In instead, and this pool is added to the account you already have.
Name your entry
Your entry is the thing that survives or goes out, and the name is what everyone else sees on the standings. Some pools let one person hold several entries, each picking separately.
Coming back to make a pick
Go to sundaysurvivor.com and log in
Same email and password you signed up with. Forgotten it, choose Log In and then "Forgot password" to have a reset link emailed to you.
Open your pool
You land on My Survivor Pools. Tap your pool to open it.
Find your entry, then tap the week
Your entries are listed under My Entries, with a column for every week of the season. Tap the + in the current week's column on your entry's row.
Choose a team
You will see every game that week. Tap the team you think will win and it saves straight away, so there is no separate submit button.
You can change your mind as often as you like until the pick locks. After that the choice is final.
Do this once and skip step one every week
Sunday Survivor can sit on your phone's home screen with its own icon and open full screen. Log in once inside it and it stays logged in after that, so there is no address to type and no logging in every week. There is no app store download yet.
Show me how on my phoneStats & Reports
Open your pool and tap Stats & Reports at the top (just Stats on a phone). You land on Pick Stats, and the switch at the top of the page takes you to Reports for the rest.
Pick Stats
How your pool picked: each team's share of the picks, and tap a team to see which entries took it. Other entries' picks for the current week appear as each game kicks off, or all at once when picks lock if your commissioner hides them until then. You always see your own.
Path Planner
Put a team in each week you have left and see what the plan costs, with each game's chances taken from its betting line. The plan is saved on this device only and is not a pick, so you still make each week's pick as usual.
Team Availability
How many of the entries still alive can still use each team.
Team Schedules
Any team's season: opponents, kickoff times, its bye week and results so far.
Nemesis Teams
Which teams have knocked out the most entries in your pool.
Weekly Eliminations
How many entries went out each week.
Pick Risk Ranking
Ranks the entries still alive by how much risk their picks have taken, judged by the betting lines. Opens once your pool's third week starts.
War Chest
Rates each entry still alive on the teams it has left for the rest of the season. Opens once your pool's fifth week starts. Both this and Pick Risk count from your pool's own first week, not the season's, so a pool that started later opens them later.
Your Survivor Card
Once your entry's second game has been decided, a My Survivor Card link appears on your pool's page next to the alive and eliminated counts, and again on the Reports page. It builds a shareable card of that entry's run so far, one card for each entry you hold. You do not need to still be alive: going out early still gets you a shorter card, as long as the entry has results from two weeks. An entry knocked out in its first week does not get one, since a single result is not yet a run.
A few reports do not fit every kind of pool, such as War Chest in a pool that lets you reuse teams. Those say so when you open them.
Rules your commissioner may turn on
Every commissioner sets up their own pool, so not all of these apply to you. Your pool's Pool Rules tab lists exactly which ones do.
Mulligans
A mulligan keeps an entry alive after a lost or missed pick. Depending on the pool, it kicks in automatically or your commissioner grants it, and you get an email either way. That week still uses up a team: the one you picked or, if you missed the pick, one chosen for you. More on pools with two lives
Second Chance
Your first loss moves your entry into a Second Chance bracket instead of knocking it out, and you keep picking from the teams you have not used. A second loss ends its run, and the last entry standing there finishes second. If everyone left in the main pool loses in the same week, those entries share first place instead and their season is over. The bracket takes no new entries once the playoffs start. How the bracket works
Double-pick weeks
In weeks marked as double, you make two picks from different games and both have to win. Both teams count as used. Making only one counts as a missed pick. More on double-pick weeks
Playoffs
Some pools keep going past Week 18, with one pick per playoff round through the Super Bowl, as long as more than one entry is still alive. Every team becomes available again when the playoffs start. How playoff weeks work
Loser pools
You pick a team to lose. If it wins, you are out. More on loser pools
Against the spread
Your team has to cover the betting line, not just win. Each week's lines lock at noon Eastern on the Wednesday before its first game. More on spread pools
Ties
Your commissioner decides whether a tie knocks you out or lets you survive. Out is the default.
Worth knowing
You cannot pick the same team twice
In most pools, once you have used a team it is gone for the rest of the season. The pick screen greys out the ones you have already spent, so there is nothing to keep track of yourself.
You can change a pick until the deadline
Nothing is final until picks lock. Go back to the same screen, tap a different team, and it replaces the one you had. After the deadline it is set.
Renaming an entry
Your entries are listed on your pool's page with your name on them. To change one, look for the small pencil next to the name and tap it. On a computer the pencil only appears when you move your mouse over that row, so it is easy to miss.
Miss the deadline and you may be out
A missed pick counts as a loss in most pools. Your commissioner sets when picks lock, and the exact time is shown on your pool's page, so check it rather than assuming Sunday at 1pm.