Survivor Fantasy Football Is Growing: ESPN Joins the Trend

Eliminator or survivor leagues continue to grow in popularity, and a big platform is adding the exciting format for the upcoming fantasy football season.

ESPN announced that it was adding a new “Knockout” league format. Let's discuss elimination/survivor leagues for those of you not super familiar with the format.

Fantasy football average draft position data can be found on FantasySP in the leadup to the 2026 NFL season!

ESPN's Knockout Format

The goal of elimination/knockout leagues is to survive each week of the fantasy season.

Each week, the lowest-scoring fantasy team is eliminated from contention. Those teams are done for the season, and the players from those rosters are released on waivers. The remaining teams in the league can pick up those players via bids, or free pickups.

The process continues again and again, until just one manager remains. ESPN suggests at least 12 league members, so that the knockout game continues late into the NFL season. Smaller league sizes are still available.

One difference in the ESPN Knockout game from other platforms is that eliminated managers have a chance for “last words.” All that means is that managers can share a message before being dropped from the league.

That might not be all that exciting, but survivor/elimination leagues are. 

My Survivor/Elimination League Experience

I joined my first one last season and was able to survive each week and win it all. I played through Yahoo - they call it guillotine leagues. You can read my entire writeup on the experience here, but I'll go over some other tips and tricks here.

What I learned early on was to not worry so much about your fantasy points per week, but to instead just find ways not to have the lowest score. That meant that in the initial draft, I drafted players who had a better chance of excelling early in the season, and especially week 1.

That meant not many rookies, and guys I knew were going to be big parts of their team's offenses right from the start of the year.

After surviving each week, I'd do my best to add the best free agents, while not blowing my budget right away. If there was a can't-miss fantasy stud on the waiver wire after an elimination, I decided how much I'd be comfortable spending.

High-end guys, like Bijan Robinson, Ja'Marr Chase and others, are guys I'd spend up to 1/4 of my available budget on. The later it got in the season, the more willing I was to spend big on players.

Much like regular redraft fantasy formats, the running back and wide receiver positions are the most valuable, even if there's more options at those spots. Locking in top-end talents at those spots can take you a long way in the game.

You can mix-and-match your fantasy quarterbacks (think streaming) and play matchups with tight ends throughout the season - at least until you can get high-end options at each spot.

Another thing I learned along the way last season was to not always trust the guys that had gotten me to that point. If there were better fantasy players and matchups out there, I made the moves to improve my roster and lineup for each passing week.

Especially when it came down to the final couple weeks, I was constantly tinkering with my lineup to put myself in the best positions to rack up points and keep advancing. 

My lineup by the end of the league was basically a bunch of first- and second-round picks. In the end, it more or less becomes a DFS contest, as nearly every player is at your disposal.

More on Survivor/Elimination Leagues

There are a number of fantasy platforms that support elimination/survivor/guillotine leagues. Even if certain platforms don't have dedicated setups, you can often set up fantasy leagues that function in that fashion. 

FantasySP can help with these types of leagues. Sync your league through the Fantasy Assistant, and use the various tools and advice through that to help you navigate the season.

The Fantasy Assistant can help you determine the best waiver wire adds all season, along with how much FAAB to spend. It also has drop data.

You could also utilize the Fantasy Sports Expert inside the Fantasy Assistant. It will break down your team and let you know your areas of strength and weakness, which is especially helpful in a league with so much turnover.

Give elimination/survivor leagues a try this coming season, especially if you are looking for a new challenge outside redraft leagues. FantasySP will provide more insight and wisdom on those kinds of leagues as the year goes along, so keep checking back for more.