Guillotine leagues (AKA Elimination Leagues) are a variation of Fantasy Football with a brutal twist – instead of competing head-to-head, managers compete as a group using total points to determine the winners. Each week, the manager whose team scored the lowest Total Points is cut from the league, and their players are released to the waiver wire! Every week thereafter, another manager is cut until, in the end, you have two powerhouse teams left to vie for the championship. We did say it was brutal!

 How to Create a Guillotine League

While there is no specific setting for Guillotine leagues in ESPN Fantasy Football, it is very simple to create one with our Custom league settings. The simplest way is to create a custom league, the same as usual. The only difference is that as the League Manager (LM), you will conduct additional tasks (see How to Run a Guillotine League below).

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• With 18 weeks in the ESPN Fantasy Football season, Guillotine Leagues are the most fun with 18 Team Managers.
• To ensure fairness, make sure you have set your league to utilize the Acquisition and Waiver Rules. Otherwise, whenever a manager is cut from the league, and their players are released to the Waiver Wire, you risk a free agent free-for-all where the quickest manager will gain an unfair advantage over the others. Using Waivers prevents this from happening.
• To ensure maximum competitiveness, we highly encourage LMs to use the Free Agent Budget (FAB) method for how managers may claim players off waivers. This is the fairest and simplest way to ensure that no one team gains an unfair advantage. Click here for more information on the Waivers and Free Agent Budget (FAB) methods.
• During the league creation process, make sure you turn off the Undroppable Players option.

How to Turn Off the ESPN Undroppable Players List Option

1. Click LM Tools and select Edit Roster Settings.
2. Then click on Transactions and Keepers (in the top menu).
3. Scroll down to Player Rules.
4. Use the dropdown menu to toggle the Observe ESPN’s Undroppable Players List to “No”.
5. Click Save Changes at the bottom.

How to Enable Player Acquisition and Waiver Rules

1. Click LM Tools and select Edit Roster Settings.
2. Then click on Transactions and Keepers (in the top menu).
3. Scroll down to Acquisition and Waiver Rules.
4. Select the Waiver System you prefer.
   • NOTE: We highly recommend using the FAB method for waivers.
5. Select the options available for your selected Player Acquisition method.
   • EXAMPLE: Season Acquisition Limit, Waiver Period, Waiver Order, Player Acquisition Budget, Minimum Offer, Free Agent Budget Tiebreaker, etc.
6. Click Save Changes at the bottom.

How to Run a Guillotine League

Guillotine Leagues will still have weekly Head-to-Head (H2H) Matchups the same as regular leagues. This includes standings and H2H records. But none of these matter in a Guillotine League. The only stat that matters is the Total Points scored by a team for that week.

Each Tuesday, once the weekly scoring period is final, the League Manager will go to the League Scoreboard page and determine which Team scored the lowest Total Points for that week.

Once the manager to be cut is determined, the LM will remove their players from their team:

1. Go to LM Tools.
2. Under the Roster Tools section, click on Roster Moves.
3. Select Drop Player in the Action drop-down menu.
4. Select the Team.
5. Click on Continue.
6. Click on the red Drop button on every player in the team.
7. Repeat this process every week until there are only two teams left in the league.