Last man standing is a football competition where everyone picks one club to win each gameweek, you cannot pick the same club twice, and one wrong call knocks you out. The last entry left wins. To run one you need a clear rule sheet, a deadline each gameweek and a way to record picks and results, which a spreadsheet can do for a small group.
How does last man standing work?
Each gameweek, every entry picks one club before the deadline. If that club wins, you are through. If it draws or loses, you are usually out, though that is a rule you set, not a given.
The twist is the reuse rule. Once you have spent a club, it is gone for good. Use the league leaders at home to a promoted side in gameweek 2 and you will wish you had saved them for a harder week. That tension is the whole competition.
Some numbers to keep in mind for the Premier League:
- There are 20 clubs, so one entry has 20 different picks before the list runs dry.
- A season is 38 gameweeks and 380 matches, so a competition that goes the distance runs out of clubs with 18 gameweeks still to play.
- Elimination compounds. Halve a field each gameweek and 128 entries become one in seven rounds.
The last man standing page covers the format in more depth. If you are running one in Ireland, the Irish version uses St Stephen’s Day as a common start point instead of Boxing Day.
Which rules should you settle before gameweek 1?
Every one of these becomes a group chat argument if it is not written down first. Decide them in August, not at 5pm on a Saturday.
| Question | The choices |
|---|---|
| Does a draw eliminate? | Yes (shorter, harsher) or only a defeat (longer, kinder) |
| Can a club be reused? | No, once per entry. The standard rule |
| What if a match is postponed? | The pick carries to the new date, the entry survives untouched, or the entry repicks from the remaining fixtures |
| What if someone misses the deadline? | Eliminated, or an automatic pick of the highest-placed club they have not used |
| What if everyone goes out together? | Void and replay the gameweek, joint winners, or one re-entry round |
| What if the club list runs out? | Reset everyone to 20 clubs, or end it and share between whoever is left |
| Can people come back in? | One re-entry, closed at a fixed date such as the new year, or none |
| When are picks revealed? | Hidden until the deadline, then visible to everyone |
Two of these deserve a closer look.
Draws. In the NFL version of this game a tie is a once-a-season curiosity. A Premier League gameweek routinely produces three or four draws, so eliminating on a draw makes the competition roughly twice as brutal. Neither choice is wrong. Choosing by accident is.
The last survivors. The competition ends when one entry is left, or when the survivors agree to share it. Write down which, and what happens if the last two go out in the same gameweek. Most organisers settle on joint winners, because replaying a gameweek is hard to do fairly after the results are known.
What does a last man standing spreadsheet template need?
A last man standing spreadsheet works, and for ten or fifteen friends it is a perfectly good way to run one. There is no official template to download, so here is the layout that does the job. Build it once, then copy the tab for each season.
One row per entry, with these columns:
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Name | The entrant |
| Status | In, or Out with the gameweek they went out |
| Gameweek 1 pick | The club they chose |
| Gameweek 1 result | Won, drew or lost |
| Gameweek 2 pick, and so on | Repeat the pair of columns for each gameweek |
| Clubs used | A running list of every club already spent |
Add a second tab listing all 20 clubs, so everyone can see at a glance which are left. A simple COUNTIF formula across each entry’s picks will flag a repeated club, which is the one rule people break by accident.
What the spreadsheet cannot do is the admin. You still have to chase picks before a Saturday lunchtime deadline, copy results across on Sunday night, and rebuild the list when a fixture moves. The deadline is only as firm as the person enforcing it, and one edited cell can change who is still in.
Should you use a spreadsheet or a hub?
Use a spreadsheet when the group is small, everyone trusts the organiser and the competition will be over by Christmas. Use something that does the admin for you when you have a larger group, a mix of people who will not all check a shared file, or a competition you want to last all season.
Here is where Fanzava fits, said plainly. Last man standing is not a ready-made competition type that you can switch on today. We would rather tell you that than sell you a page. What does run is the engine around it: a branded hub on your logo and colours, fixtures, kick-off times and results arriving automatically from the live feed, live leaderboards, groups, confidence weighting, knockout brackets, season-long prediction and the Banter Board.
The practical answer for most groups is to run both. Keep the last man standing on a spreadsheet, and run a season-long Premier League prediction league on a hub beside it, with groups and a live leaderboard. Nobody is eliminated from that one, so the people who go out of last man standing in October still have something to check on Monday. If last man standing is what you specifically need, talk to our team and tell us the rule set you want to run.
When should you start a last man standing competition?
Common start points are gameweek 1, Boxing Day, the first weekend of January, or the FA Cup third round, when the Premier League and Championship clubs enter. A later start gives you a shorter, tighter competition, and it avoids the problem of the club list running dry.
Watch out for midweek rounds. League Cup weeks, European weeks and rearranged fixtures all break the tidy one-pick-per-weekend rhythm, so say in the rules whether a midweek round counts as its own gameweek.
How do you run last man standing for fundraising?
If your group raises money for charity with a last man standing competition, that happens outside Fanzava, between you and your members, and the rules where you live apply.
Collecting entry fees raises questions under the gambling rules in Great Britain, and we cannot tell you how those apply to yours. The Gambling Commission publishes guidance on how to run a lottery with people you work with, and it is the right page to read before you ask anyone for anything.
The simplest version asks for no money at all. A trophy, a shirt or a lunch supplied by the organiser is enough to play for, and you can still name a charity for the organiser to support in the winner’s name.
What should eliminated players do?
This is the part organisers forget. By gameweek 6 half the room is out and has no reason to look at the group chat. Give them a second competition that nobody can be knocked out of, like a season-long prediction league, so the whole room keeps talking until May.
Where do you go from here?
Write your rule sheet first, using the table above. Then pick your tool: a spreadsheet for a small group, or a Premier League prediction league on a branded hub beside it. If you are also planning a one-off draw for a big race or a tournament, our guide to running a sweepstake covers it, and the free sweepstake generator does the draw. For knockout tournaments, a bracket keeps everyone involved to the final, and starts on Starter.
Frequently asked questions
Is a draw a loss in last man standing?
In most British rule sets, yes. Draws are common in the Premier League, so eliminating on a draw ends the competition much sooner. Eliminating only on a defeat keeps more people in for longer. Either works, as long as it is written at the top of the rules before the first deadline.
Can you pick the same team twice?
No. Each club can be used once per entry, which is the rule that makes the format. With 20 Premier League clubs and 38 gameweeks, the list runs dry long before May, so agree in advance whether it resets or the competition ends.
What happens if everyone goes out in the same gameweek?
Whatever your rules say. The three workable answers are to void the gameweek and replay it, to declare everyone who was still standing joint winners, or to run one re-entry round. Deciding after the final whistle is the only version that causes an argument.
Can I run a last man standing competition on Fanzava?
No, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Last man standing is not a ready-made mode in the product right now. What ships today is branded hubs, automatic fixtures and scoring, live leaderboards, groups, confidence weighting, knockout brackets and season-long prediction. If last man standing is the competition you need, talk to our team and tell us the rules you run.
Can you run last man standing for charity?
Any money raised for charity is arranged by your group outside Fanzava. The rules where you live apply, and the Gambling Commission publishes guidance for workplaces.