How to set up and run a Last Man Standing pool

Setting up takes two minutes. After that the site does the weekly work: picks lock at kickoff, results are applied, eliminations are announced, and the pool restarts or ends by the rules you chose.

Create the pool

1. Go to Last Man Standing and press Create a pool.
2. Name it and choose the competition. Set a start gameweek if you're starting mid-season.
3. Choose who can join: private with an invite link and code, public so anyone can find it, or organiser-only where you add every player yourself.
4. Open Show rules to set how the pool plays. The defaults suit most pools; every setting is explained below and can be changed later.

The rules, explained

These are the settings on the create form and the Settings tab, with the same explanation each control shows. Rules can be changed at any time: once the pool has started, a change applies from the next week that hasn't locked, and weeks already played keep the rules they were played under.

• Start gameweek - The first gameweek picks are made. Earlier gameweeks are ignored.
• If everyone still in is knocked out the same week - What happens if everyone still in is knocked out in the same gameweek - with lives, a week where nobody wins and nobody has a life left to lose. Everyone back in: the pool starts again from the next week. Anyone knocked out earlier is back too, and everyone's used teams are cleared. Survivors play on: only the players knocked out this week carry on, and anyone out from an earlier week stays out. Share the win: the players knocked out this week share the pot and it ends. A week where everyone loses but still has lives in hand is an ordinary round: each of them loses a life.
• Who plays each series - Everyone who joins: anyone in the pool plays, and a restart puts everyone straight back in. Only players I enter: for pools with an entry fee collected off the site. Anyone who joins by link or code is in the pool but sat out until you enter them from the members list, in the first series and after every restart, so nobody plays a series without paying. You can still sit individual players out under either.
• Lives - How many losses a player can take before they're out. 1 is classic Last Man Standing: one loss (or missed pick) and you're gone. A missed pick costs a life just like a loss.
• End when this many survivors remain - Stop the pool once this many players are left and make them joint winners. Set to 1 for a single last-player-standing winner.
• Let the final players vote to split - Let the remaining players agree to end early and share the pot (a 'chop'). Once survivors fall to the number below, a split happens only if everyone still in votes for it.
• Offer a split vote once this many remain - How few players must be left before a vote-to-split is offered. e.g. 2 means the final two can agree to share rather than play on to a single winner.
• Allow re-using a team - Off (normal): once you've picked a team you can't pick it again. On: you can pick the same team every week.
• Give the team back if a picked match is postponed - If a picked match is postponed after the deadline the pick is void - the player goes through regardless. On: the team goes back into their list to use again. Off: it counts as used, as if it had played.
• When survivors play on, reset everyone's used teams - When the survivors play on after a wipeout, wipe the used-teams history so they can re-pick teams they'd already used. A restart always clears used teams.
• After a wipeout, reopen joining - When the pool restarts or the survivors play on after a wipeout, let new players join again from the next week.
• Reset used teams when knockouts start (cups) - For cups: a team you used in the group / league phase becomes pickable again once the knockouts (R16 onward) start.
• Auto-pick on a missed deadline - If a player hasn't picked when the round locks, give them a team instead of a strike - the house rule big pools run by hand. They get a push saying which team they were given. Only rounds that lock after you switch it on are filled: a round already under way is left as it is.
• Auto-picks per player - How many times one player can be auto-picked over the whole pool. Once they've used them up, a missed pick counts as a loss again.
• Which team an auto-pick gets - Which team a player is given. Positions come from our own results, so points deductions won't show. Cup pools always use a random team.

Invite people

1. Press Invite on the pool page to copy the link or the code, or share it straight to WhatsApp.
2. Players need a free account. The link takes them through sign-up and into the pool.
3. You can also add people by username from the Members tab, and make someone a co-admin who can enter picks for players and manage members but not change the rules.

If you charge an entry fee

1. Set Who plays each series to *Only players I enter*. Anyone who joins is in the pool but sat out until you enter them, so nobody plays without paying.
2. Collect the money however you like - the site never handles it.
3. The Members tab lists who has joined and is waiting. Use the row menu to Enter for this series once they've paid.
4. When the pool restarts for a new series, everyone is sat out again until you enter them. Sit out anyone who doesn't go again.

Week to week

• Nothing to do. Picks lock at the round's first kickoff, results are applied as matches finish, and everyone can see who's through and who's out.
• The WhatsApp summary button writes up the round for the group chat.
• If someone couldn't get to the site, an admin can enter a pick on their behalf before the round locks. It's marked as admin-entered so the pool can see.
• Reminders go to players who haven't picked as the deadline approaches.

Wipeouts, winners and the next series

• Wipeout - if everyone still in loses the same week, the wipeout rule handles it. Under the default the pool restarts next week with everyone back in and used teams cleared.
• A winner - the pool finishes with a recap. Press Start series 2 to go again with the same group. Everyone's back in and the finished series stays on record.
• Restart by hand - the Settings tab has Restart the pool for when the pool should have restarted but the rule said otherwise. It can be undone.
• The pick history shows one series at a time, with a selector for earlier ones and a line saying how each ended.

Fixing things

• Reinstate a knocked-out player from the Members tab (a buy-back). It shows on their row, and can be undone.
• Sit out or enter a player for the current series from the same menu.
• Reopen a finished pool from Settings if it finished by mistake.
• Change a rule from Settings. It applies from the next week that hasn't locked.