Fantasy football guillotine leagues: Rules, strategy and how they work

USA Today

17 hours ago

Fantasy football, for the most part, is pretty standard: You enter a league, you pick your team name, you draft a squad either using a salary cap or a snake draft and then you play an opponent each week to see who wins. There are also Best Ball formats that are draft-and-forget-it leagues.
But one type of league that's exploded in recent years is what's known as the guillotine fantasy football league. It's kind of a wild version that will have your brain twisted in a pretzel. Its similar to the standard fantasy league in that you draft a team.
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But from there? It can get crazy. Let's break it all down and help you out with your draft and strategy:
What is a fantasy football guillotine league?
The tl;dr: You draft your players, you set your lineup each week... but by the end of each week, the lowest-scoring team is eliminated, with their roster sent to the waiver wire for everyone who survived to bid on and add.
Hence the term "guillotine" -- each week, someone is eliminated.
What's the best fantasy football guillotine league strategy?
I've played in some of these, and when it comes to the draft, you want to focus on health, because right out of the gate, you want to stay out of last place. So you may not want to, say, take Brandon Aiyuk or Chris Godwin as they recover, even if you can bench them. The same might go for certain rookies not named, say, Ashton Jeanty.
When it comes to the waiver wire? There are a few schools of thought. But don't be shy when it comes to bidding on available players -- people are going to go all out adding the big names who were cut from losing rosters, so go ahead and bid big for the superstars, particularly if you think your roster could be in last place in coming weeks.
How many teams are in a fantasy football guillotine league?
It's usually one more team than the number of weeks you play. So if you play for 17 weeks, you'll have 18 teams so that there's a final head-to-head matchup.
How does the waiver wire work in fantasy football guillotine leagues?
You get a certain number of "dollars" to spend. Each week, if you survive, you get to "bid" against the other managers to pick up waiver-wire players, with the highest bid winning. But you have to strategize over the money you have left or that of the other owners. Spend too much too soon and you may not have enough left in a few weeks. Don't spend enough and you'll start seeing stronger teams winning more than you with more robust rosters.