Eliminator Fantasy Football ("the Contest") is a fantasy football contest where you can start a new 17-team league or join an existing public league. Leagues feature live points scoring with the lowest scoring team eliminated each week and all their players becoming free agents and eligible to be picked up by the remaining teams. Leagues are open to all players of all skill levels, you can choose the league that fits you best. The rules for the Contest are explained below.
If you are looking for a league where you can customize the rules to your liking, try RealTime Fantasy Sports' Full Season Commissioner Service product.
RealTime Fantasy Sports, Inc. ("RTFS") will serve as the commissioner for fantasy football leagues and will be responsible for resolving any disputes that arise, such as rules violations or any other matters that may come up in connection with the Contest. All commissioner decisions by RealTime Fantasy Sports, Inc. are final.
Sign Up
You may sign up and play the Contest up until the registration deadline at any of these listed entry levels: $20, $50, $100, $125, $250 per team. As part of the Official Rules, all dollar amounts are in US Dollars (USD). You may register and play as many teams as you like. You may not have more than one team in any league. If you do register more than one team, each team must be in a different league. To be prize eligible you may not own more than one team per league per household.
Deadline
For leagues drafting before kickoff of the first game of the NFL season, the season will begin with the first game of the NFL season. For leagues drafting after kickoff of the first game of the NFL season, the league's start week will be the first Tuesday after your draft. Stats from prior weeks will not count in your league and you will play a shorter regular season schedule.
Refund Policy
After you sign up for the Contest, you may request a full refund of the purchase price up until your league is filled and if applicable, the draft order is set. After the league is filled, you may not receive a refund and all sales are final. Honoring refund requests will be subject to the sole discretion of RealTime Fantasy Sports, Inc.
Once you join a fantasy league you will have the option to switch to another league up until the league is filled and if applicable, the draft order is set or up until 30 minutes prior to the scheduled draft time. After the league has filled or if it is less than 30 minutes before the scheduled draft time you will not be allowed to switch to another league.
RealTime Fantasy Sports fantasy contests are open to:
Should state or province law change during the registration period for the Contest, RealTime Fantasy Sports may suspend new contest registrations from that state or province beginning after the effective or enforcement date of the law. The RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to other remedies and actions as required by law.
Prohibited Participants
Deposits by Minors
Persuant to state law, deposits made by a minor will be refunded within no more than two business days of discovery of such deposits.
After the last team has joined the league, the league will be locked in and the draft order will be randomly generated. The draft order is a random order of all teams that have joined the league and is not affected by when teams join the league. Once the draft order is set, all teams will be notified via email the league is locked in and the draft order has been generated. If your league does not have all the required teams, the league will be disbanded prior to the scheduled draft date and time. If your league is disbanded you will be able to join another league or create a new league. RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to move the scheduled draft time up to 90 minutes to give the league sufficient time to fill with the required number of teams.
The draft will be an S-style draft with the team picking last in the first round picking first in the second round and so on. For example, in a 12 team league:
In normal drafts, each team will have 90 seconds per pick to draft a player.
If the league is designated to have a slow draft, each team will have between 2 and 8 hours to draft a player. In a slow draft the draft will pause from ~2:00am ET until 8:00am ET. Note: the clock may not pause at exactly 2:00am, it can take a couple minutes to get all leagues paused. Notifications via email, text, or the official RTFS app will be sent to team owners when they are on the clock. Team owners may select to receive notifications after each completed draft pick. RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to reduce the draft time for each team in the final week before the start of the first game of the season.
After you join or create a league, you will have the opportunity to establish your own auto draft list of players.
Prior to your draft, you may customize your auto draft list to rank the players by your preferences. You may customize your draft auto draft list at any time up to and even during your draft. If you do not customize your auto draft list, the auto draft list for the draft will be the player rankings from RealTime Fantasy Sports, as they are listed at the time of your draft.
The auto draft list will be used as a fail-safe backup in case your draft clock expires before you make a pick. In the event you should fail to make a pick in the time allowed, RealTime Fantasy Sports will automatically draft a player for you. The player will be the top ranked player on your auto draft list. Players drafted automatically will be selected from your auto draft list, or from the players in the RTFS rankings without an injury designation if you do not have a list, in a manner that will fill out your team's starting lineup before the end of the draft. In order to prevent auto drafted teams from having too many players at any one position, positional maximums are configured and can be adjusted by each team. Should the draft clock expire on a team in two consecutive rounds in a draft or one round in an 8-hour slow draft, the system will set the team to auto-draft until disabled by a team owner. Auto draft selections will stand and will not be reversed.
RTFS reserves the right to pause a draft to contact players who have failed to enter the draft on time. RTFS reserves the right to correct draft mistakes within a reasonable timeframe.
Roster Composition
Each team will consist of a roster of 12 players when using PPR Style Rules and 15 players when using SuperFlex Style Rules. Team owners are free to draft any player position mix for their roster. There are no restrictions on the number of players at any position that may be on a team's roster, except teams are limited to 4 quarterbacks with SuperFlex rules. Owners are not required to have a minimum number of players at any position on their roster.
RealTime Fantasy Sports uses the official preseason position designation for each player's position. After September 1st of the current season, each player's position designation will be locked for the duration of the season. If a player's position is officially changed prior to September 1st, that change will be reflected in the Contest. By acquiring a player, team owners accept the risk of player position change prior to the season. RTFS reserves the right to update a player's position designation at any time in the event of the player changing NFL teams or other extraordinary circumstances.
Weekly Lineups
The Contest uses a single starting lineup for each team per week. Team owners may change their starting lineups any time between Tuesday morning at 7:00am ET and 9:00pm ET on Monday of each NFL week. In week 1 of the NFL season, owners may set their starting lineup beginning immediately after their draft up until 9:00pm ET on Monday of week 1. Regardless of the deadline for setting a team's starting lineup a player cannot be promoted to a starter or benched after the scheduled kickoff of their game.
Each Team's starting lineup will consist of a maximum of:
In the interest of competition, between 12:01am ET and 6:00am ET on each NFL game day of the fantasy league's regular season, the system will automatically replace any starter with a bye or that has an injury status of "Out", or equivalent (on I/R, suspended, military leave, etc.) on a roster with a bench player from that same roster. At the same time, the system will automatically fill in any missing starters from a team's lineup, if possible. On Sundays and Mondays, the system will only adjust lineups that have not been set by a team owner during the current week. On days prior to Sunday, the system will only adjust lineups that have not been set by a team owner during the current or previous week.
Owners may opt out of this system lineup check for all of their teams via their Power Player Lineups page. If an owner has opted out of the system lineup check for all their teams, the system will opt their teams back into the system lineup check on Tuesday mornings if the starting lineup from the previous week had any players with a bye or an injury status of "Out".
At the conclusion of each regular season week, the lowest scoring team of that week will be eliminated. When a team is eliminated, that team's entire roster will be released into the free agent pool and to all teams on the next waiver wire. 13 teams will be eliminated before the start of the league playoffs.
At the end of a fantasy week, should two or more teams be tied for the lowest score that week, the team scoring the fewest points season-to-date will be the team eliminated. Total points scored for the season are only used for elimination tie breakers.
Waiver Wire - Free Agent Acquisition Budget (FAAB) Style
Free agents will be awarded using a blind bidding system. Each team will receive 1000 blind bidding "dollars" for use in bidding on free agents. Once a team has exhausted their blind bidding dollars they will not be able to acquire additional free agents. The minimum bid on any free agent is one "dollar".
Player requests must be submitted by 11:59pm ET each Wednesday night for award between midnight and 6:00am ET Thursday morning. The second set of player requests must be submitted by 11:59pm ET each Saturday during the season for award between midnight and 6:00am ET Sunday morning.
There will not be a Wednesday night waiver wire before NFL Week 1. If your league draft is before kickoff of opening day, there will be a waiver wire on Saturday night of Fantasy Week 1. Requests must be submitted by 11:59pm Eastern on Saturday for award between midnight and 6:00am Eastern Sunday morning. In Week 1, bidding ties will be broken by reverse draft order.
For 2024: Leagues that have waivers in Week 17, there will be a special, Week 17-only, Tuesday night waiver wire.
Leagues are non-trading leagues.
All scoring rules apply to all players, regardless of player's position unless otherwise stated.
Rushing:
Passing:
Receiving:
Special Teams:
Statistics Reporting
Scores and stats are updated immediately as they are received from our statistics provider (usually about every minute). Some events beyond RTFS' control can make this time longer. Thus, RealTime Fantasy Sports is not responsible for the timeliness and accuracy of the statistics.
Because the statistics are updated "live," some errors may occur. If so, statistical errors are usually corrected by our stats provider during the course of the NFL game, but may take up to 24 hours to be corrected. If an error occurs and is not corrected by our provider, RTFS will correct the stat ourselves, but only if it is overwhelmingly obvious that the stat is in error. If there is any doubt about the validity of the stat, RTFS will maintain the statistic given by its provider.
All stats for a given NFL week are deemed final at noon on Thursday of the next week. Even if the NFL changes a stat several weeks later, it will not be changed by RTFS. Nonetheless, RTFS still reserves the right to change any stat at any time for any unforeseen reason.
Should an NFL game be ended early for any reason, not limited to injury, weather, or field conditions, the statistics will be applied to all fantasy league scoring if the NFL considers the game an official game. If the NFL does not consider the game or the statistics as official, they will not be applied to any fantasy league.
RealTime Fantasy Sports is not responsible for any inaccuracies, representations, statements, graphics or content of materials that are uploaded onto its servers and website from other vendors, including but not limited to the National Football League, SportsRadar, the Associated Press, and users, members, subscribers, customers or participants.
Regular Season
The regular season for the league will last 13 weeks from NFL Week 1 to NFL Week 13.
RTFS reserves the right to shorten the fantasy season for any league should the NFL play shortened schedule. Should the start of the NFL season be delayed or the season interrupted for a period of time, the fantasy schedule will be adjusted to match the NFL schedule length.
Playoffs
After the conclusion of the regular season, the 4 remaining teams will begin for the league playoffs. In league Week 14 through Week 16, the playoff teams will compete for the league championship. No teams shall be eliminated during the league playoffs. The team with the most playoff points scored at the end of league Week 16 shall be declared the league champion.
Leagues with $250 per Team Entry Fee
The Winner in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $2,000.
The 2nd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $1,000.
The 3rd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $750.
Leagues with $125 per Team Entry Fee
The Winner in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $1,000.
The 2nd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $500.
The 3rd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $350.
Leagues with $100 per Team Entry Fee
The Winner in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $800.
The 2nd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $400.
The 3rd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $250.
Leagues with $50 per Team Entry Fee
The Winner in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $400.
The 2nd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $200.
The 3rd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $125.
Leagues with $20 per Team Entry Fee
The Winner in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $150.
The 2nd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $75.
The 3rd Place finisher in each "Eliminator Fantasy Football" league will receive a prize of $30.
Prizes will be awarded to one individual per team. All prizes are non-transferable.
Should the NFL season be considered a viable fantasy season, but end before Week 14 is completed the league will combine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes into a single prize pool to be chopped equally between the remaining teams at the end of the last completed NFL week. Should the NFL season end after Week 14 but before Week 16 is completed, prizes will be awarded based on total points scored in the league playoffs at the end of the last completed NFL Week. Should the NFL season end after Week 16 is completed, league prizes will be awarded as set forth in these rules.
Highly experienced fantasy players will be designated in the list of entries in each league. Players will be able to view the list of participants and their designation before joining any league. Designations will be displayed as follows:
Highly Experienced
Highly Experienced
Not Highly Experienced
State definitions of highly experienced may be found here.
RealTime Fantsy Sports Rankings
Top 100 Player
Top 1000 Player
Ranked lower than Top 1000
An explanation of the fantasy player rankings may be found here.
Fantasy players designated "highly experienced" or players inside the RealTime Fantasy Sports Top 1000 players are prohibited from participating daily fantasy (DFS) or the first year of season long fantasy contests advertised as beginner or novice-only.
All contests have published limits on the maximum number of entries that a single user may submit. These limits will be specified in the official rules of each contest. The maximum limits for any contest in any format will not exceed:
Participants must create an account with RealTime Fantasy Sports in order to participate in any fantasy contest. Accounts must be verified using the participant's full, legal name, current address, date of birth. RealTime Fantasy Sports uses a third-party verification system to authenticate this personal information. Customers may also validate their accounts by submitting an up-to-date government issued ID (such as a driver's license) with the participant's current address and date of birth clearly displayed. RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to close any account under suspicion of fraud or submission of invalid personal information.
Participants may self-exclude themselves from participating in contest offer by RTFS.
Contest participants will not be eligible to receive prize cash outs until their account information has been verified. Cash out payments will only be sent to the verified name and address on the account, no other name or address will accepted. If a prize winner has moved, address information will need to be re-verified before a prize payout can be issued.
All funds in verified, registered accounts are sole possession of that participant. Except in cases involving fraud (see section titled, "Fraud" below). Withdrawals from a registered participants's account by any individual other than the registered participant is strictly prohibitied. These funds are not the property of RealTime Fantasy Sports Inc. and are not available to RealTime Fantasys Sports Inc.'s creditors.
One account per participant. Persons with more than one account may have any extra accounts closed by RealTime Fantasy Sports.
US Residents
Net prize winnings of $600 or more per calednar year must be claimed as income. Participants receiving $600 USD or more in net winnings are required to submit their social security number ("SSN") for tax purposes. This SSN will be verified using the participant's account information for validity. RealTime Fantasy Sports will provide a copy of the 1099-MISC to the IRS for their records. Participants will be notified via e-mail and online of the presence of the 1099-MISC form. It is the sole responsibility of the participant to print out the form and include it in their tax return to the Unites States Internal Revenue Service ("IRS").
Non-US residents
All prize winnings are succeptible to a 30% foreign winnings withholding. Withholdings will be deducted from prize distributions and sent to the IRS. By February 15th of the next calendar year all non-US residents will have a tax form 1042-S, detailing the amount of prize money withheld, attached to their personal account. Participants will be notified via e-mail and online (when they access their personal account) of the presence of the 1042-S form. It is the sole responsibility of the participant to print out the form and determine the amount, if any, that can be re-claimed. Per tax law, RealTime Fantasy Sports will provide a copy of the 1042-S to the IRS for their records.
Full season Prize Winners will be notified by email within 48 hours after the official final results (and associated winners) are validated at the conclusion of the Contest. Prize Winners are also posted on the Contest web site. For full season or multiple week contests, the conclusion of the Contest is defined as noon Eastern time on either the Thursday following the last day of competition in the league or 2 business days following the last day of competition, whichever is the later date. For daily contests, the conclusion the Contest is defined as noon Eastern on the day following the last event of the Contest. Within 48 hours after the conclusion of the Contest all prize awards will be placed in the winner's RealTime Fantasy Sports account. Prize Winners may use the balance in their accounts to purchase additional RealTime Fantasy Sports games or they may request a prize distribution via check or direct deposit, payable in US Dollars. Prize Winners must complete an affidavit of eligibility and a liability/publicity release (unless prohibited by law) to receive a prize distribution. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in non-payment. Prize Winners are not required to spend the balance in their account nor are they required to receive a prize distribution. Account balances do not expire and may be spent on RealTime Fantasy Sports games at any time in the future.
By accepting any prize, the winners grant permission to RealTime Fantasy Sports to use their names and/or likenesses for publicity and promotional purposes without further compensation, unless prohibited by law, and agree to execute a written consent. In the event of a dispute about the identity of any entrant, entries made online are declared made by the authorized account holder of the email address submitted at the time of entry. "Authorized account holder" is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an email address by an Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization that is responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address. A potential winner can be required to provide the sponsors with proof that the potential winner is the authorized account holder of the email address associated with the winning entry.
Sportsmanship
By registering, you agree to abide by the general sportsmanship rules set forth in these rules and fantasy games in general. You further agree to accept and abide by the rulings and the decisions of RealTime Fantasy Sports regarding all questions of sportsmanship. Sportsmanship broadly includes actions such as abusive postings and communication, colluding with other teams in the league, deliberately choosing to start incomplete or weak lineups, free agent moves for reasons other than improvement of the owner's fantasy team, and any other actions not conducive to decent, fair, and honest play. If an owner refuses to comply with the sportsmanship rules, or that an owner has acted in an unsportsmanlike manner, RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to disqualify the owner and/or remove that owner from the league without a refund. All decisions by RealTime Fantasy Sports will be final.
Inappropriate, Offensive, or Commercial Communication
The league message boards, league news and league email are provided to facilitate communication with other league owners and enhance the enjoyment of your league. RealTime Fantasy Sports does not permit posting or sending messages or images, to include logos, avatars and team names that could be construed as offensive to other owners. Inappropriate communication can also include spamming team owners with commercial offers and/or posting commercial messages on the league message board. Team owners who violate these guidelines are subject to being restricted from posting in the league. Additionally, RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to disqualify the owner and/or remove that owner from the league without a refund. All decisions by RealTime Fantasy Sports will be final.
All participants are required to abide by the RealTime Fantasy Sports, Inc. (RTFS) Official Policies. RTFS reserves the right to refuse participation for persons violating these terms.
Accidental Drops
In season long fantasy contests, should a team accidentally drop a player or drop the incorrect player during a free agent transaction, the team may appeal to have the player reinstated to their team. The appeal for reinstatement must occur immediately, without exception. If the appeal is not submitted immediately, for any reason, the appeal will be denied. Submission of an appeal does not guarantee a ruling in favor of the team submitting the appeal. If the team owner is a repeat offender, deemed to be using the appeal to gain an advantage or the appeal is not submitted immediately, the appeal will be denied. RTFS reserves the right to deny any appeal.
Trades
In leagues that permit trading, owners may request a review of commissioner-approved trades or commissioner-rejected trades. Trade appeals must be submitted immediately after the trade was approved or rejected. If any delay in submission occurs, for any reason, the appeal will be denied. Upon submission of an appeal, the trade will be reviewed by a panel of fantasy experts. Current injuries, bye weeks, season to date performance, team standings, and other factors will be considered. Trades that are overwhelmingly one-sided will be rejected. Trades that are arguably beneficial to both sides or arguably not overwhelmingly one-sided will be allowed to stand. Submission of an appeal does not guarantee a trade will be reversed. RTFS reserves the right to reverse any trade or let any trade stand.
All appeal decisions by RealTime Fantasy Sports are final.
Participants wishing to register complaints regarding whether his or her account has been misallocated, compromised, or otherwise mishandled may do so using the following methods:
Please include full name, account information, contact number (daytime and evening) and description of your complaint. RealTime Fantasy Sports will access the given information and respond either via phone or e-mail within three (3) business days. RealTime Fantasy Sports will do everything in its power to resolve the situation.
Internet/Technology Problems
If, for any reason, the Contest is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of RealTime Fantasy Sports which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of the Contest, RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to cancel the contest and issue full refunds to all participants.
RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right at their sole discretion to disqualify any individual who tampers with the registration process or operations of the Contest and to cancel, terminates, modify or suspend the Contest. RealTime Fantasy Sports assumes no responsibility for any error, omissions, interruption, deletion, defect or delay in operation with transmission, communications, line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or allegation of entries. RealTime Fantasy Sports is not responsible for any problem or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers, equipment or software, failure of any email or user action to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, phone lines, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to a participant's computer related to or resulting from participation in the Contest. ANY ATTEMPT BY A PARTICIPANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE LEAGUES IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, REALTIME FANTASY SPORTS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
Liability
RealTime Fantasy Sports is not responsible for any late, lost, garbled, misdirected, incomplete, or damaged entries; any Contest disruptions, injuries, losses or damages caused by events beyond the control of RealTime Fantasy Sports or any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Contest. RealTime Fantasy Sports or any subsidiary or affiliated company of any of the foregoing, are not in any way responsible or liable for any damage, loss or injury (including death) resulting from participation in the Contest and/or acceptance and use of any prize won. RealTime Fantasy Sports is solely responsible for enacting, administering, enforcing the rules, and maintaining the integrity of the Contest. The Contest and website are not sponsored by, endorsed by, nor affiliated with, the National Football League, the National Football League Players Association, Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association, National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the Professional Golfers Association, or NASCAR.
Release
By participating in the Contest, you release and agree to hold harmless RealTime Fantasy Sports, its sponsors, parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agencies from any liability whatsoever for any claims, costs, injuries, losses, or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the Contest or acceptance, possession, or use of any prize (including, without limitation, claims, costs, injuries and losses related to personal injuries, death, damage to or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light, whether intentional or unintentional), whether under a theory of contract, tort (including negligence), warranty or other theory.
Official Rules
The Contest is subject to all United States laws, and to the Leagues official rules, and cannot be used in connection with any form of gambling. By entering the Contest, you agree to abide by the terms of the official rules and by the decisions of RealTime Fantasy Sports, which are final on all matters pertaining to the Contest. RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to change the official rules at any time, in their sole discretion. Official rules are the rules posted on the Contest website.
Fraud
Entries into the Contest obtained via fraudulent means such as purchase with stolen credit card, fraudulent bank transaction, checks returned for insufficient funds, credit card chargebacks, etc. shall be disqualified from the Contest. Participants circumventing, attempting to circumvent or subverting the rules of the Contest shall be declared fraudulent and be disqualified from the Contest. RealTime Fantasy Sports reserves the right to seek legal remedies and restitution for all fraudulently acquired entries and for any transactions that defraud RealTime Fantasy Sports of Contest entry fees. Remedies and restitution may include administrative charges and attorney fees. Participants that obtain Contest entries by fraud or defraud RealTime Fantasy Sports shall forfeit all entries and all current and future Contest prizes without recourse or refund.
Terms for Apple iOS app
You acknowledge that these Terms are entered into between you and RTFS only, and that Apple is not a party to these Terms, and as between RTFS and Apple, it is RTFS that is responsible for the app and content.
You acknowledge that Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance or any support services to you with respect to the App.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the App.
Apple, and Apple's subsidiaries, are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms. Upon your acceptance of the Terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce the Terms against you as a third party beneficiary thereof. There are no other third-party beneficiaries of the Terms.