AscentLeague rules
Top 5 Football•League guide
Published rules · Version 2026.2
Know the rules before you play.
This guide explains how every T5F game is entered, locked, scored, ranked, and paid. Review the rules for each challenge you join before submitting a selection. Unless a page says otherwise, all game times are shown in Eastern Time.
Regular season
Weekly selections and the season-long standings built from them.
Making picks
- Select the winner of each regular-season matchup. Point spreads are not used.
- Submit the tiebreaker prediction to activate the week's entry.
- A missed locked game counts as a loss. You may still save any later games that remain open.
Locks & eligibility
- Games lock individually at their scheduled start times. Early games lock at their own kickoff.
- All remaining games lock at the standard Sunday 1:00 PM Eastern cutoff.
- Pick at least 75% of the week's games. Falling below the Majority threshold disqualifies that week from Weekly and Overall scoring.
Scoring & tiebreaker
- One correct selection equals one win. An NFL tie is a loss for every participant.
- The last scheduled game, typically Monday night, is the tiebreaker. Predict its combined final score.
- Among participants tied for the most wins, the smallest absolute difference wins. Over and under are treated equally.
- Identical differences split the weekly prize equally.
- If ESPN, the league's official score source, reports the designated tiebreaker as canceled or no-contest after Weekly picks lock, the tiebreaker is void. No other matchup is substituted because each submitted prediction applies only to the designated game.
- When the tiebreaker is void, total correct picks determine the Weekly leaders. Leaders still tied on correct picks divide that week's prize equally.
Top 5
- Overall score is the sum of correct Weekly picks across the regular season.
- The five highest totals occupy the five Overall prize positions.
- When participants tie, the prizes for the occupied positions are combined and divided equally. Ranking resumes after those positions.
Pity Prize
- The lowest eligible Overall score receives the Pity Prize.
- Eligibility requires participation in all 18 weeks and meeting the Majority threshold every week.
- Tied eligible participants divide the Pity Prize equally.
Side challenges
One weekly team selection drives two very different competitions.
Survival rules
- Choose one team each week. A win or tie advances you; a loss eliminates you.
- A team may be used only once during the regular season.
- If every remaining participant is eliminated in the same week, all of them advance to the next week.
Planning & locks
- Future weeks may be planned in advance on the shared Survivor and Margin selection page.
- A future Survivor team is reserved from your other future weeks until that selection changes.
- A selection can be changed only until that team's game locks.
Weekly scoring
- A selected team's winning margin is added to your total; its losing margin is subtracted.
- An NFL tie contributes zero points.
- A missed selection receives the largest negative final margin recorded that week.
- Margin continues for all 18 weeks. There is no elimination.
Final standings
- The five highest point totals occupy the five Margin prize positions.
- Total correct selections break a points tie first.
- If participants remain tied, the prizes for the occupied positions are combined and divided equally.
Postseason
Three playoff contests plus the Super Bowl Squares bonus challenge.
How it works
- Submit every pick for a playoff round before the first game in that round begins.
- Once a round begins, every pick in that round is locked. Each correct selection earns one point through the Super Bowl.
- If the final standings are tied, the separate Super Bowl total-points prediction breaks the tie. Remaining ties split the prize equally.
Confidence scoring
- Assign each playoff team a unique confidence value from 1 through 14 before the first postseason game.
- Values lock when the playoffs begin. Each team win earns the confidence value assigned to that team.
- Total correct picks break a points tie first. Any remaining tie combines and divides the prizes for the occupied positions.
Prop scoring
- Submit all answers before the scheduled Super Bowl start time. Answers may change until that lock.
- Each correct answer earns one point. A tied statistical category awards one-half point where applicable.
- The highest total wins. Equal final totals divide the prize equally.
Board setup
- Select any available squares on an open board. The board locks when full or when the game begins.
- Digits 0 through 9 are assigned randomly to both axes after lock and remain fixed for the game.
Winning squares
- Each winner is the intersection of the last digit of each team's score at the end of the applicable quarter or final.
- Overtime is included in the final score. An unsold winning square rolls its payout forward; an unsold final winner returns the remaining pot to the pool.