The rules
How to play Last Man Standing
Pick one team to win, each round. If they win, you go through. If they lose or draw, it costs you. Keep going until you are the only one left.
The whole game
You go through
Your team wins
That is the only outcome that carries you into the next round.
It costs you
- Your team loses
- Your team draws
- You miss the deadline
Each of these takes a life. With no lives left, it puts you out.
You cannot pick the same team twice
Once you have used a team they drop off your list. When you have used every one of them, they all come back and you start the list again — so the rounds just before that are the tight ones.
Regulation time only
Results are settled on the ninety minutes plus stoppage time. A cup tie your team wins in extra time or on penalties still counts as a draw — and a draw goes against you.
Lives
Your organiser decides how many lives everyone starts with, before the competition begins. It cannot be changed once round one is under way.
- 0
Knockout
One wrong pick and you are out. Short, brutal competitions.
- 1
One life
Your first wrong pick costs the life. The next one puts you out.
Playing a round
Join a competition
Get the invite code from whoever is running the competition, enter it on the LMSLocal home page, and you are in. Joining closes when the first round locks.
Pick one team to win
Each round, choose a single team you think will win their match. You can change your mind as often as you like until the round locks. You cannot pick the same team twice until you have used them all, at which point they all come back.
Win and go through
If your team wins in regulation time you go through to the next round. A draw or a defeat costs you a life, or puts you out if you have none left. Keep going until you are the last player standing.
Nothing is final until the round locks. Until then you can switch teams as often as you like, or clear your pick and come back to it. The deadline is on your dashboard and again on the pick screen — your organiser sets it, and there is no automatic buffer before kick-off, so read it rather than assuming.
Strategy
None of this is a rule. It is just what tends to separate the players who last.
Managing your teams
- Do not spend a Manchester City or an Arsenal on an easy early round
- Save the strongest sides for the weeks where nothing looks safe
- Look at the fixtures a few rounds ahead before committing to one now
- Watch which teams the rest of the field is burning through
Reading a fixture
- Home advantage is real — check where the match is being played
- Recent form and injuries matter more than the league table
- Derbies are unpredictable, whatever the form says
- A team fighting relegation at home is not the free win it looks
How it ends
- One player left
- They have won it. That is the last man standing.
- Everyone left goes out together
- Nobody is standing, so they share it. What that means for the prize is your organiser's call — usually the pot is split, or the whole thing is reset and run again.
Next
Ready to play?
If somebody has sent you a code, you are two minutes from your first pick. If you want to run one yourself, the first twenty player places are free.