Game rules

Rules

Everything you need to know about leagues, picks, lives and how winners are decided.

The game and its results

Objective

Pick one team to win in each league round. Each team can be picked only once per league. A win costs no life; a draw or loss costs one life.

Starting lives

Each league shows how many lives its players start with. Private leagues offer one, two or three lives; other league types may start with a different number.

Lives and elimination

When your lives reach zero, you are eliminated and cannot make picks in later rounds of that league.

Last survivor

If a round leaves exactly one player still in the league, that player wins immediately. They do not have to play a round alone.

Leaving and walkovers

If a player leaves or is removed while a league is active, that may leave one player and end the league with that player as the winner.

Final results and corrections

Once a gameweek's results are confirmed in Killer, they are final. A later fixture correction will not restore lives or change eliminations or winners.

Leagues and joining

League rounds

A league lasts no more than 20 played rounds and cannot continue beyond the final playable Premier League gameweek. A league's round number depends on when that league started.

League status

A new league is shown as Not started. It becomes Active when play begins. Completed and Cancelled leagues are finished, so no one can join or make picks in them.

A signed-in player can create a private league with a name, one to three starting lives and an available starting gameweek. The creator becomes its chairman and first player, and gets a link to invite others.

Join with a code

A joining link lets you review the league before you join. You need to be signed in and confirm that you want to join before the league's starting deadline. The league must not have started, and the code must still be valid. If the start is postponed because there are too few players, the same code can be used until the new deadline.

Join a freeroll

A signed-in player can join any freeroll shown on their home page. If the freeroll closes before they join, the offer disappears.

When joining closes

Joining and sharing close permanently when a league starts. A postponed league has not started, so joining can remain open until its new starting gameweek deadline.

Not enough players

A league starts at its chosen gameweek deadline if at least two players have joined. With fewer than two players, it moves to the next playable gameweek. If there are no gameweeks left, it is cancelled. Any picks and predictions for the old start are cleared.

Starting gameweek moved

If an unstarted league moves to a different starting gameweek, any picks and Final Round predictions for the old start are cleared. Those teams are then available to pick again.

Leave a league

A player who is not the chairman can leave after confirming their choice. They immediately lose access to the league and their history in it. They can rejoin before play starts, but leaving after the start is permanent.

Removing a player

A private-league chairman may remove another player while the league is not finished, but not when that removal would itself end the league. The removed player is not shown a private reason. Removal does not change the joining code, and the player may rejoin before play starts if that code remains valid.

Reset a joining code

While joining is open, the chairman may confirm a reset of the league's joining code. The old code then becomes unusable.

Cancel an unstarted league

A chairman can permanently cancel an unstarted private league after confirming the decision. Once play begins, it is too late to cancel. Players lose access and the old joining link stops working.

Rejoining

Leaving or being removed is not a lasting ban. A player can use a valid joining code to rejoin before the league starts. Once play begins, anyone who leaves or is removed cannot return.

Picks and deadlines

When you can pick

You can pick only while you are still in the league and its picking window is open. Before the league starts, you pick for its starting gameweek. After that, you pick for the next round.

Pick deadline

Your pick must reach Killer before the official gameweek deadline. A pick that arrives at the deadline or later is too late. If the deadline cannot be confirmed, picking stays closed.

Teams you can pick

You can only pick a team with a scheduled fixture in the current gameweek. A team is not available if its fixture is postponed, cancelled, unscheduled or in another gameweek.

No team reuse

Each team can be picked only once per league. You can change your current gameweek's pick before the deadline, and a pick cleared after a fixture change makes that team available again.

Double gameweeks

If a team has more than one fixture in a gameweek, its earliest scheduled fixture is used for your pick. The picker shows which fixture counts before you choose the team.

Change your pick

Choosing an available team saves or replaces your current pick immediately, without another confirmation step. Choosing the same team and fixture again makes no change.

Saved picks

After you make a pick or Final Round prediction, Killer tells you whether it was saved. A choice that was rejected is never shown as saved.

How deadlines move

A gameweek's official deadline is 60 minutes before its earliest scheduled kickoff. While the deadline is still open, fixture changes may move it earlier or later.

After a deadline passes

Once a gameweek's deadline has passed, it cannot move or reopen, even if fixtures change later.

Automatic picks and fixture changes

Missed pick

After the deadline, a player who is still in the league but has no pick receives an available team they have not used before, when possible. The automatic pick appears once it has been chosen.

How automatic picks are chosen

Killer picks at random from the teams you have not used, then uses that team's earliest fixture. Every player draws separately, so two players who miss the same deadline usually get different teams.

No available team

If there is no unused team available, no automatic pick is made. The player has no pick for that round, loses one life and can still qualify for Mass Reprieve.

Fixture changed before deadline

While your league's picking window is open, a postponement, move to another gameweek or change to a team's earliest fixture can clear an affected pick. You may pick again and can use that team again under the normal rules.

Fixture changed after deadline

A schedule change after the deadline does not immediately change your pick. If the fixture remains in the same gameweek, it scores as normal. If it moves out of the gameweek, the pick is cleared and replaced once.

Replacement automatic pick

If your pick's fixture moves out of the gameweek after the deadline, Killer keeps the original team if it still has another valid fixture. Otherwise, it chooses the first available team you had not used at the deadline.

Final Round fixture changes

If a picked fixture moves out of the gameweek, the player's Final Round predictions and credit for making their own pick remain. A moved tiebreaker fixture does not count for anyone.

Cancelled and completed gameweeks

Cancelled gameweek

A gameweek may be cancelled before its results are settled. It does not count as a played league round: its picks and predictions are cleared, its teams can be used again, and nobody loses a life. An active league plays the same round in the next playable gameweek.

Cancelled starting gameweek

If an unstarted league's starting gameweek is cancelled, the league moves to the next playable gameweek. It is cancelled if the season has no later playable gameweek.

When results are final

A gameweek is settled only after every fixture still in it has a confirmed final result. A postponed fixture moves out and does not hold up the gameweek. If a finished fixture has no confirmed score, Killer waits for that score before settling the round.

Empty gameweek

A gameweek with no remaining fixtures is not scored automatically. Play pauses until the gameweek is cancelled or fixtures are added to it.

Season runs out

If a cancellation removes the open gameweek and no playable gameweek remains, that round ends without scoring. The highest remaining life total wins, with all players on that total sharing the win. Predictions from the abandoned round do not count.

A round becomes the Final Round

If cancellations make the current round the season's last playable round, it becomes the Final Round. No new prediction step is added. Players tied on the highest number of lives share the win.

The Final Round and tiebreaker

Mass Reprieve

Outside a Final Round, if every remaining player begins with one life and all lose it, everyone is reprieved and stays in the league with one life.

Final Round wipeout

There is no Mass Reprieve in the Final Round. Lives are deducted first, even if everyone falls to zero. The winner is then decided among the players with the most lives.

Final Round

Round 20, or an earlier round played in the season's final playable gameweek, ends the league. A league that starts in the final playable gameweek has a one-round Final Round.

How the winner is chosen

Final Round picks are scored and lives are updated before a winner is chosen. If only one player has the most lives, they win without a tiebreaker. Players with fewer lives are not included in the tiebreaker.

When the tiebreaker applies

Score predictions are only required when a round begins as the Final Round. If a round becomes final later, there is no new prediction step. Predictions are ignored if the season ends before that round is scored.

Tiebreaker fixtures

The tiebreaker uses the four latest kickoffs in the Final Round gameweek. If fewer than four fixtures are available, it uses them all. The chosen fixtures do not change while picking is open.

Tiebreaker fixture moved

A tiebreaker fixture that later leaves the gameweek stays listed but scores for nobody and is not replaced. The remaining fixtures still count. If none can score, the points and closest-score steps are skipped.

Submit Final Round predictions

Before the deadline, a player who is still in the league can submit or replace a predicted score for every listed fixture. Scores must be whole numbers: 0, 1, 2 and so on. If any prediction is missing or invalid, none of them are saved. There are no automatic score predictions.

Tiebreaker order

Among players tied on the most lives, a pick they chose ranks above an automatic pick or no pick. Next come prediction points: 10 for an exact score, 5 for the correct result and 0 otherwise. If players are still tied, the closest predictions across all scored fixtures rank highest.

Shared wins

If the leaders remain level after every comparison that applies, they all win. There is no random choice, extra round or manual decision. Players tied on the most lives also share the win when no tiebreaker is needed.