Two days. The Premier League opens Friday, August 21 — Ligue 1 the same night, Serie A on Saturday — and whatever rules your pool has when the first ball is kicked are, functionally, its rules forever.
That's not a warning about the software. You can point to the settings any time. It's a warning about people: a rule set in August is infrastructure; a rule changed in March, with money on the table and half the pool eliminated, is a scandal. Here's every dial worth turning, what the defaults are, and who should turn them.
🎛️ The Survivor Dials
Four settings define your survivor pool's personality:
| Dial | Default | The alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Draws | Draw = eliminated | Draws survive |
| Team reuse | Slate resets once all clubs used | No reset — exhausting the slate is the finish |
| Late join | Allowed | Doors locked after creation |
| Rebuys | Off | Eliminated players may pay back in |
How to choose, in one line each:
- Draws: classic rules eliminate on a draw — that's the format's teeth, and roughly a quarter of matches end level. Draws-survive makes the game friendlier and much longer. Casual groups: consider it. Purists: never.
- Team reuse: the default reset keeps the pool playable deep into spring. No reset is hard mode with a twist — run the full slate (20 clubs, or 18 in Ligue 1 / Primeira) without dying and you've finished: a finished player can never be eliminated, and when every survivor finishes, they split the pot.
- Late join: leave it on unless your group has strong feelings about purity. Latecomers are only responsible from the week they join, so they don't break anything (more on this in next week's post).
- Rebuys: the treasurer's dial. Each rebuy is the entry fee paid again, so the pot grows and eliminated friends stay engaged — at the cost of sudden-death purity. A common compromise: allow rebuys through the first quarter of the season, then close the door.
⚖️ The Endgame Rules Everyone Forgets
Two settings that feel obscure in August decide actual money in May:
The final-round tie. Suppose your last three survivors all go down in the same gameweek. Who wins? New pools default to last valid pick: among those who fell in the final round, a player whose team actually played and lost outranks one who made no pick at all (missed the deadline, or ran out of teams). A losing pick beats no pick. If your group would rather everyone who fell together shares the pot, switch it to co-champions at creation.
Everyone-falls-together weeks in general: co-champion finishes happen more than you'd expect — agree now whether that's a shared trophy or a rule-decided one.
🎲 Pick 5's One Big Decision
Pick'em needs just one structural choice: what happens to an unclaimed pot when gameweek 38 settles. Split among the season's best (most gameweek wins — the default), carry it to next season's pool as an opening rollover, or leave it to the commissioner's judgment. All three are legitimate; what matters is that it's on the record from day one, because by the time it matters the pot might be the biggest number your pool has ever argued about. Full mechanics here.
💰 The Money Rules — Write Them Down
The app enforces game rules; money rules are yours. Before Friday, make sure the pool page answers:
- What's the fee? Survivor: one entry per player for the season (plus rebuys if allowed). Pick 5: a per-gameweek stake — enter a season total at creation and it converts to the weekly figure.
- How do people pay? List your payment methods on the pool so nobody has to ask. The commissioner collects and holds every cent; Golazo tracks who's paid and never touches the money.
- What does a rebuy cost, and until when? Ambiguity here is where friendships go to die.
🔒 Why "Before GW1" Is the Whole Point
Once picks lock on Friday, every setting has winners and losers. Draws-survive suddenly helps whoever drew this week. A rebuy window helps whoever just got eliminated. The final-week pot rule helps whoever leads gameweek wins. No rule change after kickoff is neutral, which is why the only cheap time to decide anything is now, while every rule is still abstract and nobody knows whom it will favor.
Set the dials, write the money rules, share the invite code, and then enjoy the best 48 hours of the season: everyone's alive, everyone's a genius, and the arguments are still about football.
⚡ TL;DR
- Four survivor dials: draws, slate reset, late join, rebuys — defaults are classic rules
- Tie rule default: a losing pick beats no pick; switch to co-champions if you'd rather share
- Pick 5: choose the final-gameweek pot rule now, while the pot is $0
- Write the money rules on the pool: fee, payment methods, rebuy price and window
- No rule change after kickoff is neutral — decide while it's still abstract
Set up your pool before Friday →
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