The rules that stop a prediction league falling apart in October

Prediction leagues rarely die of boredom. They die of one unresolved argument: a late pick that got counted, a postponed match nobody agreed on, a tiebreaker invented after the fact by the person it benefited.

Six rules, agreed before a ball is kicked, prevent nearly all of it.

1. Deadlines are absolute, and automatic

Pick one: everything locks at the first kickoff of the round, or each match locks just before its own kickoff. Per match is fairer and friendlier to people with busy Saturdays, but it can only work if something other than a human enforces it.

The rule to write down is the one nobody can bend: a pick that is not in before the deadline does not count, no exceptions, including for whoever runs the league. The moment you make one exception, every deadline is negotiable.

2. Postponed and abandoned matches score zero for everyone

The alternatives all cause problems. Rescheduling a match into a later round means two sets of predictions on one game. Voiding it retrospectively means recalculating a table people have already seen.

Zero for everyone, and the match comes out of that round's maximum, is the version nobody can complain about. Abandoned games are the same, unless they are replayed in full within a day or so.

3. No pick is no points

Do not allow default predictions, do not allow half credit for forgetting, and do not let people catch up next week. It sounds harsh, and it is the rule that keeps everyone honest about turning up.

The kind version of this rule is a reminder, not an exception. A message a few hours before the deadline saves far more players than a retrospective favour ever will.

4. Tiebreakers, decided in advance

Two people finish level. Now what? Agree the order before it happens:

1. Most exact scores.
2. Then most correct outcomes.
3. Then the highest single-match score.
4. Then something arbitrary but fixed, like who joined first.

The last one matters more than it seems. A tiebreaker chain that can still end in a tie is not a tiebreaker chain.

5. Late joiners are welcome, and cannot win the season

Somebody always wants in during October. Let them, because a league that stops recruiting starts shrinking. Just be clear that they are playing for round wins and for the second half of the season, not the title.

This is why a weekly table matters as much as the season one: it gives everyone who is not top three a competition they can actually win.

6. Keep money out of it

A pot changes the tone, adds a treasurer nobody volunteered to be, and drags a friendly competition into territory your workplace may have rules about. Points and bragging rights carry the whole thing perfectly well. If you want stakes, make the loser buy the coffees.

Write them once, pin them

One message, pinned in the group chat, containing the six rules above and the first deadline. That single message prevents more arguments than any amount of good intentions in November.

If you would rather not police any of it, the same rules exist here in code: locks enforced on the server, postponements handled automatically, tiebreakers applied the same way for everyone. The full ruleset is public.