Underdog Playoff Best Ball 2024

Strategy for Underdog’s “The Gauntlet” & “The Mitten”

(Updated 1/6/2025)

Overview 

• Six player snake draft comprised of 10 rounds in a Best Ball tournament format.
• Teams are made up of 10 total players with a starting lineup of 5 players – 1 QB, 2 WR/TE, 1 RB, and 1 Flex.
• (4) Round structure with the top two teams advancing out of a group of (6) in the first round, followed by two independent rounds with only one team advancing out of each from a group of (10). The finals are comprised of 300 teams in the Super Bowl with $200K up top.
• Getting out of the first round is crucial, but difficult if drafting three or more players from a bye team (Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions).
• Like a Milly Maker on DK, the payout structure is extremely top heavy. 

The final two bullets bring up an interesting dilemma as the two bye teams are the most likely to make the conference final and Super Bowl but drafting several of those players also hamper your chances of getting out of the first round. 

To win, you will likely need (at least) five players to reach the Super Bowl. This incentivizes stacking your lineups to consolidate around a few teams you are hoping can make deep playoff runs, however, an aggressive stacking strategy has its trade-offs. If you prioritize stacking elite contenders, such as the Chiefs or Lions, this will likely have you drafting some poorly projected depth players to round out your team. Someone in your first pod/round will likely have drafted studs on wild card teams and while they will have an uphill battle to win the whole tournament, these teams will have a leg up on getting out of the first round.

If you consider stacking both bye teams, you must cap that at a total of 5 players and are fighting an uphill battle to advance. The tournament is very top heavy, and the two one seeds are the most likely to advance, so we will discuss below some of the strategies to best balance this predicament and try to thread a very thin needle to advance a team to the final 300 teams.

Roster Composition