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The MLB Eliminator Tournament Rules
The MLB Eliminator Tournament Rules
Underdog contests are governed by our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and the rules listed below.
Entrants in Underdog contests compete to accumulate points based on athletes' statistical performance in sporting events. Contest results are determined by the total points accumulated by each individual lineup entry according to the relevant scoring rules.
General Contest Information
General Contest Information
Entrants select players through a snake draft. In a snake draft, the pick order is reversed each round. In other words, the entrant with the first pick in round 1, will have the last pick in round 2 and the first pick in round 3.
Entrants are required to pay an entry fee of $50 per entry to enter The MLB Eliminator (the "Tournament").
Entrants are only allowed to enter a maximum of 33 entries in the Tournament.
Entry to the Tournament will be closed 2 hours before the 1st Opening Day game on March 27th of the 2025 season. The two games of the Tokyo Series in Japan(March 18-19) will not be included in scoring. This means that the Tournament closure time would move, if the timing of the first game were to change for any reason.
Entrants draft a team of players who accumulate points throughout the duration of the contest period.
Once entrants draft, their rosters are set—there are no waivers, substitutions, or trades during the contest period.
At the end of each MLB week, Underdog automatically selects the entrant’s highest scoring players at the designated positions to be “starters” and only those players’ statistics over that week are counted towards the entrant’s accumulated score. This means entrants do not need to set their lineups.
Entrants compete in groups ("Groups") over the course of multiple rounds ("Rounds").
The Tournament will have 12 rounds, with each round consisting of player groups as seen below:
Round 1 - 12 person groups
Round 2 - 15 seat groups
Round 3 - 13 seat groups
Round 4 - 10 seat groups
Round 5 - 8 seat groups
Round 6 - 12 seat groups
Round 7 - 8 seat groups
Round 8 - 6 seat groups
Round 9 - 4 seat groups
Round 10 - 31 seat groups
Round 11 - 10 seat groups
Round 12 - 18 Seat Final
The Tournament will consist of 1,116 total entries and in the first round, a total of 93 12-person Groups.
At the end of Round 1, the top ten (10) performing entries in each Group will advance to Round 2. Round 2 will consist of 930 entries in 62 15-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 2, the top thirteen (13) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 3). Round 3 will consist of 806 entries in 62 13-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 3, the top ten (10) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 4. Round 4 will consist of 620 entries in 62 10-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 4, the top eight (8) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 5. Round 5 will consist of 496 entries in 62 8-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 5, the top six (6) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 6. Round 6 will consist of 372 entries in 31 12-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 6, the top eight (8) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 7. Round 7 will consist of 248 entries in 31 8-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 7, the top six (6) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 8 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 8 will consist of 186 entries in 31 6-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 8, the top four (4) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 9 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 9 will consist of 124 entries in 31 4-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 9, the top two (2) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 10 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 10 will consist of 62 entries in 2 31-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 10, the top fifteen (15) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 11 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 11 will consist of 30 entries in 3 10-seat Groups.
At the end of Round 11, the top six (6) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 12 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 12 will consist of 18 entries in a single 18-seat Group.
At the end of Round 12, the top one (1) performing entry from the Group will be the Grand Prize winner and prizes will be awarded to all entries in Round 12 (as described below)..
Rounds
Round 1 - MLB Week 1
Round 2 - MLB Weeks 2-3
Round 3 - MLB Weeks 4-5
Round 4 - MLB Weeks 6-7
Round 5 - MLB Weeks 8-9
Round 6 - MLB Weeks 10-11
Round 7 - MLB Weeks 12-13
Round 8 - MLB Weeks 14-15
Round 9 - MLB Week 16-17
Round 10 - MLB Weeks 18-19
Round 11 - MLB Weeks 20-21
Round 12 - MLB Weeks 22-23
In the event of season postponement, any missed weeks will lead to a shortening of the Tournament.
Roster Makeup
Roster Makeup
The roster makeup and scoring will follow the details below.
Roster
Position | Roster Count |
Pitcher | 3 |
Infielder | 3 |
OutFielder | 3 |
Flex | 1 |
Bench | 10 |
Tournament Prize Breakdown
Tournament Prize Breakdown
Scoring
Scoring
Schedule
Schedule
Week Start | Week End | MLB Best Ball Week # | Round |
3/27/2025 | 3/30/2025 | 1 | Round 1 |
3/31/2025 | 4/6/2025 | 1 | Round 1 |
4/7/2025 | 4/13/2025 | 2 | Round 2 |
4/14/2025 | 4/20/2025 | 3 | Round 2 |
4/21/2025 | 4/27/2025 | 4 | Round 3 |
4/28/2025 | 5/4/2025 | 5 | Round 3 |
5/5/2025 | 5/11/2025 | 6 | Round 4 |
5/12/2025 | 5/18/2024 | 7 | Round 4 |
5/19/2025 | 5/25/2025 | 8 | Round 5 |
5/26/2025 | 6/1/2025 | 9 | Round 5 |
6/2/2025 | 6/8/2025 | 10 | Round 6 |
6/9/2025 | 6/15/2025 | 11 | Round 6 |
6/16/2025 | 6/22/2025 | 12 | Round 7 |
6/23/2025 | 6/29/2025 | 13 | Round 7 |
6/30/2025 | 7/6/2025 | 14 | Round 8 |
7/7/2025 | 7/13/2025 | 15 | Round 8 |
7/14/2025 | 7/20/2025 | 16 | Round 9 |
7/21/2025 | 7/27/2025 | 16 | Round 9 |
7/28/2025 | 8/3/2025 | 17 | Round 9 |
8/4/2025 | 8/10/2025 | 18 | Round 10 |
8/11/2025 | 8/17/2025 | 19 | Round 10 |
8/18/2025 | 8/24/2025 | 20 | Round 11 |
8/25/2025 | 8/31/2025 | 21 | Round 11 |
9/1/2025 | 9/7/2025 | 22 | Round 12 |
9/8/2025 | 9/14/2025 | 23 | Round 13 |