The Eliminator is unique best ball contest exclusively found on UnderDog and it may be my favorite contest for a few reasons. Firstly I love the fairly flat payout structure it has for your outlier teams that actually have a chance to win the whole enchilada. I typically only fire bullets into contests with these payout structures because there is only 1 champion, but the rewards are great if you make a top 3-5% type of team. In the Eliminator you have to finish in the top 6 of 12 in your first pod of drafters, and then every week after that you are head to head with someone until you are either eliminated, or are crowned champion. In this contest the advance rate needed for profitability is similar to a normal best ball contest even though the field is cut in half every single week. I say this because you have to survive through 4 weeks to make your money back, and then everything on top of that is pure profit. It would seem easier to come in the top 50% every week theoretically, but these fractions compound mathematically. There is a fair amount of randomness in this contest since we are randomly matched up in head to heads, but the results at scale should make it so the best teams win. There are several different strategies I think we can implement here to give us the best chance to make money in this contest, so let’s dive into them!
Jan 5, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) celebrates his 45-yard touchdown catch against the Philadelphia Eagles during the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Obviously ultimately we want to win the championship, but there can only be one of those, so let’s talk about giving ourselves the best chance to make the most money, and how we can achieve that. When advancing through this tournament, you can be up against any random number of NFL players drafted on a given team. A good way to counteract this is to divide up your bye weeks in a way so on any given week you aren’t behind the 8 ball. Let’s say you get to week 8 of the tournament and you are up against a player that has a combination of Amon-Ra St Brown and Brian Thomas Jr. That player obviously used their first 2 draft picks on those 2 stud receivers, however now playing them in week 8, they are both automatic zeros with a bye week. Comparatively let’s say your team has Malik Nabers and Derrick Henry. Your first 2 rounds of draft picks are playing while theirs is not should heavily swing in favor of your best ball team advancing to week 9. This is why balancing bye weeks is probably the best way to advance regularly through this tournament.
Another strategy I am implementing in regards to bye weeks is drafting as many viable week 12 and 14 bye week players as possible. I do not want to over draft these players too crazily to cap my team’s ceiling, but I want to give myself the best chance to advance every week and make as much money as possible. Let’s say I have a team full of week 14 byes. This means that I will lose when week 14 approaches, but if I somehow made it to week 14, I have already profited $10,000. Like I said, the best strategy is to balance, but in general I am targeting some of these stud players with later bye weeks. It gives you an edge with more bullets in your chamber against your opponents in weeks 5-10.
Roster construction wise an optimal team for cashing this tournament is a different roster build than most other best ball formats. In most formats you want to load up on upside, take risks, and load up on RB’s and WR’s. The plus EV construction in general for this format is to simply fill out your roster first, and then fill in your bench with as much talent as you can. I will differentiate a bit from this strategy at times, but in general this is how you will want to build a team. So, don’t wait and take 4 scrub quarterbacks at the end of the draft; and don’t do the same at the tight end position. If your starting primary quarterback is Drake Maye all season, you will be at a big disadvantage in the later stages when facing the Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow type teams. We want as many projected points per week as possible, we aren’t looking to take a 5th WR (when only 4 can score for you at a maximum per week) when you don’t even have a QB or a TE yet. Again, I will stray from this strategy some, but in general it is the most likely way for your team to advance into the money rounds.
Stacking vs not stacking, what do we do? The answer that is as old as time; stack! It does seem that 75% of QB’s these days are duel threat guys, and for those guys you don’t necessarily have to stack. Most people are going to think of this contest as a cash game, and run unstacked teams. Reminder that after the first week, you are head to head vs a randomly selected opponent; it isn’t just a DFS double up every single week, you actually have to beat someone in fantasy football. To score the most points with pocket passing QB’s you should want to stack if the ADP’s line up correctly. Plan ahead! My strategy for doing this is to draft your stud WR’s early, and then see if any of their corresponding QB’s are lining up within your draft position. For example if you draft Ceedee Lamb 6th overall, you need him to be a smash! If Ceedee Lamb is a smash, then Dak Prescott is also probably outperforming his ADP, and we want to take advantage of that. Same with Justin Jefferson and JJ McCarthy, etc. Don’t overthink fantasy football, and draft a hybrid version of a DFS cash game team!
Hopefully this long-form Eliminator strategy guide was helpful! Join the DFS Army if you aren’t a member, and if you do, DM me in the discord your questions about best ball! That is the type of access you get when you join. If you don’t join, then my cat will be upset with you, and nobody wants that. If you want an unhappy cat to exist, then we don’t want you. Thanks again guys, I hope you all come in 2nd place.