🔥 Commissioner setup guide

Team Challenge — Commissioner Setup Guide

Every Team Challenge setting explained — licensing (Org included, $29/yr per challenge on Pro/Free), entry mode and funding, weekly team & player props, Pick-the-Hero, streak tiers, Renegade Week and Beat-the-Rival, and live-stats auto-grading.

Team Challenge commissioners · 7 min read

Team Challenge is a fan-tribal layer for one team — a weekly team pick with a towel-style win streak, Pick-the-Hero, and rivalry bonuses, branded in your team’s colors. It rides on top of a Pick’Em, Survivor, or Confidence pool you’re already running (or plays entirely on its own), and every week grades itself automatically off the live stats feed.

This guide covers how the license works, how to set up and brand your team, entry modes and funding, the weekly props and bonus mechanics, and how auto-grading keeps it running without you touching a spreadsheet.

Licensing

Team Challenge is a licensed module, separate from your regular plan.

Organization plan: Team Challenge is included at no extra cost on the Organization plan — create it straight from Org Settings.
Pro Commissioner & FreePro: On Pro or Free, license a challenge for $29/yr — an annual subscription that auto-renews and can be canceled anytime. It’s one license per challenge.
One challenge per organization: Each org runs a single Team Challenge at a time, built around one team. You choose which of the org’s pools it rides on (see below).

Setting up your team

Team pack: Pick from all 32 NFL team packs with one click — it fills in the team name, crest, accent color, rival, and a set of suggested streak tiers for you.
Challenge name, team, abbreviation, rival & season: Edit any of the pack’s defaults, or fill them in yourself for a fully custom setup.
Crest & accent color: The emoji crest and team color used to brand every card and the header. Text automatically switches between light and dark to stay readable against whatever accent you pick — no contrast tuning needed.
Load the NFL schedule: One click links each challenge week to that team’s real games from the shared schedule library and sets the pick deadline to kickoff.
Open for players: A new challenge starts in draft status, invisible to players; switch it to open once it’s configured so people can join and start picking.

Entry mode & funding

Entry mode: Included for everyone (bundled automatically for players in the pool(s) it rides on), Optional side pot (a layer players opt into on top of an existing pool), or Standalone game (its own separate buy-in, not tied to another pool).
Side challenges require pool membership: If the entry mode is a side pot, a player has to already be in the main pool it rides on before they can join the challenge — the play page prompts them to join the pool first.
Funding: Badges & bragging (free, no money changes hands), Carve from the pool(s) (a % of each linked pool’s prize pot funds the challenge prize), or Side-pot buy-in (its own dollar buy-in, paid the same way as any entry fee — through the app’s in-app payment step at join).
Rides on these pools: Choose which of the org’s contests the challenge attaches to. It’s one shared challenge across all of them — one leaderboard and one streak per person, no matter how many pools they’re picking in.

Weekly picks, Pick-the-Hero & streak tiers

Weekly team props: A list of props players choose one of each week (e.g. team-result outcomes), each with its own point value and an on/off switch — turn off any you don’t want live for a given team.
Player props: Attach a prop to a specific player from the team’s live roster — records a sack, rushes for 100+, goes for 75+ receiving, catches a touchdown, runs one in, throws 2+ TDs, hits 2+ field goals, or picks off a pass — each with its own points, graded automatically off that player’s real game stats.
Pick-the-Hero: An optional toggle that adds a second weekly pick — predict the team’s Player of the Game. It’s scored objectively off an explicit stat formula (touchdowns, passing touchdowns, rush/receiving yards, field goals, a 100-yard bonus), never a vote, and pays a bonus (5 points by default) when you call it right.
Streak tiers: Your own "towel streak" ladder — an emoji, a label, and how many correct picks in a row unlock it. Use the one-click "Suggest team tiers" button to load the pack’s preset ladder, then edit any tier.

Renegade Week & Beat-the-Rival

Renegade Week: Turns on the double-points mechanic — any week flagged as a Renegade Week pays out double points on everything earned that week (pick, hero, bonuses).
Beat-the-Rival: Turns on a bonus tied to the rival name you set — when your rival loses in a week your own weekly pick also hits, you earn extra points on top.

Running it

Auto-grading: Once results post from the live stats feed, every player’s weekly pick, Pick-the-Hero call, player props, streak, and any Renegade/Beat-the-Rival bonus are graded automatically — this live-stats pipeline is what makes Team Challenge run itself week to week.
Re-score: A manual "Re-score" button re-runs grading for the challenge on demand — useful right after a stat correction comes through.
Leaderboard: A tie-aware leaderboard ranks players by total points, with each person’s current towel-tier badge shown next to their name based on their best streak.

FAQ

What is Team Challenge?

A fan-tribal add-on built around one team — a weekly team pick with a win-streak "towel tier," an optional Pick-the-Hero call, and rivalry bonuses (Renegade Week, Beat-the-Rival), branded in your team’s colors and graded automatically off live stats.

Is Team Challenge included in my plan?

It’s included free on the Organization plan. On Pro Commissioner or Free, it’s a licensed module — $29/yr per challenge, auto-renewing, cancel anytime.

Can players join Team Challenge without joining my main pool?

Only if it’s set up as a Standalone game. As a side pot layered on an existing pool, a player has to be in that pool first — the play page prompts them to join the pool before they can enter the challenge.

How does auto-grading work?

It grades off the same live stats pipeline that feeds finals and player box scores. Once a game is final, every player’s weekly pick, Pick-the-Hero call, player props, and any Renegade/Beat-the-Rival bonus are scored automatically — no manual entry required, though you can trigger a manual re-score anytime.

What’s the difference between Renegade Week and Beat-the-Rival?

Renegade Week doubles every point earned in a flagged week. Beat-the-Rival is a bonus that pays out when your named rival loses in a week your own pick also hits — they’re independent toggles and can both be on at once.

How is Team Challenge funded?

Three ways: Badges & bragging (free, no cash), Carve from the pool(s) it rides on (a % of the linked pool’s prize pot), or its own Side-pot buy-in — paid the same way as any entry fee, through the app’s in-app payment step at join.

Ready to run yours?

Set it up in a few minutes — every option here is right there in the wizard.

Start a Team Challenge →