What is a Guillotine League? Everything You Need to Know

If you’re new to the guillotine league scene, welcome! These leagues are a unique and fun spin on traditional fantasy football, which is sometimes needed after playing in standard versions of leagues for many years.

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Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of the guillotine format with tips and tricks to get you started.

What is a Guillotine League?

There are no head-to-head matchups in guillotine leagues. Instead, the team with the lowest score every week gets the axe, so everyone is on the chopping block at the start of each NFL week.

You begin with 18 teams since that is the length of the NFL season, and as each team gets chopped, their entire roster goes to the waiver wire. The last team standing is the winner. (You can start leagues throughout the season as well, so if you get chopped early, you’re not done until 2025)

There are many ways to strategize, but at the core, you just want to survive from week to week. That may mean going for more consistent (boring) and reliable guys over the risky, upside players. Here’s some pertinent info to get you going.

Basic Strategies for Guillotine Leagues

Switch to a Present Mindset

In regular fantasy football leagues, we pour over of strength of schedule and matchups, trying to craft the perfect bye week scenarios to get us through whatever gauntlet we will face.

In guillotines, there’s no need to think beyond a week or two and what is happening now. If a player has a brutal stretch from Week 12-15 it is of no importance right now, as they may end up sitting on your bench or even gone by the time those contests roll around.

Waiver Wire (and FAAB) is Crazy, so Be Prepared

In regular leagues, we use the waiver wire to help with an injury or a bye-week filler. Guillotine leagues see an entire roster up for grabs which throws a wrench into everything you're used to. The mental gymnastics of FAAB bidding is enough to induce anxiety alone, as each player is given $1000 and you can execute trades that include FAAB money.

You need to try to figure out who will be bidding on players you want and what their bids will be. And as you can guess, sometimes there are wild overbids which is always fun unless it’s you.

Finding that balance of when to bid and when you can wait a week on a certain player or position is important in helping your team get further into the season. More on that later.

Go For Players with Later Bye Weeks

One edge in this format is to target guys who have their bye weeks in the latter part of the season. The goal is to make it through each week, and if you’re scrambling to replace early byes by using a large chunk of FAAB, it will be tough to be competitive later.

Having the bulk of the roster you drafted available at the start, with the ability to bolster your squad via free agency by the time you have to for bye weeks, could set your team apart.

Think Floor Instead of Ceiling

I mentioned this concept briefly above but wanted to address it a bit more as part of the key strategies. While they may not be as exciting or sexy, reliable, consistent performers will get you to the next week in guillotine leagues, over counting on a big splashy play.

Given that this is a PPR format, we want high-volume WRs, the primary pass catchers for their offense who will consistently get targeted. Same with RB. Volume is always king in fantasy football and when it comes to RB for guillotine leagues, seek out those with a lot of opportunity. When it comes to TE, go big and pay up, or just wait. The top tier of TEs can be advantageous, but considering it is a onesie position, if you miss out, just bolster the rest of your squad and get a serviceable one for now.

QB is something I’m willing to wait on, as you just need a consistent performer to get you going. Spending high draft capital on a quarterback, especially in a larger league like this one, will cause you to miss out on top performers at other positions where you’ll need multiple starters. After all, you need 2RBs, 2WRs, 1TE, and 2 non-QB flexes in your starting lineup each week.

FAAB Best Practices

Each player is given $1000 of FAAB money for the season, it does not re-up unless, of course, you acquire more via trade. The first rule of thumb is to not overspend at the start of the season. A huge name will likely hit the waiver wire after Week 1 and someone will blow their whole amount; it happens every year in every league.

It will be nearly impossible to win or even get very far with no money as the season progresses, as each team around you will just get stronger, and you’ll be stuck with the leftovers after each waiver run. During the first few weeks, resist the desire to overspend and learn to be alright with the team you drafted. In such a large league, it may feel gross to start some of your players, but remember that everyone has those iffy guys until more teams get chopped.

Once you get about a month in, you can start to spend some of your money in preparation for bye weeks. You'll have a better idea of how your team stacks up compared to others and what your true weaknesses are. You want to still have about 3/4 of your FAAB left at the end of October for the second half of the season. Once we’re into November, good teams are going to fall, and there will be deeper waiver runs. At this point, the cost will go down tremendously for elite players, and you’ll have the funds to stack your roster for success down the stretch.

You will want to stock up during that time because in Weeks 15-17, chopped players are off-limits, but you can still add other free agents.

Be sure to track your competitors' budgets as the season goes on, and be aware of their specific needs.

TL;DR

• Guillotine leagues are 18 teams with no head-to-head matchups; the lowest score each week is chopped.
• That team’s entire roster is up for grabs on the waiver wire with a full-season $1000 FAAB budget.
• Switch the mindset from season-long to more close-in because all you need to do is not score the fewest points each week.
• Look for higher floor players who will consistently score points from week to week as opposed to high-risk, high-reward types.
• Seek out players with later bye weeks so that you can get through mid-October without too much stress.
• Don’t overspend early in the season. Conserve as much FAAB as possible until we get to November outside of a catastrophic injury.