We’re big fans of the FFPC over here at Fantasy Alarm. If you want to win a title that means something in this industry, you play over there where the high-stakes players play. That’s why, all week long on the Friday Fantasy Alarm Show, we’ve had big-time guests on like Theo Gremminger, Rich Hribar, Justin Boone, Ryan Heath, Ian Hartitz, etc., trying to crack the code for the FFPC Weekly Challenge. And now it’s time to gear up for the premiere fantasy playoffs contest in the industry - the FFPC Playoff Challenge!

If you tuned in with us on any of the shows this year, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how it works. The Playoff Challenge works just like the Weekly contest, except you keep the same team for the entire playoff run, not just one week. But we’ll still give a recap here as well as some basic strategy just to make sure everyone is on the same page. And, to help you first-time players get set up, you can use promo code ALARM right now at MyFFPC.com, where they will give you $25 in bonus credits when you deposit $35 or more with your first deposit! 

Now, let’s dig into the basics of the FFPC Playoff Challenge for 2026!

**All information on the contest itself is from MyFFPC.com, and the data regarding past winners is courtesy of our friends over at FantasyMojo.com**

 

 


 

Playoff Challenge Contests

There are two major contests. The flagship event with a $200 entry fee. And then a secondary event for $35. With one, there is a higher entry fee but fewer opponents, and the other has a lower fee but a lot more teams in it. With both, it’s important that you sign up early because they WILL sell out. You register in advance now and reserve your spot, so I suggest you do that. And I suggest you use that promo code ALARM we mentioned earlier when you sign up at MyFFPC.com to get the $25 bonus for first-time depositors who put in $35 or more. If you deposit $45, for instance, you’ll have enough for two entries at the $35 level!

Prizes

Each contest obviously has different prizes. The full prize list for the $200 contest can be found here, and the full prize list for the $35 contest can be found here. You’ll want to check that out to see what percentage you need to finish in to get your money back, double up, etc. But here’s what everyone really cares about. The $35 contest has $476,500 in total prizes, and the winner gets a cool $100K. The $200 contest has $1,387,750 in total prizes, and the winner takes home half a million dollars. Whew lad.

 

 

 

Roster Settings

For this format, there is no draft or salaries. You can select any player you want, with one catch - you cannot select two players from the same team. So no “stacking” Matthew Stafford with Puka Nacua. You have to make a big decision with each team. 

Here are the roster spots you need to fill:

  • 1 QB
  • 2 RB
  • 2 WR
  • 1 TE
  • 4 FLEX (RB, WR, TE)
  • 1 K
  • 1 D

If you add that all up, you’ll see that there are 12 roster spots. And 14 teams make the NFL playoffs. So you will have two teams that you don’t have any players on, but you’ll need at least someone from the other teams. And obviously, not every team will advance, so you have to be careful with how you allocate those players.

Scoring Settings

The scoring settings are actually pretty straightforward for most fantasy leagues, with a couple of exceptions. The full scoring can be found here.

  • It is Tight End Premium, which means that it’s one point per reception for running backs and wide receivers, but tight ends get 1.5 points per reception. More on that later.
  • Turnovers are only -1 for both interceptions and fumbles.
  • It is four points for passing TDs and six for rushing TDs.
  • And the most important unique scoring rule - points in the Super Bowl are worth DOUBLE.

 

 

 

General Advice

Here is some general advice. I’m also going to do another article with some specific advice in terms of players we like, as well as have a special guest, Theo Gremminger of Player Profiler, on the Fantasy Alarm YouTube on Thursday at 1 PM ET to talk strategy and put together our own lineup entry. So make sure you are subscribed to the Fantasy Alarm YouTube for that!

Let’s hit some basic points here first:

THE MYTH OF THE “PLAYOFF MAP”

Obviously, you need to plan ahead to some degree. Later on, we will talk about allocating your positions and to what teams. But trying to map out the entire playoffs is far more difficult than you might think. If you could reliably do that, then you should probably just bet on the winners of the games with your sportsbook and take out the middleman. It obviously helps to have players go deep, but more important than necessarily mapping out the exact outcomes of the entire playoffs, is simply picking the RIGHT PLAYERS from each team that you think have a shot.

Last year, the player who was key to the top winning lineups was Jahmyr Gibbs. The year before that, it was Christian McCaffrey. It’s not surprising that great players were most commonly found on the top teams. What should surprise you, at least a little bit, is that Jahmyr Gibbs did not even appear in the Super Bowl, where the points are doubled.

The most important thing is having the right COMBINATION of players. For instance, three years ago, when the Eagles and Chiefs first made the Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes outscored Jalen Hurts. So you would think you’d want Mahomes. But Travis Kelce, in this tight end premium scoring, drastically outscored the other tight ends. Since you can only use one player from each team, you could not have both Mahomes and Kelce. And the combination of Hurts and Kelce outscored the combination of Mahomes and Goedert - or Mahomes and any other tight end, for that matter.

LEAN INTO THE SCORING

We mentioned that there are a few scoring quirks above, including the scoring for tight ends, turnovers, and double points for the Super Bowl. Lean into that. 

It’s pretty obvious how the QB scoring helps - gunslingers who run are valuable. Jalen Hurts was on the VAST majority of winning teams in the year we referenced above. In 2022, it was Josh Allen by far. Last year, in the $200 challenge, you kind of just needed to have one of them. Teams with Jayden Daniels finished 1st, 3rd, and 4th. But Josh Allen teams finished 2nd, 5th, and 6th, and a Jalen Hurts team finished in 7th. A Patrick Mahomes team finished 8th in that one, while one actually won the $35 contest. Some years, there’s one QB you need to have - in others, you just need the right combo at other positions. 

As for the tight end premium, you don’t necessarily need to go crazy. The winner of the $35 contest in 2023 actually had FOUR tight ends (Travis Kelce, T.J. Hockenson, Evan Engram, and T.J. Hockenson). But last year, T.J. Hockenson was the most commonly rostered tight end among top teams, and he only played one game (and it wasn’t a particularly crazy game). As of right now, it’s not looking like a lot of the top PPR tight ends will even make the NFL playoffs, so we might need to choose wisely.

UNIQUE BUILDS

Here’s the thing - there will be some lineups that are obvious. And those lineups probably won’t win. Not only will they not win, but any prize level they do finish at, they will be splitting with others. If they DO win, then you could be chopping up that prize with a bunch of other people. You don’t want that. 

Last year, the team that set the highest score in either contest, with 570 points, did not pick Patrick Mahomes or Travis Kelce, like many other teams. They took Xavier Worthy. And Worthy put up some big numbers in garbage time in the Super Bowl when points are worth double. You make the right tweak at the right spot to go along with some other chalk plays, and that can mean all the difference. 

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

This is up to you. The max is 150. And in 2021, at least, the one person who did 150 entries did win the $35 contest. But a lot of folks have walked away with big prizes in this contest with just one entry. The guy who won the $200 challenge (CAPTAIN INSANO), only put in two entries. Same for DJL TDL, who won the $35 contest with two entries. One finished in 5,591st and the other finished 1st. Anything can happen - that’s what makes it such a great contest.  

I’m personally going to do a few because I’ve got some wacky ideas and I want to try them out. The golden rule for any sort of gambling or fantasy sports is always going to be the same, though - NEVER bet more than you can afford to lose. This is a fun contest that makes the playoffs even more interesting, which, for me, is enough. If I win a little money doing it, even better. 

ALLOCATING YOUR POSITIONS

This is the last general tip we are going to give here. And it might be obvious to some, but we need to get it out there. Some positions are simply better bets to score more than others. Like quarterback. Now, with that said, I do want to point out that you don’t NEED your quarterback to make the Super Bowl. In 2024, with Jalen Hurts, you did. The person who won the $35 contest last year also had Patrick Mahomes, who obviously played in the Super Bowl. But in the $200 contest, which included the highest overall point scorer, none of the top six teams had either Super Bowl QB.

The Super Bowl points are worth DOUBLE, so having a star in that game is huge. But it clearly doesn’t need to be a QB. Just imagine the Week 16 Thursday Night Football Game was the Super Bowl. Yes, Stafford had a good game, but Puka Nacua had a CRAZY game. And you can’t start two players from the same team. 

Now, we do have to do some strategic allocating. The odds of a kicker being the top scorer for one of the teams in the Super Bowl are low. Same for defense. Six teams are going to lose in the first round of the NFL playoffs. Two of them you won’t have a player on, but the other four you will. So you are picking some positions where you actually WANT their team to get eliminated before the Super Bowl. Otherwise, you are rooting for the most boring playoffs ever, and something that, historically, has never worked in this contest. 

It’s going to increase your chances GREATLY if A. your quarterback doesn’t get eliminated early and B. your kicker and defense do. It’s not the end of the world if your kicker makes the next round, of course - a team with Riley Patterson came in third in 2024 in the $200 challenge and won $50,000. Last year, a few of the top teams had the Texans' defense, which won a game. But you typically don’t want those teams going deep because that means your more valuable positions are losing. For your four losing players in round one, you want your kicker, defense, and then some valiant efforts from RB/WR/TE in a loss. For one game only, that tight end premium can go a long way. In the 2023-2024 season playoffs, Jake Ferguson scored 42.3 tight end premium points in the Cowboys' loss to the Packers. That is what you want from your “one and done” players.

And the last note I want to make is on the bye weeks. And, personally, I ignore them. The Super Bowl is worth double, and the one seeds have the best odds of making the Super Bowl. If you avoided Christian McCaffrey because the 49ers had a bye week in 2024, you didn’t win. Focus on figuring out the best configuration of star players from good teams that you can squeeze in there. Period.

 

 

 

Good Luck!

Good luck to everyone out there who took the time to read this - hopefully one of you takes down a big prize! Definitely tag me on Twitter @CoopAFiasco if you do. And make sure to use promo code ALARM when you sign up at MyFFPC.com, and they will give you $25 in bonus credits if your first deposit is $35 or more!