What Is a Chopped League?

How chopped (guillotine) fantasy football leagues work, and how to set one up on Sleeper.

The short answer

A chopped league (also called a guillotine league) is a fantasy football league with no head-to-head matchups. Every week, every team plays against the whole league, and the team with the lowest score is cut - "chopped" - for the rest of the season. Its players go straight to the waiver wire, where the surviving teams bid on them. The last team standing wins.

How a chopped league works, week by week

1. Draft like a normal league. Most chopped leagues are redraft leagues with 18 teams.
2. Set your lineup and score as many points as you can. You don't need to beat an opponent - you only need to not finish last.
3. The lowest score of the week gets chopped. That team is eliminated for good.
4. The chopped team's roster hits waivers. Stars drafted in the first round can be up for grabs any week.
5. Everyone left bids with FAAB. Each team has one budget for the whole season (often $1,000), and the highest bid wins the player.
6. Repeat until one team is left. In an 18-team league, the winner is decided in Week 17.

Chopped, guillotine, knockout: same format, different names

The format goes by different names on different sites. Sleeper calls it a Chopped league, Yahoo calls it a Guillotine league, and ESPN calls it a Knockout league. The idea is the same everywhere: lowest score is out, their players go to waivers. You can sync a chopped league from any of the three on this site.

Typical chopped league settings

• 18 teams, so the league lasts through Week 17
• PPR scoring
• $1,000 FAAB budget for the whole season - no new money as the weeks go on
• Trades off
• A couple of IR spots

These are the settings Sleeper recommends for a first chopped league, and what most leagues use.

Why FAAB is the whole game

FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budget) is a season-long budget of play money that every team uses to bid on waiver-wire players in a blind auction - the highest bid wins.

In a normal league, the waiver wire is mostly backups. In a chopped league, a whole roster of starters lands on waivers every week, and your one season-long budget has to cover all of it. Spend too much early and you can't afford the stars who get freed up in November. Spend too little and you get chopped holding money you never used. A common rule of thumb: keep about 80% of your budget into October, 50% into November and 20% into December.

That's what this site is built for. The FAAB Guide prices every player for your budget and teams left, Win Bid % shows your odds of winning a bid, Bidding Strategy shows how real chopped leagues bid, and the FAAB Tracker shows whether your budget is on pace.

How to set up a chopped league on Sleeper

Sleeper has chopped leagues built in, so the app handles the cuts and waivers for you.

1. Create a new league in the Sleeper app and choose Chopped as the format.
2. Invite your league. Sleeper allows up to 32 teams, but 18 is the standard, since it runs through Week 17.
3. Set your budget and scoring. Sleeper suggests PPR and a $1,000 FAAB budget. Trades start off; the commissioner can turn them on.
4. Draft as usual. From Week 1 on, the Chop tab shows the live Chopping Block - who's projected lowest, who's in danger and who's safe.

Already have a Sleeper league? You can make a new chopped league with the same leaguemates from that league's General settings. Commissioners can also turn on manual chop in the commissioner settings, which lets you cut more than one team in a week.

Once your league is set up, enter your Sleeper username on the FAAB Guide to see bids sized to your league, plus your Survival Odds each week.

Tools to help you survive the chop

• FAAB Guide: low, target and high bids for every player, every week
• Survival Odds: your chance of making it through this week
• Start/Sit: who's worth starting as your league shrinks
• Most Chopped: the players most often on teams that got cut

Common questions

More answers on the FAQ.