Guillotine League Draft Order
Run a draft lottery for your 17 or 18 team guillotine league. The order is sealed the moment you create it, and every manager watches the same reveal from one link.
Import your Sleeper league and skip typing 18 team names.
Leagues of 13 or more teams are part of Pro. $19.99 one-time for a full year.
How a Guillotine League Works
A guillotine league has no head-to-head matchups. Every week, the team with the lowest score in the whole league is eliminated, and its entire roster goes to the waiver wire. The surviving managers bid on those players, usually with a free agent budget. The last team standing wins.
The standard setup is 17 or 18 teams, with one team chopped each week of the NFL regular season. Rosters get stronger every week as eliminated stars come back into the pool, so the league gets harder to survive as it goes.
There are no playoffs and no standings to speak of. That is why most guillotine leagues decide the draft order with a random draw or a draft lottery.
Why Draft Order Matters More With 18 Teams
In a 12-team league, the manager in the last slot still gets a first-round talent. In an 18-team snake draft, slot 18 is picking a player who would go in the middle of round 2 in a normal league.
| Draft slot | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slot 1 | 1 | 36 | 37 | 72 |
| Slot 9 | 9 | 28 | 45 | 64 |
| Slot 18 | 18 | 19 | 54 | 55 |
Slot 1 waits 34 picks between its first and second player. Slot 18 picks back to back. Managers have strong opinions about which they would rather have, and in a format where one bad week ends your season, nobody wants to feel like the order was handed out unfairly.
Want the full grid for other league sizes? See the snake draft order chart.
Set Your Guillotine League Draft Order in 3 Steps
1. Add all 18 teams
Import your Sleeper league or type the team names in. Sign in so the lottery is saved to your account.
2. Choose the odds
Equal odds for a new league, or a weighted lottery based on last season. Every team's odds at every pick are shown before you lock it in.
3. Schedule the reveal
Pick a date and post one link in the group chat. The order is already sealed. Everyone watches it revealed together.
Random or Weighted for a Guillotine League?
New league: Equal Odds
With no previous season to go on, every team should have the same chance at every slot. Equal Odds is a plain random draw, sealed and revealed on your schedule.
Returning league: weight it by last season's chop order
A guillotine league does produce a ranking: the order teams were eliminated. Many returning leagues give the first team chopped the most lottery balls and last season's champion the fewest. Linear mode does this in one click if you enter teams in elimination order. Custom mode lets you set the exact ball count for each team.
Lottery for the top, fixed order for the rest
Some leagues only want the first few slots in play. You can run a lottery for the top picks and keep the rest in order, or split the league into tiers that are each drawn separately.
A Reveal That Fits the Format
A guillotine league is an elimination game, so the reveal can be one too. In The Brawl, every team is a fighter in a 3D battle royale. Each knockout is a pick, and the last fighter standing owns the first overall pick. The Race and The Vault play out the same sealed order as a footrace and a walk through a sealed vault.
The result is drawn and locked before any of it plays. The show only reveals it. You can watch every reveal format with sample teams before you choose.
Guillotine League Draft Order FAQ
How do you determine draft order in a guillotine league?
Most guillotine leagues randomize the order with equal odds, because a first-year league has no standings to weight. Returning leagues often run a weighted draft lottery where the teams eliminated earliest last season get the best odds. Either way, draw it once, in a way the whole league can watch.
How many teams are in a guillotine league?
The standard size is 17 or 18 teams. One team is eliminated each week of the NFL regular season until a single team is left. Smaller versions exist (10, 12, or 14 teams) that start the eliminations later or skip weeks.
Does draft position matter in a guillotine league?
It matters more than in a normal league. With 18 teams, slot 1 picks 1st and 36th while slot 18 picks 18th and 19th. The gap between the best and worst first-round player is much wider than in a 12-team draft, so everyone cares who gets the top slots.
Can I run a draft lottery for an 18-team league here?
Yes. Leagues of 13 or more teams are part of Pro, which is $19.99 one-time for 365 days or $9.99 for 30 days. It does not renew on its own. Leagues of up to 12 teams are free.
Should a guillotine league use random or weighted odds?
Use equal odds for a new league. For a returning league, a weighted lottery based on last season's elimination order is a popular choice: the first team chopped gets the most lottery balls, and last season's champion gets the fewest. Custom mode lets you set the exact ball count for each team.
Can I import my Sleeper guillotine league?
Yes. On the generate page, choose Import from Sleeper and paste your league link or search by username. All of your team names are pulled in, so you do not have to type 18 of them.
How do I enter the order on Sleeper, ESPN, or Yahoo afterward?
Once the order is revealed, the commissioner sets the draft order manually in the platform's draft settings to match the result. Because every manager watched the same reveal link, there is nothing to argue about when the order shows up in the draft room.
Settle the Order Before the Chopping Starts
Draw it once, seal it, and let all 18 managers watch it land.