2026 Main Event Preview and 2025 Retrospective
2026 Preview
The Main Event is the FFPC’s flagship high stakes season long format competition with a prize of $1,000,000 for the #1 finisher overall. In 2025, the entry fee is again around $2,200 for your first team, and $1,600 for additional teams.
When do they draft Main Event teams? Slow drafts began April 26th this year. Last year the slow drafts started on May 1st. Live Online Drafts are scheduled to begin this year on May 30th and continue online up until the opening Sunday of the NFL season. As usual, high stakes players can also draft Main Event teams in person, live in Las Vegas, during the final days of draft season, beginning on Thursday September 10th.
What kind of prizes are in play? Prizes are awarded for finishing as 1 or 2 seeds within your league after the 12 week regular season ($2,500 for locking down either of those achievements). There is additional prize money for placing 1st ($4,000 or $2,500 + a 2027 Main Event Entry), 2nd ($1,500 or a 2027 Main Event Entry), or 3rd ($500) in the league playoffs (week 13 and 14). Up to $12,400 is allocated to league prize money among the top finishers in individual leagues. Note that from an ROI perspective, the prize money for the 1 and 2 seed is a significant difference in prize structure compared to the Big Gorilla. ROI in the Big Gorilla is a bit more of a challenge, as you can ONLY win league prize money for making it to week 14 (the final week of the league playoffs), where you are competing for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Pulling in a possible additional $5,000 for regular season success in the Main Event is a huge plus, if you can afford to enter the Main Event.
The true goal, obviously, is to make it to the Championship Round (total points weeks 15 to 17) of the competition and win the $1,000,000 overall prize. Second place receives $200,000, and 3rd Place wins $100,000. Lesser amounts of cash prizes scale down to 200th place, beginning at $50,000 for 4th down to $1,000. In 2026, there will be a maximum of 375 leagues (4,500 teams). In 2025, there were 355 leagues drafted (4,260 teams). Of the 355 leagues, 312 were drafted online (88%), and 43 were drafted live in Las Vegas (12%). This represented a slight uptick in online vs in-person drafts over 2024.
Whether you draft online or go to Vegas and draft, you will join the fraternity of #HighStakesBros competing for the million dollar grand prize!!
The Championship Round prize chart for 2026 is below which shows prizes down to 200th place including ONE MILLION DOLLARS for the overall winner and two more 6 figure payouts for 2nd and 3rd.
The competition’s schedule is broken into 3 segments :
- Regular Season – The 2026 regular season will again be 12 weeks. Week 6 will be conducted as an “ALL-PLAY” week, where the 12 teams will be ranked according to points. The top 6 teams get a win, and the bottom 6 teams a loss.
- League Championships – Weeks 13 and 14 are a 2 week head to head elimination between the top 4 seeds coming out of the regular season (seeds based on overall record and win loss record).
- Championship Round – From each league, 2 to 3 teams will earn a berth to the Championship Round, which is a 3 week total points sprint in weeks 15 -17 (added to their one-game point average from the regular season) for the overall title. The regular season overall points leader and win-loss leader from each league automatically win berths into the Championship Round. An additional third team can make it to the Championship Round if they win the league championship, but were not the league point / win-loss leader (ie. seeds 1 and 2 entering the league playoffs).
Similar to our Best Ball Analysis, we have examined the drafts of the winning teams in the 2025 competition to identify trends on player selection and roster construction.
If you are a new player, the data contained in these reports should help provide you with a framework for drafting in 2026. If you are an experienced player, a lot of what you see may seem like things you already know, but seeing the numbers crunched should confirm a lot of the best practices that you have been implementing when drafting these teams in the past. Also note that unlike best ball, the drafts for these season long contests are only a partial component of overall success. Waiver wire pickups and weekly lineup decisions also play a huge part in determining your success. You may find reviewing the 2025 waiver wire pickups helpful to provide some guidance there. You can see how much FAAB is generally required to win players based on the particular week of the season. You can find that data HERE.
The analyses provided here are in the context of making it to the Championship Round. Success during the Championship Round is going to be based primarily on the production of players within that 3 week (15-17) sprint which can be unpredictable. In 2025, there were 882 teams in the Championship Round (about 20.7% of all the teams that entered). There is a lot of player overlap among the teams. Having the top performers during weeks 15-17 (and actually starting them) is the primary determination of your success. Unlike best ball tournaments in the fantasy world these days, this is not a week by week elimination. Your total points accumulated over that 3 week period ( added to your weekly average from the regular season) is what counts. When you review the “Deep Dive into the Top 5 Overall Winners”, we note every player’s performance at a position specifically within that timeframe.
Enough of the chit chat, let’s look at the data! (FYI, the analyses themselves are premium subscriber material)
Roster Deep Dive of the Top 5 Winners OverallAn in depth look at the rosters of top 5 teams overall from 2025 with a master chart that breaks down the detail from each of those teams. These teams won between $1,000,000 (1st) and $30,000 (5th). The master chart that we compile will show: • Every player rostered on every top 5 finisher during the championship rounds (weeks 15-17)
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Draft Slots of Winning TeamsThis analysis examines the draft slots of the teams that made it into the Championship round |
Winning Roster Construction of Drafted TeamsThis analysis breaks down the number of players drafted at each position for every team, and compares those metrics with the number of players drafted at each position by every team that made it to the Main Event Championship Round in 2025. |
Player Advance Rates To The Championship RoundThis analysis looks at the drafts of the teams that made it to the championship round and looks at the percentage of players owned on those teams. |
Rookies Drafted Per Main Event Championship Round TeamThis analysis looks at the drafts of the teams that made it to the Main Event Championship Round and counts the number of rookies drafted by those teams to determine if there is an optimal number of rookies to draft. |
Player StackingWe have created a few player “Stack Explorer” tools on the site. These have been very popular during the tournament draft season. We also created a stack explorer which lets you analyze player stacks for the teams that made it to the Championship Round. You can also simply use it to see which teams (or how many) roster a given player across the pool of championship round teams. If you read our 2022 “Roster Deep Dive” analysis, you’ll see the anecdote of how the $1,000,000 overall champs used THIS VERY TOOL to gain leverage on the field in a Week 15 lineup decision. (Note that the teams in the Footballguys Championship Round can also be analyzed using this tool). 2025 Main Event Championship Round Final Standings Stack Explorer |
Draft Online OR Live in Vegas? Draft BEFORE or AFTER the Thursday Night Opener?This analysis looks at the drafts of the teams that made it to the Main Event Championship Round to see if there was a significant advantage for teams that drafted Online vs Live in Vegas, or between those that drafted before or after the Thursday night NFL Opening game. As we continue to gather data on this angle over the past few years, a definite trend is evident. 2025 Main Event Draft Type Analysis : Online vs Live – Pre or Post Thursday/Friday Night Opener |
Main Event Championship Round Premium Enhanced LeaderboardOur enhanced leaderboards for the Championship rounds show you how teams progressed through the three weeks of the sprint. You will see the beginning rank, final rank, and also the ranks of the teams after each week. Weekly point scores (in addition to ranking) are included, so you can literally see how teams moved up, or down, after each phase/week of the Championships. Full Team rosters of EVERY TEAM (color coded) are included so you can see at a glance the players on the teams. |
The NFL Opening Weekend “Free Look”The “Free Look” is a lesser known rule quirk that players experienced in the tournament leverage for a competitive advantage during the first weekend of the season. This is a strategy your competitors DON’T want you to know about. Time to get informed. |