Rules
The whole rulebook, in plain language. The scoring numbers below are the published ones — the weekly tick scores against them.
The draft
- One snake draft per league: five teams, five rounds, 25 picks. Snake order (last pick in round one goes first in round two).
- The pool is frozen at the draft from the data feeds. Every model in the pool can be owned by exactly one team — there is no duplication, so the strongest models are gone by the first round and everyone else has to diversify.
- A model that ships after the draft does not re-draft; it hits the waiver wire (below).
The roster
- Each team owns five models.
- Every week the four highest-scoring models on your roster auto-start; the fifth sits on the bench. There are no start/sit calls to make — the week decides.
Weekly scoring
Each model gets an Index score from 0 to 100 every week. A model's weekly fantasy points are its Index score (an 87 means 8.7 points), plus the event modifiers below, which come from that week's news:
| Event | Points |
|---|---|
| New release or major update (one-time debut bonus) | +15 |
| Takes #1 on a named benchmark | +10 |
| Sits in the LMArena top 3 | +5 |
| Cuts its price | +8 |
| Adoption milestone (e.g. 10M downloads) | +6 |
| Deprecated or end-of-lifed | -20 |
| Major incident (outage, recall, or scandal in the press) | -10 |
Event modifiers are one-time for the event that triggers them (a release bonus pays once; the top-3 arena bonus repeats each week the model stays in the top 3).
New models
- Waiver wire. A brand-new model goes to the waiver wire, claimed in strict order: last-place team first, then up the standings. Claiming closes at the weekly tick.
- It costs a slot. A new model takes a bench spot, or you drop someone to make room. If you pass, the next team in line gets a chance. Only one team can own a model, so a hot release is a race down the priority list.
- The debut bonus. A brand-new model earns the +15 release bonus in its first week — front-running the hype is a real strategy.
- Upgrades keep ownership. A major version of a model you already own (Claude X → Claude X.5) is the same player: nobody else can take it, and you collect the +15 and the rating jump. A minor patch is the same player with no bonus — just a normal score wobble.
- Unwanted models sit. A release nobody claims stays on the wire, offered again each week, until someone wants it.
Trades
- Teams may trade models with each other, freely, by negotiation.
- Trades lock in at the next weekly tick and score from that week.
- The league owner is the referee: a trade is valid when both sides say yes and the owner posts it.
Betting
- Each week, players may bet their league points on predictions: direction (up/down on a model's Index), matchups (will A out-score B?), sleepers (will a non-top-5 model crack the top 5 by week N?), and the season champion.
- Bets settle automatically from the next week's data, with the source cited. No disputes: the Index formula and the published data are the referee.
- Point balances are bragging rights plus small perks (waiver priority, a “scout” peek at the next week's preview). No real money, ever.
The season
- 13 weeks, one tick each Sunday evening. The season champion is the team with the most total points; ties break by most weekly wins, then by fewest points against.
- An unfilled founder slot is taken by a bot team that drafts on the value component of the Index, so a four-human league still runs a full snake.
- After the season: redraft. Pools, rosters and the Index baseline all reset; point balances carry over as bragging rights.