Most fantasy leagues are static silos. You join a league of 12, you stay in it, and the only thing that changes is which manager is on top. The pyramid auto-league replaces that with a single sorted population of managers — 160 in the current build — and re-arranges who plays whom every week based on results. The format is borrowed from soccer (Premier League → Championship → League One → League Two → National League), the cards come from the same catalog as our dynasty deck-builder, and the onboarding flow is one button on sharkie. This guide is the rules manual and the new-manager onboarding checklist.
The 32-team tier structure
Five tiers, each holding exactly 32 managers:
- Tier 1 — Shark Tank. Top of the pyramid. Win this and you mint a Mythic card in your name. Capacity: 32.
- Tier 2 — Reef Run. Capacity: 32.
- Tier 3 — Deep Blue. Capacity: 32.
- Tier 4 — Tidepool. Capacity: 32.
- Tier 5 — Shoal. Entry tier. No relegation floor. Capacity: 32 (expandable if waitlist exceeds 4 weeks).
At capacity, the system holds 160 managers. New managers always enter at Tier 5. The card-game catalog is shared across all tiers, so a Tier-5 manager and a Tier-1 manager can own different copies of the same era-stamped card, and inter-tier trading is allowed.
Weekly auto-sim mechanics
Every week, each tier runs a single-elimination 32-manager bracket against frozen lineups. Lineups lock Thursday night at NFL kickoff; the sim runs after Monday Night Football and grades against real NFL stat lines plus chemistry multipliers (see the deck-builder primer for chemistry math). The bracket runs 5 rounds, producing 1 champion, 4 semifinalists, 8 quarterfinalists, 16 round-of-16 finishers, and 16 round-of-32 finishers.
Promotion and relegation
- Top 4 (semifinalists +) promote one tier.
- Bottom 4 (lost in round of 32 with the lowest 4 scores) relegate one tier.
- Tier 5 bottom-4 do not relegate — they stay in Shoal for the next week.
- Tier 1 top-4 do not promote — they stay in Shark Tank. The Tier-1 champion accumulates "Shark Points" toward the season-end Mythic-card mint.
What the math means for new managers
Under uniform skill (every manager equally likely to finish top-4 in their bracket), expected weeks-to-Tier-1 from Tier 5 is 4 promotions = 4 weeks. Under realistic skill (top quartile of managers regularly finishes top-4, bottom quartile regularly finishes bottom-4), the expected time is closer to 8–12 weeks for a confidently above-average manager. Below-average managers may yo-yo between Tier 4 and Tier 5 indefinitely, which is the system working as designed — they get matched against same-skill opponents instead of being crushed in fixed leagues.
Pack rewards: the incentive economy
Cards drop after every week from the pack-breaker economy. The reward curve:
- Tier 1 champion: 1x Mythic-eligible pack (10% Mythic, 30% Legendary, 60% Rare).
- Tier 1 finalist: 1x Legendary-eligible pack (5% Legendary, 35% Rare, 60% Uncommon).
- Tier 1 semifinalist: 1x Rare-eligible pack (15% Rare, 50% Uncommon, 35% Common).
- Tier 2 champion: 1x Legendary-eligible pack.
- Tier 2 semifinalist: 1x Rare-eligible pack.
- Tier 3 champion: 1x Rare-eligible pack.
- Tier 4 / 5 champions: 1x Uncommon-eligible pack.
- Top-8 finish at any tier: 5 pack-breaker credits.
That curve is intentional: a Tier-1 finalist averages roughly one Mythic every 10 weeks, while a Tier-5 bracket winner averages one Legendary every ~30 weeks. The compounding effect — better cards make stronger lineups, stronger lineups win matchups, winning matchups promotes tiers, higher tiers pay better packs — is the loop. The economy is rate-limited (no manager can earn more than one Mythic-eligible pack per week) to prevent runaway dominance.
Are packs pay-to-win?
No. There is no path to buy a Mythic pack with real money inside the pyramid product. Pack-breaker credits earned outside the pyramid can mint Common-tier packs only. Mythic packs exist exclusively as Tier-1 rewards. The product is designed so that the worst manager in Tier 1 outscores the best manager in Tier 5 over a 10-week sample purely on bracket placement, not deposit.
Onboarding flow for new managers
The first-week experience is intentionally short — joining the pyramid takes about 4 minutes. The steps:
- Sign up via sharkie. Sharkie is the onboarding guide; it walks new managers through the rules in one page.
- Claim a starter pack. Every new manager gets a Tier-5-equivalent starter pack: 1 Rare card, 3 Uncommons, 8 Commons. The 12-card starter is enough to field a 9-card lineup with 3 bench pieces.
- Build a starter lineup. 1 QB + 2 RB + 3 WR + 1 TE + 1 FLEX + 1 SFLEX. The lineup builder auto-suggests chemistry stacks based on the cards you opened.
- Enter Tier 5. The next weekly auto-sim populates a 32-bracket from the most recent 32 new entries.
- Play one week. Win your round of 32, you stay; lose, you stay (no relegation floor); finish top-4, you promote to Tier 4 next week.
The 10-week ramp: a worked example
A new manager enters Tier 5 in Week 6 of the NFL regular season. Realistic above-average performance:
- Week 6 (Tier 5): Finish 3rd. Promote to Tier 4. Reward: 1 Rare-eligible pack + 5 credits.
- Week 7 (Tier 4): Finish 5th (round-of-16 elimination). No promotion or relegation. Reward: nothing.
- Week 8 (Tier 4): Finish 2nd. Promote to Tier 3. Reward: 1 Rare-eligible pack + 5 credits.
- Week 9 (Tier 3): Finish 4th. Promote to Tier 2. Reward: 1 Rare-eligible pack + 5 credits.
- Week 10 (Tier 2): Finish 7th. Stay. Reward: nothing.
- Week 11 (Tier 2): Finish 3rd. Promote to Tier 1. Reward: 1 Rare-eligible pack + 5 credits.
- Week 12–17 (Tier 1): Steady mid-pack finishes, occasional top-4. Reward total: 2 Mythic-eligible packs across the stretch.
That manager opened their season with one Rare card and ended it with three Mythic-eligible pulls plus a deeper card pool. The compounding is the point — the early-promotion weeks build the deck that wins the late-season Tier-1 weeks. Trade markets across tiers let a savvy Tier-2 manager liquidate Tier-1 surplus to fund their next move; the tournaments hub runs side-format tournaments where the same card pool gets repurposed.
Common new-manager mistakes
- Hoarding the starter Rare. The starter Rare is almost always a Common-tier player. Trade it to a Tier-4 manager building chemistry for a 2-card Uncommon package.
- Skipping chemistry stacks early. Lineup chemistry pays a 6–12% bonus that translates to roughly 1.5 bracket rounds of expected advancement. New managers skip it because the rules feel optional. They are not.
- Not opening packs before lock. Packs unopened at Thursday lock do not count toward lineup eligibility. Sharkie nags about this, but new managers ignore it the first week.
- Trading away rookie picks too early. 2027 first-rounders in the pyramid context fund mid-season pivots — they are the most liquid asset class. Hold them through the NFL trade deadline at minimum.
- Yo-yo despair. Finishing Tier 5 → Tier 4 → Tier 5 → Tier 4 for three weeks is normal. The pyramid sorts on skill; if your skill is at the Tier-4 ceiling, that is where you sit until your card pool catches up.
Why the format works
Three structural advantages over traditional dynasty leagues: (1) competitive matching always finds your skill level, so the game never gets too easy or impossible; (2) rewards compound only as far as your play justifies, which keeps the economy honest; (3) the same card catalog feeds the dynasty product, the tournaments product, and the pyramid product — your collection has value across all three. The tournaments hub runs side formats (legends-era, position-locked, breed-only) that reuse the same cards you earn in the pyramid. The sharkie onboarding bot answers the rules questions new managers actually ask. The pack-breaker economy lives on pack-breaker. The whole thing is one product surface — the pyramid is the league system, the cards are the currency, and promotion is the loop. New managers who want a faster read on where they stand can check weekly promotion odds, bracket seeding, and card-value trends straight from the sharkie dashboard before deciding whether to trade, hold, or push for the top-4 finish that moves them up a tier.
Price examples and pass rules
Use names as evidence, not decoration. The useful SEO win is that Josh Allen, Ja'Marr Chase, Bijan Robinson and Puka Nacua and Chiefs, Bills, Eagles and Lions appear inside decisions, thresholds, and internal links instead of being dumped into a keyword list.
- Spread example: if Chiefs-Broncos opens Chiefs -3.5 and your fair number is -2.8, +3.5 is the bet, +3 is a pass, and the moneyline needs roughly +155 or better before it replaces the spread.
- Total example: if a Bills outdoor total opens 46.5 and wind moves from 8 mph to 21 mph, an under projection at 42.8 still needs a playable number; under 45 or better is different from chasing 43.5.
- Futures example: Bengals AFC North +280 is 26.3% before hold. If your fair number is 30%, stake modestly, track portfolio correlation, and avoid stacking every Burrow, Chase, and Higgins bet into the same thesis.
- CLV rule: a good write-up is not enough. Track whether the spread, total, prop, or futures price closed better than your entry before grading the process.
Use closing-line value guide to keep the examples attached to measurable prices.
Research note board
Use this table to turn the guide into a decision note. The point is to know when the idea is actionable and when it is only context.
| Angle | Input to verify | Example application | Pass when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market price | Spread, total, moneyline, prop price, or futures hold | Chiefs and Bills compared through hold | The price has moved past the number that created the edge |
| Football or sport context | Role, pace, weather, injury status, opponent style | Josh Allen role news mapped to the relevant market | The original input changes or remains unconfirmed |
| Review loop | Entry, close, result, and reason code | closing line value logged with a clear thesis | You cannot explain whether the process beat the market |
Bet responsibly — set limits, never chase losses.
Average total points by weather bucket
Average combined points scored in NFL games by weather bucket over recent seasons. Wind above 20mph and snow each clip totals by 6-8 points vs domed games, which is why books move totals aggressively when forecasts shift.
NFL ATS cover-margin distribution
Distribution of (final margin − closing spread) across an NFL season. Roughly normal with mean ≈ 0 and standard deviation ≈ 13 points, which is why most ATS edges live in the ±1.5 point window.
