Lineup

Overview

Each player has a weekly salary. When their NFL game starts, that salary is debited from your bankroll. After the game, you receive a week payout equal to salary + P&L.

Hit their expected score and P&L is $0 — you get the salary back. Outperform and you earn more than salary; underperform and you get less back.

Quota

Every player has a quota — the half-PPR score he is expected to put up this week. Think of it as the over/under on his fantasy points. Beat it and you profit, miss it and you lose.

This is the big difference from normal DFS. There you just want the most total points, so the best play is whoever you think scores most for the money. Here you are betting on each player against his own line. A 12-point game can be a win or a loss depending on who posted it.

Quota comes from salary, but it is set per position, because half-PPR scoring is not comparable across positions. A $34 QB has to clear about 19 points; a $34 TE only about 8.6. Never compare a quota across two positions — compare each player to his own.

P&L (profit and loss)

Points above quota pay in brackets, so beating the quota by a lot is worth much more per point than beating it by a little:

• first 6 pts over quota — ×1.0
• next 9 pts over — ×1.8
• everything past +15 — ×3.0

The bracket total is then multiplied by the player's tier. Below quota it is simply (quota − actual) × tier multiplier, and the loss is capped at the salary — a week payout never drops below $0, so you can never lose more than you spent.

Tier

Shown as ×over / ×under: what you earn per point above quota, and what you lose per point below it. Cheap players are paid at a higher rate on both.

• $5–15 — ×1.4 / ×2.89 (dart throws: huge upside, but they bust often)
• $16–30 — ×1.15 / ×1.21
• $31–50 — ×1.0 / ×1.35 (stars: steady, and a monster game still pays big)

This is what stops the game from being “always roster the studs”. At the same points scored, a cheap player always out-earns an expensive one, so a $6 flier who goes off can beat a $50 stud who goes off.

It is not free money though. The under-multipliers are set so that every price range breaks even across a full season of real results — cheap players punish you harder when they bust, which they do far more often. No tier is a free win or an automatic loss; they are different risk profiles, not different edges.

Ceiling / floor

A quick read on a player's range, in dollars rather than points. The green number is your P&L if he has a strong week; the red one if he has a bad week.

Specifically: about 9 points over quota and about 6 under. Those are real p90 and p10 outcomes from last season — roughly a top-10% game and a bottom-10% game. So the green number is not a best case, it is a good-day case, and the red one is a bad day, not a disaster.

Use it to compare shapes, not to predict. Two players at the same salary can have very different spreads, and a wide gap means a boom-or-bust week. Tap any player for the full payout curve at every possible score.

Streak multiplier

A week counts toward your streak if, at the first kickoff, all 7 slots are filled and your salary is at least 60% of your bankroll (capped at $200). Miss that bar and nothing is charged — your streak just resets to zero.

Each consecutive week adds 5% to your multiplier, up to 30% at six weeks. It pays on your net P&L for the week and always in your favour: a +$40 week at 30% pays an extra $12, and a −$40 week hands $12 back. That cushion is what lets a long run ride out a couple of bad performances.

Finish the season on a streak and you collect $5 per week of it — $85 for all 17. It follows the streak you end on, so the last week is worth showing up for.

A player who never takes the field (inactive or bye) refunds his full salary at $0 P&L. One who plays and busts takes the real loss.