TC Eliminator is ESPN’s newest college basketball pick ’em game for the NCAA tournament. Similar to Eliminator Challenge for the NFL, TC Eliminator is a survivor-style pool where you pick one team each day of the NCAA tournament. If that team wins, you advance to the next day. If it loses, you are eliminated. The catch is that you cannot select a team more than once throughout the tournament.
Things to know:
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ESPN is offering this contest for both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments.
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Picks are due at the start of the first tournament game each day, which allows you to see all your opponents’ picks once the first games tip off.
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The contest begins with the round of 64 and goes all the way through the championship game (or until there are no entries remaining).
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One pick is required each day. The only exception is the Elite 8, when you need to make two picks, but both teams can play on the same day.
Strategies to consider
It is a balance of short-term win probability, long-term planning, and game theory against your opponents. Proper strategy and planning are critical to success because unlike Eliminator Challenge, you can potentially run out of teams. For example, if the Final Four is all four No. 1 seeds, but you already used them earlier in the tournament, you will not have any teams available to pick, so you will lose.
In fact, you will need to have all four Final Four teams available entering the Elite 8, or you will run out of teams. Last season, to win the men’s contest, the path to victory required using Auburn and Duke in the Elite Eight round, Houston in the Final Four, and Florida in the national championship game. Auburn and Duke both lost in the Final Four, while Florida beat Houston in the national championship game.
The simplest strategy is to pick a team that you think will win in the current round but lose in the next round, just like in the Final Four example above. The more teams you have available in the later rounds, the more options you will have.
In the first round, teams seeded in the Nos. 5-7 range are typically the strongest picks. A No. 6 or 7 seed will likely be favored in the first round, but they would be underdogs against a No. 2 or 3 seed in the next round. Another way to play it is by taking the highest seeds you have the least confidence in long-term. Say there is a No. 2 seed you think is overrated. You can pick that team as a huge favorite over a No. 15 seed in the first round and then hope that team gets upset in the next round or two.
The strategy to the second round is similar to the first, though first-round upsets could create new opportunities. For example, two No. 16 seeds have defeated No. 1 seeds in the men’s NCAA tournament. As a result, the winners of the 8-9 game in those regions (2018 Kansas State and 2023 Florida Atlantic) became great picks in the round of 32. However, while Kansas State was a great pick to beat UMBC in 2018, Florida Atlantic reached the Final Four in 2023, meaning players who used FAU in the second round could not win the contest.
Other considerations
In the Sweet 16 and later, simply pick a team that you think will win in that round and lose in the following round to make sure you can fill out an entire Final Four.
One more rule of thumb is to not make all your early picks from the same region, as you could potentially run out of teams in the later rounds. If you used the Nos. 4, 6 and 7 seeds from the East, and all three reach the Sweet 16, you have only one potential Final Four team remaining from that region. If that one remaining team loses before the Final Four, you will run out of teams. Remember, you need an eventual Final Four team from each region to have a chance.
$10,000 Grand Prize
ESPN is offering a $10,000 grand prize to the overall winner for both the men’s and women’s contests. The tiebreaker will be the aggregate winning margin of all your winning picks. Good luck!
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