NFL How to Play

SmashUp is a fantasy sports game where you can build a lineup of real-life NFL players and use SmashCards, unique powerups, to play to the strengths and weaknesses of those players. Compete for the highest score by outwitting your opponents with powerful combinations of players and cards.

TL;DR SmashUp In 3

Find a Tournament

Join one of many weekly tournaments, create a league with friends, or join a campaign. Or do all three! Tournaments typically open on Wednesday morning during the NFL season.

Build A Lineup

For each tournament, select a combination of players and cards within your budget. Optimize for the highest score. You can continue modifying your lineup throughout the week for any players that haven't played their games. Lineups are always saved and always entered.

Watch the game

Leaderboards are updated every minute. See how your lineups are doing on each tournament's leaderboard or checkout the dashboard to view your lineups across all modes.

Feeling lost? Join our Discord community for strategy, tips, discussion, and answers to your questions! You'll also find insights on the game in our podcasts and articles.

The Objective

The goal in SmashUp is simply to score the most points. Regardless of game mode, SmashUp is broken up into tournaments that align with one week of the NFL season. Enter a lineup into a tournament and compete against other players for the top spot.

Building A Lineup

SmashUp is a salary cap game similar to the daily fantasy sports (DFS) format of fantasy football. What this means is that you'll be given a budget for players and a budget for SmashCards. You won't be able to afford the best players for each position or all of the highest performing cards, so you must strategically pick a combination of players and cards that will outscore everyone else. There is no player draft and the full roster of NFL players is always available.

Unlike traditional fantasy, where picking the most productive players is the only way to win, in SmashUp you can also win by targeting players weaknesses. This is one of the ways SmashCards bring a unique playing experience that is unrivaled in the fantasy sports world.

Selecting Players

Each tournament has a salary cap for players and lineup structure that typically includes a Quarterback (QB), Running Back (RB), Wide Receiver (WR), Tight End (TE), Kicker (K), and Defensive/Special Teams (DEF). Players are priced based on their projected performance, with higher performing players costing more. All active players are available for selection.

Selecting Cards

In addition to selecting players you'll pick SmashCards, like Goldfish Memory, to play on individual players or the entire lineup. Like players, cards are also priced based on their expected value and may change week to week based on rebalancing efforts.

There are a number of ways to strategically use cards to outscore your opponents and which approach you take can depend on a number of factors. Each tournament provides a new opportunity to discover a clever synergy that noone else thought of.

Learn more about SmashCards

Fantasy Scoring

SmashUp uses a scoring system similar to traditional non-PPR (points per reception) fantasy sports games. All offensive positions are scored the same, so for the off chance that your QB ends up kicking a field goal, you'll still get the points!

Offensive Scoring

QB, RB, WR, TE, K

  • Passing Yards 0.04 pts/yd
  • Passing Touchdown 4 pts
  • Rushing Yards 0.1 pts/yd
  • Rushing Touchdown 6 pts
  • Receiving Yards 0.1 pts/yd
  • Receiving Touchdown 6 pts
  • Two Point Conversion 2 pts
  • Interception -2 pts
  • Fumble Lost -2 pts
  • Return Touchdown 6 pts

Kicking

QB, RB, WR, TE, K

  • Extra Point Made 1 pts
  • Extra Point Miss -1 pts
  • Field Goal 0-39 yards 3 pts
  • Field Goal 40-49 yards 4 pts
  • Field Goal 50+ yards 5 pts
  • Field Goal Missed -1 pts

Defense Scoring

DEF

  • Sack 1 pts
  • Safety 2 pts
  • Interception 2 pts
  • Fumble Recovery 2 pts
  • Blocked Kick 2 pts
  • Defensive Touchdown 6 pts
  • Two Point Return 2 pts

Defensive Points Allowed

DEF

  • 0 5 pts
  • 1-6 4 pts
  • 7-13 3 pts
  • 14-17 1 pts
  • 18-27 0 pts
  • 28-34 -1 pts
  • 35-45 -3 pts
  • 46+ -5 pts

Defensive Yards Allowed

DEF

  • Under 100 Yards 5 pts
  • 100-199 Yards 3 pts
  • 200-299 Yards 2 pts
  • 300-349 Yards 0 pts
  • 350-399 Yards -1 pts
  • 400-449 Yards -3 pts
  • 450-499 Yards -5 pts
  • 500+ Yards -6 pts

Ways to Play

SmashUp offers a variety of ways to play with three different game modes: Campaign, Weekly, and League.

Campaign

Campaign

Flex your football knowledge and show off your skill in a series of fantasy challenges.

Campaign mode is a single-player like experience where you face off against a series of opponents throughout the season. Each campaign offers a unique experience aimed to challenge your knowledge of the game while also providing a fun way to compete against industry veterans.

To demonstrate, SmashUp's first campaign was called Road to Glory. In this campaign, the objective was to beat 6 champions played by the SmashUp staff and fantasy football experts from week 7 through week 18 of the 2024 NFL season. Each champion had a unique SmashCard that made them a bit more challenging to beat but the challengers would get an increase to their card budget for each week they played to even the playing field.

We're excited to see what the future holds for campaign mode and all the interesting ways we can challenge the fantasy community.

Weekly

Weekly

Compete for cash and prizes in free weekly tournaments against the full SmashUp community.

Weekly tournaments are the heart of competitive play in SmashUp. They're free to enter and some offer cash and/or prizes to the top performers. Terms and conditions apply. These tournaments are open to everyone so it's a great opportunity to show off your skills.

Themed weekly tournaments are also ran, where a unique SmashCard is applied to all lineups entered. This presents a unique challenge where standard strategies may not work so well.

League

League

Challenge your friends to a season long competition and strategize your way to victory!

Leagues are a great way to compete with friends, family, colleagues, or your online commmunity.

Leagues currently offer a single format, Chase the Crown. In Chase the Crown, league members compete in weekly tournaments spanning one or more weeks of the NFL regular season. Each competitor selects a set of players and SmashCards based on a budget and compete against each other. The individual with the highest total points across all weeks is declared the winner.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do tournaments open?

Tournaments track the NFL season, they typically open Wednesday morning and run through Tuesday evening to capture remaining stat corrections. The exact time and date will be reflected on each tournament's page.

Can I change my lineup after entering?

Yes! You may modify your lineup right up until each player's game starts. Once a player's game begins, they are locked in along with any cards you've selected that apply to that player. This gives you flexibility to adjust based on late-breaking news or changes to your strategy. All lineups are auto-saved and automatically entered.

How do I win cash and prizes?

Some of our weekly tournaments offer cash and prizes. The exact prize structure varies by tournament and is always clearly displayed before you enter. All of our tournaments are free to enter. Terms and conditions apply.

How often is data updated?

All player stats, lineup points, and leaderboards are updated approximately every minute. These updates are streamed live so you'll always see the most up-to-date data when viewing any lineup, leaderboard, dashboard, etc. All sports data is provided through our third-party partner, if you find a discrepancy, please let us know!

Do you have a mobile app?

At the moment we are a web only platform. However, you can still install our app on your phone! See the user settings page for instructions on how to do so. SmashUp is a new, but growing company and building for the web allows us to reach the most people and build new features faster. We look forward to bringing you a native app experience in the years to come!

How much does it cost to play?

SmashUp is completely free to play and we've given away thousands of dollars in cash to winners. That said, we do need to keep the lights on and will be offering paid content in the future. We're committed to keeping SmashUp free of pay-to-win mechanics.

👋 HEY THERE

On SmashUp, both novices and experts find joy in building fantasy football lineups with our unique SmashCards.

Scores and Stats By Sports Data IO

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