Chopped Leagues
Designing and shipping a new fantasy football game format at Sleeper: from competitor announcement to launch in 8 days.
Survive or Get Chopped
Guillotine Leagues are one of the most brutal, and most entertaining, ways to enjoy fantasy football. Each week, the lowest-scoring team is eliminated and their roster is dropped into free agency. Your season can be over in a single bad week.
At Sleeper, we noticed users hacking together their own Guillotine leagues manually. Commissioners were painstakingly dropping players one by one, running complex rules in spreadsheets, and doing everything they could to keep the fun alive. We had plans to eventually support the format, but on August 4th Yahoo announced their own Guillotine Leagues.
As a team, we looked at each other and said: "Can we get this done before the season?" We decided to sprint.
We later received a C&D from guillotineleagues.com over the name, which led to the decision to rebrand to "Chopped": a name that stuck and that users adopted organically.
Problem Definition
To make Chopped a success on Sleeper, we needed to solve three critical problems:
- Bug-free play — a buggy product would kill adoption immediately.
- Clarity — users must instantly understand the state of their team and league standings.
- Engagement for eliminated users — once you're chopped, the experience often ends. We wanted to keep it fun, even after your season was over.
Pain points from the market reinforced this: GuillotineLeagues.com was buggy and unreliable. Manual commissioner work on Sleeper, ESPN, and Yahoo was tedious with no league support. Eliminated users had no meaningful way to stay engaged.
My Role
I was the lead designer on Chopped Leagues, working closely with the fantasy pod: front-end engineers, back-end engineers, researchers, and PMs. I scoped and delivered a workable V1 design in just two days.
- Kickoff — I ran the initial brainstorm and kickoff call, guiding creative conversations into a focused feature list. My job was to harness the team's endless ideas, cut through tangents, and prioritize ruthlessly.
- Prioritization — we separated "must-haves" (league creation, basic settings, leaderboard) from "nice-to-haves" that could come later.
- Innovation — I pushed beyond parity by proposing delight features unique to Sleeper: a graveyard for eliminated teams, a dropped players section, and ceremonial eliminations.
- Branding — championed assets for the game format, making it instantly recognizable and distinct from Sleeper's existing product suite.
Process & Exploration
I started by benchmarking competitors and running play-tests on GuillotineLeagues.com and Yahoo. It confirmed what users were saying: the experience was buggy, clunky, and tedious.
One key debate shaped the direction of the product:
- Option A: Dynamic Matchup — mimic Yahoo's model by showing your team head-to-head against the current last-place team.
- Option B: Leaderboard View — a clear, real-time ranking of all teams, with the lowest score front and center.
I mocked up both versions, presented pros and cons to the team, and advocated strongly for the leaderboard view. The leaderboard embraced the cutthroat spirit of Chopped: every manager can see the danger of falling into last place, and the tension builds as scores shift live. The team aligned behind this vision, and it became the cornerstone of our experience.
Solution
Leaderboard View
Info-dense, clear, and dynamic. Keeps tension front and center.
- Real-time projections and risk percentage
- Flipped order, last place on top
- Separated sections by risk level
- Prioritized familiarity with existing Sleeper users
Dropped Players
A weekly highlight reel of fallen rosters, adding drama as stars hit free agency. Gives leaguemates the resources they need to escape the weekly danger zone.
- Automatically surfaces dropped players
- Adds weekly drama as stars hit FA
- One-stop shop for all managers
Graveyard
A permanent record of chopped teams, with stats and history to honor their demise. Eliminated leaguemates aren't removed, just relocated.
- Celebrate the final moments
- Each week adds a new chapter of history
- Engagement continues after elimination
Moments of Delight
- Elimination Banner — on Monday night, after the final game, a "CHOPPED" banner highlights the last-place team's score.
- Chat Announcement — automatically posted to spark banter and league-wide reactions.
- Elimination Badges — randomized "death badges" (devil horns, angel halos) given to eliminated teams. A playful nod to the brutality of Chopped.
These details balanced clarity with personality, making Chopped leagues not just playable, but memorable, all within the allotted time frame.
Timeline
Concept to beta launch in 8 days.
Impact & Results
Even in the preseason, we saw strong traction. Early user buzz on social media highlighted both the excitement of the format and the fun details we added to celebrate eliminations. Users began adopting the "Chopped" name over "Guillotine" organically.
Reflection
- Guiding Creativity Under Pressure — our team is highly imaginative, sometimes to a fault. Almost everyone had a great idea. This project showed me how to channel that energy, prioritize, and get to a focused V1 quickly.
- Thriving in Urgency — from concept to design to development, Chopped was built in record time. It reinforced my ability to thrive under high-stakes, fast-moving conditions.
- Clarity + Drama = Great Design — Chopped reminded me that design isn't just about usability; it's about emotion. The leaderboard made tension clear, and the elimination moments made it unforgettable.
Chopped was especially exciting for me because I love the strategy of learning new games: understanding rules, how to win, and how those rules shape behavior. Translating that into design meant creating tools that gave users clarity, while also leaning into the brutality that makes Chopped so fun.
Next Opportunities
- Enhanced weekly reports with league highlights
- More playful personalization for eliminated users
- Expanded rulesets (flexible eliminations, playoff variants)
