One prediction set,
before kickoff.
You predict the entire 2026 World Cup before it starts: every group match score, every knockout pick. Then you watch it play out. No daily picks, no drop-outs, no missed weekday lock-ins. Just one solid prediction. Same starting line for everyone.
Predict once, watch it play out
Pre-tournament, everyone has the same information: squads, form, draws. That's the moment to commit. You can't predict knockout scores when you don't yet know who plays whom, so in the knockouts you predict which teams reach which stage, not scores.
One tournament-wide lock
There's a single deadline for everything: the kickoff of the first match.
All group-phase scores and knockout picks lock at this moment. You can edit anything freely up until then. After this, group picks are frozen for the tournament.
After the group phase, you get up to 6 changes to your knockout picks. Opens 25 June at 06:00 CEST, closes 28 June at 20:00 CEST.
The first R32 match kicks off one hour after the Changes window closes. From this moment on, your knockout picks are permanently locked.
72 group scores, plus your knockouts
It takes 20 to 60 minutes the first time. Auto-save keeps your work; you can leave and come back as often as you want before the deadline.
Group phase: predict scores
You enter the exact score you expect for each of the 72 group-stage matches (12 groups × 6 matches each). That's it for the groups.
From your scores, PEPs automatically builds your own version of the standings for each group, using FIFA tiebreakers. It then ranks the 12 third-placed teams across all groups, picks the best 8, and gives you your 32 qualifiers for the knockouts.
You don't pick the 32 directly. They fall out of your group predictions.
Knockouts: pick who reaches each stage
Starting from the 32 teams you qualified for the knockouts, you pick which teams advance through each round. No scores, just stages.
31 knockout picks in total. Each round must be a subset of the previous one. You can't promote a team to the Final if you didn't pick it for the Semi.
Heads up: the cascade. If you go back and edit a group-stage score in a way that knocks a team out of your 32 qualifiers, that team is automatically removed from any later rounds you'd picked it for. PEPs will tell you what got cleared. Pick again with a different team.
Up to 200 points per match
Each group-stage prediction gets scored on five independent components. They're additive: get all five right, you earn the full 200.
| What you got right | Points |
|---|---|
| Right outcome (home win · draw · away win) | 100 |
| Right total number of goals | 20 |
| Right over/under 2.5 | 20 |
| Right BTTS or clean sheet (whichever applies) | 20 |
| Exact score | 40 |
| Perfect prediction | 200 |
2X Double-points games
One match per group is flagged as a 2X game, picked by your league admin before the deadline (typically the toughest call of the group). You'll see a 2X badge on it in the prediction screen.
Every component doubles on a 2X game. A perfect 2X game is worth 400 points, not 200. There are 12 such games across the tournament, one per group.
Rarity is rewarded
Each knockout round pays out within a range. The fewer players in your league who picked a team to reach that stage, the more you earn for being right about them.
| Round | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Round of 32 | 100 | 500 |
| Round of 16 | 200 | 1,000 |
| Quarterfinals | 400 | 2,000 |
| Semifinals | 500 | 2,500 |
| Final | 600 | 3,000 |
| Winner | 600 | 3,000 |
How the sliding scale works
Picked by few in your league → bigger payout. Picked by many → smaller.
Max. You're the only player in your league who picked that team to reach that stage. And you were right.
Min. Every player in your league picked that team. Safe call, modest reward.
In between. A smooth curve favouring rarer correct calls. A bold, correct pick wins much bigger than a safe, correct pick. Wrong picks score nothing, there's no penalty for being bold.
The Round of 32 is auto-derived from your group predictions, but it still scores under the rarity formula above, with the qualification multiplier applied on top (see next section).
Two extra ways to score
Group order bonus
Predict the right 1st and 2nd place of a group, in the right order? You earn an extra +50 points for that group. Both positions have to be correct. Swapping 1st and 2nd earns nothing.
Your league admin can raise this to 75 or 100 points per group. Default is 50. Max possible across all 12 groups: 600 points (at default).
Qualification multiplier
After all groups are played, PEPs counts how many of your 32 predicted Round of 32 qualifiers actually qualified in real life. A multiplier between 1.00× and 1.32× is then applied to your Round of 32 points.
| Teams you got right (of 32) | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1.00× |
| 16 | 1.16× |
| 24 | 1.24× |
| 28 | 1.28× |
| 32 (perfect groups) | 1.32× |
Only the Round of 32 is multiplied: not group-match points, not the order bonus, not later rounds.
The Changes window
Three and a half days to rebalance your knockout picks once the real Round of 32 is drawn. Up to 6 changes, paid for in points.
Why it exists
Once the group phase ends, the real Round of 32 is drawn. You'll see things you couldn't have known on day one. Two teams you'd placed in different rounds now play each other earlier than that. A team you rated highly now looks weak. An entire region of the knockouts opens up.
The Changes window is when you can react.
When & how many
Open: Thursday 25 June 2026 · 06:00 CEST
Close: Sunday 28 June 2026 · 20:00 CEST (one hour before R32 kickoff)
Allowance: up to 6 changes, any of your knockout picks from R16 to Winner.
Group predictions are frozen. You can't touch those in this window.
The cascading rule
If you remove a team that appears in multiple rounds of your knockouts, each removal counts as one change.
Example. You picked Spain to reach both the QF and the SF. You now want Spain out entirely. That's 2 changes, not 1, because Spain disappears from two rounds.
A single decision can eat most of your budget if the team was deep in your knockouts. Plan accordingly.
What it costs
Each change costs 1% of your cumulative score at the end of the group phase (group-match points + group-order bonus).
The 1% is calculated against a snapshot taken when the groups end, so all 6 changes cost the same flat amount in absolute points. No compounding.
Six changes = roughly 6% off your group total. The Changes window is powerful but not free. Use it for genuine rethinks, not for nervous tweaks.
While the window is open, you can swap, revert, and re-swap freely. Nothing is final until the window closes. That's when the change count is locked, the penalty is applied, and your revised picks are revealed to your league-mates.
Good to know
What if I don't predict everything?
Partial predictions are valid. Any group match you didn't predict scores zero. Same for knockout rounds you didn't fill in. You stay on the leaderboard either way, just with fewer points to work with.
Can I pick two teams that might play each other?
Yes. The schedule you predict is one possibility. The real Round of 32 draw may pair teams differently, so you're free to pick teams to advance even if your own predicted schedule would have them facing each other. Many players intentionally pick both sides of a possible matchup as insurance against an off-base group prediction.
Can I see what my friends predicted?
Not until the deadline. Before kickoff, every player's picks are private. After the deadline, picks become visible match-by-match as each game kicks off, not all at once.
Changes made during the Changes window stay secret until the window closes, then everyone's revised picks are revealed together.
What happens with ties in the group standings?
PEPs applies FIFA tiebreaker rules silently: points, then goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head (points, GD, goals). If a tie persists, FIFA world ranking is used as a deterministic fallback. You're never asked to manually break a tie.
I'm in multiple leagues. Do I predict separately for each?
No. You make one global prediction set. PEPs applies it to every league you're in. The total score can differ from one league to another though, because the rarity-based knockout scoring depends on what each league's members picked.
Can the league admin disable the Changes window?
On premium leagues, yes. Admins can switch it off entirely. If so, your knockout picks lock at the tournament deadline and stay locked for good. Default is on, with 6 changes allowed.
Does the third-place playoff count?
No. The 3rd-place match between losing semifinalists is ignored for scoring purposes. You don't predict it.