Frequently asked questions

A survivor pool played over real football and tennis results. You join an Arena tied to a tournament and pick one team each round to stay alive. Whoever lasts longest wins.

Outlast everyone else. The last player alive wins. If everyone left falls in the same round, the tiebreakers decide — see the Tiebreakers section.

You pick one team before the deadline. If it wins, you survive. A loss or a draw costs one life. Then the next round opens and it starts again.

Playing is free. Some Arenas are sponsored and carry a cash prize: the pot grows with every player who joins, up to a cap, and is split among the survivors at the end.

Just one — per round, not per match. A round can hold many matches (the first stage of a Cup has dozens), but you pick a single team to carry you through it.

Until the round's deadline — the start of its first match. If you haven't picked yet, ALIVE warns you 24 hours, 1 hour, and 15 minutes before.

Yes, as many times as you want until the deadline — as long as the match of the team you picked hasn't started.

Yes. Any open round with matches defined and a deadline still ahead accepts picks — you can lock in the next rounds in one sitting. The rules don't change: one team per round, and the reuse limit counts across all your picks.

By default, no: each team is good for one pick per Arena. The host can allow two uses per team — handy in double round-robin leagues like the Brasileirão, where every opponent shows up twice.

It depends on the Arena's rule: you're eliminated; the system picks a random available team for you; or it picks the underdog (the team with the most unfavorable odds) — with no odds available, it falls back to random. If you have no teams left to pick, you're eliminated regardless of the rule.

You're eliminated automatically. You spent all your teams in earlier rounds and ran out of options — that's why saving strong teams for later is part of the strategy.

Picking an underdog — a team with unfavorable odds that few expect to win. The higher the odd, the lower the market's faith — and the bolder the pick. Wins like that raise your boldness score (see Tiebreakers).

Each Arena gives every player 1 to 5 lives — the host decides. With one life it's the classic game: one miss and you're out. With more lives, every loss or draw costs one, and you're only eliminated when you hit zero.

Yes. Only a win saves you. If your team draws, you lose a life — same as a loss.

Each leg is its own round: you make one pick for the first leg and another for the second. What counts is each match's result, not the aggregate — your team can advance on aggregate and you still lose a life if it lost that leg.

Not in that Arena — elimination is permanent. You can still watch everything: rounds, results, and stats. And you can join other Arenas anytime.

Four: losing your last life to a loss or draw; missing the deadline (in Arenas with that rule); reaching a round with no teams left to pick; or losing the final tiebreak.

Tap Create and follow the steps: choose the tournament and starting round, name it, set visibility, entry mode, lives, the missed-deadline rule, team reuse, the tiebreak rule, late join, and a player cap. Then invite people in.

Public Arenas show up in Discover, where anyone can find them. Private Arenas show up nowhere — only people with your invite link can join.

Open: anyone joins instantly. Approval required: every join request goes through you, the host.

Lives (1 to 5), team reuse (1 or 2 uses), what happens to players who miss the deadline (eliminate or auto-pick), the tiebreak rule, late join, and the maximum number of players.

Yes. When creating, you choose the starting round — you can start from the round of 16 onward, for example, even if the group stage is already done.

Game rules, no — lives, tiebreaks, and the rest are locked in. The description, entry mode, and invite sharing can be adjusted until the first round locks.

The tiebreakers decide, in this order: whoever has the most lives left wins; then a real pick beats running out of teams, which beats missing the deadline; if it's still tied, the host's chosen rule settles it.

Three: everyone tied wins together; the boldest pick wins (whoever picked the team with the most unfavorable odds); or whoever still had the most teams available wins.

With no odds to compare, everyone tied wins together.

The average odds of your winning picks in the Arena. The more underdogs you get right, the higher it climbs — it measures boldness across the whole season, not a single round. In Arenas where the boldest pick wins the tiebreak, it ranks players tied on lives. You'll also see it on your profile, in the Arena's Stats, and in Rankings.

Only if the host allowed late join in the rules. Otherwise the door closes when the first round locks.

One life per round already played. Joining at round 3 of a 5-life Arena? You start with 3. You need at least one life left to get in.

The system fills in your past picks according to the Arena's rule: the round's biggest killer or the favorite that lost. Those teams count against your reuse limit — you can't pick them again.

Your pick is voided and you get a heads-up in the app and by email. Make a new pick before the deadline — otherwise the Arena's missed-deadline rule applies.

Automatic win: the match stops counting and your pick survives the round. You get a notification when it happens.

ALIVE pushes the next round's deadline automatically, so you pick already knowing your result. If a match runs too late, it stops counting and becomes an automatic win for whoever picked it.

No. As soon as your match ends, you'll know: survived, lost a life, or eliminated. The full round summary arrives once every match is done.

Extra time counts: the match's final score decides. Penalties don't: if the tie is settled only on penalties, the match counts as a draw — and a draw costs a life.

Mid-match retirement: the result stands — whoever advanced won, and picking the other side costs a life. A match that never happened (walkover): treated as a cancellation — before the deadline you pick again; after it, automatic win.

No. Results lock in when the round is processed. Later corrections don't reopen rounds or undo eliminations.

Yes, until the first round locks. After that there's no way out — your run in the Arena goes to the end, alive or eliminated.

Football — Brasileirão, Libertadores, the World Cup, the Premier League, and more — and tennis, with ATP and WTA tournaments. New tournaments show up in Discover.

In round-robin leagues (home and away), every league round is an Arena round — and since each opponent shows up twice, the host can allow two uses per team. In two-leg knockouts, each leg is its own round and the match result counts, not the aggregate.

The same, but you pick a player instead of a team. Win the match and you survive the round. There are no draws in tennis — but retirements and walkovers have their own treatment (see The unexpected).

From official sports data providers. Rounds are processed automatically as soon as the matches end — no manual scoring.

From the betting market, via the same data providers — captured before each match. They define the underdog, the worst-odd auto-pick, and the boldness score. Not every match has odds: when they're missing, the fallbacks apply — auto-pick goes random and the boldest-pick tiebreak becomes everyone wins together.

Because they haven't been defined yet. In knockouts, the matchups depend on the previous round's results, and providers take a while to publish everything. Matches drop in automatically once confirmed — and the round's deadline adjusts with them.

No — the Arena stays alive. Knockout rounds only show up after the draw, once the matchups are defined. When the matches are set and the round opens for picks, you get a notification.

It's a freshly announced tournament: the schedule hasn't been published yet. You can already create an Arena and bring people in — the first round opens automatically once the matches are defined, and every member gets notified.

Use the language selector at the top of any page. ALIVE is available in Portuguese and English.

Deadline warnings (24 hours, 1 hour, and 15 minutes before — only if you haven't picked), voided picks, automatic wins, your match's result, the round summary, and the end of the Arena. By email and in-app.

See the instructions on the Data deletion page, linked in the footer. Processing takes up to 30 days, with confirmation by email.