Full rules text

Confirmed by the owner on 2026-09-03, 2026-09-04 and 2026-09-05 (the rankings); numbers set by Claude under his weighting (winner big, podium bigger, exact podium biggest). Every rule is settled from the official results table: place, status, and the five splits. No human ruling.

The main ranking is your finish-order picks plus your winning-time guess. Each leg has its own sub-ranking: that leg's order plus its fastest-time guess. The dark horse is a separate game with its own ranking. Nothing adds the legs into the main ranking.

What goes in

• Start list: athletes with their IRONMAN rank (1 = bib F1/M1).
• Results: one row per athlete: status (finished, dnf, dq, dns), official place (finished only), finish seconds and the five splits (seconds, may be missing).
• A player's picks: for each race (pro women, pro men), an ordered list for the finish (overall) and for each leg (swim, t1, bike, t2, run); a winning-time guess (required) and optional fastest-split guesses per leg; and, for the separate dark horse game, one dark horse.

Standings worked out per race (pro women, pro men)

• Overall place = official place. DNF, DQ, DNS have no place.
• Leg place = rank by that leg's own split among athletes who have that split (run: among official finishers only). Ties on identical seconds share the better place; the next athlete takes the place after the tied group (1, 1, 3).
• Fastest split per leg = the smallest split among the same set. Winning time = finish seconds of official 1st place.
• Leg voided if fewer than 80% of that race's official finishers have that split. A voided leg scores zero for everyone on that leg's list and on that leg's time guess.
• Leg opens (for picks made during the race): swim opens at the pro start; T1 at the pro start + fastest swim; bike at the pro start + the smallest (swim + T1); T2 at the pro start + the smallest (swim + T1 + bike); run and overall at the pro start + the smallest (swim + T1 + bike + T2), each smallest sum over athletes who have all the splits involved.

Finish order (per race: pro women, pro men), first 10 of your ordered list

• Right place in your list (the place number in your list = the actual place): +10. One place off: +4. Never both.
• Winner in place 1 in your list: +15 more.
• All three podium athletes anywhere in places 1-3 in your list, wrong order: +20. Places 1, 2, 3 in your list exactly right: +50 instead (not both).
• Athletes not on the start list, DNS, DNF, DQ: 0, no penalty.

Each leg list (per race: pro women, pro men), first 10 of your ordered list

• Right place in your list: +2. One place off: +1. Never both.
• Leg leader in place 1 in your list: +5 more.
• Places 1, 2, 3 in your list exactly right: +10.

Time guesses (per race: pro women, pro men)

Error = |guess − actual| in seconds. The exact second pays the extra on top of band 1.

No guess = 0. Voided leg = 0.

Dark horse (a separate game; per race: pro women, pro men; one athlete)

Dark horse is a separate game with its own ranking. Pick one athlete per race from outside IRONMAN's top five. Wins 50, podium (2nd or 3rd) 30, 4th or 5th 15. Dark horse points never count in the main ranking or in any leg sub-ranking.

• Eligible: IRONMAN rank 6 or lower. An athlete ranked 1st to 5th cannot be picked; a pick that is not eligible scores 0.
• Any other finish, or no place (DNS, DNF, DQ): 0.
• A player's dark horse total = the dark horse points from both races added up.

While a race's start list is still a stand-in for IRONMAN's official one (no bibs yet), no dark horse can be saved for that race. It opens when the official list lands.

Picks made during the race

Same scoring. For each race and each list, if the moment that list was last saved is at or after the moment that leg opened, that list and its time guess score 0 and are marked closed. A list with no saved moment in picks made during the race = closed. Picks made before the start ignore this rule (the site locks them before the pro start).

Rankings and tiebreak

• Main ranking = the sum over both races of: finish-order list points + winning-time guess points. This ranking decides the game. The legs and the dark horse are not in it.
• Leg sub-rankings, one per leg (swim, T1, bike, T2, run) = the sum over both races of: that leg's list points + that leg's fastest-time guess points. Each leg is ranked on its own. Nothing adds the legs into the main ranking.
• Dark horse ranking = the sum over both races of the dark horse points. A separate game, ranked on its own.
• Tiebreak, in order, on every ranking: smaller sum of winning-time errors over both races (a missing winning-time guess counts 1800 s); more exactly right places on the lists that ranking counts (the finish-order lists for the main ranking and the dark horse ranking; that leg's lists for a leg sub-ranking), both races; earlier last save.

Most points per part (per race: pro women, pro men)

• Finish order 275 (base 110, ten right places 100, winner 15, exact podium 50). Winning time 80 (30 + 50 exact). Main ranking: 275 + 80 = 355 per race, 710 over both races.
• Each leg list 58 (base 23, ten right places 20, leg leader 5, exact top 3 10). Each leg time guess 9 (4 + 5 exact). Each leg sub-ranking: 58 + 9 = 67 per race, 134 over both races.
• Dark horse, on its own ranking: 50 per race, 100 over both races.

Fine print (how the corner cases are settled)

• Place bonuses look only at the athlete's official place, so a pick in place 10 in your list who finishes 11th still earns the one-off bonus even though the base is 0.
• A tie on a leg gives shared places (1, 1, 3). "The podium three" are whoever holds places 1 to 3, so an exact-order podium bonus is out of reach on a tied leg while the any-order bonus is not.
• A voided leg or a closed list in picks made during the race zeroes every part of that list and its time guess, including the count of exactly right places used in the tiebreak.
• The winning-time tiebreak uses the raw guess, even when that list was closed in picks made during the race.
• A leg with no official finishers is voided. A leg nobody has reached yet never closes for picks made during the race.
• Players who tie on every tiebreak share the position.
• The site never stores the same athlete twice in one list.
• Withdrawn athletes, for picks made before the start: an athlete withdrawn before the lock (the first pro start) is taken out of every list before scoring and the picks below move up one place; an athlete withdrawn at or after the lock stays in the list and that pick scores 0, no penalty. A withdrawal whose moment is not recorded counts as before the lock.
• Withdrawn athletes, for picks made during the race: every withdrawn athlete is taken out of every list and the picks below move up, whenever the withdrawal happened, because those players can see it and change their list. A withdrawn dark horse scores 0 either way.
• A dark horse pick never changes the main ranking or a leg sub-ranking, and no list or time guess changes the dark horse total. The rankings are separate.
• Everyone's picks (what other players chose) stay hidden until that category is locked and no more changes can be made: before the start, until picks close; during the race, until that leg has opened. The dark horse and the winning time show with the finish order.

During the race (live points)

While the race is on, the admin posts the official times from the tracker as they appear: the race clock at each timing mat (out of the water, onto the bike, off the bike, onto the run) and the place and time at the finish. The site scores every player's picks from those times with the same tables as above, and shows the result as "Live, not final".

• Points arrive in three bursts: when athletes leave the water (the swim and T1 sub-rankings), when they get off the bike (the bike and T2 sub-rankings), and when they finish (the run sub-ranking, the main ranking and the dark horse). A leg's place, fastest time and leg-leader bonus are worked out over the athletes who have a time for it so far.
• No leg is voided while live. The 80% rule above applies only to the official results after the race.
• Points can go down on T1, bike, T2 and run while a leg is in progress: a later athlete can post a faster time and take the places above.
• Players on equal points share a place until the official results are in; the tiebreaks above apply only then.
• Closing moments for picks made during the race come from the official times posted: a leg closes at the pro start plus the fastest sum of the legs before it, the same formula as "Leg opens" above. That moment can show on the site a few minutes after it happened, so a list saved in that gap scores 0 for that leg, as the rule says.
• For picks made during the race, the dark horse closes at the same moment as the finish order.
• An athlete who drops out mid-race is "out of the race": their swim, T1, bike and T2 places still count, their run and overall do not.
• The official import replaces every posted time. After it the live labels disappear and the scoring is the provisional one described above, including any leg the 80% rule voids.

Rankings

• Main ranking: every player who picked before the start, on finish-order lists + winning-time guesses, both races. This ranking decides the game.
• One sub-ranking per leg: that leg's list + its fastest-time guess, both races. Each leg on its own; the legs are never added into the main ranking.
• Dark horse: a separate ranking on dark horse points alone, both races. Its page says it is separate.
• Picks made during the race: the same rankings over players who picked during the race only.