Dream Team: more ways to play throughout the football season

An additional game needed to offer a different way to participate. Last Man Standing gave fans a straightforward weekly decision, with enough strategy to keep each choice interesting.

But a football season is long. Players eliminated early needed fresh opportunities to compete, including further chances to play for a prize.

The game also had to fit into an established environment, using The Sun accounts and contributing to Dream Team's central loyalty programme. Behind the simple format, the rules needed to handle every outcome consistently, including rounds in which nobody picked a winning team.

Fan Arena developed the complete Last Man Standing game, including the interface, competition logic, league management and integrations.

The premise is simple: pick a Premier League team you expect to win. A victory keeps you in the competition; a draw or defeat eliminates you. Teams already selected cannot be picked again within the same series.

Recurring Prize Leagues create fresh opportunities to compete for a reward during the season. Challenge Leagues give eliminated players another competition to enter, keeping participation open beyond their run in a Prize League.

Players use their existing The Sun login. Correct predictions in Prize and Challenge Leagues earn XP that contributes to their wider Dream Team loyalty progress, linking their performance in Last Man Standing to the gaming hub.

The competition logic also handles the exceptions that matter in a survival game. If all remaining players are eliminated in the same round, they advance together and the competition continues.