The format that empties the room
Survivor is the pool everyone understands in one sentence and nobody finds easy. The pick is simple and the constraint is brutal: the obvious winner is obvious to everyone, and in pools where a team can only be used once, spending your best team in week two is a decision you pay for in November.
How many strikes a player gets is the commissioner’s call. One strike is the classic form and can empty a pool in a month; two or three keeps more people alive deeper into the season, which is usually the better choice for a group that wants to still be arguing at Christmas.
Strikes counted for you
The thing that kills a survivor pool is not the format, it is the admin. Someone has to collect picks before kickoff, check every result, work out who is out, and tell them. Miss one and the standings are wrong for a week.
Scores arrive off the live feed, so nobody types a result into a spreadsheet. Picks grade themselves as games go final, standings move on their own, and the commissioner finds out who won at the same time as everyone else.
Picks lock at kickoff, so a pick made against an early game is committed while the rest of the week is still open, and nobody can change one after a result is in.