DDP Rules

DDP 2025 Entry Submission

Above is a DDP Excel entry form. Why not make Banana’s Christmas by reading the rules below, then downloading a copy, filling it out with your team (or three different copies if you have theme teams) and sending them to ddp@derbydeadpool.co.uk.

DERBY DEAD POOL 2025 IS NOW OPEN FOR ENTRIES!!!

As every year people ask what the rules to the DDP are out of season, Here’s a quick reminder of the rules as they stand. Although obviously new teams are only accepted in December!

RULES (as of 1/1/2025)

Send a list of 20 names, and a maximum of three subs, to the DDP email address, along with your team name and an email address you can be contacted at.

Please spell the celebrity names correctly, and if the celebs are a little obscure feel free to provide an explanation of who they are (no need to clarify who Donald Trump is, for instance, but if you’re picking a poet from Guam you should probably include a note).

Also, remember that some celebrities have shared names, so PLEASE indicate which one you’re plumping for (Patrick Duffy the Dallas hunk or Patrick Duffy the Labour politician of the 70s and 80s, for instance).

The joker, which scores double points, will be the first name on your list and be accepted by the host as such. Please make sure your joker is top of the list.

Should one or more of your picks croak it before midnight December 31, 2024, then a substitute will replace him/her. Should the premature death be a joker, you will be contacted asking for a replacement joker from your existing list.

Once you have sent your list, the hosts will not accept any wholesale changes.

If your celebs die before the end of the year but their death is only confirmed after teams are uploaded to the site (early/mid-January), then no replacements can be made and they will score zero points.

You will receive a confirmation email when your team is received by the host. Over the Xmas period do not expect this immediately, as unsurprisingly the last week of the year can get a little hectic for your gamerunners.

You will be contacted by the host for any queries regarding the names of the picks and what they do, if they are among the more obscure picks. If you are entering again, but with a different team name, let the host know what your previous team name was.

PLEASE INDICATE IF YOU ARE ENTERING A THEME TEAM. There must be a theme that reasonably limits the scope of the team ie it cannot just be a list of twenty men, or a scavenged list of survivors from the previous year.

There is a maximum number of 3 teams per individual (can be any combination of normal and theme teams) although there are some cases that certain emails will contain many teams as part of a “syndicate” of different teams.

 

RULES & OBIT QUALIFICATION:

All entrants must supply a team name and a valid email address. We will never reveal your email address to anyone else. GDPR baby!

All of your chosen celebs must be:

  • Human. No famous animals please.
  • At least 18 years old as at 1st January 2025.
  • Actual real-life people, not characters out of soap operas and the like.
  • Named individuals, not just “Pope Wotsisface” or “the oldest person in the world”.
  • Players must not murder their chosen celebs. That’s cheating, and cheating is wrong and is not in the spirit of the game.
  • EXCLUSIONS: Prisoners on “Death Row” i.e. awaiting state execution can only score points if they die of other causes. Picks that are on trial or are put on trial and are found guilty and executed are not
    disqualified but will not claim the unnatural points bonus. Hostages of terrorist organisations. We have no absolute knowledge of whether they are alive, dead or when they supposedly died. Terrorist organisation members are included but there must be official verification of when they died from both sides of the conflict (i.e. “The West” and the terrorists themselves). Any person considered “missing in action” or not traced as of 01/01/2025 can only score points if their death is confirmed as happening in 2025 and not before, so don’t bother picking Jimmy Hoffa.
  • AS OF 1/1/2021, PICKS VIEWED TO BE FAMOUS ONLY BECAUSE THEY ARE GOING TO DIE (WITH NO OTHER FAME LIKE FUNDRAISING, WRITING, ETC) ARE BANNED. This obviously means non-notables, so please do not write in asking if you are allowed to pick former Education secretaries, obscure (but credited) Tongan historians and silver medalists from the 1952 Olympic Games or anyone else who is obviously OK. Those who wish to read the FFBI ban more in depth can do so here.
 

 

(As of 1/1/2018, the death announcements section of broadsheet websites, which members of the general public can pay for listings, are excluded)

 

…and from these news sites:
The notice of death must be in written English. Video links are only accepted if the strapline mentions the celeb’s passing.

 

The following news sources are excluded as from 1st January 2016: Huffington Post UK, MSN UK, Scotsman.

 

The Independent has now been returned as a qualifying obit source as of 1/1/2021 after much campaigning from DDP teams!

 

The date of death is taken as that in the country/region where the person died, i.e. local time is used. The age of the celeb at the moment of passing must also be established to calculate points. If the time of death is reported as exactly midnight local time, the date of the day just beginning is used. This may be relevant in deciding bonuses (see below).

 

The Unlucky 13 bonus was dropped in 2017 in favour of the “Drop 40” bonus. This awards 3 points for a pick who dies and is among the top 40 picks overall.
 

ANOTHER CHANGE FOR 2021 WILL SEE UNIQUE PICKS WORTH FOUR POINTS INSTEAD OF THE PREVIOUS THREE.

Good luck,


Banana,
DI,
time
(The Cmme)
www.derbydeadpool.co.uk
P.S. For those of you unaware, a hive of Derby Dead Pool chat can be found on the Death List forums,  https://forums.deathlist.net/ . Why not turn up and harass the DDP Committee for being a day late with emails there?