Flex Watch — Official Rules
Rules version: games-flex-watch-2026.v1-2026-07-16
Flex Watch — Contest Official Rules — effective July 16, 2026
Sponsor: Cody Blaze Enterprises LLC d/b/a MockSlate. MockSlate is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or associated with the National Football League, any NFL team, or any player. All league and team names are used for descriptive reference only.
Eligibility: Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and D.C. who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, and their immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling) and household members, are not eligible. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
Entry Period: Weekly questions run through the 2026 flex season; each question locks at its published deadline on the flex ladder ("Entry Deadline" per question). Sponsor's server clock is the official timekeeper.
Judging and Tiebreakers: Entries scored per the published Scoring Rubric (below). In the event of a tie: the tiebreakers published in the Complete Rules below apply; if still tied, the earliest-submitted entry wins. Sponsor's scoring decisions are final and binding. The Scoring Rubric and Tiebreakers are frozen at the Entry Deadline and will not be changed thereafter.
General Conditions: Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend, or modify the Contest if fraud, technical failure, or any other factor beyond Sponsor's reasonable control impairs the integrity of the Contest, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsor may disqualify any entrant it believes has tampered with entry, scoring, or the Service.
Privacy: Information submitted is handled per the MockSlate Privacy Policy at mockslate.com/privacy.
Disputes and Governing Law: All disputes are governed by these Rules and the MockSlate Terms of Service (including the arbitration and class-waiver provisions), and by the laws of the State of Florida without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Entry
- Pro-only game — leaderboard glory, no prize. Anyone can read this page, the question board, the tracker, and the leaderboard; making picks requires MockSlate Pro. There is no cash award of any kind.
- Entrants must be 18 or older with a MockSlate account. One entry per person.
- Your entry is created with your first pick. Each question is answered — and locks — on its own schedule (the ladder below); there is no single entry deadline.
How to play
- Each flex-eligible week, call whether the scheduled primetime game holds its slot. If you call flex, name the Sunday-afternoon game (1:00 or 4:05/4:25 window) you think gets flexed in.
- Picks can be changed freely until that question’s lock. Changing a pick resets its submission timestamp — the early-call bonus rewards standing by a call, not editing one.
- You’re predicting the slot, not the matchup — the deliberate inverse of Schedule Release Draft, where you own the matchup wherever it airs, and the same coin as Slot Draft, where you own the window whatever lands in it.
The lock ladder
Each slot locks one day before the earliest date the NFL could announce that flex — you always call it before the league tips its hand. Notice windows are league policy and are re-configured each season if the NFL revises them.
| Slot | Weeks | Locks before kickoff |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday Night Football | 5–13 | 13 days |
| Sunday Night Football | 14–17 | 7 days |
| Monday Night Football | 12–17 | 13 days |
| Thursday Night Football | 13–17 | 22 days |
| Week 18 finale | 18 | 7 days before the final Sunday |
The Thursday window locks a full three weeks out — watch those countdowns early. A week with no game in a slot has no question.
Protected weeks (international games)
The NFL does not flex international games. When an international game occupies a flex-eligible primetime window, that week’s question is protected: it stays visible on the board, takes no picks, and scores no points for anyone. International Sunday-afternoon games are likewise never flexed-in candidates.
Week 18 — the finale
The entire Week 18 slate is scheduled on short notice after Week 17, with one game placed on Sunday night. Calling that game is its own optional question, locked 7 days before the final Sunday — before the league’s announcement window opens. It scores like a flex call: +15 for the exact game (+5 early-call bonus applies).
Scoring
- +5 — correct hold/flex call (did the slot change or not).
- +15 — named the exact game that got flexed in (or the exact Week 18 Sunday-night game).
- +5 — the early-call bonus, for conviction: make your call at least 7 days before that question’s lock and it’s worth +5 extra if you’re right. Editing a pick restarts its clock, so a call only counts as early if you stand by it.
- Season leaderboard; grading runs as real flex decisions are announced and entered. Unanswered questions simply score nothing — there is no penalty and no elimination.
Strategy note
CBS and Fox may each protect one game per week from being flexed — the marquee afternoon matchup you’d most expect to move often can’t. Weighing network protections against fading primetime matchups is the skill this game measures.
MockSlate's prize games are free-to-enter skill contests — no purchase necessary. Pro-exclusive games are prize-free and carry no cash award. Not affiliated with the NFL or any team.